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Ok guys, I'm stuck and need help.

S

Schwan

Senior member
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

I have built a few different computers over the last few years and have never had a problem I haven't been able to figure out. This one has me stumped though.

I built a new computer over the weekend. Here are the specs:

Antec NeoPower 480W
amd athlon 64 3500+ winchester socket 939
1gig (2x512) hyperx 3200
Chaintech VNF4/Ultra Nforce4 chipset
Radeon X800 XT PCI-E
2x74 gig SATA Raptors in Raid0
Dvd burner
floppy drive
3 system fans and 1 cpu fan

Here is what happened. This is a little lenghty so bear with me:

Pieced together the system. Set up striped raid and installed windows. Everything went fine, installation and driver setup. I installed World of Warcraft (Love the game BTW) and was in the middle of downloading the patch via their peer downloader when my machine crashed. I reloaded windows and tried to download about 3 more times. Crashed eveytime. I then searched and downloaded the patch via an alternate link. It installed ok. So I was thinking it was some sort of network problem. I played the game for a while when the game crashed. Played again for 15-20 min. and it crashed again. Tried running prime95 overnight and noticed in the morning that the machine had rebooted since then.

This crashing happened a few times. Then it started crashing from the desktop giving me a bsod and when I tried loading windows it would instantly crash. I had AVG antivirus installed and some weird virus messages popped up about system files. But I ran a complete test a couple times and nothing came up.

I started thinking this was a hard drive problem. I removed the raid array and unplugged a drive. I installed windows on 1 drive. Installed windows and drivers and it started crashing on the desktop and at boot again. Tried the other drive, same thing.

This led me to think that it was a memory problem. Ran MemTest for about an hour with no problems. I took out my Hyperx and put in a stick of Buffalo 3200 that I had and did a clean install of windows. Things seemed to be fine so I put in the other stick of Buffalo and hooked up raid and reinstalled windows. I installed Warcraft then tried downloading the patch and guess what!!?? crashed. I tried again and it actually downloaded and installed this time. I was able to play last night with no problems. I started Prime95 before I went to bed and ran it all day.

Came home from work and prime was still running with no errors. But now there were video smudges around the icons on the desktop and start button. I restarted the computer and there were white checkerboard video probs on the Bios loadup screen and the Windows Splash Screen and when Windows loads, a big artifact screen pops up. Then it somes back with the ati VPU recover message. But the icons are still messed up. No 3d will run at all.

I'm now thinking a have a video card or a PSU problem. Not really sure what to do now. I really need help!

Thanks!

Cliffs:

New system crashing
Try putting different ram in and works for a while
Now have video artifacts and 3d wont run. Vpu recover on boot.

 
which video driver are you using? i would try to go back to an older, or any other driver that is in a mature state.
 
Here are some more questions:

  1. Did you have the antivirus software installed and running when the initial incident occurred?
  2. What OS and what Service Pack did you have at that point in time?
  3. If you look in AVG's Virus Vault, what is in there? Be specific.
  4. Do you use a router, or not.
  5. Do you use a software firewall, or not.
  6. Have you tried a scan with a different antivirus product? If you want to try one, start with Symantec.
 
Thanks for the responses.

Spanky - I'm using the official catylyst 4.12, which is the latest from Ati's site. I will try an older version to see if that helps. But that wouldn't explain the artifacts in the Bios boot screen when I restart.

MechBgon -

1. I did have AVG running when the original incident occured.
2. I had windows xp with service pack 2 installed.
3. There is nothing in the virus vault now. If there was it was erased when I reformatted. I should have checked that.
4. Yes I use a router. Linksys WRT54G
5. I currently have the Nvidia Firewall installed. I have tried without also.
6. I haven't tried scanning with a different antivirus. I will try Symantec.
 
Are you in a location where other computers could reach your wireless router (a dorm, an apartment, etc)? If so, make sure to set up your router's security features to keep unwanted connections away, because any computer that can connect to your wireless access point is on YOUR side of the router's firewall, and if those computers have worms, they're probably looking to spread them around :Q If it were me, I'd make sure Windows Firewall is enabled and is configured for No Exceptions, as backup.

The other thing that's often helpful is to kick up the memory voltage a bit, say 2.7 volts, especially with "fancy" memory. Nice to see we don't have to worry about a low-quality power supply, at least 😎
 
I ran symantic and it reported nothing.

As for the router, I do have it configured to where you need a generated code to connect. I don't think that would be a problem.
 
Unfortunately it sounds more like your vid card is giving you the grief.
That's a great power supply you have, so i doubt it's that.
I had the same symptoms when my 5900XT card started dying, checkerboard, games kept crashing repeatedly, and i had tried all different drivers and even went out and bought a Thermaltake 480Watt power supply. After the new power supply didn't fix things, i RMA'd the vid card and the new one has worked fine ever since and is now used in my second pc 🙂

 
Is that neopower the one with dual 12v rails? If so do you have another PS that you can try.
I have seen a flood of problems lately with dual rails PS's, the 12v amps are too low on most of these.
Dual rails are great for dual processor servers, or large drive arrays, but IMHO they suck for gaming rigs with high end graphics cards
 
Do the X800 series cards have the power connectors on the card?

If so, did you connect your video card to power?

Gentle
 
Yes there is a power connector on the card.

My power supply has a plug just for pci-e video cards that I used.
 
couple of issues -

I know that WoW has an issue with nVidia lan's. You should look into it, I can't remember exactly what the problem is, but you have to disable something in the system properties for the networking adapter to get WoW to work properly on some machines affected by the issue.

Also, a friend recently had issues playing WoW and his setup. It included an ATi card and somehow, by simply using a different molex on the PSU going to the video card, I was able to make it work again (I know it should matter, but for some reason, it seemed to work).

It would be nice if you could see if other games work on your computer. If they dont, let us know the game and the problem you are encountering. Also, Prime95 crashing means either a CPU or memory problem - you need to fix that. Since the a64's have the memory controller intergrated on the CPU, that could be an issue. Make sure you have good contact with the heatsink and the surface of the CPU, that you don't have too much thermal compound, and that your heat sink is clean. Then you also want to make sure you are getting everthing properly cooled - so check your temps. WoW is particularly sensitive to memory control, so you need to keep the memory controller working.
 
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