Hero Status to you if you can answer this...

Looks like you've got a temporary short somewhere in your Case. install components in a different computer case. usualy after all that it's the 1 thing that keeps getting used over and over again (cdrom in a problem i had). sounds strange but ask yourself, whats the 1 thing that gets swapped time and time again......the computer case.
 
CleanSlate - You 8ast4rd. Haha.... How much? :p


SkullE said:
Looks like you've got a temporary short somewhere in your Case. install components in a different computer case. usualy after all that it's the 1 thing that keeps getting used over and over again (cdrom in a problem i had). sounds strange but ask yourself, whats the 1 thing that gets swapped time and time again......the computer case.
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But the short would cause the system not to boot at all or inconsistently at the very least right? I'm able to boot consistently w/ the x300 card and also w/ the x800 if I'm using the 550w PSU... Would the short be dependent on the amt of power thats being used within the components? Also, do you think the arctic silver 5 could somehow be a play in all this? I wonder if some microscopic bit of AS5 somehow got on the mobo.... But then it still wouldnt boot at all either.... :confused: :confused: :confused:

I was gonna get an ANTEC PSU today to give it another shot. The PSU I currently have and the one I used yesterday were of semi-questionable quality. Do you think thats a good avenue to try? Or don't even bother as it doesn't seem like a PSU issue at all.. ?
 
For you, I'd do $45 shipped, that's 5 less than I have in my thread :).

oo did I mention it has an aftermarket cooler on it :D.

~Adam
 
lexcruiser said:
<snip>
But the short would cause the system not to boot at all or inconsistently at the very least right? I'm able to boot consistently w/ the x300 card and also w/ the x800 if I'm using the 550w PSU... Would the short be dependent on the amt of power thats being used within the components? Also, do you think the arctic silver 5 could somehow be a play in all this? I wonder if some microscopic bit of AS5 somehow got on the mobo.... But then it still wouldnt boot at all either.... :confused: :confused: :confused:

I was gonna get an ANTEC PSU today to give it another shot. The PSU I currently have and the one I used yesterday were of semi-questionable quality. Do you think thats a good avenue to try? Or don't even bother as it doesn't seem like a PSU issue at all.. ?
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it's possible that it could be a current-dependent short... but it's very, very unlikely.
same story with as5.

give it a shot with the antec psu.

*sudden thought: get one of those diagnostic pci boards... that will help you. a *lot*.
 
i've seen em before but i don't know where to get em.

i'd say offhand that intrex computers might have em... they have a lot of that good stuff.
 
pop up status codes, you have to have the code book to check the code, thus diagnostic card.
 
Someone mentioned one of those port 80 cards, but no one I know has them...
It would be extremely helpful tho damn it.

Will give the PSU a shot, I'll keep everyone posted.
Thanks again for all the help guys.
 
if you can go to same computer shop and try it with another motherboard (abit, msi......but not asus) so you can isolate the suspect of motherboard issue.

also dont share any component from your computewr including the cables, start with all new similar parts and use your psu, then get another similar psu but now use your cpu and hs&f, then change cpu and use your graphic card.......etc

i know its time and effort consuming, but it will help to determine which part is causing the problem
 
GREAT NEWS!!!! (well, for me anyway. :) ) Got my machine back up and running today!
Purchased a new PSU, specifically, the Antec NeoPower 480w. Even bought some rounded IDE cables to make the case more tidy. Got everything installed, et voila!!!! machine booted and seems to be running ok!

A few things to note:
Machine booted right up after installing the new PSU. Hearing that 1 system OK beep had me almost creaming in my pants (sorry, TMI). Went into BIOS to re-configure some settings, rebooted, but then to my horror, heard the "system failed due to CPU overclocking" msg and didn't boot. I nearly cried. Powered back up again and this time (3rd time) and it booted up OK. Booted into Windows and noticed that the screen had some major artifacting... Rebooted AGAIN, and now, everything seems to be running OK. I'm still not sure what the original problem was. Was it just a bad PSU or a combination of bad PSU and bad vid card? Gonna keep a close eye on the vid card but everything seems to be working for now so I'm happy.

Thank you all again for the help and advice.
You don't understand how very much I appreciate your efforts. In the process, I've learned a great deal more also.
Hopefully everything will run fine from now on. I'm almost afraid to power down the system again. :p

Keep your fingers crossed for me!
All the best.

-A
 
I don't want to rain on your parade, but I think the system will soon enough.

The problems returned after the PSU upgrade, I don't think you're out of the woods yet.

You've got me stumped, I'd have to put my hands on it...
 
0ldman said:
I don't want to rain on your parade, but I think the system will soon enough.

The problems returned after the PSU upgrade, I don't think you're out of the woods yet.

You've got me stumped, I'd have to put my hands on it...
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Well damn it, you were right.
System crapped out again after a reboot.... Sent the vid card in for RMA, hopefully that was all it was.
Ahhh well. At least it was good for a few days... Will keep you updated. :(
 
In all honesty, I would leave that whole system alone-never touch it again. You'll end up spending more money on fixing it, and buying new various other parts that might be affected due to the failing "whatever it is" in that machine. I say start buying all new peices now. Save your money, and save the trouble. ;)

EDIT: And I'm serious, no sarcasm there whatsoever. I was reading through what I wrote and figured I'd tell you that I was not kidding. I probably would have commited suicide through what you have been through. Hats off my friend, you're a damn trooper. And that's for real. Hero status to YOU my friend.
 
lesman said:
In all honesty, I would leave that whole system alone-never touch it again. You'll end up spending more money on fixing it, and buying new various other parts that might be affected due to the failing "whatever it is" in that machine. I say start buying all new peices now. Save your money, and save the trouble. ;)

EDIT: And I'm serious, no sarcasm there whatsoever. I was reading through what I wrote and figured I'd tell you that I was not kidding. I probably would have commited suicide through what you have been through. Hats off my friend, you're a damn trooper. And that's for real. Hero status to YOU my friend.
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Hehe.. Thanks man. I appreciate it. But at the same time, I'm grateful for all you other techies out there who took time out to help out w/ suggestions and advice.

I actually did think about just starting from scratch, but I feel SO CLOSE to fixing this issue that I don't want to give up yet. So far, the only new part I bought is the PSU, which is fine; the old one was garbage anyway. The new mobo that I bought I'm currently using, and the other one (which still works) I'm going to sell to a friend who wants a system built next month. The new sticks of RAM have all been returned for a full refund, and the vid card is being RMA'ed...

So yea, so far, I've not spent all that much to fix. What I *did* learn from all this mess is 'if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it!' This is what I get for trying to 'tweak' my system more than I really needed to.
I'm never running 3DMark or Memtest86 again. :rolleyes:

If the issue is still not resolved w/ the new vid card... ohhhh man.... THEN I might consider getting a whole new system.... after I sob like a little girl for a long, long time.
 
lexcruiser said:
If the issue is still not resolved w/ the new vid card... ohhhh man.... THEN I might consider getting a whole new system.... after I sob like a little girl for a long, long time.
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Hey, it's what I'd do...you know, sob like a little girl!
 
ah, don't give up on it... I would say send it to me and I'll fix it and send it back, but you don't know me from Adam...

Anything is fixable.

As to the cause, I don't know yet... I'd have to play with it, but I could figure it out.
 
I know you've gotten a lot of help already with this and it really does appear to be the video card. I had a video card once that literally killed 3 motherboards before I narrowed it down to the culprit of three dead machines and it didn't kill them quicly it was slowly over a period of a couple days or weeks.

I would, however take out those extra two sticks of ram and go with one gig. I don't know about your particular Mobo, but some have stability issues with all four slots filled.

Also unless I missed it somewhere I can't believe someone didn't suggest to unmount the motherboard and hook up everyhing with the motherboard sitting on a box and making no contact with anything metalic.(BTW don't set it on the anti-static bag that comes with the mobo, they are anti-static because they have a trace amount of metal in them.) This will rule out a short to ground in the case.

Also I once had a bad power switch do something similar, I found this out by disconnecting the power switch and then shorting the power-on posts with a small screw driver to turn it on. Apparently the power switch although it was a momentary switch like all ATX switches was making contact again after initially starting up and causing the PC to shudown.

Also try shutting down anything in BIOS you are not using, i.e. Com ports, LPT port, power management, etc.

As usual don't do all of these at once try them one at a time to narrow down the problem.

BTW I don't think it's your PSU, you've tried too many new ones with the same problem reappearing regardless of watts.
 
*********************Update!!! (hopefully final! 3/22/05)***********************

Hey, who all remembers this crazy thread and the problems I was having with my possessed PC? :p

Anyway, just thought I'd give a final update for everyone who was following this thread from ways back. I had originally thought the problem was fixed w/ a new PSU but alas, a week later, same problems came back as before. Finally narrowed the problem down to the vid card being bad (a powercolor x800 xt) and sent it in for an RMA. In the meantime, I used an x700 and machine worked like a champ for 1.5 months straight. Just couldn't play any graphic intensive games (ie. HL2, Doom3, Far Cry...) Now finally, after over 2 months, Powercolor sent me a replacement card. And since they didn't have any x800xt's in stock, they decided to finally send me an x850 xt. :D

So yea, I'm a happy camper now and everything seems to be working fine (its been over a week w/ the x850). Hopefully my posting this doesn't jinx it!!!!
Thanks again to everyone who helped me with this. I hope we all learned something in the process..... and that is TO JUST BUY A DELLLLL!!!!!!!! :cool:
jus kidding.
Cheers!
 
Good, I'm very happy for you...hey at least you didn't have to leave everything and move out of state, right? :p About time the problem was solved though, very happy for you, very hapy!
 
lesman said:
Good, I'm very happy for you...hey at least you didn't have to leave everything and move out of state, right? :p About time the problem was solved though, very happy for you, very hapy!
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Hehe.. thanks man! I'm quite glad I didn't have to burn all my clothes, change my name and enter the CPU Gremlin Protection program. :p
 
lexcruiser said:
Hehe.. thanks man! I'm quite glad I didn't have to burn all my clothes, change my name and enter the CPU Gremlin Protection program. :p
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Ha ha, LOL, me too! :p
 
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