Could MY P4 Be..... DYING

Ive had my p4 for about a year now and it has not exactly had an easy life. I make my p4 slave away crunching seti 24/7 and have been doing so for i don't know how long. maybe puffy could figure it out.

by the way puffy is getting a new rig xp1700 or 1800 (not sure)

well my computer only has about 90% uptime and a lot of disasterous things have happened to it.

here's the list.... chronologlicly

for a bout 2 months my computer has been exposed to disasterous power blips from a brown rusty transformer
sometimes there where power surges and othertimes power shortages.(i had a surge protector but it diden't stop the shortages)

well about a month after the transformer was replaced there was a massive blackout because of a storm and my computer just died but it worked part of the time but never booted JUST BEEPED. after finding out that the powersupply was shot and managing to enter the bios i discovered that some of my voltages where off and the 12v was only dooin like 9v and the 5v was dooin 4v and the cpu voltage was down also (no wonder why the computer wouldent boot). so i replaced the power supply and with just a little tweeking everything was back to normal.

my computer has also been messed with by little 4 yearolds that like to push (and hold for 4 seconds) power buttons

and then the heat waves hit and my fan couldent cool fast enoughf it was dooin 40c mid march. so i upgraded it to one thats a little bit better and now its dooin 33c at night and 40c during the peak of the day.

and now my computer is showing signs of weakening...

a couple of BSOD's (blue screen of death)
games freezing up with no error message
windowsxp sometimes refuses to boot ie the computer locks up
and sometimes my applications sssssllllloooowww down and then lock up
sometimes my graphics are messed up
sometimes it takes forever to load applications

and yes ive allready used system restore to restore to a point when my computer was runnin SPIFFY


any sugguestions could help cause i don't want my cruncher to die

Jeremy

Forget system restore - back up your data and wipe that system clean and start from scratch. Sounds to me like it's corrupted from so many improper shutdowns.

I second that, sounds like it's time to do a fresh install of the OS and start over.

Thats a 40 gig hardrive with 30 gigs used 2 gig music 1 gig graphics 6 gigs anmiation and maybe 20 gigs for games and the rest other stuff so a backup would take about 10 gigs which would be about 15 cd's at 7 min a cd it would take ONLY 1.75 hours to back up the data and then 1 hr to wipe harddrive and install xp and then another 1.5 hrs installing software and 45 min restoring the backed up data so it would take i estimate 5 hrs to redo everything......................THATS TOO MUCH WORK I THINK I'LL JUST WIPE EVERYTHING WITHOUT BACKING UP.


BUT I STILL THINK ITS A HARDWARE PROBLEM!

Well if it's hardware it's not anything obvious - so that means you can start changing out one part at a time until it's brand new. You might start with the ram - that can cause bsod's.

you mentioned your games and graphics messed up or froze. You might want to take a look at your graphics card, to see if it's working properly.

ozzlo said:

Thats a 40 gig hardrive with 30 gigs used 2 gig music 1 gig graphics 6 gigs anmiation and maybe 20 gigs for games and the rest other stuff so a backup would take about 10 gigs which would be about 15 cd's at 7 min a cd it would take ONLY 1.75 hours to back up the data and then 1 hr to wipe harddrive and install xp and then another 1.5 hrs installing software and 45 min restoring the backed up data so it would take i estimate 5 hrs to redo everything......................THATS TOO MUCH WORK I THINK I'LL JUST WIPE EVERYTHING WITHOUT BACKING UP.


BUT I STILL THINK ITS A HARDWARE PROBLEM!

Click to expand...

Before you go and replace everything in your rig let me tell you a fresh install of windows (including format and if needed a low level format) might seem like a PITA but more often than not it can remove the problems. Windows is a crancky ol' vitch, some a refreshing will work out all problems.

Try it (even if you don't backup all your stuff) and if the problem persist then began changing your hardware.....starting with your memory.

I hope its just to os cause ive spent all my remaning computer funds on the xp which also has vid prob but i think thats because i only got win 95 installed on it and i can't find win98 disc

is it legeal to put xp on another computer if i own it and will probbally be using it on a regular basis?

Well, the only way that you would be allowed to put XP on your new system would be to erase it off of your P4. If you didn't, you'd basically have two copies of Windows for the price of one. So hopefully you don't mind 98 on one of the machines (once you find the disk)...

I'd also have to agree with the reformat. Windows gets pretty cranky after a while, and a reinstall will usually do the trick. And if it is a hardware problem, you'd still spend a few hours trying to find the cause.

One last thing. As a solution to the power button hungry children, I'd suggest unhooking the power button from the mobo. Windows (98 at least) will automatically shut off the computer when you hit shut down, so you don't need the power button for that, and you should be able to just unhook it again after turning on the computer. Either that, or put in a new switch on the INSIDE of your case, so the outside switch dosen't work.

Gotta think ahead of those yunnings...
JigPu

Good idea on the Power button JigPu...ozzlo all you really need is a screwdriver to short the power connection for a second to turn it on. and since your on all the time anyways crunching just reboot every few days.

But it sounds like windows is funking out due to the power failures or you got a virus. Try a UPS or a surge protector with a high joule rating to prevent power surges and if you dont have a virusscan try out Norton. There is a 30 free Norton2003 beta that you can download from symantec

And yep its illegal to use the same copy of XP on 2 computers at the same time.

Well, I don't know if it''ll apply to your P4, but I remember reading several cases where the core of an AMD chip was slightly damaged (nick or scratch) and the machine acting fine, except for pictures - completely scrambled. Other systems seemed to slow down for a bit and then pick back up.

You P4 may very well be on its way out.

deez said:

Good idea on the Power button JigPu...ozzlo all you really need is a screwdriver to short the power connection for a second to turn it on. and since your on all the time anyways crunching just reboot every few days.

But it sounds like windows is funking out due to the power failures or you got a virus. Try a UPS or a surge protector with a high joule rating to prevent power surges and if you dont have a virusscan try out Norton. There is a 30 free Norton2003 beta that you can download from symantec

And yep its illegal to use the same copy of XP on 2 computers at the same time.

Click to expand...

Well after the blackout and the ps dying i have recently purchaced an avr so im good there and also i have norton virus scan 2002 that auto updates whenever my computer has internet access.


AND AS FOR YOUR STATEMENT JIGPU
those yungins like to use the switch in the back on the powersupply and they also like the little red button on my avr
ive decided that im gonna put a lock on my door to stop them.

I FIXED IT

i think that i have fixed my computer!!!!!!
it is a theory of mine that has held true so far.
(FEEL FREE TO CHUCKLE AT IT)

well when i took the front pannell off my case i realized that my harddrive had fallen out of its spot. Its in one of those quick release bays where all you have to do is push in on the two tabs and the drive pops out. The harddrive was resting on the cdrom and i have noticed that the problems usually start when the cdrom does like a super spinup or you could call it accelerating quickly to its maximum speed to read data. so i think since the harddrive was resting on the cdrom that the cdrom was giving the harddrive a major shaking well... not major enoughf to do any damage but maybe theres a safty mechanism that the hardrive stops if it gets shaken up alot. i don't know if thats true but its the only thing that can explain it cause since i put the HD back and secured it in place i havent had a single error and i was on it for about 5 1/2 hrs last night.


since all of the down time adds up im gonna be about 30 wu short of my 200 wu dump
BUT next time i should have about 400

oh and my xp is running now and i should have it crunching by saturday