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BIG problem!!!! Help!!!

A

axess68

n00b
Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Messages
55
Ok.. Here's the short version of my epic:

Tried overclocking on CPU for the first time. Went too far, blew the power supply.

Got a new power supply (old one was 430watts. New one is 500watts). Overclocked the CPU again. Seemed to be stable for a week. CPU was somewhat hot though (idling at 61-63c, load at 73-74c).

Ordered a new heatsink. Got it. Installed it. Temps went down to (45-47c idle, 51-53c load).

Overclocked my 6600gt as well to specs that other people were having luck with... worked for a couple days.

Then, today, things went downhill. My PC is beginning to lock up at random times. Mostly when I do things like: Test the memory. Run 3DMark, multitask, etc.

So, I set the 6600gt back to default and the CPU back to default..... The lock ups still happened. In fact, it's MORE than a lock up. When I try to restart after the lock up, the computer REFUSES to start up for at least 5-10 minutes of trying. Then it boots up as normal.

I am at a loss. I am at wits end. What is going on??? Is it the CPU? Motherboard? Video Card?

I guess I'm gonna be forced into a COMPLETE upgrade this fall...
 
Well, it looks like I'm gonna be up all night testing this system and trying to figure it out.

I am really stumped and rapidly turning depressed. :(

I noticed one thing though. The computer definitely freezes up when I am running anything graphically intense. That causes a quicker freeze than just doing normal things.

When I try to restart, I usually get nothing. Just the fans turning and no beep.

Then I get the beep, the monitor turns on, then nothing...

Later, I get the beep, the monitor turns on, it shows a little of the text, but doesn't do the memory test and just stays there.

Then at last, I get the beep, it turns on, does the memory test, then boots into windows..

It runs fine for a while and then the lock up.

Then repeat the sequence from restarting and getting no beep.

Anyone have ANY ideas? Is it the 6600gt? I noticed that right after the PC froze the last time, the 6600 was BLAZING hot! Could it be a bad card? Did overclocking it slightly do something to it? Should I RMA it to Newegg?

Someone PLEASE respond!! I am tired, depressed, and desperate!!
 
id say you cooked the vid card. might be time to drop the egg a rma request .
 
So, those symptoms sound like I cooked the Vid card?

What makes you say that? Because it gets so hot so quickly? The system not starting until it cools down?

I'll RMA it just to be safe.
 
axess68 said:
So, those symptoms sound like I cooked the Vid card?

What makes you say that? Because it gets so hot so quickly? The system not starting until it cools down?

I'll RMA it just to be safe.
Click to expand...
yes. if you get it booted into windows what are the cards temps?
 
in my case I use ATI tool but you have an Nvidia card. I would try speedfan that should pick it up link
Edit i read somewhere that some 6600's dont have temp monitor built in. or might be all of them .
 
Man, sorry to hear. Have you tried running memtest? Also, do you have spare parts to test other hardware?

edit: Also I have a PNY 6600gt agp, been looking for a temp monitor today. I got nTune but no temps. My brother has 6600gt pci (xfx I think), and he gets temps monitored. I used everest Home Edition on both pcs.
 
Nope. This one doesn't have a temp monitor. But the card was blazing hot to the touch after it froze up the machine.

Then it takes time for it to cool down.

I get about 5 minutes of PC use before it freezes again. :(
 
do you have any other card heck even an old pci card would do . just to try to eliminate the vid card from the picture.
 
I'm gonna call the local PC shop here later this morning when they open. Maybe they have an old PCI video card I can pick up from them to test it out.
 
UPDATE:

Found an old PCI Matrox Mystique lying around.

Put it in and the PC starts up and goes into windows, etc.

I ran it for a good 10 minutes and then LOCK UP.

But, with this card, I reset the computer and it started right up.

I did a lot of Dimm removing and installing earlier when I was trying to figure it out.

No difference there.

I will run Memtest and see what happens.
 
well thats sorta good news as it seems it may not be ur vid card. on the other hand it could be MB or CPU or like u said ram . damm that sucks
 
i was haveing a similer problem at one point with my pc... thought it was the vid card, even thought i never oc'ed it... i was messing around with oc'ing my cpu and ram, i could do any thing i wanted to except run a 3d app for more than 15 min.. then it would hard lock and refuse to reboot, cut the powewr supply and it would boot again... i would back off the over clock a littel and it would boot again, get it into a 3d app and it would hard lock... wash rince repeat... i ended up backing off the ram timesing till it was running at pc1600 at 3.6.6.18 or something stupid like that and i would still get hard locks after 15 mins of 3d app.. i had set the ram voltage back to 2.6 (board defualt) and reset all of the defualt bios options from within the bios, and still got hard locks... i craked open the pc to see what was up, and even at the insanely low mem timeings and speed it was scalding hot... did a bios clear by jumper... nothing... yanked the battery... nothing... yanked the chip... there ya go... when i went back into the bios it was reporting the ram voltage at 3.1v (i cant even set it above 2.8 by hand.. it dosent exist, so how it got there i dont know) i set it back to 2.6 again and it took the ram came down in temp and it stableized...

do a good cmos clear and start from scratch... not saying you have to yank the chip... but it might just take that (be carefull)

as to why mine didnt reset when i cleared the cmos by jumper, i dont know... never seen it befor, and it hasnt done it sence.. ( i tryed to replicate it... and didnt get it to do it again)

thore
 
looks like some of the guys have good recommendations for you. if someone came to me with those symptoms, I would say it was RAM related. system not vid. what specs were you running your RAM at?
 
I believe if you install cool bits that should give you temps of your videocard. Best of luck on the problems, perhaps read up on the oc'n ball game. Not saying you don't know what your doing though...
CPU was somewhat hot though (idling at 61-63c, load at 73-74c).
Click to expand...

Most AMD cpus are ok even @ this temp for a short peroid of time. By the information I have read most chips can handle even to 93c. To me I would say those temps are way to high. If I had to guess I would say the Mother Board. Do you have any spare parts besides the Matrox GPU?
 
well why dont you at least tell us what friggin parts you are using and what EXACTLY you are doing to overclock.
 
Mobo: ASUS A7N8X v2.0
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Socket A)
Memory: Crucial 2x256, Corsair 1x512 DIMM 184-pin
PSU: 500w Antec

I spent most of the day today working on this. Before I finally collapsed from exhaustion last night, the system would no longer POST. This morning, I replaced the CPU with another I had, no effect. Changed out the RAM, no effect. Changed the video card again, no effect.

I called ASUS and they said to try replacing the Power Supply and seeing how that goes. So, I went to the store and exchanged the power supply. Brought it home and hooked it up....no effect. Still no POST.

So, ASUS is having me RMA the motherboard. It's gonna be a pain not having a PC for a couple weeks and I'll have to go to the public library to use one. :( Oh well, could be worse.

So, I will post again on the progress after the RMA gets done and the fixed, or new, motherboard gets to me.

Good thing I still have my game consoles. Otherwise, I would be ready for the rubber room and the nice wrap-around jacket! :eek:

On a side note, due to my unbelievable luck, I will stay away from overclocking for the time being.
 
Uhh, well, we are getting closer here.

What exactly are you overclocking and how. IE: mulitplier, fsb, voltages, ram timings etc.

I used (now my backup rig) an a7n8x dlx 2.0 for aloooong time as my gaming rig when +2500 barton hit the scene, it ran flawlessly overclocked to 2.3 for years.

So if you really want help then I need some specifics.

This site has tons of good info:

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=2d6e073c0557ad38dd3a51432b909e24
 
axess68 said:
Overclocked my 6600gt as well to specs that other people were having luck with... worked for a couple days.
Click to expand...

first off you are not suposed to overclock you video card (or any other component) to the specs someone else got on a similar piece of eqipment.... overclocking requires finding the max of your piece of equipment....

have you put your cpu back to stock speed... to me it sounds like you have an unstable overclock.... when i get an unstable overclock on my comp sometime it boots sometimes it beeps then freezes on the POST screen
 
It also sounds like you just jumped to those settings. You are supposed to raise the speed slowly and test, then repeat till u get problems in benches, then back off a bit.
 
Well, I just wanted to update you all on the situation.

I picked up a motherboard locally to use while the ASUS board is bring RMA'd. It's a PC Chips mobo, so it's pretty blah, but it will do for now. It still gives me some of the same 3Dmark scores.

So, it WAS the motherboard after all. Don't know what I did to it. Yeah, I did overclock too quickly. I am overclocking on this board slightly faster than I was on the other board. It seems pretty stable for now. CPU temps are staying around 40-41c idle and going to 48-50c load. That works for me. The only drawbacks this board has are a 333FSB and My DDR400 is forced to run at that DDR333 speed. I'll live with it until the ASUS comes back.

I was using the BIOS to overclock. I was also using some apps to check and see if the overclock would be stable (Prime95, ASUS Probe, Clockgen).
 
Since you rma'd the board, these things are pointless now, but did you do a proper cmos clear? (turn off/unplug the psu, set the jumper and wait 10 min then reset jumper) Back in my newb oc days (cely 300a) I killed a mobo by not turning off ALL power to the mobo (unplugging psu) and had similar results as you. And I guess you already tried using just 1 stick of ram. Don''t give up on overclocking, just do it in incremental steps. And when changing settings in bios, only change 1 setting at a time unless you are positive these changes will work. And if they don't, you know what setting to change back,etc,etc.
 
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