Rather serious computer tech issue ((Tech types please help!))

[Drazzil]

Okay, heres the thing. I bought a brand new duo core system running windows vista about eight months ago, In that eight months I seem to have constant problems with it.

First thing that happened with it is that it seemed to be dead on arrival. No video feed what so ever. No monitors would work with it. I shipped it back to the guy and we were never able to find out the problem with it.

About four months ago I started to get other sorts of problems with it.

About four months back, I would have problems with the computer freezing up. It would just hard lock. Upon reset, the computer would say something either along the lines of "disk read error" or "error loading windows". Other times It said there was an error in loading a Windows file and windows was corrupt.

At first I thought this was a problem with Windows, so I formatted and reinstalled windows. I somehow got the computer to recognise that it had a disk drive and load windows off the CD. This however didnt fix the problem. So I take it down to a computer shop and they diagnose a bad motherboard. They replace the motherboard and everything seems to be fine.

Fast forward four months. I am having the exact same type of problems with the computer. The computer has crashed three times. Once I got a blue screen error and had to restart. Just today the computer locked up and said there was a corruption in a windows vista file, and I had to reload windows off the disk, only it wouldnt recognise the disk.

I take it down to the computer shop and it seems to work fine. And here I am, wondering what happened with my computer. One small note to this whole story is that when I started getting "disk read errors" at first, I was able to fiddle with the wiring and get it to work, but if it were a wiring issue, then I wouldn't get the "corrupted windows file" message error before. I am LOST!

Here are the specs:

PSU: 700 Watt OCZ Gamestream
Motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.4 GHZ
RAM: 4 GB (2X2GB) DDR800 (PC26400) G Skill
Video Card: eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS, 640 MB DirectX10
Hard Drive: 400GB WesternDigital SATA 3GB/sec
Optical Device #1: Liteon 20x LightScribe
Optical Device #2: LG DvD ROM
Monitor: Samsung 19 Inch 4ms DVI Widescreen
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit

[replicant_argent]

sounds like a warranty issue to me....



shrugs.
Hope you get it sorted, mate.

[kvm]

Originally Posted by replicant_argent

sounds like a warranty issue to me....



shrugs.
Hope you get it sorted, mate.

If it worked ok for 4 months after replacing the motherboard the new board may be bad. Otherwise it sounds like a bad hd. When you say it wouldn't recognize the disk do you mean the cd or the hd?

[cman78]

UGHHH ASUS I hate their RMA and customer service departments.

Two things first go here http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp and type in the model of your hard drive their should be a diagnostic tool you can download that will boot from a floppy or cd and run some pretty extensive tests on the hd to see if it is good.

Second go here http://www.memtest86.com/download.html and download the Download - Memtest86 v3.3 ISO image (zip) and burn it to a floppy or cd. This will boot into a memtest utility and run extensive tests on your memory.

I have gotten so many bad sticks of memory lately memtest has become one of my first steps in troubleshooting pc's anymore.

Try that and let us know what the results are.

[gvarsity]

Could be a hard drive problem. It also could be a heat issue. If it the computer in an enclosed place or the fans are not working right or there are enough fans for the heat output. Good luck.

[cman78]

Originally Posted by gvarsity

Could be a hard drive problem. It also could be a heat issue. If it the computer in an enclosed place or the fans are not working right or there are enough fans for the heat output. Good luck.

good pick up! I forgot about that. When I bought a Pentium D when they first came out I had to put a Zallman fan on it to keep it cool in a case. Try running it with the side of the case of for a while and see if the problem persists also.

[JCK]

Originally Posted by cman78

UGHHH ASUS I hate their RMA and customer service departments.

Two things first go here http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp and type in the model of your hard drive their should be a diagnostic tool you can download that will boot from a floppy or cd and run some pretty extensive tests on the hd to see if it is good.

Second go here http://www.memtest86.com/download.html and download the Download - Memtest86 v3.3 ISO image (zip) and burn it to a floppy or cd. This will boot into a memtest utility and run extensive tests on your memory.

I have gotten so many bad sticks of memory lately memtest has become one of my first steps in troubleshooting pc's anymore.

Try that and let us know what the results are.

Originally Posted by gvarsity

Could be a hard drive problem. It also could be a heat issue. If it the computer in an enclosed place or the fans are not working right or there are enough fans for the heat output. Good luck.

Sounds like solid advice and a great place to start. I'd add possibly checking for firmware releases on the MB and HDD.

[Drazzil]

Originally Posted by cman78

good pick up! I forgot about that. When I bought a Pentium D when they first came out I had to put a Zallman fan on it to keep it cool in a case. Try running it with the side of the case of for a while and see if the problem persists also.

Okay, heres the trouble. Bios says my CPU is running at 125 degrees within two minutes of booting, and it starts at 100 degrees on cold start .
Not only that, I downloaded speedfan a hardware monitoring and it says my CPU temp is fine, but Aux 1 is running between 120 and 125 degrees. Somethings off here. I have stock cooling for my intel processor. Something is not right here. Any suggestions?

[Infin1ty]

My suggestion would be to go out and get a new HDD and motherboard (just make sure you get the same mobo you have now.) After doing that, I would suggest making at least 2 partitions on your Hard Drive, put windows on one and use the other one for everything else. That way if you get a windows corrupt error, you can just reinstall windows without loosing any of your information.

One more suggestion would be to get more than one hard drive. Instead of just 1 400 GB, go with 2 200, or even 2 250 GB HDD.

If you need anything else let me know.

[Infin1ty]

Originally Posted by Drazzil

Okay, heres the trouble. Bios says my CPU is running at 125 degrees within two minutes of booting, and it starts at 100 degrees on cold start .
Not only that, I downloaded speedfan a hardware monitoring and it says my CPU temp is fine, but Aux 1 is running between 120 and 125 degrees. Somethings off here. I have stock cooling for my intel processor. Something is not right here. Any suggestions?

Make sure the heatsink is seated correctly, also did you use thermal paste when you put on the headsink?

Also, is that 120 degrees C of F? Because if its 120 C, your CPU is going to fry.

[SeanGAR]

Originally Posted by Infin1ty

Make sure the heatsink is seated correctly, also did you use thermal paste when you put on the headsink?

Also, is that 120 degrees C of F? Because if its 120 C, your CPU is going to fry.

What he said.

Speedfan gives me temps in C not F. 100-120C will fry your chip pronto, anything over 60 is looking for trouble IMHO.

See post No. 6 here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=116132

and this

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/143/5

If you're reporting temps in °F you're OK. Something else is causing problems.

[cman78]

Originally Posted by Infin1ty

Make sure the heatsink is seated correctly, also did you use thermal paste when you put on the headsink?

Also, is that 120 degrees C of F? Because if its 120 C, your CPU is going to fry.

right on.

Here is the kind of fan I have on all my E6600s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118115
Also what kind of case do you have. Here is what I use.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129024

Newegg doesn't have bad pricing on them either.

[Infin1ty]

If you did not use Thermal paste, regardless if the temps your reporting are in F, you should order some Artic Silver 4 Thermal Compound. You will have to remove the heatsink and apply a few dabbs of the compound and them reapply the heatsink. Trust me this stuff works wonders!

Generally though, when your CPU is over heating, it will cause the PC to just shut-down, not just lock up.

[moviewithnotitle]

I have to back what cman78 said on the Memory issue. When you begin to add multiple sticks of memory, you increase the curve for things going wrong similar to the original description. Up until now, It was mostly servers and big workstations that would need or require more then 2Gb of RAM. Yes many gamers have more, but for the most part the average user had 512mb-2Gb for a XP installation. With Vista, you need a lot of RAM to run the OS in a stable productive manner.

We don't build out Vista machines here at work with less then 4Gb of Memory. My machine was specked as a Quad-Core with 8Gb RAM. Out of the box it ran great, but shortly after (2 months) I developed a similar issue as Drazzil described. Careful diagnosis determined that a Memory stick was the problem child. Before I got to this point, I had reinstalled the OS 4 times, tried 2 different SATA drives and put the machine though a verbal hazing that would have impressed the drill-sergeant from Full Metal Jacket!
Once the Memory stick was removed, everything ran fine. Re-installations on all drives worked great, and the system has been stable since, albeit with only 6Gb of RAM. (on a personal note, I still dislike Vista...and revert back to my XP and Linux machines often during a regular workday...but that is another story)

[simon81]

the 64 bit vista might be the problem but ive had my new computer for all of 16 houres now and it refuses to run my games with vista so im getting rid of it and going back to XP and i suggest you do the same vista is a lode of utter sh*t