Help me. Comp probs

[Trippy]

Sure

Did you already try reinstalling Windows 7?

[Abagadro]

No.  I managed to get the few files I had onto a separate drive.  Does it make sense to do a Win 7 reinstall at this point?  The weird thing is I was able to update the NVIDIA driver (which it wouldn't before) but then it froze and rebooted when I tried to play freaking solitare.

[Trippy]

Does it make sense to do a Win 7 reinstall at this point?  The weird thing is I was able to update the NVIDIA driver (which it wouldn't before) but then it froze and rebooted when I tried to play freaking solitare.

Sure. It's possible the driver/driver update is still borked somehow.

[taolurker]

Well, I would wait on the Windows install, because that could equal a lot of unnecessary hours wasted if it's still a Hardware problem. I was recommending power supply because it sure sounded like a power issue, and the Event log also sort of backed that up. Buying a PS is also a relatively cheap place to start, although changing the number of peripherals hooked to power should've allowed it to work normally if it was the original power supply failing. What Watt PS was the original and the replacement? Try with less drives on the new power supply if you haven't already.

Do you have any other video cards to try on that motherboard? Did you check the Caps on the mobo to see if any of them are burst? What are the full specs of this machine? Have you reseated the RAM, and possibly attempted running it with less sticks installed? ->(RAM is also a power drain)

[Abagadro]

Original was 700W. I put in a 600W. Both should be adequate for what I have running.

I did the Windows reinstall. Didn't fix it. Acting exactly the same.  I'm really frustrated.

[Trippy]

It's a good excuse to get a new computer for Christmas

[Ingmar]

It isn't tremendously likely to fix anything, but you could try putting the card in a different slot.

[Abagadro]

It's a good excuse to get a new computer for Christmas

This fucking thing is only 14 months old.

[taolurker]

So did you examine the board for burst caps? or attempt running the machine with less RAM?

Try each individual ram stick on it's own with no others installed, and possibly one of the sticks themselves is damaged.

[Abagadro]

It isn't tremendously likely to fix anything, but you could try putting the card in a different slot.

Won't fit in any other slot.

[Abagadro]

So did you examine the board for burst caps? or attempt running the machine with less RAM?

Try each individual ram stick on it's own with no others installed, and possibly one of the sticks themselves is damaged.

No burst caps.  I'll try the RAM thing.

[taolurker]

Also worth trying, since the PS you purchased was less than the original, would be to try booting without the burner installed with the new Power Supply.

[Abagadro]

Messing with RAM did nothing.

I have an old 7800 GT I have canabalized out of an old machine.  Would it do any good to throw that into it to test it out?  Should I take out my 460 GTX first or leave it in ?

[Engels]

Hey Aba,

Yes, definitely try the 7800 first. If I'd known you had that laying about, I'd have suggested that first, since that would have been the easiest thing to troubleshoot with. Pull out the 460 first tho. The good news is that if it works, you'll probably be able to play WoT on it at cruddy settings while you get a replacement card.

Tao's instincts that it was a PSU problem weren't bad or anything, and I was actually angling towards it, since the machine was rebooting rather than seizing up when you drew power through your card when doing something 'graphical'. That said, these things are very temperamental, and a bad chip or capacitor on the vid card itself can cause a odd power state that'll reboot you too.

Now, I'm thinking its either the power connection on your vid card or something more prosaic and common, like a burned out video ram chip.

[MahrinSkel]

At this point you're almost committed to replacing the works.  Why not just order a new processor, mobo, and videocard, gut the machine out and have a new system.  If it's a few years old, you can probably double your performance for peanuts ($200-250) and stop futzing around with bits and pieces.

--Dave

[Abagadro]

Put in th 7800 and can't get it to work.  It won't boot to desktop. I get the screen that asks if I want to boot normally or use the start up repair. If I choose start-up repair the screen goes blank and it sits there.  If I choose start normally, it going to the little four color window thing and then sits there.

[Trippy]

Did you try a different slot?

[Abagadro]

I only have 1 PCIe slot.

[Trippy]

Sucks to be you?

Now we're in motherboard replacement territory.

[Abagadro]

Can the motherboard be replaced without replacing the CPU (i.e. can you take it off and put it on a new one).  This thing is a fairly recent i5 760.

[Trippy]

Yes you can though it's a bit of work to reapply the thermal paste and put the heat sink and fan back on.

[Abagadro]

Bleh. I'm fucking tired. Been wrestling with this thing for 7 hours.  I'm going to bed.

Thanks for the help so far (I owe you guys some free legal advice).  Is the next step to get a new vid card and throw it in there or would that be a waste of time/money?  Should I just go dump it on the counter of the local computer shop and have them try to figure it out?

[Trippy]

You could try a new video card though if your 7800 also isn't working it doesn't seem as likely now that it's the 460 that's bad. If it was me I'd buy a motherboard from a place that had a liberal return policy and install the existing CPU into that board but that's a bit of work. It may be better if you know of a good shop to pay somebody to do that work for you.

[Arthur_Parker]

You could try unhooking any external devices, printers, usb cables etc, reset your bios to default, try a different 2nd power cable for the graphics cards (assuming those cards need two power inputs) & giving the case a shake, but the chances of any of it helping are pretty low.

[Furiously]

Type "command" in the program box, then click on it as "Run as administrator" and when you get the dos box, type "chkdsk"  If there are any HD issues, it might show up as orphaned files.

Do you have an old hard drive laying around as well?  Might make sense to install windows on an old HD and see if the problem persists.  It's still possible it's a software issue.

[Abagadro]

Ok. I shouldn't have been doing this at 1 in the morning.  When I was messing around with the RAM I installed two sticks upside down.  So, fixed that. Wired up the old power supply with the old 7800 card and SUCCESS! Everything seems to work.

So looks like it was the vid card going kabloowie.

Any suggestions on what to get to replace a gtx 460?

[Engels]

What are your monitor(s) sizes and resolutions?

[Ingmar]

I've been happy with my 560Ti.

[Abagadro]

I have a 24 inch I run at 1920-1080 and then a 20 inch that I sometimes use to dual monitor.

[Morfiend]

Sorry, late to this thread.

I am about 98% sure this is your graphics card. My roommate had the same issue, not quite as bad, but close. Any time he needed to run anything that was 3d related, it would freeze dead. 

It turned out it was his graphics card overheating due to massive amounts of dust inside it. We blew it out with some compressed air and it has worked fine since then. He just blows the card clean every month.

I doubt dust is your problem, but the symptoms seem very close and would lead me to say graphics card.

[Engels]

The 560Ti isn't a bad choice. Not sure how well it performs with two monitors, the benchmarks I've seen suggest that it may struggle a bit on specific games using two monitors (one for the game, the other just desktop etc). If money isn't an object (within reason) you may want to jump up a grade.

This chart here, outlining performance of BF3 at your resolution suggests that the 560Ti, while using a single monitor, averages 41FPS. That's not a great sign of how it would perform if you're gonna use two monitors routinely.

The 570 looks better, but it does require two PCI-E power connectors ( Edit: turns out the 560Ti does too, so well whatevs.) and you need a 600 watt PSU (which you have I think?).

If thermals are a concern, then just bear in mind that as a rule of thumb, the more powerful the card the hotter it gets.

Lastly, don't worry about video ram capacities over 1 GB. 1 GB is ample.

[WayAbvPar]

This chart here, outlining performance of BF3 at your resolution suggests that the 560Ti, while using a single monitor, averages 41FPS. That's not a great sign of how it would perform if you're gonna use two monitors routinely.

I have heard a ton of anecdotal problems with the 560Ti and BF3. Not sure if the new patch alleviated them or not. May check into it before you spend any money, however.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, I'm not a big shooter guy so I haven't seen that issue. It has been running Skyrim at 1920x1200 great, though. It's certainly not a total top of the line card, only in the $200 range.

[Fabricated]

Um; forgive me if I didn't see someone mention it but you did plug the PCI-Express power cable into the physical card itself after you installed it right?

Also; even if you reseated your RAM do it again. Also, if you can burn a MemTest86x CD and test your RAM.

Bad/badly seated RAM, bad PSUs, and failing mobos cause ridiculously hard to diagnose bluescreen/freezes/intermittent boot issues.

Also inspect your motherboard for busted or leaking capacitors. If just one is leaking, broken, or bulged badly that's all it takes.

[Abagadro]

So I should do this before I get a new card or should I assume it was the card with things now working with my 7800 in there?