• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Very confusing problem (mainly "hardcrashes") LAST UPDATE!!!PROBLEM FOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

G

Gozu

Banned
Well, after many adventures, I decided to run prime95 (i'm surprised nobody suggested this!) and guess what? hard crash within seconds of cpu torture test! so there you go, it was the cpu all along. I suspected right from the beginning. i am a genius! hooray for me! Stupid woman at gateway wouldn't let me cancel the psu replacement order...fine with me, i'll get a new PSU for free for no reason...morons...



I'm posting this with very little hope. online support works wonders for software but til now, it never helped me with hardware problems. hell, i'm not even 100% sure it's a hardware problem. Anyways, here goes:

FTR: I didn't install any new drivers or any program that i suspect culd have caused this.

1- I boot pc, when winXP desktop should appear, screen goes black. pc is frozen.

2- I reboot pc, open divx file, after playing for 7 minutes. BSOD: cause of the error is some error is *sound*.sys/dll(wildcards are to be used as you would in DOS)

3-I reboot pc, open divx file, after a few seconds, screen goes black, CPU FAN STARTS MAKING MORE NOISE, computer has crashed.

After a while, i am able to play the file normally as well as other mpg, mpg2, whatever...

number 1 and 3 keep happening over the last week from time to time. most often i am playing a video files (type doesn't matter) and the files are all good. uninstalled ffdshow, installed divx3.11 just to be sure, doesn;t have anything to do with codec.

rarely they happen when there is no video or sound playing. weird...

2 minutes compressing in rar to stress processor w/o problems.
ran 3dmarks2k and 3dmarks2k1 without problems
uncompressed thousands of Mbytes with winrar w/o problem

Finally, this morning, #1 happened while playing video file and since i know that when it happens, it usually happens again after reboot. i quickly replaced the videocard and the problem happened again so the vid card is innocent.

then i took off the sound card (got no replacement for that one) and i turned puter on again, puter freezes after videocard info is displayed (very beginning, mobo's bios didn't even start).

i rebooted again and played that same file in a continous loop for half an hour w/o problems. put the sound card back in and played again without problems...

UPDATE!

I recently tested the 2 ram sticks individually and they are fine.
I also tested the HDs with GWSCAN and they are fine.(never suspected them anyways)
I tried installing motherboard monitor 5 but my mobo doesn;t have temp sensors.

So we have cpu, psu and mobo.
I got the gateway guys to ship me a new PSU. if problems continue, we'll only have 2 more contenders. soon we will find the weak link (goodbye!)
I'll update this in a week. right now, i can't test anything new anyways...

System:

MSI Motherboard
Processor: 950MHz Athlon
Memory:192(64-MB 133 + 128-MB 133 SDRAM DIMM)<------------------------------------------------------------INNOCENT
Hard disk: Fujitsu 10-GB 5400 RPM + Western Digital 100-GB 7200 RPM (2mb)------------------------------INNOCENT
Videocard: geforce 2 mx <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------INNOCENT
Sound card: Creative Labs Audio PCI 128D<-------------------------------------------------------------------------INNOCENT
Ethernet Card: Realtek 8129s <----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------INNOCENT
CD drives: 48x + Plextor 12x10x32x<---------------------------------------------------------------------------------INNOCENT OBVIOUSLY
Floppy: who cares...<-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------INNOCENT obviously
Monitor: Gateway EV700 17"<------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------INNOCENT

Software:

WinXP pro

Internet Connection: ADSL

Download: 160 k/s
Upload: 27 k/s


So there you have it, the worst problem ever. Intermittent, doesn't follow a clear pattern, annoying as hell (everytime it crashes, i lose half my downloading files...)

I am willing to run any tests you want. unfortunately, the only spare i have is the sound card. good luck...
 
You ever considered that it might be the power supply? (Man I hate giving that answer)

With how intermittent your errors are (especially locking during post or even prior to post), it is almost assuredly hardware related. Without having swapping parts your in a world of hurt. It could be a flakey mobo, powersupply, or memory (you could pull one stick then the other).

Good luck.....
 
Powersupply woldn't give me bsod or lockup at early boot stage. let's discard it for now and see what else it could be. (i'm not saying it'
s not, it's a crappy 250W).
 
UPDATE!

First off, i formatted and am now running a clean WinXP. The crashes still happen so it's no software.

I had the 'good luck' to have a crash again while playing a video ( when they happen, it's 99% certain that upon reboot and replaying that video, crash will happen again in a matter of seconds). I removed the sound card and crash still happened, so it's not the soundcard. i re-rebooted and this time removed the 128 stick of ram. Crashed again. i then proceeded to remove the 64 mb leaving only the 128 mbit and no crash. (but it doesn't mean anything, the same had happened with the sound card and now we see it's innocent).

So we have eliminated quite a few contenders. the suspects left are:

CPU
CPU FAN (god, it's so dirty you couldn't imagine..i dunno how it's still running)
64 Mb ram stick
Motherboard
Hard Drive
 
> Powersupply woldn't give me bsod or lockup at early boot stage. let's discard it for now and see what else it could be. (i'm not saying it's not, it's a crappy 250W).

Why wouldn't a bad power supply cause a BSOD or lockup? (oops power fluctation, program counter screwed - jump to protected memory *BAM* BSOD) I'm only using Win2000, and I've not seen a BSOD so far.
 
Geez, you're running a 950MHz Athlon, two hard drives, one of them 7200 RPM and two CD drives on a "crappy 250W". How long have you been running the system without any problems?
 
> Random errors 99% of the time are due to bad ram.

wouldn't the POST (assuming you have quick test off) give you an error message if it were the RAM? Although I've heard the ram test in unreliable.

dirty fan? how are the CPU/System temperatures?
 
let's see.

First off, don't blame me for the crappy PC. My friend bought it without consulting me *roll eyes* when i was overseas.

Up until now, we had 3 issues with it.
The monitor broke down, we got a replacement which works fine.
The Powersupply DIED. computer just wouldn't turn on anymore. got it replaced.
The sound card died. computer with not boot with it inside. got it replaced.

The reason i don't upgrade any of the components is that the pc is still under warranty (she got the extended warranty thank god) so i'd rather get replacements for free for the time being. I will be buying a brand new computer next week (yahoo!!!!!!!!)

Uncle Babar:

1- Granted. It could be the powersupply (i just think it's kinda far fetched and improbable)
2-The computer has been working fine since we got the PSU replaced.
3-The bios doesn't have any option to monitor the temps so i have no idea...
4- I tried to take the cpu fan off to clean it...I couldn't get the bastard off. Yes laugh but i worked as a computer technician before and i took off and put on dozens of fans...this one is just too much. I don't know what to do with it. And if i go berserk with it *which i want sooo much*i will certainly break the mobo.

and thanks a bunch for the replies (keep increasing that post count of yours 😉 )
 
I'd bet on the PSU as well. Hardly anyone needs 440W PSUs, but a 250W no-name PSU on your system is pretty bold. Try lending a friends for a day and check if at least some of the problems go away.
 
I once tried to pry a pentium-75 from a Dell's bony ZIF socket. Even with the heatsink removed, it wouldn't budge. I think the socket lever worked fine, but I could not get the chip off. It was my only computer at the time, so I let it be.

> and thanks a bunch for the replies (keep increasing that post count of yours 😉 )

shhh! Do you thinking anybody else noticed? 😱
 
UPDATE!

I recently tested the 2 ram sticks individually and they are fine.
I also tested the HDs with GWSCAN and they are fine.(never suspected them anyways)
I tried installing motherboard monitor 5 but my mobo doesn;t have temp sensors.

So we have cpu, psu and mobo.
I got the gateway guys to ship me a new PSU. if problems continue, we'll only have 2 more contenders. soon we will find the weak link (goodbye!)
I'll update this in a week. right now, i can't test anything new anyways...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top