It's dead...

My rig has had some problems lately. First, I started to experience random reboots by games made by EA. I thought it may be just because I had turned my virtual memory off. So I turn the virtual memory back on and I still get these random reboots while playing these games. These troublesome games where Black and White 2 and BF2. Strangely, Call of Duty UO and Call of Duty 2 ran just fine, but soon after, they had trouble starting. So, I am like okay, what could it be? I check my chipset temperatures. I catch it at 54c right after gaming for an hour. Okay, I thought. I need to take DFI's fan off and put some AS5 on (voltage was at stock). I think this may be the cause of my troubles, but wait, there's more. That was a few days ago. Just for good measure, I ran virus and spy/adware tests. It was clean except for some crap from Java, so I deleted that. Problems still remain. I then re-install my display driver. That helped for about an hour, then it started re-booting again. I am now getting pretty frustrated, so I begin to think that it could be my Ballistix starting to fail on me. I run three complete passes of Memtest and everything checks out. So, I think that something is obviously unstable and it could be possibly overheating (chipset?). I now think that I should turn back all my overclocks. I do exactly that and now the whole machine decides not to start. I does all the stuff at the beginning that it normally does. But when it goes to begin loading windows it just hangs on a completely black screen.

So this is where I ask my fellow OCForums members for advice.

A)Is it my chipset?
B)Did I fry something?
C)Did windows become corrupted?
D)What do you think I should do?

-PWatterson

P.S. Happy Easter to all those who celebrate.

It's definitely not the chipset overheating, since my chipset can get up to 60c on a hot day without causing problems, and the nforce4 chipsets are (supposedly) safe up to 120c. I really don't thnk it's the RAM either, since with this kind of problem, Memtest would definitely error out in under 3 passes.
Maybe try clearing CMOS, then a reinstall of Windows if that doesn't work.

A)Is it my chipset? >Doubt it. It might be a little high for my liking but not over the top. Maybe some better air flow in the case will help.

B)Did I fry something?> The fact that it is booting up, no.

C)Did windows become corrupted? >Possibly. Shoot, just do a format/reinstall and eliminate this possibility. But before you do, run Western Digital's Lifeguard for a check on your hdd's.

D)What do you think I should do? >Check your voltages(12,5) under load, preferrably with a dmm.
Run test 5 or 7 on Memtest for more than 3 passes.
I think I read that there were some problems with some of the ballistics...

There's my input. Have fun.

BTW, I like the info, temp/vcore/vdimm, in your sigs.

You should check out your rails with a DMM and try another video card. I've had that happen when a video card was on it's way out and another time with a crappy PSU.

Did you put in a new video card in recently? That happened to me after putting in a new video card. I never figured out the problem besides putting the old video card back in

OnDborder said:

.

C)Did windows become corrupted? >Possibly. Shoot, just do a format/reinstall and eliminate this possibility. But before you do, run Western Digital's Lifeguard for a check on your hdd's.

Click to expand...

How do I do this? I only see a windows version of the program.

Tebore said:

You should check out your rails with a DMM and try another video card. I've had that happen when a video card was on it's way out and another time with a crappy PSU.

Click to expand...

Where would I get a DMM? Hardware store? My OCZ Powerstream has all green lights on the back though and the BIOS reports that everything is in order. I do not have another video card unfortunately. Should I try things with only one card?

ilikepie said:

Did you put in a new video card in recently? That happened to me after putting in a new video card. I never figured out the problem besides putting the old video card back in

Click to expand...

No, not since the entire rig was built right after Christmas.




Finally, about three or four weeks ago, I tried to overclock my video cards, but I couldn't really get anything stable. I turned the clocks on them back to stock that night. Could that have anything to do with my issues?

I am beginning to think I have corrupted Windows. I have had a few viruses that past couple of weeks, but I thought I took care of them.

What? On the Lifeguard? You can either go to their site and download it or it should have come with the drives.. It's on a floppy, boot to the floppy, and run the disk check on one or both drives.

DMM = Digitial Multimeter.

You can pick up one from any hardware store hell even Walmart.

I asked my dad if he had a DMM and he found an analog multimeter (seen here) . Would it still work? And if so, how do I test my power supply?

Could my rails really be to blame? I know they can be troublesome in computers, but my BIOS reports that they are what they should be. Also, lights on the back of my power supply report that the rails are delivering the right voltages.

DMM's are more accurate I found analog ones can be off by as much as half a volt. I don't know about you but when I tune my rails to 12V I mean 12.00volts and not 12.50 volts.

Well it's an OCZ PSU so it's good and the warning lights are green and the BIOS says it's reasonable so it might very well be another problem.

Well, I am guessing I have corrupted Windows somehow. I'll run that life guard thing just to be safe and then I'll re-format. I was about due anyway.

Have you tried safemode? If it does the same thing then Windows is toast. You still have to find out why windows got toasted tho. Have you tired another video card?

Safemode.... Nutin! I try to boot with safe mode and it just locks up. A bunch of driver files pop on the screen and it just freezes. I am going to try to see if I can borrow a friends video card and boot with that. If that does not help any, then I am re-formatting. I think a nasty virus or something got in there. My surfing habits haven't been too good lately.

Ya, it's sounds like your due for a reinstall.

The easy way to test your 5, 12 rails is to take one of the 4 pin molex plugs, put the black lead into one of the black plugs and the red lead into the red/or yellow while the puter is on idle or load. The 3.3 is a little different. I think there's a sticky on this somewhere.

UGH!

I did the whole re-format thingie today and yesterday and everything looked to be going great. I load some CoD:UO and play for about a half an hour with no issues. Then BAM! another random reboot. I sent an error report and microsoft directed me to this page.

Why would it still be doing this? Is there an issue with one of my video cards?

Well keep an eye on temps and voltage rails. Does your monitoring software show and differences in your rails since you first got the power supply. I know software isn't accurate but if it shows a fluxation since new then it has changed.

Try to check it with a DMM.

I'd suggest blowing your computer out with compressed air maybe dust can be sorting something or causing overheating.

I was just surfing the forums, and she froze on me. UGH....

EDIT: I think I will try and pick up a DMM the check the powerstream. Any specific one I should look at?

I don't know if it has been asked, but are you still overclocking your CPU @ 2601MHz?

Have you tried running your CPU at stock?

Bryan d

bryan_d said:

I don't know if it has been asked, but are you still overclocking your CPU @ 2601MHz?

Have you tried running your CPU at stock?

Bryan d

Click to expand...

A few days ago, I got a DMM and tested using a molex and everything was in the correct ranges (I know there is still the 3.3v rail...I'll test that if I need to). Anyway, so I still get issues and turn back my clocks and then it does not even POST. That was last night. So today, just for the hell of it, I decide to try again and it works. My mom calls me out to help her get something from the kitchen and when I go back to my room, I see just a black screen. I shut down with the power button (is there a special term for this?) and try again. No POST...Just a black screen. So, I have come to the conclusion to one of my video cards isn't doing so well. What do you guys think? I would try taking cards out myself, but I won't have a chance to work on the rig for a day or two (teachers are not that kind at the end of the year when it comes to work).