Computer Problems

[Genesis15]

I need many suggestions... I have been stumped on this for awhile.

I'm running:

AMD Athlon 64-bit 3000+ (9+ Months old)
XFX NViDia 6600GT 8x AGP 128-bit 128MB (5+ Months old)
Windows XP Home Edition (Upgrade) /w SP1
Antec Solution 300w Power Supply Unit (4+ Months old)
LG 52x32x42x CR-RW/CD-R Burner (1+ Years old)
HP 16x CD-ROM (5+ Years old)
Antec Aluminum Server Tower Case (3+ years old)
NViDia Nforce 3 - 250 Chaintech (5+ Months old)
Samsung 512MB DDR333 PC2700 (3+ years old)
Convent 512MB DDR333 PC2700 (3+ years old) Running dual channel /w Samsung
Western Digital 80GB 7.2K RPM ATA-100 2mb Buffer Hard Drive (2+ months old)

I have recently formatted. I also have Kerio Firewall /w updates. I have AVG Anti-Virus /w updates. I have Windows XP Default Firewall on. I'm running Adelphia Cable 3.9 mbps download and 478 kbps upload. I also don't look up porn or any other things like that or pirate things (music once in awhile but I only use WinMX.) I have drivers from http://www.nvidia.com for my motherboard and my video card (Nforce3 drivers newest ones and Geforce drivers newest ones. I'm also running DirectX 9.0c April and I don't have any background utilities running Ex. Itunes, Downloads, AIM, XFire, Yahoo, Steam. Unless they are needed.


Now to the problems at hand:

I notice that somtimes when I use my CD-ROM drive a blue screen comes up saying my there may be a hardware problem. So I assume that means that drive is junk which I don't care about that, minor problem.

After a fresh format my computer runs pretty good. The green bar/blue depending on what SP or version of windows, well on the bootscreen it takes about on avg. 10-20 Passes usually doesn't exceed 12 passes. And my startup goes from 20-30 secounds after format to like 50-60 secounds current. This is one of my pet peeves but still a minor problem.

Now for the big stuff, I hear I should be able to run Battlefield 2 @ 1024*768 /w Textures on Medium - High and some adv. options on. But... When I set it on even: 800*600 /w adv. options off and texture on medium I still find tons of lag and slowdown with my pings at 20-60ms. Somtimes it also randomly exits for no reason and also my desktop goes really slow and lags for like 5 minutes after somtimes still displaying the BG music.

Also, when playing Half Life 2 @ 1024*768 /w adv. options on (some) no vsync/aa/af or any of that, I find the game runs good and stable but load times take way too long and it encounters some major slowdown spikes.

In guild wars It runs perfectly fine with settings all the way up and my ping is fine but it randomly freezes "somtimes" requiring a restart, somtimes it will come right back out and somtimes it will freeze like 10 times in a row then cause a restart.


These are my problems ATM and I really need them fixed, I am willing to replace and hardware/software recommended but so far basically all my parts are new.

Temps:

CPU: 40-50C
Video Card: 50-60C

I rechecked all my wiring and everything I also checked pretty closly to most of my parts to look for any visible damage. I have tried formatting/running scans/cleaning things/reinstalled drivers, none worked thus so far unless im missing somthing or getting the wrong drivers.

PM: Before I installed my new parts (6600gt, Nforce3-250, 3000+, Antec 300w, WD 80gig) my (intel celeron 2.20, maxtor 60gig 7.2k rpm, Asrock p4al-800, 512mb pc2700, geforce4 ti4200) had aboutt he same problem so i replace all those parts with these new ones and added a little more ram... But the strangest thing is when I had all my parts in the computer wouldnt turn on, then I dropped it on accident off my counter onto the carpet and it just booted right up, made a small dent in my aluminum case but didnt land hard enough to cause any other damage. I thought this was very weird.


Thanks in advance and sorry for all the typing just wanted to be clear my first time through.

 

[wpshooter]

Get yourself a higher wattage power supply and I believe most all of your problems will be history. Get something near 500 watts or a little better. Make sure you have a good brand name UPS of sufficient capacity on that system.

Edit: P.S. - You might also want to check to see that those 2 different brands of memory you have are exactly compatible !!! IMO, not a good idea to mix memory brands.

 

[amdskip]

Antec Solution 300w Power Supply Unit (4+ Months old)

That is probably a good starting point. It is undersized. I would get a 400w+ quality power supply. Your video card is pulling some power along with your processor and its just too small.

wpshooter, running different brands of memory is fine. Most memory comes from a handful of different manufacturers with different labels stamped on them. He could have a bad stick but it doesn't sound like it. To test your memory, download memtest: http://www.memtest86.com

 

[wpshooter]

Originally posted by: amdskip
Antec Solution 300w Power Supply Unit (4+ Months old)

That is probably a good starting point. It is undersized. I would get a 400w+ quality power supply. Your video card is pulling some power along with your processor and its just too small.

wpshooter, running different brands of memory is fine. Most memory comes from a handful of different manufacturers with different labels stamped on them. He could have a bad stick but it doesn't sound like it. To test your memory, download memtest: http://www.memtest86.com

True, as long as they are the same specs. But I would have more confidence in that being true if they were the same brand.

 

[amdskip]

If one is not as good or fast as the other stick, it will just clock itself down. I have 3200 running at 2700 speeds with no issues at all.

 

[Genesis15]

How can a PSU be the cause for the these problems? my computer runs fine... and I have other PSU's i've used but they arent sufficient as this one, and this PSU is like new and cost me 50$... Tell me how a PSU can effect your system and I will concider it. I heard 300w antec is fine for my system, and I dont have 1,000,000$ to buy another one thats like 1,000 watts... 400+w Antecs cost like clost to 100$ that's not cheap.

 

[amdskip]

Dude, we are trying to help you here and we are not profiting from your purchase of the correct size power supply. Power supplies have a rating on the +12 volt line, what does your say (look on the label on the side)? I'm guessing that it is 15A. That is not enough for a 3000+ system with a 6600GT. What you are doing is undervolting your system which causes stability problems. Go to General Hardware here: http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=27&entercat=y and do a search for power supply. There are plenty of power supplies out there better than what you have for way less than $100. Don't let the price get to you if you can afford a $100+ video card as after all the power supply you choose to run can fry your system in .02 seconds.

 

[spherrod]

Originally posted by: amdskip
Dude, we are trying to help you here and we are not profiting from your purchase of the correct size power supply. Power supplies have a rating on the +12 volt line, what does your say (look on the label on the side)? I'm guessing that it is 15A. That is not enough for a 3000+ system with a 6600GT. What you are doing is undervolting your system which causes stability problems. Go to General Hardware here: http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=27&entercat=y and do a search for power supply. There are plenty of power supplies out there better than what you have for way less than $100. Don't let the price get to you if you can afford a $100+ video card as after all the power supply you choose to run can fry your system in .02 seconds.

Yeah, the difference a quality power supply can make is amazing - exactly as amdskip says your current unit is probably underpowered for your hardware.

 

[Fardringle]

There are only two 300 Watt power supplies currently listed on Antec's web site. They are the PP-300V the SL300S. I'm assuming that you have one of these two since you mentioned that yours is relatively new.

As you can see by the spec sheets (linked above) for these units, the PP-300V has 10 Amps on the +12V line and the SL300S has 15 Amps on the +12V line. As others have mentioned previously, you need significantly more than that to run an AMD 3000+ and a 6600GT, especially with two optical drives pulling amps from the same power rail. Get a good quality PSU (Antec is good quality, 300W just isn't powerful enough for your system) with at least 20 Amps on the +12V line and you'll probably fix most if not all of the problems you are having.


Also, if you physically damaged something other than a small dent in the case when you dropped the PC off of the counter, you may have to replace the damaged item(s) as well.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Genesis15
I need many suggestions... I have been stumped on this for awhile.

I'm running:

AMD Athlon 64-bit 3000+ (9+ Months old)
XFX NViDia 6600GT 8x AGP 128-bit 128MB (5+ Months old)
Windows XP Home Edition (Upgrade) /w SP1
Antec Solution 300w Power Supply Unit (4+ Months old)
LG 52x32x42x CR-RW/CD-R Burner (1+ Years old)
HP 16x CD-ROM (5+ Years old)
Antec Aluminum Server Tower Case (3+ years old)
NViDia Nforce 3 - 250 Chaintech (5+ Months old)
Samsung 512MB DDR333 PC2700 (3+ years old)
Convent 512MB DDR333 PC2700 (3+ years old) Running dual channel /w Samsung
Western Digital 80GB 7.2K RPM ATA-100 2mb Buffer Hard Drive (2+ months old)

I have recently formatted. I also have Kerio Firewall /w updates. I have AVG Anti-Virus /w updates. I have Windows XP Default Firewall on. I'm running Adelphia Cable 3.9 mbps download and 478 kbps upload. I also don't look up porn or any other things like that or pirate things (music once in awhile but I only use WinMX.) I have drivers from http://www.nvidia.com for my motherboard and my video card (Nforce3 drivers newest ones and Geforce drivers newest ones. I'm also running DirectX 9.0c April and I don't have any background utilities running Ex. Itunes, Downloads, AIM, XFire, Yahoo, Steam. Unless they are needed.


Now to the problems at hand:

I notice that somtimes when I use my CD-ROM drive a blue screen comes up saying my there may be a hardware problem. So I assume that means that drive is junk which I don't care about that, minor problem.

After a fresh format my computer runs pretty good. The green bar/blue depending on what SP or version of windows, well on the bootscreen it takes about on avg. 10-20 Passes usually doesn't exceed 12 passes. And my startup goes from 20-30 secounds after format to like 50-60 secounds current. This is one of my pet peeves but still a minor problem.

Now for the big stuff, I hear I should be able to run Battlefield 2 @ 1024*768 /w Textures on Medium - High and some adv. options on. But... When I set it on even: 800*600 /w adv. options off and texture on medium I still find tons of lag and slowdown with my pings at 20-60ms. Somtimes it also randomly exits for no reason and also my desktop goes really slow and lags for like 5 minutes after somtimes still displaying the BG music.

Also, when playing Half Life 2 @ 1024*768 /w adv. options on (some) no vsync/aa/af or any of that, I find the game runs good and stable but load times take way too long and it encounters some major slowdown spikes.

In guild wars It runs perfectly fine with settings all the way up and my ping is fine but it randomly freezes "somtimes" requiring a restart, somtimes it will come right back out and somtimes it will freeze like 10 times in a row then cause a restart.


These are my problems ATM and I really need them fixed, I am willing to replace and hardware/software recommended but so far basically all my parts are new.

Temps:

CPU: 40-50C
Video Card: 50-60C

I rechecked all my wiring and everything I also checked pretty closly to most of my parts to look for any visible damage. I have tried formatting/running scans/cleaning things/reinstalled drivers, none worked thus so far unless im missing somthing or getting the wrong drivers.

PM: Before I installed my new parts (6600gt, Nforce3-250, 3000+, Antec 300w, WD 80gig) my (intel celeron 2.20, maxtor 60gig 7.2k rpm, Asrock p4al-800, 512mb pc2700, geforce4 ti4200) had aboutt he same problem so i replace all those parts with these new ones and added a little more ram... But the strangest thing is when I had all my parts in the computer wouldnt turn on, then I dropped it on accident off my counter onto the carpet and it just booted right up, made a small dent in my aluminum case but didnt land hard enough to cause any other damage. I thought this was very weird.


Thanks in advance and sorry for all the typing just wanted to be clear my first time through.

You say you get blue screens, so send me the minidump files found in c:\windows\minidump (zip them up together) and run MPSReports (see my .sig) and send me the resulting .cab file.

An easy way to test if it's the hard drive that's causing this is to remove the 2 CD drives and see if your system then runs better. You have a very basic system; I'd certainly think a 300w PS would be plenty, but that would be an easy test.

If you have Windows firewall you don't need Kerio firewall; I suggest you get rid of the Kerio firewall software.

What errors are visible in the System and Application event logs?

 

[rmaiale]

If it's a device causing issues then as said previously, discovering the problem part should be fairly easy. The process of elimination is one of the most helpful tools we have in diagnosing hardware issues.

So start with a baseline. Install the least amount of parts as possible, including RAM. Boot the system as current. Evaluate/Observe the boot up times etc. Running games usually requires, at a minimum, one cdrom drive. Try both separately.

Eventually you should be able to debug the system.

My guess is that it's the motherboard. Try upgrading to the latest BIOS, make sure all the settings in the bios are correct. Try default settings, etc.

Borrow a mainboard from someone or go out and get a new one. Plug it in, if it works better keep it, if not, return it.

Good luck.