Serious HW Problems - Please HELP!!!

[Ritaly]

Hi All,

I am unable to fix my computer's problems, and some folks at college said guys on this forum are pretty smart, so here I am.
The technical details of my problems are here:
Please Click Me

Just so you know the page was made for other kids at my school initially, so any "bring me you power supply" comments certainly don't apply to folks from 2000 miles away. But help would still be VERY much appreciated, espessially good advice. It's pretty self-explanatory from here, so thanks!!!

Ritaly.

 

[gopunk]

the thing only crashes when you play games, nothing else?

 

[Kelvrick]

Easiest way to test parts is to have some cash.

1: Yes, I'm telling you to go out and buy a new video card and power supply. Not really buying, of course. I know this sounds crooked, but just go out and buy a new one to test it out your parts. After you're done testing, just return em and you'll get a full refund. Just remember to buy from somewhere like best buy or compusa so then you won't be hassled.

2: Could you list your system temps? It could be that your system is overheating. How many case fans do you have? Is that volcano 5 in the best of shape? Maybe it does'nt have complete contact with the cpu and so overheating causes the system to hang. Are you using thermal paste? Hopefully not the crap that is in some clear tubes, but name brand stuff? Some artic silver II?

3: Have you done a surface scan to the HD yet? Some bad sectors could possibly be causing these by having driver files stored incorrectly. *not sure, just thinking*

4: Have you tried booting up into safe mode? See if the system still crashes and hangs in safe mode. Get back to us.

5: What file system are you using? Have you tried converting to NTFS?

6: If you're suspicious about the IRQ's, why don't you just change them?

7: Yes, Guys on this forum are very smart. A lot of us, I'm not sure about most or all. I'm not even sure about me, but then a lot of times we get tired of reading about all these problems and thinking about htem. I personally rarely ever visit Gen Hardware and such anymore. You should be thanksful that another member decided to take up your cause and asked that us over on Off Topic to help you.

EDIT: Typed some words in place of others. Hey, don't blame me. I've been studying all day and it is 2:13 in the morning.

 

[whooosh]

If your motherboard is mounted into a case already, take it out. Sometimes the SCREWS mess things up.

 

[The Stigenator]

I will think about it tonite.. my brain can do its calculations..

I can think of that its something rather small.. but never the less have the HDD checked out.

 

[soccerbud34]

I have the same problem as you do with similar setups with constant lock ups or freezes in 3D accelerated games.
Currently there is a discussion about the problem in one of the DAoC forums. Several ideas were offered to be tried. I think you should give it a look.



DAoC tech forum

 

[Ritaly]

Hey All.

Sorry, the webpage ommitted certain info that I already covered on the college boards...
TEMPERATURE:
CPU Temp: 41C/105F after 5 hours use.
System Temp: 32C (motherboard sensor)
Taking off the cover does not increase system stability at all.
2 additional 80mm fans ARE mounted inside.

Q: Does it only crash when playing games?
A: No. When I was trying to write that web page, Frontpage 2000 crashed every 2 minutes with BSD's. I had to write it in Notepad under Safe Mode. Also, WinAmp, Media Player and other playback/editing applications crash regularly but not as much as games do.

About buying things, what you suggest Kelvrick is what I did to obtain the memory and CPU. But then I went on spring break, home, and forgot to mail the CPU back, and the 7 day return warranty from newegg.com expired and I got stuck with it. So now I am scared to doing that. But I certainly agree that both the PSU and HDD do need to be tested, and they will be next week when I get home and can get the parts from my friend's or mother's system.

HDD Surface Scan was done several times. There is a 1 Megabyte block that is and has been marked BAD somewhere in the very begginning of the drive. Last I think full scandisk was run around 2 weeks ago by the scheduler...

Interesting comment about Safe Mode. First, the system has NEVER crashed in DOS, or during OS installation, or during boot-up. Generally, it has never crashed outside of Windows. Safe Mode is problematic, CS won't run in Safe Mode, nor will any other game or program that causes these crashes to happen instantly, or nearly instantly. (lack of video support, lack of network, etc...) Which means that I would LIKE to test whether it crashes in SafeMode, but don't know how.

File System: All FAT32, 3 partitions of 8/18/18GB's. I have over 25GB of data on the second 2. I am a bit worried about converting to NTFS as I will then be tied to XP/2000. I have thought about it though, but if I did it, I'd never be able to go back to Win98. Anyway, do you really think it might help? Incidentially, the 18GB partitions were never formatted or otherwise touched, only the 8GB system one was formatted. Which also means the boot sector hasn't been cleared. Let me know your thoughts on this...if you believe that this problem in general can be software at all. Can software reboot an XP or 2000 system without error message or warning at all? MCSE classes kinda made me believe it wasn't even possible.

IRQ's: They can't be changed. All checkboxes are greyed out, even in Win98. I cannot manually assign resources to a damn thing under any of the 4 OS's tried (98FE, 98SE, 2000, XP). The difference is that 98 speads devices over all the IRQ's available, 2000 and XP put all devices on 1 IRQ. None of the OS's report a conflict in MSInfo.

And finally, thank you all for trying to help!!!

Ritaly.

 

[Aelus]

here's how you can disable acpi without reinstalling windows 2k:

go to device manager, click on computer, and then doubleclick on whatever name comes out, which probably sais ACPI something.

then, click on the driver tab, then update driver, next, display a list of known drivers, next, show all hardware of this device class, select standard pc, click ok

that should disable acpi.

i doubt it will fix your problem though, i'd be more suspicious of the PSU, and of the motherboard, it's not impossible you have 2 bad boards in a row.

i'm curious whether or not prime95 wants to do the torture test on your computer, get it from www.mersenne.org/freesoft

oh, and do the drive fitness test from ibm.com, if it tells you your hd is bad, RMA it, i also had an extreme amounts of crashes when my 75gxp (same model as yours) failed.

Aelus

 

[tm37]

If it happens after it heats Up I would look stongly at the power supply!

 

[Bozo Galora]

I'll just throw out a few things here. (NOTE: THIS IS FOR PEOPLE WITH PROBLEMS _ NOT YOU OTHER GUYS)

Your board has an AMD 761/686B VIA chipset. This means you need to install ***AMD*** AGP miniport
driver. This assumes you have an AGP TNT, not a PCI (you didn't state)

If you want to install O/S WITHOUT ACPI you type E:\setup_/p_i (dash is space)
First set Bios to No ACPI and Power Manage User (manual)

Win XP is a buggy piece of crap that I wouldnt touch for at least a year, screw the eye candy.

Soundblaster Live is a bus hog (248 clock cycle) that should be taken out of the case, broken in half, -
and tossed in the garbage. Buy a fortissimo II card OEM for $44 on Pricewatch and d/l latest drivers from
website. Under no condition load anything into PCI slot 1. Thanx to nvidia, we cant use that AGP shared
slot anymore.

You must download latest Dir X 8.1 (.0881) from MS site. This is critical for running todays games.
THEY WONT RUN RIGHT ON DIR X 6.0!!!!!!!!!!


LOAD Nvidia drivers LAST THING!!! Do everything in standard VGA

You then must D/L and use DXBuster to first uninstall old Dir X or they will CORRUPT each other.
Install new Dir X IN SAFE MODE!!!!
You cant change the wheels on a train while its running!
Win 98 will load DirX 5.0 on original setup
Win 98SE will load DirX 6.1

You cant run AGP 2X WITH LATEST HOT DRIVERS with TNT. Assuming it is AGP - set to 1X in BIOS.
Run only official drivers (like 5.32 designed for your card) but NOT WHQL CERTIFIED that wont allow
"coolbits" registry hack. No Beta's, no matter how fast they are.
YOU MUST INSTALL COOLBITS. Its a text .reg file that when you double click drops automatically
into the registry.
After coolbits reboot and set D3d to RENDER 3 FRAMES AHEAD - vsync to "auto detect", AA: none.
This and Dir X are the two most important things to do.
Do not install any video tweaking program until everything works perfect.

Edit: And set D3D Open GL PCI textures to lowest settings: 1 and 2. Your textures are done by card -
IF ITS AGP. If its PCI set to half card: 16/16

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< Can software reboot an XP or 2000 system without error message or warning at all? MCSE classes kinda made me believe it wasn't even possible. >>


that screams "power supply", it is not windows shutting down and rebooting, it is the mobo getting lack of current. (i think anyways)

 

[Aelus]

erm, a 761/686b combo needs the AMD agp miniport driver, and NOT the via agp miniport driver. You have to install the other 3 via drivers though.

secondly, this guy also reports crashes in regular windows usage, which makes a dirx problem unlikely.

Aelus

 

[Bozo Galora]

reports crashes in regular Windows MultiMedia associated usage

you are correct on the miniport (been up all night)

maybe something to do with voltages of old card (3.3 vs. 1.5) 1X is a must here.
also boot to PCI Video first, if so, in BIOS
course i still dont know if its agp


Edit: Hey, BTW, to play Everquest on Sony, do you have to buy the game and d/l the thing, or they
send CD?

 

[Aelus]

I don't consider notepad or frontpage multimedia apps

no clue, i don't play the game, just found it a nice quote about the current state of the game industry.

Aelus

 

[Bozo Galora]

erm, he said he had to go to notepad in SAFE - no drivers (Duh), after failing in frontpage webmaking-
which I do consider multimedia


<<B) Enabling DirectX or OpenGL would cause a Fatal Error or reboot IMMEDIATELY after the video
adapter would initialize to enter the game.

Error Type: Freezing with repeating sound (such as a tidbit of music, playing over and over again, or an
explosion, over and over again >>

this is not power supply stuff to me, tho it may be CARD voltage, and why the guy is using an old crappy
card on a new system makes no sense here. But others will no doubt give THEIR slant on this, I could be
way off too.

Edit: After all, thats why they call me Bozo (nyuk nyuk)

 

[veryape]

I am very suspicious of your power supply and even though you said not to I am going to suggest you change it, at least try a 300 watt. Borrow one from a friend if possible just to confirm that it's the problem, but I think it likely is.

BTW, AMD suggests at least a 300 watt power supply I believe. Just make sure if you do buy one that it's AMD approved because it makes a big difference. AMD processors are power hungry and that measly 250 is just too small.

I too have a 650MHz with a 250 watt power supply but anything more than say an 800MHz requires a 300 watt ps unless you have a really good 250 watt ps.

Good Luck, and BTW, you can PayPal the $70 to me, i'm not hard to deal with. J\K. You eliminated any possibility of actually having to give out the $70 reward by making all the likely possibilities or culprits negate the reward.

[Edit]Oops. Looks like i'm not the first to suggest a power supply. You really should try another one, it just might make you a very happy camper.

 

[Ornery]

I know you swapped out the memory, but it sounds like a memory problem to me. Wouldn't hurt to test it. Costs nothing:

• MemTest86
• MeMMXTest
• Many more...

 

[Walliser]

Try the motherboard, but I don't think that will fix it.

I experience the same problems, even though I have different hardware installed and don't play games. But the sound problem sounds familiar (WINamp locking up the system) IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL sounds familiar, too as well as the frequent reboots.

I went thru all you did, including power supplies, memory, drivers, OS installation etc... and now I am ready to get my MB exchanged for good, not just "repaired".

I've read a number of postings seeking help on this very same problem. Here's an example:

Computer rebooting itself

Good luck!

 

[gtsukada]

i'll second the memory test i had the exact same looping sound problems as you. make sure the ram is properly seated and compatible.

 

[Ritaly]

Hi All!

I am again writing in Notepad as the last 4 posts I attempeted to make were interrupted by BSD's.
As of right now, I reboot, randomly, about 4 times per hour, from ANYWHERE in Windows. This includes the desktop itself,
immidiately after a prior reboot. I woke up, turned my system on, went to the forums, began reading new posts. 2 mins
later, Blue Screen. The last 3-4 BSD's have been slightly different. n4_disp.drv or something very similar to that (My
Display Driver) would be cited as reason for BSD (and a few win2k.sys ones) but after the BSD upon entry to Windows I would
get error reports stating that Windows thinks my video card is dying, because it (Vid Card) was unable to complete a drawing
operation. I will repeat, these latest ones, have been largely in the desktop, or IE or WE.
Okay, last post I didn't reply to was Aelus. Thank you for your suggestion about ACPI, that is actually very helpful.
Next, Bozo Galora. I was writing a reply last night which was destroyed on like the 3rd page, sorry for the delay.
<next 10 lines being re-written, just rebooted from Notepad!!!>
I am aware of the AGP miniport issue. I have had an AMD miniport driver installed sinse day 1. It is an AGP card, it does
say so on the website, althought the web design is so awful I don't blame you not noticing.
Your ideas about XP and SB Live! being crap are non-issues, other OS's have been tried and failed, and failures persist with
or without the sound card in the system. Sorry, there you got ahead of yourself...
DirectX are 8.1b as of several weeks ago. Either very latest one one stepping below the very latest available as of today.
As for the AGP 1x 2x 4x issue. My card supposedly supports 4x. I am not sure what it RUNS because it's automatically
decided somewhere for me, but I will try setting it to 1x. I am pretty sure that has been tried before tho. The coolbits
ideas, I don't know what that is all about. What does coolbits do that can help me??
The textures edit comment, do you mean "memory allocated for textures"?
BingBongWongFooey: Given my system config, you think a 300W PSU is too weak? Anyways, I need a replacement PSU, I'll need a
few days to get one and test it anyways. Lots of people are telling me it's the PSU. Lots are blaming HDD or Video also.
Aelus, yes I do crash in Windows. Some of the background programs that are always or usually running for the last 5 months,
excluding tests where I specifically removed them:
Norton AV 7.5 Corporate
AIM
WinAmp Agent
Direct CD Agent
And a few others that aren't running now that I cant recall.
Bozo: What is this video voltage issue you are talking about? Never heard of it.
Bozo: Why do I use my Vid card? Cuz it's fast, and cuz I have no money for new parts after the August upgrade and all the
subsequent cr*p. If I do need a new Vid Card, I been oggling the Hercules 4500 Kyro II based card. Any comments on that, is
that a decent card for the money?
Veryape: I do have a 300W. As above, if/when I can get a replacement to test with, I will do it.

I must quickly run to breakfast before I am left hungry for the whole day. And lastly:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Thanks all!

Ritaly.

 

[Ritaly]

Walliser, thanks for the link. Some interesting stuff there. It seems the only common denominator between that system and mine is the Nvidia based video card and the IBM Deskstar hard drive, and Win XP.
I also have CD burning software running, which appeared in one of the threads there.

There was also a post from a dude with a Radeon 8500 and the same issues, don't know what to make of THAT at all...

I'll uninstall the CD burning software for now to elim that variable. I am curious is IBM might have some insight into this whole mess, as it seems their hard disks are involved in every system with these issues.
I'll run the memory checking software (but remember, at one point I replaced both my RAM sticks for 1 Crucial stick and nothing changed) and I will try to find that IBM disk scanner somebody mentioned. But those messages I talked about in my last post, about my video card "going out of order" (direct quote from XP error message) is really bothering me.
Could it be that all 3 of them are dead? The PSU, HDD and the damn Video card?!?!?!

Anyway, I have some school work to do, I'll check back here later.

 

[Walliser]

All I can tell you is that I have an Athlon TBird 1.4GHz (not overclocked), 512MB of Crucial DDR RAM, a Matrox Millenium and an IBM DeskStar 75GXP 60GB HD all on an ASUS A7M266 running under WIN2k.

I also tried an old installation of WIN95 on an "ancient" 512MB IBM HD that I still had from my old computer and the same problems occured. BSODs, reboots, you name it.

As I said, for me it is a new motherboard. I tried everything that has been suggested. I have plenty of stuff sitting around that I don't need now, such as a perfectly fine PSU, RAM and so on.

The latest thing now is that the MB won't boot up because it insists in not having any memory installed, ergo: the thing goes back to ASUS for an exchange.

 

[Ritaly]

I just posted some updates on my website, at the bottom. Most of what is there is already on these forums, except that I un-installed CD Creator/DirectCD and have not crashed since then even in Frontpage, going on almost 30 minutes now.

Ritaly.

 

[Walliser]

good luck, I wish you that it'll be that simple!