New computer driving me insane.

[rickytheraccoon]

My name is Mike, and I am about to throw my computer out the window.

I've gotten all the parts in for my new computer, hooked everything up, (video card isn't in yet but I borrowed a radeon 7000 from a friend to test things out), and the thing is driving me insane.. Let me explain.

Known Problems:

1) Computer shuts off randomly. Sometimes giving a blue screen reporting various errors from IRQL NOT EQUAL to PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA, sometimes no error comes up at all, it just shuts itself down then when I turn it back on I get an error message saying "System has recovered from a serious error".

2) Computer shuts off when the case is tapped slightly.. when I plug in headphones, lan cable, you name it.. Basically, plugging anything in while in use causes it to magically turn itself off.

3) Brand new formatted harddrive.. During windows installation, it continues to cut itself off at various points of the installation. Another note on the installation. This is about the 20th time I'm installing windows, and sometimes it hangs, sometimes it makes it all the way, sometime I get bombarded with error messages saying "The application failed to initiate properly" and the like.. aggh.

4) Then I finally get windows xp up and running... I start off good, then the same errors show up, the random rebooting continues..

So everytime I get an error I looked it up on google on the other computer (This one). Some say download SP1.. I try, it reboots.. every now and then I will make it... then when the next reboot happens, the computer informs me it cannot start windows because some system file is missing, always a different one. SO I'm forced to plug in my other hard drive as the master and reinstall windows on the formatted one, reconfigure the boot.ini file so it can boot itself up, just to do it all over again.

Some things I noticed were:

* The computer was more stable without the ATI drivers for the 7000. BUT.. even with the formatted harddrive, I'm still getting errors so I really have no clue if the video card has anything to do with it.

* I originally started with 2 sticks of ddr400 kingston hyperX. I ran them in dual channel and it was unstable, so I tried one stick at a time and one worked well, I managed to get into XP and do some things for a few minutes before it rebooted itself.. the other one caused my computer to BEEP annoyingly as soon as I turned it on. I sent that one back to newegg.

* I put the "good" stick in my friends computer and it ran perfectly.. I took his ddr400 out and put it in my mobo and it was unstable. (Yes my board does support ddr400).

* I put in a new thermaltake 420 watt psu, in an attempt to fix the "bumping into case shutdowns", but that didn't work. It still turns off when plugging stuff in, tapping the case, and sometimes opening the cd tray causes it.

* To fix the windows errors I installed SP1, all the latest drivers for the peripherals.. I really don't know what is going on.

Ok so.. I'm leaning towards switching out the Soyo motherboard for an Abit IC7. I doubt it is the RAM because it ran perfect on my friends computer. I doubt it's the hard drive because it's brand new. The only things from my old computer still left are my cd drive, my mouse, and keyboard. All the cables and stuff are new. If anyone has any idea where to go from here I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

PS: My old computer used to cut off when you tap the case too, so that's why I mention it. And it turns itself off if tapped even without the cd drive hooked up.

 

[Skiing Squirrel]

Ok from my small amount of knowledge Im an going to have to say its either the PSU... But you already tried a different one. Perhaps its the amount of power going into the outlet in which you're computer is plugged into? Ever see those UPS's those... continuous power things and give you about 20 minutes of power when the power goes out? That could work. As for the tapping it could be a current being met with the motherboard or something. As in something isn't grounded perhaps? Just some ideas, hope they help.

 

[rickytheraccoon]

By grounded what do you mean? Because I wasn't so sure if I was plugging in the front panel wires correctly. I wasn't sure if they were backwards or forwards.. Also there is one hole where a screw goes to hold up the motherboard that I didn't use because they only gave me 5 screws. And what was the donut circle things and plastic things for that came with the screws for the motherboard.. I think your on to something.

 

[Axis]

Yes if it isn't yr psu (try yr friends known good one in yours) I would be learning to a mbob short. Perhaps yr mounting screws r where it is shorting.

Make sure you r not overheating the CPU or somthing else.

Try taking everything completely apart and only put in the hd, psu, cpu and ram.

 

[rickytheraccoon]

I did. I unplugged everything one at a time, and did the "Tapping" test and it still cuts of with only the mobo, and psu on. The cpu is running 45 degress celcius, chassis is 29 degress so I don't thing thats the problem. I have two fans installed.

About the mounting screws. How was I supposed to mount the board? The new case came with a bunch of screws, plastic screw things, and these circle paper-like washers that I have no clue what to do with.

 

[Axis]

Yr supposed to mount it so you don't score, cut, or get metal on metal contact. Unscrew all and use the plastic washers dude!

 

[rickytheraccoon]

doing so as we speak let's hope this solves the prob.

 

[Axis]

I hope so too. Good luck. If not then it is time for a new mobo bro.

 

[JigPu]

Ditto on the mobo or PSU First I'd try reinstalling the mobo to see if it's shorting (EDIT: DEFINATLY try the plastic stand-offs! ), and if that didn't work I would re-build the system from scratch testing everything.

In the second case, here's what I'd do:
1) Remove the computer from the case. Place the mobo on a wood table or something where it won't short out or get a static charge.

2) Remove all cards/wires/parts/everything except PSU, CPU, Memory, Video card, and Keyboard. Check to see if it will idle in the BIOS for a while happily. Being a barebones setup, if it dies here, only a few things could be wrong (99.9999% garunteed hardware problem).

3) Add your floppy and CD drives to the system. Download Memtest86 and put follow the instructions for installing to a CD. Run Memtest for a few passes. If it dies here, it's once again 99.9999% garunteed hardware.

4) Install your hard drive. If you want, you can run Memtest again, but it's not nesscary. Use the disk that came with the drive and preform all the tests on it (including the write test/low level format). If it dies here, 99% garunteed to be your HD (1% some other hardware)

5) Now that the hardware has all been tested, it's time to install Windows. Just install XP and see what happens. It's probably not the problem, but we can see

6) Let the system run in Windows for a while. If you get the errors, then it's a hardware issue that wasn't uncovered earlier, or your XP CD (or cd drive) is bad. I'm doubthing it'll crash though if it hasn't yet.

7) Install several stress testers such as Prime95, etc. See if you can run them without having the system die.


You can probably safely transfer the system back to the case by the time step 4 is completed (or even step 3). By then, a shorting mobo should be ruled out, but if you have the time and want to be sure, just leave it on the table all the way to step 7

JigPu

 

[rickytheraccoon]

ok the computer passed the tapping test. now I gotta reinstall windows.

 

[UPCguy21]

Yeah, definitely make sure you install the plastic standoffs. You don't want that mobo shorting out. As far as soyo mobos are concerned, I've got a kt400 ultra plat i think, and I love it. Of 3 soyo boards, I've had very good luck. Only 1 gave me problems, but that was b/c I accidentally hooked up the cd rom drives with the jumpers in the wrong spots. Even then, it worked for a year before the IDE controller died on me.

 

[rickytheraccoon]

I just got windows xp reinstalled on it. It's still not exactly stable.. It sometimes locks up when i start to type and stuff, I'm thinking it has to do with having not installed the drivers yet.. other than that it's a lot more stable then it was prior to using the plastic screws. I'm waiting for my 9600XT to come in the mail tommorow before I start installing things because I don't want it to crash while installing SP1 and get locked out of windows again and have to reinstall.

 

[racecar12]

I have had a similar sinerio. It turned out to be the power switch on the tower. If I tapped the cased the pc would shut off. I used the reset switch as the power button to check.

 

[linlibj]

Plastic standoffs? How comes most of the cases come with copper standoffs? I never had problem with copper one, if you install your motherboard properly you shouldn't have any short curcuit problem.

 

[WildMonkey]

PSU most likely

 

[rickytheraccoon]

The computer dosnt shut off when hit anymore, since I removed the screws and used the plastic ones. That problem is solved.

 

[Cyrix_2k]

Do you have temperature monitoring program such MBM5? It would help us if we knew the Temps of your CPU. It would also help if we know what kind of voltage that PSU is feeding your mobo, CPU, etc.

If you don't have a program you can use, then enter into the BIOS. "PC Health Status" or something similar to that. Then write down the temperature you see and the voltage's. The you can just tap "ESC" until a window pops up that says "Do you wish to exit WITHOUT saving?" Press Y.

 

[rickytheraccoon]

Processor: 45 celcius
Chasis: 29 celcius

I've left the computer on all morning just sitting on the windows xp desktop with nothing open and it's been fine.

 

[Cyrix_2k]

So the 45c temp is when your computers doing nothing (idle)? That seems a little high to me. Did you use the Heatsink/fan that came with your CPU?

 

[rickytheraccoon]

Yep, it stays about the same temp no matter what I'm doing. Do you think it could be a video card over heating problem? My 9600XT should be here any minute now. Hopefully that'll take care of things. From what I've been reading online it seems like driver conflicts are causing the windows errors.