Help My Computer Died

[dontplay]

ok first of all sorry if this is in the wrong section but i wasnt sure where to put it. I guess i should start buy telling you what my setup is becuase its not the one in the sig. I have or had :( a shuttle sb75g2, intel p4 2.6 800 fsb, nvidia fx 5600, and a gig of kingston hyperX ddr 400. the comp had been running at 3.2 ghz @ 1ghz fsb using the setting for ram multipliyer at 320 ( not sure is that is 100% correct )
Recently ive been starting to have problems where if i alt-tabbed out of counter strike maybe one out of 5 times when i came back the computer would just freeze with a black screen and I would have to restart. Then even more recently when using internet explorer the video card fan would turn on andthe computer would start to lag horribly and the mouise would move very slow. Now before it would go back to normal in a few seconds but the last time it did it for maybe 5 minutes so i decided to restart.
When I restarted the computer booted up and right when it got to the windows loading screen with the little bar it went to a blue screen that said something along the lines of : Windows has had an error = something about irq ports. this may be due to a recent hardware or driver change restart your computer etc etc. Now if i try to reformat it does the same thing so now im basically without my baby. Oh and also smoetimes when booting up at the boot screen it says invalid cmos checksum or something along those lines. IF ANYONE CAN HELP I WILL LOVE THEM FOREVER BECAUSE I REALLY CANT AFFORD A NEW COMPUTER RIGHT NOW.
thanks in advance -
Owen

[Jognt]

Have you tried restoring all the settings to stock?
Just to get things straight:
P4 2.6 @ 250mhz fsb
pc3200 @ ???mhz

what are the temps like, does everything work like normal if you restore it to stock settings?

[hafa]

The CMOS checksum error leads me to look towards your bios. Check the BIOS battery with a multimeter and make sure that it is within .5V of the rated voltage. Then, as Jognt suggested, set all bios setting to stock and see how your system behaves. If it still acts up, you may even want to flash the bios, as it could have gotten corrupted.

The bios thing failing, I would look at your video card. See if you can beg/borrow an el-cheapo card and pop it in. No need to play counter strike, just make sure that Windows can boot and you can use explorer, etc. If so, that would indicate a problem with your video card.

[@md0Cer]

Originally posted by dontplay
ok first of all sorry if this is in the wrong section but i wasnt sure where to put it. I guess i should start buy telling you what my setup is becuase its not the one in the sig. I have or had :( a shuttle sb75g2, intel p4 2.6 800 fsb, nvidia fx 5600, and a gig of kingston hyperX ddr 400. the comp had been running at 3.2 ghz @ 1ghz fsb using the setting for ram multipliyer at 320 ( not sure is that is 100% correct )
Recently ive been starting to have problems where if i alt-tabbed out of counter strike maybe one out of 5 times when i came back the computer would just freeze with a black screen and I would have to restart. Then even more recently when using internet explorer the video card fan would turn on andthe computer would start to lag horribly and the mouise would move very slow. Now before it would go back to normal in a few seconds but the last time it did it for maybe 5 minutes so i decided to restart.
When I restarted the computer booted up and right when it got to the windows loading screen with the little bar it went to a blue screen that said something along the lines of : Windows has had an error = something about irq ports. this may be due to a recent hardware or driver change restart your computer etc etc. Now if i try to reformat it does the same thing so now im basically without my baby. Oh and also smoetimes when booting up at the boot screen it says invalid cmos checksum or something along those lines. IF ANYONE CAN HELP I WILL LOVE THEM FOREVER BECAUSE I REALLY CANT AFFORD A NEW COMPUTER RIGHT NOW.
thanks in advance -
Owen

Haha...no nead to love me forever, I am glad to try and help you.

When reading your problem, the first think that came to my head is temps. What are your temps at? It seems here that when you alt tab out of counter strike, after it has been on, it eventually misbehaves. Most games, including counterstrike run my cpu at 100percent. I am thinking that what is happening is that your CPU temperatures are rising above normal and causing stability problems. Also, to explain the extreme slowness or lag, my theory is that the temps cause the CPU's thermal throttling to kick in and bring your CPU to a much lower speed.

Is your heatsink attached correctly? Do you have any fans that are dead?

Try going into the bios and telling it to load defaults, or just clear your CMOS jumper. PM or AIM me if you have any questions on doing that.

Also, post back with your temps.

As for the IRQ ports, I had a similar thing happen, once of my PCI cards was kindof halfway in and creating a bunch of IRQ troubles. Try taking your cards and make sure the gold contacts on the bottom that fit into the PCI/AGP socket are relatively clean. Then insert the cards back in to make sure. Setting default settings should set the IRQ settings back to normal.

Good Luck!
-0cer
:cool:

[Ceylon]

A intel system never dies...! :)

[Cyrix_2k]

Could this be SNDS (Sudden Northwood death syndrome)? It kinda sounds like it to me, but then again I'm not an Intel guy.

Could you try and lower your OC and see if the problem goes away?

[The Dud]

Originally posted by Ceylon
A intel system never dies...! :)
Never dies eah? Two died on me! AMD AMD!

I am sorry about what hapened to your system don't play.

[stan03]

what voltages where you using? SNDS is usually like if you run it at 1.8 volts

[sandman001]

this same thing happened to me when I pushed my ram too far. It also corrupted my hard-drive.

Try backing off the ram, or giving it more volts.

[dontplay]

the computer temps were about 45c under load maybe hitting 50c with like prime95. one more thing to note is that when the computer eventually failed it made a horrible screeching sound through the speakers.. the thing that holds in the battery is also a bit bent. dunno if any of that is relevent. Oh yeah and the computer doesnt boot at any speed with pretty much any voltage.

[stan03]

battery? on the mobo?

[I.M.O.G.]

CMOS battery clip bent... That doesn't mean anything though because even without it in the PC will boot. Just may not remember bios settings from one boot to the next if the battery isn't working. For now, he could probably even take out the battery altogether.

Disconnect everything except the mobo, PSU, and system speaker and turn it on. See if you get any error code. (Do you have a system speaker connected correctly?) He should be able to get to bios POST without a CPU shouldn't he?

Strip the system down to the bare necessities... remove any PCI sound/network/controller cards and optical drives, only connect the PSU, vid card, and one HDD. With just the essentials connected, connect only the CPU fan to the mobo header and do not run any other fans, leaving the side of your case open. See what happens.

How many spare parts do you have on hand? If you have an alternate mobo, PSU, VC, or HDD this might not hurt either as it will eliminate faulty variables. Let us know because if the thing isn't dead as a doornail they might be handy.

[f012t12]

where would the battery be?

Tried searching for diagrams. I think I'm having a very similiar problem.


nvm, i see it.

But how would i unplug it?


looks pretty snug in there.

oh, nvm, didn't see the small clip. Just moved it back and it popped out.

Hope it works to clear the CMOS by removing the battery for 30 seconds.

[sandman001]

if it made some wierd noise, I'd suspect the psu. Do you have another one to try out.

[I.M.O.G.]

That's what I was guessing also... Probably the cheapest part too.

Thats why I wanted him to see what happened if he just had it and the mobo connected with the system speaker - I think he should get a beep code which means no CPU detected. If not, the PSU is likely bad.

[Xplos!ve]

im having the same problem like wen i open a folder my pc crashes but about 10 secs later itg finally opens it and my curser is also slow to move accross the screen and i have also had that blue screen message cant remember wot it said but it said "blah blah blah beggining to dump physical memory" then a counter started counting up from 0. i have done a format but its still doing it?? i am currently using every molex on my psu and my psu is 450w. do u think its this?? i have athlon 2600 dvd and cdrw 1 hdd 9700pro 4 led fans and a couple of ordianry fans and gigabyte nforce2 and 512mb ram and a creative sound blaster 5.1.

i am not overclcoked and never have been my temps are 42 idle and 46 load

*edit i have the psu in my avatar 450w

[dontplay]

i dont have any spare parts except a psu unfortunatly its gonna be kinda hard to rig it up since the computer is a sff shuttle. Ill let you guys know how it goes and thanks for the help.

[Mr.Radar]

Xplos!ve, what brand of PSU is it?

[Xplos!ve]

erm its a Ez Cool also btw when i boot up it gets past the winodws xp pro loading but from there to the welcome note i have a black screen for about a minute this has also starteted happening the same time as everything else i think there aint enought power to go round?? i mite try to unplug all excess fans and see how it goes ill keep u posted on it

[Xplos!ve]

ok i unplugged s4 fans but its still doing it althought not as bad but ive always had these fans plugged in and its never done it be4

[Xplos!ve]

bump

[Mr.Radar]

I'd say that your PSU is dying. I'd replace it with a good brand of PSU like Antec or Fortron/Sparkle. I also think that Directron sells PSU window modding kits so you won't loose any of the cool looks.

[Xplos!ve]

i dunno, its been fine upto now and my old 300w cud handle it without any of the case fans and this one is 450w even if its a bad brand like my 300w it should be able to cope with it.

like some1 else sed earlier in post it mite be a corrupted HDD and i think it is coz wen i reformatted the other day i formatted about 10 times and quit half way through some of those coz i was trying to install XP pro and Home and it all messed up althought i was trying to upgrade so that mite be the prob

[Mr.Radar]

I'm still leaning twords a bad PSU. Bad PSUs can corrupt/destroy (i.e. ruin the circuitry/magnetic platters) an HD. And you did say that the problems got a little better when you unplugged some fans. Besides, you could always return the PSU if it isn't that.