Home » General Discussions » General Discussion » Computer trouble
| Computer trouble [message #184757] |
Thu, 05 January 2006 06:17  |
Kanezor
Messages: 855
Registered: February 2005
Location: Sugar Land, TX, USA
Karma: 0
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I am posting this from my old Mac, with Mac OS 9 and Internet Explorer 4.5, I'm sure you all agree that this is a rather last-choice computer to use.
I woke up yesterday afternoon after a nap to find that my computer had apparently frozen. I shut it off and then turned it back on, and nothing appeared on the screen. I unplugged all of my extra hard drives thinking maybe one of them went bad, but that did not help. I then took out all of my add-in cards except for my graphics card, that also did not help. I do not have a restore CD to try to boot off of, if it will even boot at all.
The screens do not activate at all, even for the POST messages. Before I turn it in for warranty (eg, processor/memory/motherboard went bad -- glad I got the extended warranty, as the manufacturer's warranty just ran out two weeks ago), do any of you know anything I can do to try to get it working again?
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184775 is a reply to message #184762] |
Thu, 05 January 2006 09:27  |
Kanezor
Messages: 855
Registered: February 2005
Location: Sugar Land, TX, USA
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| Sir Phoenixx wrote on Thu, 05 January 2006 08:54 |
Can you try another monitor or graphics card? Maybe one of those died.
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I just tried swapping the monitor configuration, which did not work. I then tried swapping out my new video card for the one which it was shipped with, and that one also did not come up, on either monitor.
Also, I did not mention this before, but the hard drive access LED never turns off, even after 5-10 minutes of being left on (which should be plenty of time for my copy of Windows XP Pro to boot in "headless" mode, eg without a monitor). Could that possibly be an indication of hardware failure?
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184781 is a reply to message #184757] |
Thu, 05 January 2006 11:30 |
icedog90
Messages: 3483
Registered: April 2003
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General (3 Stars) |
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The last thing I suggest doing before you send it out is to leave it alone for half of the day and then try turning it on. I've seen two cases of this where after crashing it won't boot at all until left for a long while. For me to have a better understanding, does your computer beep at all when you turn it on?
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184817 is a reply to message #184797] |
Thu, 05 January 2006 15:52 |
icedog90
Messages: 3483
Registered: April 2003
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General (3 Stars) |
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| trooprm02 wrote on Thu, 05 January 2006 12:57 |
Try running it in safe mode, if then the desktops shown, then you either have a faulty registry or video driver 
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He can't boot, period. That means that when he turns on his computer, nothing happens and there is no display.
[Updated on: Thu, 05 January 2006 15:53] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184878 is a reply to message #184757] |
Fri, 06 January 2006 05:09 |
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Scythar
Messages: 580
Registered: February 2003
Location: Finland
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1. Make sure the power switch wire is attached to motherboard.
2. Have you unplugged the powercord at any time? Try it if not.
3. Since it crashed before this, it really does sound like it overheated or something just plain broke. Take it to techies if you can't test it yourself with spare parts.
There's a hole in the sky through which things can fly.
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184883 is a reply to message #184757] |
Fri, 06 January 2006 06:39 |
mision08
Messages: 525
Registered: May 2005
Location: Cattle Drive, Dallas to F...
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Pull all of your memory modules out, along with the CMOS battery. Let it sit for 24 hours to make damn sure it clears. Try to POST with one module at a time. If it fails to POST, move the module to another slot. Repeat this through all the slots, then through all the modules. What MOBO, memory, video card, PSU, HDD and HDD setup is it? Take a close look at the MOBO for burn marks on mosfits, around the chip, or anything with a heatsink on it, memory slots and so on.
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I then tried swapping out my new video card for the one which it was shipped with, and that one also did not come up, on either monitor.
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What new video card? Also, what was the computer doing when you laid down to take a nap? Why are you taking a nap? Are you sick?
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[Updated on: Fri, 06 January 2006 07:12] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184924 is a reply to message #184757] |
Fri, 06 January 2006 12:37 |
Kanezor
Messages: 855
Registered: February 2005
Location: Sugar Land, TX, USA
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I have in fact unplugged it, every time I removed anything internal. It would be rather silly to leave it plugged in while adding/removing hardware, don't you think?
My computer shipped with a GeForce 5300 FX. I purchased a Radeon X800XL about 4-6 months ago.
I am in fact coming down sick, which is why I took the nap. The computer was relatively idle when I took the nap; it had a number of dormant programs as well as mIRC, MSN Messenger, and three copies of SphtBotv3 running.
I did briefly look for scorch marks, and did not find anything. It is dual-channel RAM, which if I remember correctly means that RAM must be inserted in pairs, of which I only have one pair. I have not tried swapping out the RAM into different slots.
I called tech support, and they said that it's probably a dead motherboard. But, unfortunately they cannot fix the machine until I've faxed in a correction to a mistake that the retailer made when I purchased the machine (& warranty) a little over a year ago, which I just completed. It will take them three business days to make the changes necessary, and then however long it takes to fix the machine. I'm looking at it being down for probably another week. 
sux to be me
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184931 is a reply to message #184927] |
Fri, 06 January 2006 13:25 |
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Scythar
Messages: 580
Registered: February 2003
Location: Finland
Karma: 0
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| icedog90 wrote on Fri, 06 January 2006 14:53 |
Dual channel isn't a certain type of memory, it's two sticks of DDR that are both exactly the same and are being effectively doubled in bandwidth from the RAM to the CPU.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_channel
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Actually, the bandwidth is only doubled between the RAM and memory controller. There's still only one frontside bus (between CPU and chipset), which is exactly why dual channel doesn't bring such a huge performance increase in AMD chips than Intel, since AMD doesn't have as fast FSB and it creates a bottleneck. Intel's fast 800 Mhz(= 2x DDR400 speed) is great for dual channel arcitechture.
kanezor, do the fans start to spin when you boot it up? Or if not, can you check externally if the CPU fan works? (with battery or something).
There's a hole in the sky through which things can fly.
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184934 is a reply to message #184931] |
Fri, 06 January 2006 13:56 |
icedog90
Messages: 3483
Registered: April 2003
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General (3 Stars) |
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| Scythar wrote on Fri, 06 January 2006 12:25 |
| icedog90 wrote on Fri, 06 January 2006 14:53 |
Dual channel isn't a certain type of memory, it's two sticks of DDR that are both exactly the same and are being effectively doubled in bandwidth from the RAM to the CPU.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_channel
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Actually, the bandwidth is only doubled between the RAM and memory controller. There's still only one frontside bus (between CPU and chipset), which is exactly why dual channel doesn't bring such a huge performance increase in AMD chips than Intel, since AMD doesn't have as fast FSB and it creates a bottleneck. Intel's fast 800 Mhz(= 2x DDR400 speed) is great for dual channel arcitechture.
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I knew someone would jump in and attempt to correct me because I said "bandwidth". I was talking about the bits, not the actual bandwidth. Utilizing two 64-bit channels, it results in a total bandwidth of 128 bits for moving from the RAM to the CPU.
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184952 is a reply to message #184934] |
Fri, 06 January 2006 19:32 |
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Scythar
Messages: 580
Registered: February 2003
Location: Finland
Karma: 0
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Colonel |
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| icedog90 wrote on Fri, 06 January 2006 15:56 |
| Scythar wrote on Fri, 06 January 2006 12:25 |
| icedog90 wrote on Fri, 06 January 2006 14:53 |
Dual channel isn't a certain type of memory, it's two sticks of DDR that are both exactly the same and are being effectively doubled in bandwidth from the RAM to the CPU.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_channel
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Actually, the bandwidth is only doubled between the RAM and memory controller. There's still only one frontside bus (between CPU and chipset), which is exactly why dual channel doesn't bring such a huge performance increase in AMD chips than Intel, since AMD doesn't have as fast FSB and it creates a bottleneck. Intel's fast 800 Mhz(= 2x DDR400 speed) is great for dual channel arcitechture.
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I knew someone would jump in and attempt to correct me because I said "bandwidth". I was talking about the bits, not the actual bandwidth. Utilizing two 64-bit channels, it results in a total bandwidth of 128 bits for moving from the RAM to the CPU.
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There isn't a straight databus between RAM and CPU, it all goes through the chipset.
The problem is that the FSB(CPU<->chipset) is only 64-bit, so the uber1337 2x64-bit dual channel memory(Chipset<->RAM) bus can't fit through the FSB, causing a bottleneck, and nowhere near 2x transfer rates.
This is becoming obsolete info when 128-bit FSB is becoming more common or there's some other new tech stuff involved, but anyone with Athlon XP-family CPU, for example, will not benefit all that much from dual channel.
There's a hole in the sky through which things can fly.
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184964 is a reply to message #184757] |
Sat, 07 January 2006 02:56 |
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Looks like I ran out of luck too, I think my graphics card has been running without a working fan during the last day, which explains why I was hearing my PC beeping while I was playing RA:APB.
And this new BIOS update isn't helping either, it underclocks my RAM and there's nothing I can do about it.
FUCK
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| Re: Computer trouble [message #184965 is a reply to message #184757] |
Sat, 07 January 2006 03:16 |
Kanezor
Messages: 855
Registered: February 2005
Location: Sugar Land, TX, USA
Karma: 0
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Colonel |
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My mistake about dual channel RAM. Yes, the fans still work when powered, without any changes by me.
I figure that by now, there probably is something fucked up about the processor/RAM/motherboard/something else. Since I don't have any extra parts lying around like some people keep suggesting, that really limits my opportunities for troubleshooting, especially since I'm not going to spend the extra buck (that I don't have) to try to troubleshoot it myself when it's still under warranty, let alone the fact that I don't really feel comfortable swapping a lot of stuff in & out besides the add-in cards -- I'm afraid of breaking something which would void the warranty.
Thanks for all of your help, there's not much else to do now but wait.
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