Topic: Pc trouble :/

[Solo_]

My gfx card spec says it needs a 350 psu, but the older card didnt, and have the same prob, but could it be the psu?

[Dack]

Sounds more and more like it.

Try to see if the problem occurs wihout the soundcard installed as that might give the 5v supply enough power to work correctly. If that is the case then it will probably either be:

1. The power supply needs replacing with a high spec or

2. The motherboard voltage regulators/smoothing capacitors are not up to the job and cannot handle the current required on switch on.

Put simply what happens is that there is only so much power the 5V supply can provide. If more current is required than can be supplied then the voltage drops. WHen the voltage drops then strange things start happening to computers.

e.g. power supply can provide 20 Amps at 5V = 100VA but the computer is trying to draw 25 Amps so the voltage drops to 4V (as 4 * 25 is 100).

The reason it would work after a while is that capacitors will become charged up and so there will be less power required on start up.

[Solo_]

this started happening out of the blue, before i made any changes to my pc, it worked fine for months, alothugh not sure when i installed sound which is pretty new, it's sound blaster 2

[Dack]

The sound card removal is just a temporary check to confirm the fault. If the problem disappears when the card is out then it is likely to be a power issue. Alternatively try with a different power supply if you have one.

Power related problems do tend to just suddenly appear - the usual culprits tend to be high value capacitors or low value resistors. If your power supply was not up to the job of powering your graphics card then it would have put strain on the components (as it tried to deliver) and after a while one of the components would break down.

[Solo_]

Still does it with soundcard out, could any conflicts be causing it? or would u say psu

[Solo_]

Aneyone :/ ?

[Simon]

Sorry Solo, I think everyone must be out enjoying the sun!  I'm sure you'll get an answer this evening.

[Sandra]

Sorry Solo but I havent come across anything like this before  
If you can get another PSU to try,preferably bigger than what you are using that would show if it was a supply problem.
It may just be the capacitors in the motherboard drying out so in that case it would need a new motherboard  

[Dack]

Sorry for delay in replying - been busy getting ready for my Trip to Dallas, TX tomorrow morning (its a complete dive).

The way I look at it is:
1. The second graphics card specifies a power supply greater than the one you have at present - so you need to upgrade the power supply anyways.
2. If the fault remains then it is likely to be a breakdown of some component on the motherboard and you would have needed to replace the power supply anyways (on account of the graphics card). This would only be for the graphics card issue.

For the random crashes and BSODs then.......

I've checked a few forums and the motherboard you have seems to have a highly colourful reputation http://hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/2367/
being one example.

One thing they mention on there is that there are issues with 400MHz memory. You need to press CTRL-F1 on boot up to set the memory speed as per a 333. You also need to set the Bios to optimal and not performance. The latest bios is version F13 and also seems to be the most stable.

[joudi]

Hi Solo,

    As I'm not Teachie, I'm in fact almost beginner. Since the begining I was thinking of a conflict on your hard disk.

    You've answered Simon in one of your posts, to his question, if you did a fresh installation to the XP:

Fresh install, 3td time actually, although i did notice that when i stripped pc down, cleaned it and rebuit in didn't crash for like a week.

    Well, excuse my english and my technic understanding. When you say that you did "Fresh install, 3 times", do you mean that 1 - You've wiped completely your hard disk and formated it again, and partitioned again also, and installed the XP in that principal and "Primary" partition?   Or   2 - You've installed XP upon an other before it, and told the XP to format the partition where you wanted to install it?

    In my opinion, if you've done the option number 2, and if nothing works with you of all suggestions that teachies are proposing, why don't you try to take option number 1, by completely wiping your hard disk? It might work!!!

[Solo_]

I've formated, reinstalled, I've formatted, remoeved the primary partition, then set it back up, also i've tried a different OS now.

[Solo_]

this also happens when pc been on for a bit :/ what would u say, MB or psu?

[Sandra]

I dont know if this will help or not Solo but if you get hold of a program called Si Soft Sandra it has a "Burn in wizard"
This is designed to stress the PC components to the limit to check for stability of the PC.
This is from the "What is" help file bit about the wizard :

This wizard allows you to run any benchmark (in verify mode) or burn-in module (or a group of them) either continuously or a specified amount of time in order to test the stability of the system.

While the benchmarks are not designed for burning-in, they are designed to stress the component(s) they test to the limit, being CPU, chipset, memory or disk bound and thus test the stability of the system. The burn-in wizard puts them in verify mode (if supported) that tests the results after completion.

The burn-in modules are designed to stress the component(s) by executing tasks that are known to cause problems and test/use as much of the component(s)?s functionality as possible. Most of the time, this means causing the component(s) temperature to be raised as much as possible.

Warning: Burning-in stresses components. Thus any weaknesses may cause them to fail or be damaged permanently. Do not run unless you know what and why you do it.


As it says it may damage the weak part permanently but at least hopefully it would show if you had a faulty component :doggie:

[Solo_]

Did it, results shown below :/

[Sandra]

Your jpg didnt display for me Solo but the properties did so I cpuld see it by pasting the url for it into the address bar.
In case it doesnt display for anyone else who wants to see it its at :

http://members.lycos.co.uk/sof2matrix/test.JPG

Well I dont mind admitting that its got me beat  
I think that you will only resolve this issue by substituting known good components and then seeing which,if any fixes it