Computer problems

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Nick
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Computer problems

Post by Nick »

Recently, if I leave my comp on for 12+ hours, it'll start giving me blue screens. I cracked it open, looked at the error messages on screen, and could come up with a few things that could be wrong.

First of all, I took a look at my AMD 64 3200+. When I tried to remove the heatsink, the CPU came along with it -- literally stuck to the heatsink. Now I have no idea how hot that would be required to get to do that, but I was wondering -- is this normal? I mean, this puppy was freakin' stuck to the heatsink -- so much so that it came up with it when I pulled on it. It took a great deal of force to seperate the chip from the heatsink. It seemed that the thermal paste had almost melted the two together.

Think that might be a problem? The other thing I could think of that could be bad were the HD or RAM, as I'm getting a lot of "page file errors" and other things not loading correctly. Then again, if the CPU is blasted, then it could all be starting from there.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: I tried out new thermal paste, didn't fix the problem. :(
Last edited by Nick on Sun Jan 08, 2006 1:55 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Georgie »

Yea the paste will stick and need a good deal of force to pull the heatsink and proc apart you should get some new paste on before you use the system antec silver if you can get it. Radio Shack carry's a thurmal grease <$5 I would avoid useing that if possible. there is a ram test you can run from dos

http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/be_memory.html

I don't think your HD is bad because you would get file errors random resets ect.
you might want to get a cheap thermomter a home one for like $1 and put it inside your case to see what the air temp. is inside
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Post by Nick »

I applied the thermal paste (Artic Silver 5); my computer still kicks it after 12+ hours. CPU/resource heavy programs will also start experiencing errors (shutting themselves down) after about 9-10 hours. Age of Empires III will load the game, I'll start playing, and once I get about 6- 7 minutes in, the program will terminate itself.

I ran CHKDSK on the Hard Drive, but it only got to step 2, then said that the check shut itself down and wasn't completed.

A few other things that might help:

-Graphics card (BFG 6800GT OC) has been overclocked to 415/1100 in the past, but is running at stock now. I don't think this has anything to do with the problems I'm having, but it could. The thing runs kind of hot (55C idling, which is normal for the BFGs).

-CPU has been overclocked to 2.2 GHZ before, using EZTune (crap program that came with the Gigabyte mobo; didn't know any better). During this overclocking process, I did reboot my computer a few times due to the overclock (kicked out on me, then came back on -- typical of finding your "high" OC on a chip). It's possible I blew something or fucked something up during this process, but I never raised the voltage on the chip at all, so there shouldn't be any problems.

-I do not believe I have the latest BIOS flash version for my motherboard. I don't see why this should be a problem, but it could be.

-I do not have the latest nForce drivers for my motherboard either.

-I have not reformatted my hard drive since these problems started occurring.

-Other components in the rig are 2 GB Corsair XMS RAM (never OC'd), 2 Optical Drives (a Lite On and an NEC), 1 Seasonic S12 600 Watt PSU, and 2 USB/Firewire port cards that came with the mobo. Power should absolutely not be an issue, because I'm not running that much, and plus, that PSU is a beast.


Any suggestions of what to do next? It seems to be an overheating problem, as I never get errors until my computer has been on for 12+ hours or so. Thing is, I don't want this problem to blow out something completely -- especially if it's something fixable. I can replace parts, but I want to know which one to replace. I can't go trashing everything, especially since this is only 3 months old and runs anything I throw at it beautifully.
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Post by Sir Savant »

Try checking the ram with a linux live disk. Maybe for some reason it is having write errors.
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Post by Quzar »

I assume that you are using 2 1gig ram sticks. I would try using the comp with just one then just the other. also, take out things like the firewire/usb cards just to eliminate possible problems.
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Post by Georgie »

I'd get on those bios updates also agree with Quzar take one of the ram sticks out
you can also clear the cmos remove the cr2032 bat from the motherboard and get a good nights sleep before putting it back in (there should be a jumper that needs to be swiched) WITH THE POWER DISCONNECTED
also in the bios try turning off "video bios shadow"I've had problems with this on in the past.
Hope you get it working proper

*EDIT*you never said what OS your running 2 gigs of ram blue screen must be 2k or xp right ?
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Post by Nick »

I'm running Windows XP Home Edition. I'll try the stick swapping thing out; that should isolate the potential problem list down. I don't think one would have a problem and the other would be good, as I bought them as a "matched pair" Dual Channel kit. I'm also gonna look around for BIOS/Driver updates and install those.

Anything else that might help?
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Post by |darc| »

Nick wrote:I don't think one would have a problem and the other would be good, as I bought them as a "matched pair" Dual Channel kit.
I don't see how that would matter. They're manufactured independently and stuck in a box together later on.
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Post by Quzar »

|darc| wrote:
Nick wrote:I don't think one would have a problem and the other would be good, as I bought them as a "matched pair" Dual Channel kit.
I don't see how that would matter. They're manufactured independently and stuck in a box together later on.
Actually from what I've read, at least the good companies (which Corsair is thought to be) has matched pairs set together from the factory so that they are actually from the same physical stock. That way they are less likely to differ in whatever way.

But that doesn't really matter for one failing or not, since they arent subject to identical working conditions.
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Post by |darc| »

Quzar wrote:
|darc| wrote:
Nick wrote:I don't think one would have a problem and the other would be good, as I bought them as a "matched pair" Dual Channel kit.
I don't see how that would matter. They're manufactured independently and stuck in a box together later on.
Actually from what I've read, at least the good companies (which Corsair is thought to be) has matched pairs set together from the factory so that they are actually from the same physical stock. That way they are less likely to differ in whatever way.

But that doesn't really matter for one failing or not, since they arent subject to identical working conditions.
Still, that doesn't mean when they get paired they're going to to be both working or both faulty.
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Post by SomberStrekking »

Nick wrote:I'm running Windows XP Home Edition. I'll try the stick swapping thing out; that should isolate the potential problem list down. I don't think one would have a problem and the other would be good, as I bought them as a "matched pair" Dual Channel kit. I'm also gonna look around for BIOS/Driver updates and install those.

Anything else that might help?
Try running a different version of windows, Home is just crap to begin with and my friends amd 64 ran way hotter with Home then when it did with pro corp try that if you can.
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Post by Nick »

SomberStrekking wrote:
Nick wrote:I'm running Windows XP Home Edition. I'll try the stick swapping thing out; that should isolate the potential problem list down. I don't think one would have a problem and the other would be good, as I bought them as a "matched pair" Dual Channel kit. I'm also gonna look around for BIOS/Driver updates and install those.

Anything else that might help?
Try running a different version of windows, Home is just crap to begin with and my friends amd 64 ran way hotter with Home then when it did with pro corp try that if you can.
Every other computer runs Windows XP home in my household. They have zero problems; I highly doubt it is a problem with the OS, as I use it on numerous other PCs.

I was thinking about replacing the heatsink as well -- the one that I have was included with the AMD 64 Venice 3200+ I purchased -- it could be crap. I was thinking about snagging a Thermaltake, but they all require you to disassemble your PC to use -- gotta mount some screws under the mobo or something like that.
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Post by Nick »

I removed each RAM stick individually, running the system off a single 1 GB stick. It didn't crash. I did the same thing with the other stick; it didn't crash.

So basically, when they're running in tandem in dual channel, they crash after about 11-12 hours.

However, I can have them running for 16 hours + without any problems when there's only one in there.

I'm a bit confused, to say the least, but does anyone have any suggestions for fixes?
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Post by Sir Savant »

Dont run them in dual channel?
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Post by melancholy »

Yeah, I'd say the same. Run them both single channel and see if any crashes occur.
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Post by Nick »

Running them both together in single channel I got 16 hours before my computer rebooted. I got the error message "usbport.sys" -- dunno wtf that means. I disconnected the USB/Firewire cards in the back prior to starting these ram tests, so I don't know what the fuck is going on.

Any suggestions?

Here's what I got:

11 hours before crash in Dual Channel (2GB; 2x 1 GB Corsair Sticks)
16 hours before crash in Single Channel (2GB; 2x 1 GB Corsair Sticks)
20+ hours with no crash in Single Channel (1GB; 1x 1 GB Corsair Sticks; tested with both sticks seperately)

Suggestions? Possible stress tests? Possible originator of the problem?
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Post by LyingWake »

Timings?
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Post by Wagh »

bad stick of ram.
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Post by Nick »

LyingWake wrote:Timings?
Where do I go to figure out the timings?
Wagh wrote:bad stick of ram.
It's looking to be possible; I'd really like to stress test the single sticks for 2 days + or so, but my computer is freakin' loud. So I can't really do that.

Luckily, I can still RMA them back to newegg, which I might do.
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