f13.net forums - Advice on computer problems

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
July 19, 2025, 12:24:03 PM

we're back, baby

Okay, so I've been having intermittent computer problems for about two months now.

Originally, what would happen is I would get graphics freezes playing a specific game. The screen would do the blocky, multicolored line kinda thing. At first, only the application would get corrupted, then later, I got crashes where all of Windows would get the same problem. The system would lock-up and I'd have to reboot to clear it.

But the problem got progressively worse. It happened in another application, and then another. Initially the lockups would happen after the system was running for several hours, and always when I was doing 3D graphics stuff, and given the graphical weirdness, I began to suspect the video card. However, it sorta seemed heat-related, so I tried to improve the cooling of my system, but it had little effect.

Then I started getting a case where when the system crashes like that, and I rebooted, the system wouldn't boot. I'd get no graphics signal at all, or I'd get to the POST screen but the graphics would be all fuxx0red like before. I'd fiddle around in the hardware and couldn't find anything consistent to fix the problem. I'd reseat the card, I'd replug the monitor, I'd reseat the memory, the CPU fan, the CPU... various things, and nothing consistently worked. But eventually, after a while, the system would boot, and run fine for a while, but eventually lock up again with the same graphical weirdness.

At this stage, I was convinced it was the video card, perhaps killed by a hot computer. (Don't ask what the temperature is inside; I unloaded my motherboard monitor some time back trying to troubleshoot the problem.) But then the strangest thing would happen -- after a crash, I'd leave the computer off all night, and in the morning, it STILL wouldn't boot.

I bought a new card. The problem didn't go away.

Worried about overheating, I applied new heat paste between my CPU and CPU fan. The problem still didn't go away. I replaced the CPU fan with a new one, new heat paste, new heat sink, runs much cooler now. But the problem still didn't't gon away.

On the off chance my BIOS had become corrupted, I just flashed a new and updated version of the BIOS. My graphical game ran fine all day, and I thought maybe I solved the problem... but then a few hours ago, just sitting in Windows, the system got the graphical weirdo lockup again.

I've now found that I can usually get the thing to fix itself if after such a lockup if I reseat the memory a few times. (PC1066 RDRAM, FYI.) I've tried pushing and flexing various things on the motherboard as well, but no one thing seems to work consistently. However, whatever it is, it seems to happen after the computer has been on a long time, and then it "sticks" and doesn't recover without reseating the memory, regardless of the cooldown time.

At this stage I can't decide if it's one or more RIMM memory modules that have gone bad, or if the motherboard itself might have a component that is failing. There's an outside chance the CPU itself might be hosed, but that seems unlikely to me at this stage.

Anyway, I wondered if this sounds familiar to anyone and if they had any recommendations on which to try first, the MB or the RAM.

Bruce

Bad motherboard maybe?

If anything, you could dip into your vast fortune and hit up newegg and build a new rig.

Quote from: SirBruce

Anyway, I wondered if this sounds familiar to anyone and if they had any recommendations on which to try first, the MB or the RAM.

It sounds more like a motherboard problem (e.g. bad or failing capacitor, cold/flaky solder joint) but swapping out the RAM is certainly easier than swapping out the motherboard. You may also be having power supply issues as well. Whenever I have trouble booting up a computer I always try to eliminate the power supply as the culprit first.

Well, when I had the MB monitor active, I detected no particularly low voltages or anything like that. It would also be hard to explain how the PSU could work fine for a year, then fail to deliver necessary voltage only at certain times, whereupon the motherboard becomes hosed even after power-cycling. Definitely seems more like memory or MB to me.

Swapping out the MB won't be a big deal; I've done it before. Just time-consuming.

Bruce

If the OS isn't booting, think hard drive. Those things can cause all kinds of weird problems before they die.

If the system isn't even getting into the BIOS, I'd say mobo or power supply.

What brand is the mobo?

I vote bad motherboard or power supply.

Power supplies actually produce less power as they heat up and are stressed. Driving a power supply hard over time can cause it to degrade.

But then reseating the memory fixing the problem kind of points towards either bad memory or some loose connection somewhere on the motherboard.

I'd vote powersupply as well. Does the same thing happen if you leave your case open?

I vote power supply.

I recently fried my 300W that came with the machine and I'm pretty sure it is because I had too much crap plugged in (2-3 HDs, 2 CDs, 4 fans). I experienced some of the crap you described about the machine sitting there not booting and then it would boot 10 minutes after turning it on (AKA death of the power supply was slow degradation over maybe 3 weeks). The way it was behaving it felt like the power button was at fault but I replaced it and it was still jacked up. In the end it wouldn't turn on at all and the LED on the mobo wasn't coming on either.

It might also have had to do with the fact that the video ram on my nVidia 4600 is bad and hense I have to underclock it all the way to keep it from crashing in 3D apps.

In any event I bought a new 400W supply and it's worked fine since.

Sounds like a cracked motherboard. Cracks in pc boards can cause all sorts of weird problems, like those you describe. You probably won't be able to find the crack, if that's what it is.

I'd try swapping out the memory and power supply first, though.

It's a 550W power supply. Even degraded I should have more than enough power. I've had the case open for some time now trying to determine how much heat was an issue so I can't really say whether or not that makes a difference now. Every time I've seen a PSU fail it's always been completely, not this freaky stuff, but I suppose it is also a possibility.

Anyway, I ordered a replacement motherboard and memory today. (D850EMVRL). See if that solves it.

Bruce

I think I've narrowed the problem down to one of three capacitors on the board that are in a row right next to where the power supply connects to the motherboard. While none of them seem loose or bulging/leaking, I can get the system to reboot by pushing them to one side slightly, which might be re-establishing a flaky solder connection. Unfortunately, I'm not an electronics expert, so I'll have to wait for the new motherboard to confirm my diagnosis.

Bruce

UPDATE

Motherboard/RAM order cancelled. New order placed for a new Antec 550W power supply.

After further inspection I for the first time actually unplugged the special P4 power supply connector which connects next to the aforementioned capacitors. One side of the plastic connector and the plastic around two of the leads is "burned" and discolored brown. A bit of fuzz which appears to have also been trapped at some point in the connector was removed. The connector doesn't appear to be fitting properly; it or one of the wires is loose, and by manipulating them I can get the strange problems I was having before.

I've now realigned the cable in a place and connected it firmly enough that I think thermal expansion won't cause the connection to short. However, obviously I have a problem here which I'll have to fix, and rather than just strip the wires and solder I'll just replace the whole PSU in case it was damaged.

My only concern now is that the motherboard might have been damaged from all this, but I don't think so. If so, I can always order another one.

Thanks to everyone who gave their advice.

Bruce

So, I haven't been on all weekend because I killed my computer.

When I installed the new power supply, my motherboard aparrently went, "OMG, I have a full 12V now!" and with a loud POP and the smell of burning plastic ceased to function. Naturally, this was after I cancelled my order for a replacement motherboard. I was going to buy a new one, but the local store didn't have what I wanted, so I went ahead and bought a replacement off ebay.

The only question now is whether or not I damaged the CPU. I don't think so, but I won't know until I get my system up and running next week. Until then, I'm on my trusty old Windows 95 box surfing at 28.8.

Bruce

My saga continues.

So, in an effort to speed things up and save money, I ordered my replacement motherboard off eBay. It arrived. It was the wrong board, not the one that was advertised, so it would not support my processor, among other things. I'm in the process of returning it now.

So I went back to emicrox, the people I ordered my mb from previously and then cancelled the order. Discovered that after several days they still had not reversed the charges on my card. Talked to Alina in accounting and she was happy to apply my current "credit" with them to my new MB order and refund the remainder.

The board was shipped overnight DHL on Tuesday, with a 10:30 AM delivery. Wednesday came. DHL did not deliver the package. Tracking showed the package arrived at their local facility Wed morning but still never went out.

Thursday morning came and went and still no package. Three phone calls later it was finally determined that the package was indeed in route. Finally showed up at my door at around 6:00 PM. Still no explanation for why a 10:30 overnight delivery arrived over 30 hours late.

So, I pop in the new board, the right board, and I'm in the process of recovering my system. Unfortunately, it seems like my brand new 160GB Maxtor was fried; BIOS won't even see it and it won't spin up. Furthermore, I have multiple corrupt system registery errors on my boot drive. I'm still going through Windows XP recovery trying to fix those; if all else fails, I may have to reinstall Windows.

Bruce

This is just a shot in the dark, but a lot of boards have trouble with hard drives larger than 100 GB. Your drive may have come with an SATA PCI card. As far as I know IDE won't support drives of this size (unless your motherboard supports SATA natively??) so plugging the drive into an SATA card rather than the IDE slot on the motherboard may fix the problem. Maybe.

Basically, you're incorrect.

Anyway, I guess I wasn't clear that said drive was working fine before this all happened. It was the power zap that seems to have killed it.

Bruce

Quote from: SirBruce

Anyway, I guess I wasn't clear that said drive was working fine before this all happened. It was the power zap that seems to have killed it.

Have you tried using another power connector to the hard drive? Preferably one that isn't split off from the cable with the connector you used before?

Quote from: Trippy

Quote from: SirBruce

Anyway, I guess I wasn't clear that said drive was working fine before this all happened. It was the power zap that seems to have killed it.

Have you tried using another power connector to the hard drive? Preferably one that isn't split off from the cable with the connector you used before?

I have a totally new power supply now, so it would have to ba a new connector. :)

The good news is my D: drive doesn't seem too corrupted, but it heavily zapped the "System Volume Info" folder which Windows can't seem to handle having errors in. Unfortunately there aren't any free disk recovery utilities out there, so I'm stuck trying to decide what to pick. I also have to go get another drive, so I can actually do the disk recovery and copy the data onto a new drive, so I can reformat this old one to get it working again. Or something. Sigh.

Meanwhile, Windows, Office, and a certain MMOG game have consumed all the space on the 9GB drive I'm currently using. Good thing I'm still playing Fable.

Bruce

I used a data recovery tool awhile ago that worked pretty well, considering the drive was trying to eat itself. Fortunately, they give away the version that works on ext2fs drives for free, and the drive in question was mounted as /home in my linux server box when it failed. I got back a large percentage of the files. This particular tool started by 'ripping' the drive to a file on the host OS drive, like ripping a CD, and then used that data to reconstruct the file data.

I don't remember the name off hand, and it's not installed anymore. But it worked well...

--
Alkiera