Checkpoint Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Help a poor man, please! I'm having the worst time ever with my computer right now. It started with a hard drive crash a couple of weeks ago. My IDE PATA drive died and I got myself a Western Digital SATA drive instead (I also have a Samsung Spinpoint SATA drive for storage that I bought about three months ago). The SATA drive was surprisingly noisy, sounding like a small propeller plane and entertaining my DVD drive with vibrations that women across the globe would have envied. That's why I thought my Windows freezing problems were because of the hard drive. They weren't. Now, apart from the annoying vibrations, my SATA drive seemed to get on really nice with the rest of the little technical forces of untamed evil disguised as computer hardware connected to my (probably pretty unspectacular) ASRock motherboard. That's until a few days ago, when the computer suddenly just froze during an intense session of NHL Eastside Hockey Manager '07. After this it started freezing more and more frequently until it basically just froze almost immediately after Windows (XP Pro SP2, that is) had started. The problem was present in failsafe mode as well. I tried repairing my Windows installation, but that proved undoable due to an apparently quite famous little full stop (not 'freeze' in the sense I'm talking about, though, where everything just hangs) with 34 minutes left (something to do with USB drives I've been told afterwards). Soon enough even the installation attempts started to freeze. I wiped the drive and went for a clean install this time. No dice. Naturally I blamed my aggravating-all-living-organisms-within-earshot-to-the-brink-of-insanity-with-its-constant-humming SATA drive for the debacle and decided to go for a refund. It was successfully obtained and I got a new Samsung IDE PATA drive (despite asking for a SATA drive, but I only noticed once I got home and figured "what the hell"). I got home and installed Windows onto my new drive and felt jolly good about myself. Then the thing froze. Now, I do remember having a somewhat similar problem in the past that could be solved through a simple BIOS change, but sadly I'm no BIOS wizard and also this problem isn't identical. What puzzles my brain, admittedly limited in comprehending these magics, is that the freezing problems waited two weeks before appearing and then proving ultimately non-related to corrupted Windows installations or broken hard drives. At the same time, can I really blame my motherboard when I've had the problem using both a SATA drive and a IDE PATA drive? Please, any help from people in the know on these things would be greatly appreciated. I'm in danger of going bald from pulling my hair over here. :'( ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taks Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 your mobo is having issues, IMO. i've made many posts to this effect, btw. mobos are probably the most unstable portion of your entire computer. too much relatively unrelated stuff going on on a mobo. taks comrade taks... just because. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkpoint Posted March 21, 2007 Author Share Posted March 21, 2007 I've been thinking of getting a new mobo, but I suppose that means a new processor as well (it's a socket 478 mobo and from what I can gather they're a bit dated). I do need an AGP slot (because I recently bought a GeForce 7600 GS card that I won't be throwing away anytime soon) and I have 1.5GB worth of DDR-RAM that I need to be able to use. I simply don't know what to get or what to do with it once I get it. ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 I suggest you try to get a socket 478 mobo. Perhaps you can find one used. "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkpoint Posted March 21, 2007 Author Share Posted March 21, 2007 The thing is that the mobo *shouldn't* have any issues with these things. That's why I'm thinking a simple change in the BIOS might do the trick and save me the hassle of switching mobos. ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 While I'm no expert, I'd be very surprised if changing some BIOS setting solved all your problems. Try upgrading the BIOS. "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkpoint Posted March 21, 2007 Author Share Posted March 21, 2007 It did work with a similar problem in the past, albeit on another computer. The difference then was that the system froze only when I was playing games (then again, this system worked fine for nearly two weeks and initially only froze in Eastside Hockey Manager, so given more time that system might have started freezing in Windows as well). I don't know what setting it could be, but I wouldn't be surprised if the solution could be that simple. ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkpoint Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 I actually think it might be down to insufficient power supply. I took out a couple of RAM sticks and suddenly everything worked fine. I put in one more and things kept working fine. I installed video drivers. Things stopped working fine. At first I naturally thought my video card had taken damage, but now that I think of it it's been having these issues without the drivers installed, but with three memory sticks in place. Now it starts getting problems with two memory sticks and graphics drivers installed. Any power supply experts out there to help me with my problems? Specs: P4 Celeron 3GHz ASRock P4VT8+ socket 478 mobo 3x 512MB DDR RAM Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SATA HDD (with another one due to be connected once I get this under control) GeForce 7600 GS Some plug-and-play sound card that I kinda like ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 What's your power supply? "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkpoint Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 Yes, sorry, it's 350W. ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyCrimson Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 I'm not an expert, but I had to get a better PS when I bought the ge7800GS. Although in my case, for whatever reasons, the card wouldn't even install w/out upgrading the PS (made a high pitched noise), so I was forced to from the get-go. I had a 350W. I bought a 500W. Inexpert toss: Is it possible there's something wrong with the memory sticks themselves or their connection slots? “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 Yes, sorry, it's 350W. That does seem a bit too weak. Go for a minimum of 400W, but buy a bigger one if you can. Also, as Mrs. Crimson said it's possible there's something wrong with the memory sticks. Combine them in as many different ways as possible to see they or the slots are the problem. "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taks Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 normally, 350W should be ample for your rig, but the question is where that 350W is directed by the supply itself. a lot of that power is on rails that don't need it (often), AND, lesser brands often use peak power as their metric, which does not correspond well to sustained usable power. so your aggregate usable power is probably somewhat less than 350W (which is why i always go with the antec tru-power supplies). the 7600GS could easily be stressing the rail it's on, which may also correspond to some of the the memory power. i've got a system that's probably in the same power range as yours (7900 GS, 1 GB of OCZ, socket 939 3200+ on an A8V mobo, with an audigy sound card and a 250 MB, 10000 rpm SATA and 40 GB PATA drive) with only a 380W supply and it works fine. of course, it's a tru-power supply. taks comrade taks... just because. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkpoint Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 Inexpert toss: Is it possible there's something wrong with the memory sticks themselves or their connection slots? Actually, this is what I found in the motherboard manual (I thought I'd already posted this, must be the forum being sickly earlier today): PC2100 (DDR266) for 3 DDR DIMM slots , Max. 3GB PC2700 (DDR333) for 2 DDR DIMM slots , Max. 2GB PC3200 (DDR400) for 1 DDR DIMM slots , Max. 1GB (bolds by me) I'm not entirely sure how to interpret that, but I understand it as the mobo only being capable of handling one DDR400 stick at a time, and that one can only be at a max of 1GB. I've been using THREE DDR400 sticks at a total of 1.5GB. No wonder it's been unable to sustain that... I didn't build this thing myself; it was just one of those fairly cheap pre-made packages, and I suppose the first things they make cheaper are stuff like mobo and PS, since they don't expect people who buy them to do any upgrading anyway. Well, I did some upgrading recently and it obviously got too much for the heart of the system to keeo up with. ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 That's pretty weird. What does it say on the mobo itself, next to the slots? "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkpoint Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 Dunno. I don't think it says anything, really. All I know is that this piece of information in the manual seems to have gotten me one step closer to a solution. I need to get some new stuff. ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkpoint Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 I have now ordered these little things: CPU Intel Pentium D 820 2.8GHZ 2X1MB Dual Core S-775 Mobo ASRock 775Dual-VSTA PT880PRO S-775 DDR/DDR2 AGP/PCI-E ATX PSU Zalman 460W APS Silent I went with an apparently very good and silent 460W power supply to be on the safe side and in case I wanna upgrade my video card in the future. It was hard finding a mobo that met my very specific requirements, but this one did it reasonably and at a cheap price. Now let's hope these things arrive, I actually manage to put them in, and everything actually WORKS. Pray for your Schmarthilissimo! ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 Good luck! "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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