Okay, I tested the memory. That's not the problem. Could it be that my PSU is bad or simply not enough? It only has 20A at maximum output, which is what is recommended for the 6600GT. Thing is, my computer was locking up with my crappy FX5600XT as well. Aside from the vid card, I also run the following periphs: 1 HDD DVD-R/CD-RW DVD-ROM Audigy 2ZS Could it possibly be that my PSU just isn't cutting it? Anyone know what the recommended amperage on the 12V rail is for the FX5600XT?
It's me again. Still troubleshooting and things just keep getting more strange. Yesterday I lowered my resolution and raised the refresh rate on my monitor. My PC didn't freeze up on me after an hour of surfing the net. I left it on overnight and no problem. Thinking I might have found the problem (and pissed that it was going to take a resolution I didn't want to fix it) I opened World of Warcraft, the most taxing game I own. My PC froze within moments, as expected. I've ordered a new PSU for the sake of having a better one anyway. It's got dual rails on 12V and puts out 28A at 12V, much better than the 20A I get right now. When I get home this evening, I'm going to disconnect my DVD-R and DVD-ROM and see if I still have problems.
I remember reading about MSI having some capacitor problems on some of their motherboards a while back. They would bulge and split and after that there would be random lockups. http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3594#post3594 That link has some pics of bad capacitors, scroll down a little to see them. I have seen that happen with other manufacturers besides MSI too. There was a very large supplier of capacitors that used a bad electrolyte forumla. They supplied many major manufacturers with capacitiors. About all you can do is replace and resolder if you have those skills, or replace the entire motherboard.
I was afraid I was going to have to replace the motherboard. I've never installed a CPU on a mobo before, so I'm going to grab an Asus mainboard from TigerDirect or NewEgg and take it up to a local shop. Probably get them to go ahead and rewire it with rounded cables as well. Plus side to all this? New, better PSU New, much better video card New, better motherboard New liquid cooling system
Take your old rig (the one that's locking up). Why would you not do that, though you are willing to spend money to (LoL) have your CPU installed?! How bizarre - would you actually mail-order new parts and then take them to a local shop (I mean, would you not simply purchase the parts at the local shop?) No wonder you have unstable/nonfunctional equipment requiring troubleshooting... I wish I could get my hands on your BIOS setup (you didn't really follow my advice, did you?) Lemme guess: you're American aren't you... Good luck to you, L8R
I thought I said I plan on taking it to a shop? I don't know how it is around you, but I live in South Carolina (US). The shops here have crap parts and charge too much for them. If you want quality without paying nearly twice the price, the only option is to purchase the parts online. I wish you could see my BIOS as well. It lacks a lot of seemingly standard options. I did go to wimsbios and follow all their instructions, though. As far as the Com1/Com2 advice.. my mobo doesn't even have an option to allow me to disable them. Despite your inference that being American is some sort of insult, I am quite American. I moved here from Northampton with my family when I was 4.
Noctis -- keep us posted. A PSU tester costs 15 bucks. How much will your local shop charge you to have it tested? I guess you didn't take any of my advice either, eh? 50% kidding you.... South Carolina is a great state! I went to College in Charleston; my Wife and I just had a 4 day vacation there over Memorial Day. Good luck and keep us posted.
I tried three different places last week to have the PSU tested. All three that I called charged some form of "diagnostic service charge" - as one shop put it - which ranged from $50 - $70 USD. For that much, I can (and did) get a backup PSU to test. I think I'll order a PSU tester as well, just to have it for the future. I don't know why I didn't get one in the first place.. must have overlooked the post somehow. Anyway, tonight I'm going to check out my board for capacitor problems. I'll keep you all updated. And to all who've helped, thank you much!
Not at all...! But mail-ordering new stuff, instead of sorting out your old rig, would seem to be a uniquely American solution (I just guessed). Anyone with a Multimeter can easily check a powersupply. My PS-tester ($14.99) simply makes the test more convenient - it includes an on/off switch with LED, and identifies the 3 voltages + the common. Perhaps I should setup shop in S.C. (the weather is nice, right?) Yeesh - I see why you avoid the technician, if you can help it ;^( Good luck - keep us posted.
probably a stupid question. but have you tried putting the side panels back on your case (bcuz believe it or not they are there for a reason, leaving them off is not good for your machine as its more vulnerable to static death). loading the optimal defaults in your bios and a completely fresh install of windows?
Yeah, leaving the panels off must be noisy too. and make your fans redundant. You need to keep the panels on for the air to flow through continuously in the right direction. i.e. away from the CPU and mobo and sucked out the back of PC.
Okay, I've got some more information that may help define the problem... First off, I checked out all the capacitors. None of them appear to be bulging or damaged at all. Second, it dawned on me that I hadn't taken one important step in troubleshooting. I hadn't tried manually flashing the BIOS immediately after a crash and then seeing if the PC would post properly. I did this last night and it seemingly worked the first time, but not the second or third times. Third, I'm starting to lean toward it possibly being a conflict with audio drivers or my soundcard somehow. I've got the computer to the point now where I can keep it running for days at a time as long as I don't try to play a game. Because of this, I had assumed it was an AGP issue. Last night I just happened to open WinAmp and the PC locked up in almost the exact same amount of time as when I play World of Warcraft, for instance. About 10 minutes. I removed the sound card last night after the computer crashed and flashed the BIOS. After loading the defaults and booting up Windows, I got a new hardware message. I found out that the driver for the onboard audio had never been installed. I took care of that. However, the PC still locked up. That was about 3am and I just gave up and decided I'll uninstall the Creative drivers when I get home (I'm at work right now). Fourth, when you reboot your computer, you get a single beep shortly after powering up. I've had this beep on every computer I've ever had. What does it mean? The reason I ask is I noticed last night that when I reboot and the display does not come up, I don't get that first beep either. However, Windows does load because I get the "Windows did not shut down properly" message. When I get home today, I'm going to take some pictures of my BIOS screens so I can show you guys what I'm seeing in the BIOS and maybe you can point out where I am missing something. Thanks for all your help.
Ack! The 'defaults' are a basic starting point (very basic) and you should not operate your PC with BIOS defaults, as I explained. Quit flashing (before something truly tragic happens) and concentrate on your hardware config. Move PCI cards around from slot to slot - PCI slots share resources with onboard components! ie. Slot1 shares with AGP; Slot whatever (3?) shares with onboard LAN; Slot2 shares with onboard USB... etc. ALL PCs I work on require some tweaking in hardware and BIOS - I can spend a great deal of time getting them just-so. An example would be a Pentium3/866MHz I fixed (it needed new Windows) but it was not rigged up properly. Buddy has been using it since 2001 or whenever, but the BIOS and hardware were fooked. Windows was the least of his problems... It is very stable now, resources do not conflict, and it just seems to both startup and run faster :^) You need a floppy disk and some DOS programs - get your rig 100% solid before you even introduce Windows to the situation. Excellent ;^) Hope this helps, Regards
Hey, just to respond to one part of your reply... Last night I removed everything from all the PCI slots. The only thing left on that side of the motherboard that isn't connected to it is the graphics card. It still locked up, but I also haven't uninstalled/reinstalled the Creative drivers yet. Going to try that in oh.. about an hour and a half. I'd like to avoid formatting the HD if at all possible at this point. I'm not fully opposed to reinstalling Windows, but I'd like to view that as a last resort type thing. I will say that, given the inherent crappiness of my motherboard, I am seriously debating just upgrading it. DDR2 RAM seems to be selling pretty cheap right now.
Okay guys, sorry for the large-ish pictures, but I wasn't finding the thumbnailing code for this forum... anyway... Main BIOS Screen: Standard CMOS: Advanced BIOS: Advanced Chipset: (Sub of Chipset) DRAM Timing Control: (Sub of Chipset) AGP Timing Control: Power Management: PNP/PCI Configs: Integrated Periphs: Frequency/Voltage Control: This last one I noticed when my computer locked up during the below process. Look at the bottom and all the things which share an IRQ number. Is this possibly the problem?
