There's seriously something wrong with my computer

Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
724
Before I begin, let me say that I don't know what forum to post this in because at this point I honestly don't know what the problem is with. It's gotten to the point that this issue is killing me every time it happens and makes me feel like the thousands of dollars and endless hours i poured into this machine were in vain. Here's my setup -

Asus Maximus Formula (BIOS 2107)
PC Power & Cooling Silencer Quad 750
Q6600
4 gigs of pc8500 corsair dominator ddr2 at 1066
9800GX2
X-Fi xtreme gamer
WD Raptor 150
WD caviar 250
Pioneer dvd-rw lightscribe

Here is the basic issue. I will walk you through a typical scenario of how it's been happening to me lately, though the same issue has occurred in different circumstances in the past probably 4-5 months.

Lately, it happens like this. If I'm using Vista and I leave my computer on and idle for any extended period of time (sometimes as little as 2-3 hours), and I come back, I will see that the monitor is off. Turning it on reveals a black screen and a locked up system. (Sometimes this is also related to the nvdlmmkm error that also has been bugging me a lot, but not necessarily. ) Usually my computer is left like this because i'm downloading torrents or something. Anyway, i get the black screen and unresponsive system, so I restart. Upon restart, my Maximus Formula splash screen now has artifacts on it. (for this reason I thought it could be graphics related).

If I'm using XP and leave my computer idle, coming back to it reveals whatever windows I had open or just my desktop, but everything is frozen and the screen also now has teal colored artifacts all over it. After a restart the mobo splash screen also has artifacts. At this point I know the nightmare has begun.

Comp POSTS without issues and when I start to boot into either OS, the loading screen still has artifacts. For XP, interestingly enough, the little progress bar freezes for a second and the artifacts disappear, and then continues moving, as if it fixed itself. However, for both OS's, they will each go through their loading screen and then I will get a black screen and no further booting. The hard drives will seek for a little bit but the comp will never boot. The only way I have really been able to fix this is by clearing cmos and letting my computer sit for multiple hours with the power supply off, sometimes even leaving it overnight. As you can imagine, this is not a very useful solution.

Some background on what I've done - At first I thought it was memory related since the issue started back when i had my old crucial ballistix tracers. I eventually found out one stick was bad and resorted to using 1 gig while I saved up money for new mem. I just recently bought my dominators but clearly the issue is still here. While installing those, I realized that at least 2 of my mobo dimm slots are also bad, or at the very least "weak" and incapable of running at 1066. Right now my 2 2 gig sticks are running in 2 adjacent slots (A1 and A2).

As for the video card, it runs perfectly fine. I can play all games for basically an unlimited amount of time without a single crash or error or anything. Same with the rest of my system. It's completely stable with the exception of this crap. Just now, for instance, I flashed to bios 2107 (didn't fix the issue) and somehow managed to boot into xp (no artifacts or anything) and am running prime95. No errors, no nothing. Everything is fine.

(also, when I do manage to boot successfully and then restart, the artifacts on the mobo splash screen also disappear. This makes me think it could possibly be OS related)

I am completely baffled as to what this is, and frankly hate the thought of having to replace components to get rid of it as I've already spent so much goddamn time on this comp. I just want it to work like its supposed to.

If you guys have any idea what this issue is being caused by, please for the love of god help me out. its driving me crazy. If you need any more information I'll be glad provide it or clarify what i've already said. Thanks guys.
 
The only time I ever had an issue with artifacts appearing all over the screen and a hanging PC, after thinking the mobo or RAM was going bad, or the BIOS was going goofy, it all boiled down to one thing-- the memory on my video card was going bad.. Replaced the card and that solved the whole issue.

I'd say save yourself a lot of stress and borrow or buy a cheap replacement video card and put it in there, see if that does the trick.
 
you know, i think you may be right about it being the video ram specifically. I'm not sure why but that seems to make sense for whatever reason. But the thing i'm wondering is how something with the video card could keep windows from starting. In any case, I might seriously consider RMA'ing this card.
 
This is a good example of why it's not a good idea to (buy, and) throw parts at a computer. What you need to do is take it to a local shop and pay them the $60 fee to diagnose what component is failing. It's obviously hardware related. Then you can replace it yourself if you are comfortable doing so.
 
Ive had memory go bad on 2 video cards in the past 7 yrs....both did very similar things to what you are saying except they both would fuck up in games as well...so I guess Im really not much help here.
 
well, ever since this issues happened to me at the time of my original post, I have been able to boot again and am now running my system at complete default settings with no oc whatsoever. Interestingly enough, the error has not happened even though my comp has been on virtually 24/7 since then. Since I'm thinking its definitely video card related, my only idea as to what has been causing it is something with my oc, namely, the pic-e bus. At default it is 100 mhz, but I had been running it at 110. I'm going to try to apply my OC again with the exception of the pci-e bus and see if it continues to happen. If not, then I may finally solve the mystery.
 
This is a good example of why it's not a good idea to (buy, and) throw parts at a computer. What you need to do is take it to a local shop and pay them the $60 fee to diagnose what component is failing. It's obviously hardware related. Then you can replace it yourself if you are comfortable doing so.

this has nothing to do with my problem. thanks for the opinion, but it really doesn't help me whatsoever.
 
this has nothing to do with my problem. thanks for the opinion, but it really doesn't help me whatsoever.
The suggestion was that it would be best to just take it to a computer shop for component diagnostic than to just start throwing parts at it (which would most likely be the outcome of asking for advice here). If the problem was more limited it would be easier to diagnose through written help. ;)
 
At default it is 100 mhz, but I had been running it at 110. I'm going to try to apply my OC again with the exception of the pci-e bus and see if it continues to happen. If not, then I may finally solve the mystery.

Yea...don't overclock your PCI-E bus...it doesn't do anything for your system and is likely to cause issues.
 
The suggestion was that it would be best to just take it to a computer shop for component diagnostic than to just start throwing parts at it (which would most likely be the outcome of asking for advice here). If the problem was more limited it would be easier to diagnose through written help. ;)

I suppose that the reason I disregarded your suggestion is that I highly doubt any local computer store - fry's, microcenter, etc - would be able to help as I usually seem to be the one educating them about components whenever I shop there. The only person I did talk to about this issue was an EVGA tech support guy, who, when I described my issue, said "wow, that's really really weird" and then suggested I do an RMA, which is what I might end up doing if this pci-e oc thing isn't the cause.

I think I construed your comment as something along the lines of - "this is why you don't build your own pc you should go to a store and buy one". sorry for the confusion.
 
I think I construed your comment as something along the lines of - "this is why you don't build your own pc you should go to a store and buy one". sorry for the confusion.
I always build my own systems :p If I have a problem I can't fix, I take it in. I generally don't just drop it off an say 'fix this', I tell them what I want tested and generally am right. But I would rather be safe than sorry and try to fix something that's not broke.
 
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