Computer issues, please advise.

[Nutdotnet]

This is a buddy's computer:

3800 X2
1Gig Geil PC2700 RAM (512x2)
1 80Gig SATA HD
x700 AGP Graphics
MSI Nforce3 neo platinum
420w PSU (not a name brand)

I've swapped out video cards (old video card is a 6800GT, which still works fine in another computer) and it helped for a while.

He has a total of 2gigs of RAM (512x4) but can only use 2 of the 4 sticks due to stability.

It had ran ok for the past few months, however, the last couple weeks he's had some major problems.

First it would randomly restart upon post, and was not able to get into Windows. I did a wipe and reformat which seemed to work for...a week.

NOW, when he plays games (he only plays WoW) the computer will randomly restart and lock up with a BLANK blue-screen (no BSOD).

I don't think it's his RAM since we swapped out sticks and it still has problems. I'm feeling that it's either A) Motherboard or B) Power-Supply.

Any advice would be most helpful!

 

[vanvock]

What are temps? Anything OC'ed? Any bulging caps on M/B? Voltages OK?

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: vanvock
What are temps? Anything OC'ed? Any bulging caps on M/B? Voltages OK?

Temps are cool. Nothing is OC'd. No bulging caps.

How do I go about checking the voltages? I'm assuming you're referring to PSU voltage?

Thanks!

 

[vanvock]

With a meter is best or in BIOS if you dont have a monitoring program. Black to yellow=12v, red=5v, orange=3.3v.

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: vanvock
With a meter is best or in BIOS if you dont have a monitoring program. Black to yellow=12v, red=5v, orange=3.3v.

Gotcha, yeah, I have a meter. I forgot about the Bios as well...althogh, ideally, I'd like to see how well the PSU works under load, any ideas?

 

[Synthos]

I am having similar problems with my machine:

Athlon XP 1500+
Asus A7V880 (VIA chipset)
2x256 MB Samsung cheap RAM
ATI Radeon 9500
Antec Sonata 1 w/ stock TruePower2.0 380Watt

All timings and clocks should be at stock speeds except for my 9500 which I am underclocking.

2 Fans, one running full speen out the back of the case, one running half speed pulling in from the front (I am going to put this up to full speed to see if it will help.

I have had tons and tons and tons of grief with my machine, and I'm damn near upgrading.

When I play WoW and other 3D games I will get these issues:

1. Blank blue screen of death. Happens pretty randomly but *seems* to ramp up in frequency after it begins to occur. Often happens a while after #2 (see below).

2. Game will stop, monitor blinks out to black, and the monitor status light flickers, it will show the desktop then go back into the game without issue. I have no idea wtf this is, but an inkling that it may be VPU recoverer sending me back to desktop. (who knows)

3. Different than #2. Monitor will shutoff and the status light will blink. I can still hear the game sounds from my speakers. (sometimes they continue normally, sometimes it *seems* like they're looping) It's possible to blind navigate out of the game and shutdown the PC. There's no way to get the monitor back. Is this the video link being dropped by the graphics card?

4. World of warcraft crashes because memory 0x000000 was referenced. This is one of the more common errors I get.

5. World of warcraft crashes because memory [insert addess here] was referenced/written. This is another of the more common errors I get with Wow.

6. World of warcraft crashes because of some other reason.

7. World of warcraft cashes because of memory access violation. more common than 6, but less common than 4 and 5.

(note: WoW crashes ramp up in a similar fashion to #1 and happen WAY to frequently to be normal for wow.)

2 and 3 certainly seem like graphics card problems. But 4 and 5 sound like memory / motherboard problems to me, could a graphics card cause 4 or 5? Sometimes I can play for hours and have NO problems. Other times it's a crash fest where every 5 minutes something just spews.

I've checked out my temperatures before (i have diodes for CPU, motherboard, HDD, and fan speeds) and the seem normal. No die for video card or power supply, and so I'm not sure if it could be those. I've ran memtest86 before and had no errors.

I've had trouble with the motherboard & ram before. I was 4 months without a computer because Asus took so long with the RMA. AND I had to advance RMA a second time because they didn't fix the problem in the first place.

I'm going to buy a multi-meter and check my rails, but in BIOS they seem OK. Antec is supposed to have fairly decent PSUs though... If someone could help me fix this they would make a very very frustrated and very disheartened computer user extremely happy.

 

[Operandi]

Don't use cheap PSUs. You can learn it the easy way or the hard way.

 

[pkme2]

Those funny things that just happen. Most threads finally resolve it to be the power supply.
Usually underpowered or just inferior product. I see these threads these past months regularly.
Most because of buying new cases with built-in power supplies.
Sometimes after video card upgrades, underpowered again.
Getting SLI mobos with underpowered PSUs
ETc, etc, etc......
Buy a Fortron, Enermax or Seasonic. If you got the bucks, PC P&C. Don't shortchange yourself, don't underpower yourself by going cheap.

 

[JEDIYoda]

nutdotnet --420w PSU (not a name brand)

Synthos -- Antec Sonata 1 w/ stock TruePower2.0 380Watt

not looking good!!
Usually cheap PSU`s are to be avioded and could very well be the cause of both problems!

Then again I know people using cheap PSu`s with no issues whatsoever..

 

[Synthos]

I was under the impression that Antec makes good PSUs.

 

[deathwalker]

Antec makes "acceptable" not great powersupplies..but mostly in there after market products not the ones provided in there cases....Enermax, Fortron & Seasonci are the way to go for reliable power....now I will state that I have a Antec Truepower 430 in a system and it is a champ(not to be confused with chump). Antec products just seem to suffer a QC problem..you get a good one and its great..you get a bad one and it sucks. Also there neo line seems to have some compatiblity issues with certain motherboards..Asus comes to mind.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Synthos
I was under the impression that Antec makes good PSUs.

Actually you don`t hear that much about newer Antec PSU`s being bad.

In the past they have had major quality control issues as has been stated previously!

Also as I have stated previously in other posts - most Antec Cases that come with the PSU included should be avoided at all costs.
Yet a prime example of what I have also said is deathwalkers post!
There are quite a few that just keep puttering along!!