I'm losing my patience with my pc..!!

**ClaireyFairy** · August 14th, 2005, 12:25 PM

forgive me, this could be a long drawn out post!! ( my apologies if this is in the wrong section, but my suspicions are its something to do with my BIOS / boot sector)

first of all my specs (or what i can gather from the motherboard as the machine is a bucket of *@&$!!!

Intel Pentium 4 3.20 GHz
Dual Channel DDR AGP 8X (?? unsure wether this is relevant)
Radeon 9600 256Mb DDR V/D/VO
Graphics/ Video - Sapphire ATI ( ? )
RealTek onboard LAN Card
1 Gig DDR RAM
Running Windows XP
i also have 5 fans, to prevent over heating
and all the normal gumf, CD, DVD/R/Rw, floppy, 3 USB's & blah blah

age 2 weeks!!!

ok where do i start, my first problem was the comp crashing during applications. Ctrl, Alt Del does not work, mouse, keyboard nothing, had to switch of machine and restart

this then got worse, and would crash just after windows had started, then crashing before the start up screen. no it swithces off by itself, and i am lucky VERY LUCKY to actually see the windows logo

if i do, it will run for about 5 minutes and crash again.

I am losing my patience BIG STYLE.

i am currently a 3d Animation Student, I desperatley require my computer and i run quite memory hungry applications, Softimage Xsi, PhotoShop, After Effects. for my 3d work i require the comp to be able to handle the render times, but this pc is just severly taking the &*%$!!

I curently own 3 pcs, and have never encountered this problem before..

i am clueless, absolutely clueless as to what the prob could be..

any help would be GREATLY appreciated.. and HAPPILY recieved

Kind Regards Clairey

**Vakas** · August 14th, 2005, 12:42 PM

to me this seems like a memory issue as i have experienced this a lot in the past.

How many memory sticks do you have in? if it is more than 1 I would take them out in turn and see if the problem resolves.

If you only have 1 memory stick in try some other memory and see if that works.

Let us know how you get on.

**Kodiak** · August 14th, 2005, 12:57 PM

My first question would be did it ever run right.
If so what has changed since it ran right. (downloaded something off the internet and installed. Installed another piece of hardware.) Something of that order.
If it never ran right try this.
Simplify your system by pulling anything in it other then the processor, Video, memory and one CD. Try it and if it is ok put one thing at a time back in to find the culprit. If it keeps occuring try this.

Set your bios to defaults
Run memtest 86+ to test your memory. Here is a link. http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...emtest86.shtml

Post back as to the results.

**ClaireyFairy** · August 14th, 2005, 01:02 PM

i have 2 memory sticks vakas. i will try that first thank you

and kodiak, it did run right when i first got it, but then i hadn't installed any of my software and therefore had not needed to use it for rendering or anything.

i installed a new wierless adapter card, as i was to set the pc up to the wireless network at home and it was after this that i noticed the crashing, so i removed the card, thinking possibly that was what caused the system to become unstable, but since then has progressively got worse.

i opened up and had a look inside and noticed that a cable from my cd drive that was supposed to be attached to the motherboard was tucked under the processor.. i reattached this to where it was supposed to be, the comp ran for a few hours, and then crash, it went back to square one.

it seems everytime i "seem" to find a solution, it fools me, and wiats until i begin to smile again before it sticks the fingers in my face and switches off.

i will try the memory, and i will get back to you's. thank you for your swift responses..

very appreciated

**slgrieb** · August 14th, 2005, 02:16 PM

Sounds more like a defective mainboard to me. Open the case and give all the capacitors a visual inspection, if any are leaking (they don't have to be dripping; they can just have dried brown gunk on the tops or at the bottem) or the tops bulge, it is defintiely a bad board. Even if none of these symptoms appear the board can still have a bad component that isn't obvious.

You could have a deffective power supply as well. If you have a digital multimeter or are willing to spend $40 or so to get one, you can test it yourself. You can also swap it with another known-good supply.

Don't worry about that CD audio cable. Current optical drives running under XP use digital audio extraction, so the old analog cable actually serves no function.

**ClaireyFairy** · August 14th, 2005, 02:32 PM

hi there all.

ok i've just tried the mem test, didn't notice anything different at all, both were recognised by the pc, and is starting up windows and still crashing after a few minutes.

the motherboard isnt leaking and doesn't appear to have any probs.

i was thinking of swapping the power unit over, HOWEVER.. this comp also has many lights and more fans than my other pc's, the power supply in this comp has more cables than my other pc's.

as they are only standard power supplys, this one is a bit "funky" lol and has lights and more cables... if i was to swap them over, would i loose all the "funky" lights and stuff as well??

oh i'll try it anyway and see.

last night i thought the power supply had blown but it was the fuse in my pc plug that blew. (oh i also have a surge protector adapter)

**Kodiak** · August 14th, 2005, 02:32 PM

When you removed the network card did you also remove the software for it? I just went through this on an install of a wireless network card on a customers machine. System would lock up and crash just any time it wanted. You may also want to try a system restore point that was created before the install of the card.

I see that you say it runs for a while then crashes, is this what happens every time? If so it may be a heat issue and you may want to check that there is indeed some thermal grease or a pad under the CPU and the heat sink is positioned properly. You could also go into the bios and watch the temp rise and see if it is overheating.

**ross.v** · August 14th, 2005, 02:51 PM

Your computer is 2 weeks old. Did you assembled parts yourself? If not go to shop where you got it from. If yes you have said that you have five fans in the case. Maybe your PSU is not providing enough power to keep it running...

you can work around by removing few fan connectors..Try replacing it with different higher power 350 Watts atleast..if it doesnot help
First of all make sure BIOS is on Default settings....check if processor and fan are properly retained and temperature is within normal range.Again if you built it yourself did you read user manual and followed carefully?

**ClaireyFairy** · August 14th, 2005, 02:59 PM

i didn't build it myself, a friend of a friend built it for me, only now that it is messing up, i cant seem to get hold of him ( convenient yeh? - easy money eh? prik) sorry

well anyway, in the BIOS i get the info for the temperature etc, it hovers between 65 and 69 degrees celcius

i am unsure of the standard temperature for a pc. i thought this was high but i have no idea? but like i say i cannot judge as i do not know.

**Kodiak** · August 14th, 2005, 03:02 PM

This is very hot so I would check that the cpu is seated correctly and the thermal grease is there. Normal is around 45 to 55. I think you may have found the problem.

**ClaireyFairy** · August 14th, 2005, 03:02 PM

oh sorry kodiak, i forgot to reply to you

after the hardware was removed, the system had been formatted again, therefore there should be no software installed. and i have ketpt it in the box and not tried to install it again as yet.

prefer to have a stable system before adding more stuff to it.

i'll try removing some of the fans aswell.

i thought maybe the clock settings and stuff were running too fast, possibly the processor is running faster than the memory can keep up with, but when i went into the BIOS to change it... i got lost *blush* and didnt recognise where i could change the clock speed. it seems this comp is a little more up to date than my other two, not much, but enough to make a difference.. as i feel a bit amatuer again *lol*

**Kodiak** · August 14th, 2005, 03:04 PM

As mentioned in my first post, reset your bios settings to default.

**ClaireyFairy** · August 14th, 2005, 03:05 PM

i will go and do that just now, set them to default, and ill check and see that the heat sink etc is all ok, thank you for helping me kodiak, and everyone else, unbelievably appreciated

i'll be back very shortly, prob with more bad news LMAO

**Kodiak** · August 14th, 2005, 03:15 PM

I would bet money it is a heat issue. My PC run at 45C idle and 55C with the heavyest possible load. I have a Athlon XP 3200+ cpu and they normaly run hotter then most cpu's. Even if it is seated properly I would replace the thermal grease and reseat the cpu. Other possiblities to cause it to run hot are the cpu settings and reseting the bios to defaults should solve that issue.

**ross.v** · August 14th, 2005, 03:25 PM

As Kodiak said Temperature is definite reason for system crashing should have been traced at one go..now done...Turn off your PC read user manual carefully, look for thermal paste or pad that came along with it. Read proper instructions of applying paste and cleaning off the paste if already there before going about it.

DONOT add more paste to already applied just clean it off using rubbing alcohol and apply afresh and keep the layer thin and uniform. If you are not easy with job get he job done by tech.

Temperature should be around 47 deg C- 48 deg C at the above average load.