Actually good thing you started this thread.
There is something else going on with my pc which is kinda weird:
When I start the nvidia gpu monitoring program the temperatures are reported... but not the voltages and such.
All those say: "not reported".
I am not sure if that's normal ?
I didn't feel like mentioning this... but maybe it's not normal.. and maybe this is an indication that something is already broken or so ?
Bye, Skybuck.
To answer your question about the plastic stuff I used:
I patched the holes on the side of the case from the inside with sticky plastic.
The sticky plastic got sucked loose by the fans and the plastic dropped down onto the motherboard probably causing a short circuit... and two crashes.
Maybe this caused damage...
Just regular see-through sticky plastic used... from those round rollers.
I still have other holes patched though... but there the plastic dont come loose... it's also held up by the hd cables and also because of fans blowing against it.
Those patched holes improve the airflow for sure.
So I was experimenting with patching the other holes... which went wrong as described above ;) :)
Bye, Skybuck.
Another possibility which crawls through my mind:
Could it maybe have been a virus... maybe a bios or hardware virus ?
One security company has announced to reveal tricks to bypass everything and hack a pc via bugs in cpu's...
Me looking forward to reading more about that...
This would be a pretty wacky explanation... but I can't let go of this explanation though... it's a possibility... a small possibility... but a possibility...
So it's possible that some kind of weird packets or so are freezing my pc...
Or maybe the network chips just can't handle the heat... and crash the pc somehow.
Bye, Skybuck.
Also I had some crashes because of ipv6 stack installed in windows xp 64 bit.
I know the ipv6 stack is not reliable and can crash the computer.
I don't know if it's a windows xp 64 bit bug or if it's a network chip driver bug... or maybe even hardware bug.
It could be that some software was left over after removing the ipv6 stack...
But the last time I removed it everything seemed to work ok afterwards...
But the ipv6 stack stuff is definetly suspicious as well as the network drivers/chips.
However this does not explain the hang in memtest... unless maybe memtest had some weird bug... but that's too far fetched that everything is bugged.. and the time was weird... and then there were reboot issue's...
Maybe all the crashes I had the last year just screwed the hardware...
I have at least 20 minidumps or so just from the last year or so... so maybe random software crashes could just be bad for hardware for some reason. Like maybe suddenly loss of airflow or so.
Especially during high cpu activity or gaming activity right before the crash.
The cpu was hot... the gpu was hot... the fans were spinning fast... then suddenly a software crash happens...
A minidump is made...
The system resets/reboots.
The fans first spinning slowly... then later shortly spinning fast.. then later spinning slowly again.
Maybe a sudden build up of heat could occur.
It's a far fetched/wacky explanation.. but maybe this is the problem...
Most likely is just overheat in general...
Let's hope it's just overheat in general because that should be an easy problem to solve... if it's anything else then ouch nasty problem ;)
Bye, Skybuck.
I think the best course of action for you is to go back to playing with your plasticene and teasing the cat.
PSU most likely. Also try *underclocking* the CPU by 20% and see if it helps.
PEBKAC. Or it could be a loose screw behind the keyboard.
Seems nonsense to me.
It's been working for two years, it's working right now.
What would be faulty about it ?
Even under high load it can work for hours currently, and then suddenly crash.
Most definetly not the power supply me thinks.
Bye, Skybuck.
You do realize you should be giving it a full 24hours of memtest before ruling out the ram?
For the love of god STOP IT this is hilarious
Symptoms of overheat are according to some site on internet:
Which both occured.
After pc cool down computer works again.
And the computer being working fine for many hours now.
Computer crashes during CoD4 and Civilization 3 Conquest (after a long time of playing).
It fits the profile.
However when the computer was cold during first boot I think it hang as well... not sure about that.
After it warmed up a bit it was ok.
Actually I don't think solving the heat problem will suddenly make my computer work flawlessly again but I could wrong about that...
The overheat issue must be solved anyway before placing new motherboard.
But I dont want noisy system. However the rear case fan is very quiet... probably too quiet... so a bit more noise rear case fan should probably be ok.
Also the power fan spinning too slowly... but I can't do anything about that.
So your partially correct.
It's not so much the power supply itself which is bad.... it's the power supply's fan which doesn't spin enough... if it would have spin faster then maybe it would not have been issue at all... to bad...
Bye, Skybuck.
Well it's pretty easy...
The last time the pc went dead the motherboard was to blame.
So nothing else has changed... maybe only a cpu-fan setting... spinning faster, and some holes plugged.
So it must be the motherboard again :)
No need for now to do full memory test.
If memory was bad... windows should crash a long time ago me thinks ;)
I'll take a wild guess it's not the memory lol. I like taking changes what can I say :)
Bye, Skybuck :):):)
Skybuck... do you have any clues as to the conductivity of plastic (even the shiny crome-y looking stuff)?
As for the real problems with your puter, it's rotted-out (or missing) rubber feet on the case.
You have bad PC karma. Buy a good HP, with the OS already installed, and never open the box.
John
Really, I seem to remember some fool coming up with about 20 random stupid ideas including stupid stuff such as virus killing the bios. Wonder who that idiot was?
The Same fckwit that messed it up as last time.
WRONG
Not necessarily
Want to try your heat theory? run Orthos on it for 24 hours. After you rule out the ram
larry moe 'n curly Inscribed thus:
There shouldn't be any insulation under the mobo mounting holes ! The screw should ensure that the grounding is solid.
U.S. production decreases with each response to skybuck.
The only thing certifiable in this post is YOU!
I've owned a 900 and a 1200 and both are GREAT cases with LOTS of room to work in!
Same hardware in both cases... The 900 has power cables moved for the photo. The 1200 has ALL cabling in place.
That SEVEN hard drives, an optical drive and a removeable HDD bay. Plenty of cards installed as well.
Plastic can't cause short circuits.
I don't understand why the plastic tape isn't sticking. Before applying it, did you clean off the surface with alcohol or another degreaser?
Some cases, like Antec and Lian Li, are designed well for cooling, so any holes in them should be left alone and not covered. How are you determining that covering the holes is improving the air flow? I hope it's not by feel but by temperature measurements (allow to stabilize for at least an hour, and measure the difference between inside and outside temperatures).
You have not proved that it is the power supply. The above description could be caused by the motherboard, RAM, power supply or possibly a card.
Do you have unused onboard video and a video card? If so, take out the video card, and also take out any modem cards, ethernet cards, sound cards, -- anything that memetest dosn't need. Also, disable as amny things in the BIOS as possible; turn of the serial, parallel network, power save, etc. Unplug all cables that you don't need to run memetest. Set the clock speed to minimum and all RAM timing as loose as possible. Disconnect all hard drives and run memtest from a floppy. If the problem goes away, start putting things back one at a time.
Buy the PC Power and cooling brand power supply I told you to buy and some Crucial brand memory -- the smallest size that the motherboard supports should be quite cheap. Run memetest again. If the symtptoms have not changed, *now* you are fairly sure that it is the motherboard.
Skybuck Fly>I don't know if it's a windows xp 64 bit bug
You booted from a DOS floppy, ran memtest, got errors, and you still don't know if it's a Win XP64 bug?
Ignore all of my above advice. Get someone to help you who understands the basics of computer troubleshooting. You are way over your head here.
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