My PC has been given me problems and unlike normal faults I cannot pinpoint it to one item.

PC Configuration – all equipment about 6 months old.

Windows XP Pro – fully patched.
Antec P180 case
Intel core 2 duo e6600 conroe cpu
Corsair 2gb dd2 XMS2 Twin X
WD 320GB Caviar (for data)
WD 150GB Raptor (for OS) – both using WB secure SATA
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7
Sony DVD-rw and rom
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
Antec Truepower Trio 550W
Connect 3D ATI Radeon X1950XT-X silent heatpipe 512mb

Storyline.

Been away for two weeks – always remove the HD’s and place them away from the PC for security.

Get back home, plug the drives in and no boot drive found – after running fixboot – all working normally. – Could be unrelated.

About a week later the PC just dies – just as though someone has flicked the power switch. At the time I was gaming (BF2). The PC would not reboot. No graphics (no bios showing) – Tried a few things but eventually turning the Power supply off and back on again, the bios showed. Then it would not recognise the master drive. When it did then it would not boot into windows. Eventually it booted into safe mode and then would boot into windows.

Did some investigate – found the HD’s had overheated due to the fans not being on. Sorted that out and made sure the HD’s run cool (and still do). Thought that was the problem and put the PC back together.

Ran for 24hrs, then it did it again – this time I was watching a movie. Again just like it had been turned off and on. And no reboot until I flicked the power supply.

Thinking it was the HD I removed the pair, rebuilt onto a spare sata drive and ran with this. A day later it does it again (whilst gaming)

Sometimes when its booting the screens do no show colours, or splits the screens or flashes colours (blue and red) this happens in bios and windows so is not drivers.
See ….

http://www.dartmin.co.uk/Images/PCProblems-m1.avi
http://www.dartmin.co.uk/Images/PCProblems-m2.avi

With different issues and sometimes it hangs in different places
See …



So ran both Prime95 and memtest for 12hrs – Neither caused or reported errors

Moved back onto the original HD’s

Problem occurred again whilst gaming !

Thought about reducing the video memory speed (even though I am not seeing GPU recoveries). Changing the memory by 1 or 2 mhz up or down will cause a reboot about 20% of the time. Or caused a glitch on screen
See

(see the line in the middle of the screen)



So now I am at the stage of
Normally work – no issues
Gaming – I may or may not get the fault.

If it reboots the bios will not show until the power supply it cycled.

Sometimes windows will not boot – it hangs at the windows logos (the status bar still moving but will not load) 4/5 reboots and it goes in.

I still get the graphics glitches.

I am now looking at 1 of 3 items.

1. Graphics card, due to it being graphics related and my performance is cr4p

But I have run ati tool benchmark and check for artefacts and it does not happen.
And connect3d support are not sure.
2. PSU – is it blipping
But I have check voltages in asus probe and do not see any
3. Motherboard – is it the root of all evil


HELP

All items can be RMA’d to the same supplier and I will buy a new item to swap out and try but do not want to buy all 3 if I can help it. But if I cannot replicate the fault I am concerned that the test for RMA may say there is not prob.

Because it is intermittent I don’t want to have too much chaos

So if is the PSU I will buy the corsair 620w
Video I would buy a spare x1650xt to make do
And the mb – would be another (non asus) 775 board but I would get another case for it to build it independent (and I hate swapping CPU’s)

Any other suggestions for tests I can do!

I have may of missed things – so if I say done it - sorry

 

I think it's likely to be: (In order of likelyness)

- Heat related (most like CPU / RAM / Graphics) Modern sata disks don't usuallt get hot enough to be a problem.
- Power supply issues.
- Memory issues.
- Hard drive with swap drive failing

Solutions:

- Clean & visually inspect CPU/GFX/RAM check temps when gaming
- Beg / borrow a replacement PSU to test.
- download memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) and run it over night
- Check for latest BIOS & SATA drivers
- Download the WD drive testing software & run

 

After re-reading, could be memory on gfx also. Don't know how to test this.

And get latest GFX drivers etc

 

Agree - wondering if it heat related to one of the mb chipsets ?

all blow cleaned and check for bulges - temps monitoring and ok when gaming.

will buy PSU if needed

done - ran for 12 hrs

bios updated - drivers updated - but happens outside of windows

WD lifeguard tools and diags ran - no issues returned

I am looking for tools like prime and memtest for the gfx memory

Thanks for the ideas

 

before you buy a new PSU , try removing all the components out of the case and set it up on a wooden table.

This will just check for any shorts that might be thermal expansion related.

 

Two thoughts - I strongly think it will be PSU related. This can throw up all sorts of spurious errors.

Secondly, knowing your.. erm... prediliction for turning the air blue when things don't go *quite* according to plan; just how bad was it?

 

bluer than a blue thing on a blue day in a blue car wearing blue clothes !