Re: Help Major PC problems!

The message <418pg1dmep9oppqq95eqo8r9186apmr9kb@xxxxxxx>
from steve <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> contains these words:

> On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 16:43:38 +0100, "Gaz" <gazter@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> >steve wrote:
> >> On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 15:21:33 +0100, "Rob Hemmings"
> >> <rkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> "steve" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> >>> news:tfvog1lomu7nh3ul5a13olbbt9vgqqean6@xxxxxxxxxx
> >>>> Haven't clue what my problem is(its amazing i am actually online
> >>>> posting this message!)
> >>>> Anyway My PC keeps crashing and then its murder to get it to reboot
> >>>> When it does boot alot of the time it changes from an Athlon 3000 to
> >>>> 1700 for some reason!.Also i have a IDE hardrive and a SATA,the Sata
> >>>> has been disapearing from time to time.So i thought it maybe the
> >>>> problem was sata hardrive,but its near impossible to boot from the IDE
> >>>> hardrive too.I am pretty sure its not the power supply because i have
> >>>> just tried a replacement and i know it isn't the ram
> >>>> So is it my Motherboard??
> >>>> Also alot of the time when it does boot,it loads and all the screen is
> >>>> fooked!.its also fooked on the boot up screen before window even
> >>>> loads.
> >>>> I have checked for virus and as far as i know the PC is clean
> >>>> So i am thinking Motherboard/CPU???
> >>>>
> >>>> Any help most welcome!!!
> >>>
> >>> More likely a faulty graphics card if screen is corrupted before
> >>> windows
> >>> is loaded. Or mobo. Or PSU. Or RAM, if graphics built-in to mobo.
> >>> I take it you've run memtest86 on your RAM as you say it's ok?
> >>> HTH
> >>
> >> I have spare ram,so tested it with that.The Graphics isn't in built
> >> and only screws ups once the PC has crashed(its screwed at the moment)
> >> And at the moment my PC still reads 1700 instead of 3000
> >> The PSU i have tested by using a backup PSU i have
> >> I am thinking of updating the Bios?
> >> Since my last post the PC has crashed 5 times
> >
> >Possibilities:
> >bad ram
> >bad psu
> >bad graphics card
> >bad motherboard.
> >bad cpu
> >overheating.
> >
> >From what you say, we can probably rule out psu, ram....
> >
> >If i was to hazard a guess, i would suggest a heat problem somewhere, have
> >you monitored the heat in the bios?
> >Is the heatsink on either the graphics card, the cpufan or the chipset
> >getting so hot its uncomfortable to touch??? try touching the memory
> >on the
> >graphics card...... See if switching your graphics card to 4x changes
> >anything,.,,,,,
> >
> >Gaz
> >

> First many thanks all the replies
> It may be a bad Graphics card as if i boot in safe mode everything
> seems fine.Plus my computer keeps losing my graphic card software,so i
> keep having to reload it.Then when i look at my AGP speed its turned
> off.I can either have it 4x or 8x,when i go to switch it to either 4x
> or 8x and restart the PC it doesn't restart.I then have to keep
> rebooting until i get a lucky boot.I go to check the GC setting and
> AGP is still turned off
> My card is a 9200SE,any more tips or should i just try a new GC?

Try reseating the card.... several times and make sure it _is_ fully
seated. You can sometimes have problems with MoBo height alignment wrt
the case slots preventing adapter cards from being fully seated into
their expansion slots.

> My motherboard is a K7S8X

The only Asrock (read cheap Asus... sub-contracted to PC Chips
perhaps?) MoBo I've seen recently was a brand new one a customer had
just fitted to his system box and I wasn't impressed with the fact that
the built-in LAN port had an obvious line side fault.

> ps at the moment my display reads 640x480 8 bit colour and so far the

"640x480 8 bit colour" seems an odd setting. 8 bit colour is usually
refered to as 256 colours in the Colour dropdown list. The basic
(generic)VGA setting is 16 colour so that 8 bit colour setting suggests
you're still using the 9200SE driver rather than the generic VGA one.

> PC hasn't crashed in 16minutes

Ah well, early days then. It typically takes a good 30 minutes from
power up to reach thermal equilibrium.

Since that MoBo is a two year old design, it's possible that it might
be suffering from dried out electrolytic capacitor syndrome, so it would
be worth taking a close look at these. Of course, there are a whole host
of other possible causes for such behaviour (are you certain it isn't an
810LR in diguise?).

The business of the MoBo settings reverting to a default 100MHz FSB and
consequent report of a slower model of cpu _does_ rather suggest a MoBo
problem (rather like the nasty 810LR one of not _actually_ being
compatable with anything faster than a 1GHz Athlon despite PC Chips'
claims of compatability right up to the XP2600+)

--
Regards, John.

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