PC issues

[Hajime]

All right. I'm trying to troubleshoot this PC remotely for a friend, and I'm friggin' stumped.

What happens is, over time (say, 2 minutes), video playback (i.e. DivX) goes from perfect then begins to stutter. If he tries to play WoW, it starts out fine for a bit, then begins to lag worse and worse. If he lets the PC sit for, say, 20 minutes and goes back - the whole process is restarted.

However, the sound is NOT affected. The sound is lag-free.

Prime95 also finds NO problems with his PC.

The motherboard is an Asrock P4V88. The CPU is an Intel P4 2.8ghz. It has 768MB of RAM. It has a GeForce FX5500 motherboard.

I had him update to all the latest drivers off of VIA's and nVidia's site. He has replaced the IDE cables. Dxdiag was used, detected no problems - and the tests were lag free.

The motherboard was flashed to the latest BIOS. The hard drives are using DMA and not PIO. Currently about to have him do a fresh Windows install to see if it changes anything on a new hard drive.

Any suggestions/anything I overlooked?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Might be a physical videocard issue. Overheating?

 

[Hajime]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Might be a physical videocard issue. Overheating?

Anyway to check this?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Hajime

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Might be a physical videocard issue. Overheating?

Anyway to check this?

See if the fan is running first.

See if it or the heatsink are clogged with dust.

If there is a PCI card right next to the videocard, try moving it to a different slot.

Put a fan next to the open computer side blowing in to give it more airflow.

 

[Hajime]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Hajime

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Might be a physical videocard issue. Overheating?

Anyway to check this?

See if the fan is running first.

See if it or the heatsink are clogged with dust.

If there is a PCI card right next to the videocard, try moving it to a different slot.

Put a fan next to the open computer side blowing in to give it more airflow.

Will do. Could it be anything else? Anything else I can have him check?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Hajime

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Hajime

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Might be a physical videocard issue. Overheating?

Anyway to check this?

See if the fan is running first.

See if it or the heatsink are clogged with dust.

If there is a PCI card right next to the videocard, try moving it to a different slot.

Put a fan next to the open computer side blowing in to give it more airflow.

Will do. Could it be anything else? Anything else I can have him check?

I think I'd hold off on other stuff until you see if this reformat takes care of it.

That should take care of most stuff if it's not a hardware issue.

 

[Hajime]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Hajime

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Hajime

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Might be a physical videocard issue. Overheating?

Anyway to check this?

See if the fan is running first.

See if it or the heatsink are clogged with dust.

If there is a PCI card right next to the videocard, try moving it to a different slot.

Put a fan next to the open computer side blowing in to give it more airflow.

Will do. Could it be anything else? Anything else I can have him check?

I think I'd hold off on other stuff until you see if this reformat takes care of it.

That should take care of most stuff if it's not a hardware issue.

Additionally, replacing that card with another GeForce 6200 results in the same problem. Also, all of what you said is true - there's no PCI card next to it, no dust clogging, etc.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

hmmm

So is this a problem that suddenly cropped up lately or is this like a new computer or has it always done this?

 

[Hajime]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
hmmm

So is this a problem that suddenly cropped up lately or is this like a new computer or has it always done this?

It has been happening for a while.

 

[Malladine]

Try looking for leaking capacitors on the mb. It looks like a orange/rust coloured crusty substance on the top.

 

[Hajime]

Originally posted by: Malladine
Try looking for leaking capacitors on the mb. It looks like a orange/rust coloured crusty substance on the top.

Having him check for leaking caps atm. How would leaking caps have this affect though?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Hajime

Originally posted by: Malladine
Try looking for leaking capacitors on the mb. It looks like a orange/rust coloured crusty substance on the top.

Having him check for leaking caps atm. How would leaking caps have this affect though?

When I had a board with that issue it just wouldn't turn on. I'm not sure if it could cause something like this.

 

[Malladine]

Not sure, worth a shot though

I had a mb with leaking caps and it booted fine but behaved strangely in intensive 3d games. It was fine in 2d and light 3d.

Indicates that the problem can cause the system to exhibit varied symptoms

 

[Hajime]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Hajime

Originally posted by: Malladine
Try looking for leaking capacitors on the mb. It looks like a orange/rust coloured crusty substance on the top.

Having him check for leaking caps atm. How would leaking caps have this affect though?

When I had a board with that issue it just wouldn't turn on. I'm not sure if it could cause something like this.

Had him check everything, there were no leaking caps.

Getting him to install.

 

[Hajime]

According to SiSoft Sandra, his CPU is running at 84C.

I do not know if this is accurate, or if it is bad for a P4. Anyone?

 

[nerp]

Well that's a telltale sign. Sounds like CPU throttling is kicking in when there is load on the CPU and the stuttering is caused by the horribly low clock speed the cpu has been ramped down to.

When you let it sit, things cool back down, and that's why the process repeats itself.

He needs to get a new CPU cooler, clean the CPU carefully, apply good thermal interface compound, and mount a new heatsink/fan.

 

[Hajime]

Originally posted by: nerp
Well that's a telltale sign. Sounds like CPU throttling is kicking in when there is load on the CPU and the stuttering is caused by the horribly low clock speed the cpu has been ramped down to.

When you let it sit, things cool back down, and that's why the process repeats itself.

He needs to get a new CPU cooler, clean the CPU carefully, apply good thermal interface compound, and mount a new heatsink/fan.

Had him take a vacuum to the damn heatsink instead, and according to him, it's working fine so far ;p.

He's running at 53.4C now ;p.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Well, that's probably the problem. 84C is incredibly high (more than 2x the load temp of my CPU). Clean off the heatsink, apply new thermal paste, and get better airflow. Maybe a new HSF. Then it should be fine.

*EDIT*
Well, seems like you fixed the problem before my post went through -_-;

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Holy crap, yeah there's the issue.

I would going to ask about that after the videocard overheating, but I thought "no dust clogging" was referring to the whole system.