pc problems

[giga191]

about a week ago my pc shut itself down for whatever reason, and i noticed that the power supply had gotten very hot but wasn't sure if this was what caused it. I then ran some tests with some software and it showed 15v on my 12v line and 2.6vcore. I then bought a new power supply, then tried the tests again but it showed the same results. I then tried some different software which showed the correct results of 2.3v and 12v. However the dodgy sound and slower loading times were still showing up while gaming. I then replaced my onboard sound with a PCI soundcard, which fixed the sound problem, but i still find that it takes longer to load windows and games. Anyone have any idea what could be causing this type of problem?

[cl0wn]

Check'd for spywear/malwear? that usually slows down the pc..... ad-aware should solve that problem..

[giga191]

i've reformatted too, not that i ever have any serious infections but it was more in attempt to clear any corrupt data

[IceStorm]

Check the drive cabling and the drive using the manufacturer's fitness test.

I just built a replacment for my gaming box. After one of the regular install-crap-and-reboot reboots, the machine got stuck at the graphical XP loading screen. The fault? SATA power cable had started to work loose.

[james_finn]

giga what temps is your PC running at CPU Core Mobo etc. because I have had a nice stable OC on my Optey 144 since xmas, yet now that the heat has come Ive had to lower the timings on my RAM, it was doing some really funky stuff like crashing and making memory errors, now Im back stable.

So post some temps and maybe we can have a guess as to whats wrong! Also the SATA cable thing is a common problem, ive had to buy new cables before because they dont work very well at a 90 degree angle!

Delphi

[giga191]

giga what temps is your PC running at CPU Core Mobo etc. because I have had a nice stable OC on my Optey 144 since xmas, yet now that the heat has come Ive had to lower the timings on my RAM, it was doing some really funky stuff like crashing and making memory errors, now Im back stable.

So post some temps and maybe we can have a guess as to whats wrong! Also the SATA cable thing is a common problem, ive had to buy new cables before because they dont work very well at a 90 degree angle!

Delphii think it was 54/36 yesterday with my house fan blowing on it with NC running, and i do have a sata HD so the cable could be the fault. i'll properly check the idle/load temps when i get home

[SizZLeR]

i think it was 54/36 yesterday with my house fan blowing on it with NC running, and i do have a sata HD so the cable could be the fault. i'll properly check the idle/load temps when i get home

Try and chk your disk controller setup, if it in BIOS is set to a low DMA mode itll slow down the disk.

Also if u use Maxtor disk, u can try their acoustic management program thats meant to compromise between speed and noise produced by the drive.

What it does is simply letting u choose between 3 settings, its simply a matter of speed vs noise, so setting 1 would be most speed most noise, setting 2 would be less speed and less noise and so on..

Next when u chked your BIOS settings, chk windows settings by going to hardware management and rightclick the disk controller and choose properties, in there u can adjust the access settings, windows might have turned the access settings to a lower setting, it does that if it encounters read/write errors on the drive in order to protect the system from crashing.

However sometimes windows is a little itchy and downgrade the access setting without it being really necessary, just choose "Controlled by BIOS" in the dropdown menu and make sure your BIOS is set to run at the fastest mode. :)

If u cant find the settings for the disk controller, it might be because u havent installed the appropriate driver, if so, go to your MB manufacturers website and get the latest drivers for your MB and install them. :)

If u r running antivirus software that can be the reason too, cause most antivirus software performs scans whenever u boot windows and when u run an app.

Chk the antivirus settings and try temporarily disabling it and see if it solves the problem.

Good luck :)

[Spermy]

I'm Throwing around heat as an excuse due to my recent issues. Indeedly, thermal paste and lowering of speeds helped clear it up, although, I seem to be getting slowdowns and farts during the hotter parts of the day.

[hnlecter]

I don't know if this happens for the same reason as his, but neocron has introduced me to this neat bug which while playing it restarts my whole computer once or twice per day. Now I have played other games for extended periods of time and this bug seems very exclusive to neocron.

[giga191]

idle temps are 40/35, so it seems to be working properly, although i remember that the CPU is usually 35 but i suppose the difference could be coming from the hot weather. anyway, my pc isn't functioning horribly right now, so i suppose i can live with it.

[giga191]

i think it must be a problem with the motherboard, since the onboard sound is very bad quality even when it's first switched on. would asus replace my motherboard under these circumstances?

[IceStorm]

Can't hurt to ask. They RMAed a 2+ year old Ti4200 for me and I got an FX5700 back. They seem to be pretty good on RMA, but you may need to send it in before you'll get a new board back.