Serious Hardware Issues

[lofty]

Hi everyone, I'm fairly new to Anand Tech, but I asked one question here before and got some nice answers, so I'm gonna try with a much more serious problem: my gaming machine crashes randomely, with a constant beep sound in ALL games, though some games it crashes sooner than others.

For instance, UT2004 crashes after 1-3 games of play, whereas NFS Underground resets my PC whenever I try to start it. X2 - the threat crashes 10-30 seconds into the game. Starfleet Command 3 can crash within 10-60 minutes of play.

I built my PC myself and the specifications are:

AMD Sempron 2500
2 x 256MB = 512MB PC2700 DDR 333 RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128MB AGP
20GB + 120GB 7200rpm IDE
8x4x32x CD-RW
16x DVD-ROM
Optronix KT600 USB2 SKT A motherboard
300W PSU
17" Mitac CRT
Creative Soundblaster PCI
2.1 Cambridge speakers with subwoofer

So far I've run a memory test and scandisk and they've come up with nothing. CPU Temperatures hover somewhere in the 40-55 degrees C range. The motherboard manual doesn't tell me what the beep means.

--- Other problems ---

Sometimes, not always, when I startup the PC the monitor fails to receive a signal.
I can't have both the DVD-ROM drive and the CD-RW plugged in at the same time, or neither works.
Yahoo Instant Messenger crashes when it tries to sign in at startup.

Any help on these issues is much appeciated - my PC is slowly driving me insane.

 

[moonsite]

Are you using windows XP? You have the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers installed?

 

[lofty]

Windows XP Professional, I'm pretty sure the VIA 4-in-1 drivers are the latest.

 

[Nanobie]

I think your 300w Power Supply might be too little for that PC.

When you run games, it puts your PC on overdrive, using every once of power available. If you keep crashing, it could be just a driver issue. Therefore, update your video card drivers and maybe others.

Or your video card, power supply, RAM, could be dying.

I dunno, what do others think?

 

[rainchill]

To me it doesn't seem like a software problem. Download prime95 from http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm and run its tourture test. It will tell you if you start to get bad results from its number crunching. If it crashes the machine just like the games do then it is most likely a power supply issue. If you have a windows based tool (mbmonitor) to see your voltages you will want to watch your 5v rail. if it goes south of 4.95 while running prime95 then you most likely have a PSU problem.

Edit: What brand is your PSU?

 

[ThePiston]

locking up or resetting is definitely a hardware issue. Sounds liek your power supply to me or you video card overheating possibly. Did you upgrade your power supply last time you upgraded your components or is it from an old config?

 

[Gurck]

More important, who makes your power supply? If it's a cheap noname brand 300w psu I'll bet money on it being to blame.

 

[lukeearthwalker]

Any virus scans lately? Extra fans dont hurt anything besides your ears, and check out your perifals for defects.

 

[lofty]

I'm getting some very weird readouts using SpeedFan as a motherboard monitor while doing the torture test:

CPU: 50 degrees C
Internal: 40 degrees C

VCore1: 1.60V
VCore2: 3.07V
+3.3V: 0.96V
+5V: 5.13V
+12V: 11.07V
-12V: -4.87V
-5V: -4.40V
+5V: 2.58V
Vbat: 2.03V

What do you make of these? Does this mean my PSU is insufficient and if so, what do I need to look at in getting a new one? It seems to me like (at least here in the UK) buying a new case is cheaper than buying a new PSU!

 

[Zinn2b]

11.07 on your 12v. is a bad deal also I am assuming Vcore 2 is your memory v. thats a little high try setting that at 2.6, it does look like your PSU is not doing its job well

 

[lofty]

How do I do that?

Also, my BIOS is giving me a rather different set of readings:

CPU VCore: 1.60V
+12V: 12.22V
-12V: -12.37V
+3.3V: 3.08V
+2.5V: 2.76V
+5.0V: 4.83V
VTT: 1.39V
VCCQ: 1.53V

Is it possible that the power delivery changes as Windows starts up?

 

[lofty]

Bump...wow after a few hours it's on page 3 of the topic listings...

 

[Matthias99]

Using software utilties (including the BIOS monitor) to check your rails is pretty much useless. Check with a multimeter if you want remotely accurate results. And yes, it could look OK when it's not under load (in the BIOS, or just sitting at the Windows desktop) and still be failing when you run a game or stress test like Prime95.

I strongly suspect your power supply. This:

I can't have both the DVD-ROM drive and the CD-RW plugged in at the same time, or neither works.

is a really bad sign, probably indicative of borderline hardware instability. Your motherboard, being a no-name KT600, is also suspect.

And yes, actual non-crap 300+W power supplies cost about as much as a cheap case and a crap PSU put together.

 

[slash196]

Holy crap, your 12V rail is low...PSU most likely.