Please help! :(

C

chinspecial

Gawd
Joined
Sep 25, 2007
Messages
1,021
Hey, thanks for stopping by to help. :)

Problem solved.

Before I started any of this my computer was working 100%

UPDATE 1/7:
1. First I installed a new TV Tuner and moved some cables around, also removed an old raptor.
2. PC would not boot, removed some ram and it then booted but would shut down every 30 seconds or so after reaching desktop.
3. Removed everything except essentials, stayed on BIOS, did not crash.
4. Ran memtest86+, worked fine no memory errors detected.
5. Went back into windows and everything worked, when I plugged in my ethernet cable it crashed again.
6. Left internet unplugged, accessing driver cd for TV tuner caused system to crash.
7. Unplugged cd drive, and still crashed.
8. Old system instability, kept crashing again like normal.
9. Tried to basically rebuild my computer and reinstall windows. Got to splash screen, clicked intall windows so I could get to the next menu with formatting options and got "setup is starting..." followed by it crashing again a second after it showed up.
10. Tried friend's IDE cd drive, same crash at same exact spot.
11. Got old vista install running, hard restart and no longer detected by bios. Install disk still crashing at seemingly random intervals.


OLD:
So here's what's happening. Right now, my computer powers on fine and goes to the desktop, but it seems a bit slower then normal. After on the desktop, no matter what I do it just shuts off after about 30 seconds or so. The thing is though, it's not a hard shut off, in the case everything is still powered up and the fans are still spinning, but it seems as though windows has frozen and there is no longer anything displayed on the screen. Does someone know what the problem is? I have a friend's computer to test parts soon, but not right now.

What I did was I got a new TV tuner. After installing it I sort of decided to do a rehaul of my harddrive spaces and cabling. Since my PSU is modular, I unplugged one of the cables with molex power that powered a fan, a fan controller , an unused external sata hookup spot, and an old IDE harddrive. In its place I put a cable for more sata inputs. I then rearranged my other molex power connectors to power 2 case fans, a cd/dvd drive and the IDE drive from before that I unplugged. I also unplugged my old raptor that was powered by molex. Then I plugged in a 750gb on sata power and I kept another 160gb drive on sata and I plugged in my 40gb kingston ssd.

SHORT VERSION: swapped cable on my modular psu, unplugged an old raptor, plugged in new 750gb, rearranged some cable, plugged in new pciex1 tv tuner to replace old one.

After I did all that it wouldn't even boot. Then I removed two sticks of ram and it booted. Then I reset the CMOS and it would boot with all four sticks but only after a few attempts of pulling out and putting back in. And now I'm left with the problem I stated above. I'm really not sure what to do at this point, other than test the components individually when I get the chance. Any ideas?

EDIT: sorry, forgot to mention. I have an antec neohe 550w psu, a gtx260, 1 ide drive, 1 160gb sata, 1 750gb sata, 1 40gb ssd, 4x1gb ocz reaper ddr2800, x-fi pci, ati tv wonder 600 pciex1, and some LG ide dvd drive, mobo is P35-DS3R
 
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When troubleshooting a problem after adding a component, I usually try to go back to the last known good settings (not sure if you can or not). If you can go back to the previous settings, and everything works ok, then you add or make changes one by one, then boot, make sure it does not crash. If it crash, thats where you problem is.
 
Yeah, I forgot to mention that I did try to remove the TV tuner, along with all of the components one at a time to try to find what the problem was. Eventually I just unplugged everything and tried to boot with just the fans, mobo, cpu, one stick of ram, boot drive, and video card in, but the same thing happened.

Now it keeps rebooting itself instead of hanging up with everything still spinning.
 
Strip it down to min spec.
All you want is the psu, mobo, vid card, 1 stick of ram, cpu + hs.
Boot it and go into the bios and check temp & volts.
Just let it sit for 15-20 mins.
Does it reboot ??
Are your temps and volts in the correct range ??
If it does then one, or more, of the five parts used is bad.
If not then put all your ram in and run MemTest86+ for a couple of loops.

Luck ........... :D
 
Quick update. Just got back from my classes for the day. I'm letting it sit on the bios screen with the cpu temps/voltage and such and everything seems to be going fine. It's been running for a good 15 minutes or so. I'm going to leave it a little longer to be sure then run memtest. Here's a screenshot, I don't know much of anything about voltages, but the temps seem fine. Anything wrong with this picture?



btw, this is with only the PSU, video card, mobo, one stick of ram, CPU, and HSF hooked up.
 
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EDIT: NVM. I went to install the drivers for my TV tuner from CD and the same thing happened again.

Finished memtest, let it pass through 7 times and no errors. Strangely enough I hooked the system back up with only the boot drive and everything was working fine (only had the keyboard plugged in). Plugged in the mouse and it worked fine. I played burnout for a few minutes. Then I plugged in the ethernet cable and the computer showed the same symptoms as before. Tested it again, and plugging in the ethernet caused it to crash again.


It seems as though I have narrowed it down to the internet connection, but this leaves me wondering what I should do. Could it possibly be the cable itself? Is it the motherboard acting up or some sort of driver conflict? When I plug it in, windows has the rotating circle like its loading something then I think just about when it connects, it crashes, no BSOD or anything. Also, it's worth mentioning that I am in my dorm and they have some authenticity thing. Would this cause some kind of conflict? The reason this seems so confusing is because it worked just fine before I installed the TV tuner and now this.


EDIT 2: Here's where I'm at now. I thought that since the internet plugging in and installing drivers both caused my PC to crash I would reinstall windows. What I did was unplugged the TV Tuner and rebooted with the Win7 64 bit install disk in. Now it gets to the setup window (where it says what to know before installing, etc). After I hit next so I can get to formatting/install options, it crashes again, just like under normal boot. I'm really at a loss now. I'm not sure what to do.
 
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Sorry to bump the thread again, but I am at my wit's end here. For a while my computer was running smoothly and then I tried installing drivers from the CD and it crashed again. I tried reinstalling windows but it still crashed. Normal windows was still fine as long as I didn't plug in the internet or use the CD drive.

Then I tried to access the old IDE drive hooked up on the same IDE cable as the CD drive. This caused my computer to crash again and now it keeps doing the subsequent crashes every time I log in about 30 seconds in.


I'm really not sure what to do anymore. I unplugged the power from the IDE drive and cd drive, and the IDE cable itself from the motherboard. Turned it back on and it's still crashing on me. :(

EDIT: Just reset the CMOS and mobo bios again, left the IDE stuff unplugged and back to square one. Still crashing on me unexpectedly. I'm not really sure what's suspect at this point. OS, mobo, HDD/SSD?
 
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Any ideas about what I should try to do at this point? Should I just try to rebuild my computer from the ground up basically? Plug each thing in one at a time and try to reinstall windows? I'm not really sure what to do and it seems there is still something wrong.
 
chinspecial said:
Any ideas about what I should try to do at this point? Should I just try to rebuild my computer from the ground up basically? Plug each thing in one at a time and try to reinstall windows? I'm not really sure what to do and it seems there is still something wrong.
Click to expand...

Thats always a safe approach.
 
I just tried to do a full rebuild and install, but the system crashes when it goes to "Setup is loading..." After hitting install windows so I can get to the install/format page it gives me setup is loading for about a second then crashes still. I tried a friend's CD drive and still the same exact thing happened. Does this mean possibly my motherboard is bad? Maybe the IDE cable itself?
 
Definitely swap out cables - often the cause. I was going to say swap the power supply itself, too. I've had more instability issues with power supplies than motherboards.
 
Did you see if you bumped your CPU cooler so it not sitting right? I've had this happen before. works fine idle, but throw any load and bam.
 
SKiZZ said:
Did you see if you bumped your CPU cooler so it not sitting right? I've had this happen before. works fine idle, but throw any load and bam.
Click to expand...

Nah, I checked that. The temps seem fine even under load and the HSF is securely in place.

Nenu said:
Set the correct voltage for your memory.
Click to expand...

I don't really have much experience with that. Do you think you could help or tell me if you can tell if it is wrong by the bios screenshot above?
 
chinspecial said:
I don't really have much experience with that. Do you think you could help or tell me if you can tell if it is wrong by the bios screenshot above?
Click to expand...

It looks like your memories rated voltage is 2.1V but it is set to 1.8V.
You can use less than 2.1V if it still works but dont exceed it unless you know what you are doing.
You need to find where you can set the DDR voltage in your BIOS setup.

basic specs for your ram found here
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=13615&tid=frooct
 
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Anyone know why I can't even get the Windows 7 install disk to work properly? It just quits after I hit install and it says setup is loading. After displaying that it just crashes like on the desktop.
 
Just downloaded the enterprise iso and made a bootable thumb drive. Same thing, crashes when setup starts loading. Any ideas??
 
Now the system seems to crash at random intervals when I try to reinstall or even use the repair function. I formatted the ssd on a friend's computer and it was completely blank and seemed to be functioning perfectly. Then I got to the setup and it was able to start installing the enterprise off the thumbdrive. It seemingly finished the first two steps and then shut off. I haven't been able to repeat this and it didn't get far enough as to completely finish the install. I'm really not too sure what to do anymore if I can't even install windows properly.

worth noting: I had an old drive with vista on it and it was running perfectly. No errors or shutdowns, so I'm pretty sure it is some sort of driver conflict with 7. What I don't understand is how that would affect even trying to reinstall 7. Also, when I accessed computer management so I could try to wipe the ssd from vista it seemed unresponsive so I had to do a hard restart in which case the vista hdd isn't even recognized in the bios anymore. :(

Does anyone know why I can't even finish running the windows setup or if there is any way around this?
 
Stop trying to install Windows and fix your PC.
Did you change the voltage?
 
Nenu said:
Stop trying to install Windows and fix your PC.
Did you change the voltage?
Click to expand...

I did indeed change the voltage. I tried many times over changing the voltages and nothing helped at all. It sits fine on the BIOS screen without any rebooting. It even works fine in under safe mode and under an old vista drive. I'm not sure what you mean "fix your PC". Do you think there is still a hardware problem or do you want me to try to fix the drive with windows on it? I tried two different drives with windows 7 on it and both of them show the same problems, much like the install. An old vista drive still worked fine, until I had to do a hard restart and the BIOS doesn't recognize it anymore. Sorry, I'm just pretty frustrated with this whole thing at this point and I'm trying my best to update you with info.
 
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Yes, something in your PC is unstable by the looks of it. There is a possibility the PSU or another connected component is causing power issues but we can work on that later if needed.
Can you try clocking your CPU and memory to say half their current speed and see if it works any better.
This is a quick attempt to see if we can get it stable and then we can work from there.
 
Nenu said:
Yes, something in your PC is unstable by the looks of it. There is a possibility the PSU or another connected component is causing power issues but we can work on that later if needed.
Can you try clocking your CPU and memory to say half their current speed and see if it works any better.
This is a quick attempt to see if we can get it stable and then we can work from there.
Click to expand...

Not doubting you or anything, but is there an explanation for why vista works fine then? I sincerely appreciate your help and everything, but at this point I took my pc back home and my brother is going to have a look at it. He has far more experience and knowledge than I do so I'm hoping he will be able to fix it or at least give me some insight into the matter. Thanks for your help and if he can't seem to figure it out either I'll update the thread.
 
Nenu said:
Vista doesnt work fine, you said so yourself.
Click to expand...

Well, the full story is that I was running vista for a long time. I let it run overnight and played a game and watched some videos and everything. It was up and running for a long time. I plugged in my ssd with win7 and then went to disk management to reformat, here it seemed to be unresponsive so i pressed ctrl +alt +dlt. I clicked the task manager option but nothing appeared on screen. Then I made a hard restart and now the drive isn't detected. Also, the system runs perfectly in safe mode with networking. It has never crashed or frozen in safe mode.

I really am not trying to start an argument, just trying to clarify what exactly happened. The fact that vista was working properly and that safe mode works fine makes me think that the problem is driver related.
 
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Its not easy to pick through for information which isnt helped by saying things that arent correct.
If Vista doesnt work now, then you cant say it does.

Try new IDE cables for all drives using them.
IDE cables are notorious for having bad connections and that can make a system unstable and would explain the sudden loss of the Vista drive.
If you find a cable is faulty ever, bin it / label it as its not worth the hassle and loss of data if you accidentally use it again.
 
Nenu said:
Its not easy to pick through for information which isnt helped by saying things that arent correct.
If Vista doesnt work now, then you cant say it does.

Try new IDE cables for all drives using them.
IDE cables are notorious for having bad connections and that can make a system unstable and would explain the sudden loss of the Vista drive.
If you find a cable is faulty ever, bin it / label it as its not worth the hassle and loss of data if you accidentally use it again.
Click to expand...

I did try multiple IDE cables on my cd drive and IDE hard drive and they all result in the same thing. The vista drive is an old raptor that runs off of sata. I also tried multiple sata cables, as well as multiple power cables so it is a bit frustrating. I have no idea why it is no longer detected.
 
Can you try that drive in another machine to see if it has developed a fault?
Its much harder troubleshoot when there are multiple problems.
 
Nenu said:
Can you try that drive in another machine to see if it has developed a fault?
Its much harder troubleshoot when there are multiple problems.
Click to expand...

I planned on doing this, but like I said before the computer is now out of my hands. If my brother can't figure it out then I'll definitely come back here and ask for some help again. Thanks for helping out though.
 
Ah ok.
theres so much going on I lost track :)
Good luck.
 
Quick update, seems like both of my windows 7 drives were bad and it looks like my IDE controller is busted or something. Wow, so many issues. :(

I guess it's good I have a few drives to fall back on and everything important was backed up. I now know why I back things up. :)
 
Years ago, one of my clients machines had a dead hard drive.
The drive was replaced but that died as well.
I tested the cable on another motherboard and it killed the IDE controller!
Plugging a new drive with new cable in the original machine didnt work either because that controller had gone as well !
It could have been co-incidence but thats a mother of a co-incidence, the cable was binned.

I've also had drives become corrupt due to bad IDE cables, beyond Windows ability to repair.
Spinrite recovered them ok so it wasnt a loss, just a scare.
The worst culprits were the early thin IDE cables (ie they bunched all the wires together in a sleeve, not flat) they were shit, and the middle connector on normal IDE ribbons.

forgot to add...
I was installing a hard drive for a friend in the SATA 1 days and smoke started coming from the hard drive.
After quickly powering it down, it was clear the cable wasnt too well made and 2 conductors were touching the same contact on the drive.
Luckily because the short circuit prevented the drive being powered, no damage was done apart from the melted plastic!
 
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Man, computer parts sure can be finicky. I'm just glad everything was able to be worked out, although the horrible coincidences caused me tons of grief.
 
Seems like my brother wasn't able to fix it afterall. He individually tested the parts and came to the conclusion it is probably the motherboard. :/
 
After some more turmoil and headache I was able to install an old motherboard I had and the system is now up and running. No crashing to speak of and not even any driver issues. All seems to be well now. :)
 
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