Pc Problem

[GTR_STEALTH]

PC Stats:

Dual core 3.2

Gigabyte m/b

1G ram

7950 GX2 graphics card

600W (new)

WinXP

About two weeks ago i was sitting at my computer when i noticed the screen went blank for about 1sec. Didnt think anything of it, until it started to get worse. It started to go blank for more than a few seconds before it got to the blue screen and froze. I reset thinking i must've copped a virus then ran Avast which reported it clean.

It then got to the stage where it would simply load up, then reset. The only way it would let me in was in safe mode. I suspected the graphics card but was leaning on the already maxed out power supply (the 500W one) which may have lost its efficiency over the summer heat maybe?

Changed the power supply to the 600W and it seemed fine for a day or so; then the monitor started doing the same thing again and now i can only get in in safe mode again.

Im now suspecting a driver conflict, as i updated something which for the life of me i cant remember so i can roll it back.

....either way its got me stumped.

What i've tried so far:

-Virus scan (ok)

-Power supply upgrade (ok)

-Checked monitor (ok)

-Re-installed older video drivers (ok)

-Added room fan to keep video card cool (ok) ...unless the card has sustained heat damage? I checked the temp with a probe on the GPU heat sink .....45-48c idle, 55-60c mild load

-EDIT Tried the other DVI plug on the card (ok)

Any other suggestions?

EDIT

Sorry i forgot to mention. When it reboots, and i am able to load normally for a minute before it dies again, i clicked ok to sending an error report to Microsoft which comes back as telling me something along the lines of - Video Card Device Driver no good/needs re-installing. ...how accurate this is i couldnt answer.

[gazal]

So windows wont load up at all? if it keeps reseting it self. You may need to reinstall windows it has happen to me a few times. Also if you have the orginal windows installation disk you can try and use the repair function.

[saff_cossie]

Check all connections to the motherboard and peripherals internally

Device drivers - sound, audio, wireless, network, USB

I have had similar symptons on work PC's with dodgy connections/connections full of dust and not ventilating properly

Interested to know what it turns out to be too.

[Legumis]

Boot it in safe mode.

Click Start>Run... and type MSCONFIG

Click the Startup tab and untick everything.

Reboot in normal mode and see what happens.

If it still fails, reboot in Safe then:

Click Start>Run... and type SFC /SCANNOW

Then reboot again in normal.

If it still fails after this, you're *probably* ok software wise (assuming these rolled-back drivers your using aren't causing memory conflicts; I'd actually get all the latest drivers rather than use older ones).

Also, if you do get a BSOD, get the error code. It would help a lot.

[GTR_STEALTH]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.....

LoL, i cant belive i forgot to run MSCONFIG! ....will try that when i get home this avo.

Yer im kinda leaning towards something to do with the graphics card as it does run in safe mode, so the card prob isnt stuffed.

Although, as the drivers arent running in safe mode hence the card isnt running at full speed so it wouldnt overheat either..... :s

Also, please read the edit's in my initial post

[khunjeng]

change the video card - your running a 7950 GX2 graphics card pretty nice card back in the days.

What model M/B are you running...try onboard vid to test out whats going on.

Use on board, if ok change the card first to another PCIE as I assume the GX2 is PCIE to narrow down the source of the issue. Most likely to be the card itself.

I recently had a brand new 8800 Ultra go dodge for my new Media Centre PC at home (it happens)

[eMsta]

i hate computers

all my desktops were passed down from my brother to me. The day i get delivery of it, it starts going crap. Ends up with me usually hitting the computer a few times.......

[Legumis]

ok, I read your edit.

If Windows says your video driver is toast, then it probably is. Even if it isn't actually toast, Windows thinks it is which will cause it to crash. This would explain why its able to boot in safe without crashing (Windows won't be loading the nVidia driver, just a basic one).

Easy fix though. Boot in safe and uninstall the nVidia drivers. The best place to do this would be Add/Remove programs (if the drivers were installed with some sort of nVidia video management package). If nothing is in Add/Remove, fire up Device Manager and uninstall the 'Display Adapter' drivers (just right-click the device and choose Uninstall from the list). You'll probably need to reboot at this point.

From here, you could probably survive a normal boot and reinstall your video drivers. I'd do it from the CD that came with the card, if you still have it, then update them first chance you get from: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

Other than that, you could try Omega drivers. They're better on ATi cards that nVidia ones, but you'll get a little more functionality and customisation from your card (the ATi driver lets you literally set your BUS, GPU and memory speeds, for example). Omega can be downloaded from http://www.omegadrivers.net/

Also, maybe update your mainboard drivers while you're at it.

Edited April 11, 2008 by Legumis

[R34NRG]

it sounds like its a cooling issue to me

its got nothing to do with connections, if its booting up porperly and just shutting down it deifnetly sounds like a cooling issue of some sort.

all CPUs these days have a shutdown temp when it reaches extreme heats and GFX cards aswell. try getting a big glass (like the ones at the movies) and chuck a bunch of ice in it and sit it next to your fan that feeds the CPU. (even better take off the side of the case and let it feed maximum air in. although this might be hot air the ice water should help it alot.

im 80% sure this will let it run.

if it does it means ur computer is overheating and shutting itsself down to prevent more damage.

it also explains why u only can get in by safe mode cuz it uses minimum resources.

i would try this before u uninstall any drivers u may have.

Edited April 12, 2008 by R34NRG

[some_cs_student]

if it does it means ur computer is overheating and shutting itsself down to prevent more damage.

Definitely a possibility, I would agree with the above post. There is an easy way to test these theories.

Get something like the 911 rescue CD or the ultimate boot CD (windows off a disk, just like knoppix is for linux). Or Memtest86, something that will cause some stress, run it.

Or run a linux distro off a CD and see if it gets shutdown.

Does it shutdown? Then its doesn't sound like a software issue...

Also could you elaborate on the problem? Does it physically power off or reset? (I had this with the Power Supply).

Does it reset / freeze randomly? I had this with damaged RAM and in one case, damaged motherboard cache (unlikely but possible).

Have you cleaned dust off the motherboard and CPU? Build-up causes excess heat, I've cleaned a computer out and had it working for a while after that

[GTR_STEALTH]

saff cossie

Check all connections to the motherboard and peripherals internally

All connections are intact. There is two DVI connections on the card, and im using a VGA adaptor for the lcd. Tried swapping over to the other DVI with no difference.

Legumis

Click Start>Run... and type MSCONFIG

Click the Startup tab and untick everything.

Reboot in normal mode and see what happens.

When i loaded normally The screen went all funny.

Desktop picture was broken and the icons were 'cutting' into the background.

Screen became blue (not BSOD) with colored lines going vertically in a random fashion.

Legumis

If it still fails, reboot in Safe then:

Click Start>Run... and type SFC /SCANNOW

Then reboot again in normal.

A screen popped up for a 1/1000th of a sec and nothing.

Went to dos, typed switch and came back with error -Could not initiate scan of protected files. Specific error code 0x000006ba [The RPC server is unavailable]

R34NRG

deifnetly sounds like a cooling issue of some sort.

Thats what i've been thinking although testing the temp on the heatsink in Normal and Safe mode, and temps seem to be consistent in both modes.

R34NRG

and chuck a bunch of ice in it and sit it next to your fan that feeds the CPU. (even better take off the side of the case and let it feed maximum air in

The amount of fans i got on this computer would be enough to make it fly if i pointed em all in the same direction! lmao!!! But to be sure, the other day i sat the tower on its side, grabbed the the room fan (20inch fan), and lay the fan directly ontop of it. Temps on the GBU fell by over 10C but it was still playing funny games!

some_cs_student

Also could you elaborate on the problem? Does it physically power off or reset? (I had this with the Power Supply).

After the screen has its hissy fit, the screen turns off for about 5-10sec (although the times are not always consistent, it has on occasion just hang), then the computer just resets. Doesnt actually shut down.

Some_cs_student

Have you cleaned dust off the motherboard and CPU? Build-up causes excess heat, I've cleaned a computer out and had it working for a while after that

Everything inside is quite clean. The other day i pulled the card off to look closer at the heat sink and fan, and it seems reasonably good. There was a very, slight amount of dust, but nothing that would seem detrimental.

Legumis

Boot in safe and uninstall the nVidia drivers.

Completely removing it and re-installing the card from scratch is probably gonna be my next port of call. I'll wait a day or two for other peoples suggestions, but the way its going it looks like i'll have to.

Either that or i go for the brand new 9800 GX2.....

mmmmmmm more powa!

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys

/geek mode

[R34NRG]

The amount of fans i got on this computer would be enough to make it fly if i pointed em all in the same direction! lmao!!! But to be sure, the other day i sat the tower on its side, grabbed the the room fan (20inch fan), and lay the fan directly ontop of it. Temps on the GBU fell by over 10C but it was still playing funny games!

fans a great but if ur room temp is at 50c its not gonna do that much.

honestly try the ice thing, its defiently worth it

[VSPEC-33]

It sound like it could be quite a few things , heres a few things from my experience....

first up i'd try different drivers, if that doesnt change anything then

swap the video card with a test one, just a basic plain jane card and see if the problems gone. if you dont have one just buy a $30 one rather than rushing out and buying a new 9800. I'd be kicking myself if that didnt end up being the problem,money that didnt need to be spent.

after that id start swapping out parts one piece at a time until your problem disappears.

I've had a couple of pc's that used to reboot by themselves. The first one had faulty ram, pita to diagnose..... the other, the plastic mounting lug that holds down the cpu heatsink mysteriously broke, cpu and heatsink not seated so it would hi temp and reboot.

Anyways, good luck mate

[BRUNSKIGTST]

either ur cpu might be gone or u need new mother board sounds like i had same problem last year when i upgraded bought a faulty motherboard did exactly same thing screen b;ank and then reboot or shut down blah blah , got new motherboard and cpu and fine

also try with different ram as well befor you buy new mother board could be that as well if u dont think it is graphics card, if all else fails i can ask my friend tmz but he might say one of those things also,

so......

1st , try different ram

2nd , motherboard - cpu. search on google of the type of motherboard you got and find out all the faults and do that with ur graphics card

3rd give up get everything new

oh one more thing its a 4th one you should do but do it first backup and format if u havent done it firstly

Edited April 12, 2008 by BRUNSKIGTST

[GTR_STEALTH]

fans a great but if ur room temp is at 50c its not gonna do that much.

honestly try the ice thing, its defiently worth it

Nah i doubt its a cooling issue. Room temps of 20C, it hasnt been hot the last few weeks and i havent used the heater yet. Plus, I had the 20inch fan sitting right ontop of it at full speed. The temps dropped by 10C and it was still doing the same thing. If it is a heat related issue, then the card would've already sustained heat damage; so even if i dropped in an aircon it wouldnt make a difference.

I might stop off at the Collingwood swap meet with my card and see if i can get the hardware tested for free. But i'll attempt the re-install the card tomorrow, so im still up for suggestions till then.......

[Legumis]

when in safe mode (or running normal WITHOUT video drivers) you'll be defaulted to 640x480, 8-bit, which looks exactly as you described it: busted picture and large, distorted icon placement. This is normal under this situation.

SFC (Sys File Checker) should have worked from the Run line but you may have to run it from CMD if and when you get the chance. That way you'll see what errors come up. When running from Run... , if an error occurs (or the command halts for any reason) you'll never see it as it blinks up so fast then closes.

If the driver reinstall still doesn't fix, then you may simply have a screwed card OR the problem is unrelated.

The last time one of my PC's had this type of problem (continual BSOD and reboots), the RAM was completely fragged. It showed up as errors for other systems though (first the sound got distorted, then video). I only figured out it was the RAM when my Windows reinstall went through normally (or appeared to be normal) but several files were never installed due to them being dropped by RAM. Checked the RAM, every single block was dead. How the PC even started was a mystery.

[GTR_STEALTH]

Legumis

when in safe mode (or running normal WITHOUT video drivers) you'll be defaulted to 640x480, 8-bit, which looks exactly as you described it: busted picture and large, distorted icon placement. This is normal under this situation.

SFC (Sys File Checker) should have worked from the Run line but you may have to run it from CMD if and when you get the chance. That way you'll see what errors come up. When running from Run... , if an error occurs (or the command halts for any reason) you'll never see it as it blinks up so fast then closes.

No No, the picture was different. It was actually 'cutting' into the desktop picture. It wasnt the resize as i know what it looks like.

Yer thats what i meant by dos, i ran cmd. Error was -Could not initiate scan of protected files. Specific error code 0x000006ba [The RPC server is unavailable]

[GTR_STEALTH]

Just tried from scratch now....

Uninstalled everything and re-installed using supplied cd's. Got about 3/4 through the installation, it seemed to try adjust the display setting to a higher resolution and went blank.

Looks like i'll be going for the new 9800 GX2 @ approx $750!

...but its got more powaaa!!!!!!!

[Legumis]

and just hope it ain't the ram

[Equinox]

Sounds like faulty/overheating Graphics Card RAM. Had this happen to a couple of machines.

Swap in a new graphics card and see what happens. I'd be inclined to check your system RAM as well (Run Memtestx86), but when I read the vertical blue lines you described, they sound exactly like the symptoms of faulty GFX RAM.

Oh and if you're prepared to chuck a graphics card that expensive in, definitely invest in some more system RAM. 1GB is way too little these days. (Unless you're running a really light Linux Distro or something) 2GB minimum. I'd go for 4GB because it's just so damn cheap. Nothing worse than swap-file hard drive thrashing.

Edited April 13, 2008 by Equinox