Need help diagnosing PC problem

[ProBro]

I could use some help diagnosing my PC problem. It?s a PC that I built in late ?05, which worked fine until the past few months.

Most of the time my sound does not work (Soundblaster is on-board the mobo). When playing a video in Windows media player, the video will play fine for several seconds (with the exception of no sound), and then the video will freeze on a frame, even though the seek bar shows the video is still playing. I can click on the seek bar and the video will start playing again for several seconds before the image freezes again.

Occasionally I will get kicked out of programs because some error occurs, I always get the prompt "do you want to send an error report". I?ve also seen the blue screen briefly several times followed by an undesirable reboot.

My dog knocked over the tower several months ago, which might have started the problems. I am wondering what that might have done to the PC.

I?ve noticed that if I tinker around a bit inside the case (reseating the video card, memory, cables, etc.), often my sound and video works upon reboot. But a few times later, I?m back where I started. Perhaps I have a crack in the mobo giving me an intermittent connection, and the tinkering temporarily re-establishes contact? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Kurt

System:
MSI K8n Neo4 Platnium SLI mobo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2.2 GHz CPU
Gigaram Mach1000 series 2x1GB 184-pin DDR400 SDRAM PC3200
EVGA e-Geforce 7800 GTX KO ACS3 256MB PCI-E GDDR video card
WD Caviar 250 GB SATA HD WD2500KS
Plextor PX-716AL/SW-BL 16x DVD burner (IDE)
Corsair CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply

 

[montag451]

Hi Kurt,

If the problem started when the dog knocked over the case, then it might be worth reseating everything - easiest way so you don't miss anything is disconnect everything, then reconnect everything.
I would leave the cpu/fan alone, but if problem persists, then I would do that too (need some thermal paste and gunk to take off the old stuff).

This way, we can rule out a dodgy connection. Again, If the problems started with the dog, then start with the 'heaviest' stuff that may have dislodged, ie, fans.
It could have been a 'loose' cable hitting RAM or something else.

Can't really be more specific - but all the above is only IF you are sure the problem started when the case toppled.

 

[ProBro]

Thanks for the response, montag451.

My first stab at this was exactly what you suggested. I disassembled everything and put it back together. Everything worked fine after that for a while (5 days or so of light use), then my problems came back.

Then I:

Replaced the PSU (no effect).
Removed the CPU fan and heat sink, cleaned it all up and reseated using Artic Silver (just like you suggest), and again things worked fine for a little while, then the prob returned.

That's why I say "tinkering around" seems to temporarily solve the problem... and why I'm leaning on an intermittent connection.

I've played around with memtest86+ a bit too. I got some failures during test steps 5 and 7 at first when both sticks were in. At the same time I re-did the CPU fan/heat sink, I took one stick out so I could test one at a time. It passed the memtest after 8+h, so I swapped the RAM sticks and the other passed 8+h too. Then I installed both and they passed for 10+h. So at first I though reseating the CPU heat sink did the trick, until my probs returned. Now that I'm thinking of it, I have 4 RAM slots on this mobo, maybe I'll move from the 2 I'm currently in, to the other 2.

Please keep the good ideas coming!

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[montag451]

Intermittent problems - Pah.

You don't lose out by swapping out sticks etc.

Maybe, try running on bare minimum hw.

For instance, one stick RAM, one HDD, no sound/optical/LAN etc.

Just see if we can pinpoint the problem.

 

[ProBro]

Last night I tore the whole thing down again and rebuilt it. This time I installed the 2 RAM sticks in the other 2 slots on the board that I never used before (4 slots on board). Upon boot up, no sound, and it was freezing everywhere (not just in media player). I had to forcibly shut down (i.e., hit the power button), and I removed one stick of the RAM (nothing else). Upon reboot, everything was fine - sound, video, etc, with the one stick of RAM. I rebooted with memtest86+ running on the 1 stick, and it passed after running all night (9h and 22 test cycles).

I think I either have a bad stick, or there is some connection problem in my RAM slots on the board. Would you agree? I'm going to swap RAM sticks tonight and see my results with the other stick. Am I on the right track, or am I missing another possibility?

Thanks.

 

[montag451]

If all is fine with one stick, then great.

Maybe you might want a little more voltage running to the slots - this can be upped in CMOS settings - gently.

But, if all is well, borrow a stick of RAM from a mate (get ready to guarantee its safety) and try that one out.

 

[ProBro]

This thing is really confusing me.

So it ran just fine the other night when I had one stick of RAM in it, as I reported in the previous post. Was planning on swapping the RAM sticks and repeating the test last night - but before I did I booted into windows to check my e-mail. I changed nothing mechanically in the case... this time no sound, and same video probs as always on boot up. I shut it down for the night.

Next day, I boot up again, changing nothing. Everything works fine. After some surfing, I shut down for the afternoon. A few hours later, I reboot, and its still fine.

What possibilities should I be considering for these confusing symptoms? Is this starting to sound more like a software issue? A friend of mine is now recommending a re-install of Windows. Maybe the fact that the dog knocked over the case is just a red herring.

 

[montag451]

Well, it might be quicker to reinstall windows as a troubleshooting measure.
This way if the problems stop - all is good.
If not, then we can concentrate on hardware issues.

An alternative is to download the Knoppix Live cd/dvd.
This won't make any alterations/writing to your hard drive at all - it all runs of the cd/dvd.

If you get crashes in Knoppix, I would burn the hardware!