Pc sos

Discussion in 'General Software and Applications' started by Law, Jan 31, 2011.

  1. Law

    Law Active Member

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    Hey Guys,

    I have managed to break my pc in a new and wonderful way and was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers as to what the problem might be, I'll list symptoms and cause and what my friends think it is!

    Primary Symptom: The pc boots up no prob but when it does the sound is way off, stuttering would be the best description and the clock loses time. Video's cannot be played, though I have not tried a CD from the DVD drive, I doubt it'll work. Screens open and close as though laggy, there are always system resources available according to Task Manager.

    Secondary Symptom: Something interesting that I noticed is when I was playing Demigod I was using both EVGA precision and GPU-Z, my FPS were >50, yet I could see the graphical lag and the sound was corrupting (this particular time it started ok and got worse over a 15 minute period).

    Cause: I downloaded Darkfall to try and after playing for about 2 minutes the game (not the pc) crashes out with a msg about the clocks not syncing, and low and behold I notice that my clock is wrong (did not realize it was loosing time then) as well as my sound being funky.

    What my friends think:
    They reckon it has changed some BIOS settings somehow, or done something to the gfx card, though I uninstalled and re-installed the gfx drivers, I also updated the sound drivers to the Creative Audigy SE 2009 drivers which are the newest I can find. Could a BIOS problem be stopping it from all working in sync?

    This problem doesn't present itself on every boot up, just the majority.

    Thanks in advance,

    Law.
     
  2. Watcher

    Watcher Ancient Guru

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    System time is the motherboards responsibility?

    How long has the PC been in operation.

    Remove any and all over clocking.

    Reseat all PC components, meaning remove and reinstall all expansion boards, video boards and memory.

    What antivirus are you using?

    Have you run a Malware scan?

    Have you run a memory test?

    You can update / reset the bios as well. Make sure to write down the bios settings before you update / reset the bios.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2011
  3. Law

    Law Active Member

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    I have had the pc for about 1.5 years

    I haven't C'd anything because it delivers on the games I want to play.

    I can do that, only memory, gfx card and sound card though.

    I use the paid for version of AVG.

    I have run a full Malware Bytes scan but only a partial Ad-aware scan (both free version), all clean.

    I haven't run a memory test yet, I was intending to dl memtest86+ and use that though.

    Never played with BIOS, will try though (after looking for instruction on the web).

    Cheers,

    Law.
     
  4. Law

    Law Active Member

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    Ok an update and a plea for help!

    I installed a retail version of Win 7 64 bit on my pc, putting it on a new HD that had never before been used. I un-hooked the old HD from the system, first I installed Netgear and then I installed AVG, after AVG installation the same problem came back. I am updating AVG currently in the vain hope it fixes itself. I haven't installed any sound or gfx drivers yet, my order of installation was always gonna be netgear -> AVG -> Drivers -> a game to test.

    It seems to me with my limited knowledge that either AVG is the cause of my broblems on 2 different OS's or the BIOS needs looking at.

    The only other sympton seems to be my monitor crackling briefly every now and then. I can loose up to 20 seconds a minute on my clock.

    Any ideas?

    Law.
     

  5. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    Its easy to verify if the BIOS settings are the problem, reset the CMOS.

    Its worth measuring the voltage of the CMOS battery, it should be above 3V.
    When at low voltage it can cause instability with some motherboards.
     
  6. Law

    Law Active Member

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    Well it wasn't AVG as the problem persists without it. I will check the CMOS.

    Any tips on updating BIOS?

    Law.
     
  7. Watcher

    Watcher Ancient Guru

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    Last edited: Feb 13, 2011
  8. Law

    Law Active Member

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    Well I have been slow sorting my problem out but still at it!

    Quick synopsis: The clock loses time, up to 15 seconds a minute, this is a intermittent problem, showing itself about 2/3 rd the time I turn it on. This causes alot of knock on effects like serious system lag. The clock does not lose time when switched off, I have replaced the CMOS battery ...

    I bought Win 7 and put it onto a brand new HD and the problem persists, however I cannot get the problem to show in Safe Mode ... I have updated BIOS.

    I know it isn't the sound card because it still occurs when the soundcard is in/out, can't check the gfx card atm but had it out and back in. Gonna pull the RAM out one stick at a time and see if that helps. Should I un-plug the floppy and DVD drives?

    I think it is the mobo packing up on me tbh, nearly at the point of ordering a new one now.

    Any other ideas? The fact that it doesn't show in safe mode and is intermittent is interesting, especially on a brand new install of new OS!

    Law.
     
  9. Watcher

    Watcher Ancient Guru

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    Well, you have eliminated the hard drive and the OS. :)

    It's odd the motherboard doesn't always loose time? It should not matter if you are in safe mode or not?

    I can't see the video card causing the issue but of course you can't be 100% sure until you try.

    Let's try stressing the CPU and see what happens?


    System Stability Tester

    http://www.majorgeeks.com/System_Stability_Tester_d5894.html

    or

    Prime95 26.5 Build 5

    http://www.majorgeeks.com/Prime95_d4363.html


    Report back.

    You may also want to contact the motherboard manufacture for there take on what you are experiencing.
     
  10. Law

    Law Active Member

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    OK, update.

    I still haven't tested my gfx card, I grabbed a male male VGA from work by accident.

    I took out one stick of RAM and started it, problems. I put in the other stick of RAM in the unused RAM slots (I have 4 and was only using 2, now I put it in one of the 2 that I have never used). I got a CMOS settings wrong msg. I ignored it (went into BIOS and did nothing), took 4 attempts for the problem to show up.

    I put the other stick of RAM into the corresponding slot and now I got CMOS settings wrong and CMOS date/time not set. I set the date time but when I turned on the machine the date time was about 3 years behind, so set that. I also got a message saying "An unsupported operation was attempted" It had the code WG111v3. This seems to be something to do with my netgear wireless adapter.

    I still haven't pressed F2 which loads defaults, nor have I selected the option to optimize settings in BIOS. I have as default the BIOS settings that protect BIOS turned off, should I turn them on? (one I think protects BIOS from changes and one from virus).

    I ran the system stability tester several times, here is one of the tests

    Calculating 1048576 digits of pi
    -----------------------------------------
    Turn: 5 Errors: 0 Threads: 1
    Running For: 0h 0m 0.000s ChkErr: 0
    Failed After: No fail yet
    -----------------------------------------
    Loop Digits State Time
    ---------------------------------
    0 2 N/A 0h 0m 1.714s
    1 4 N/A 0h 0m 3.213s
    2 8 N/A 0h 0m 4.606s
    3 16 N/A 0h 0m 6.261s
    4 32 N/A 0h 0m 7.761s
    5 64 N/A 0h 0m 9.219s
    6 128 N/A 0h 0m 10.699s
    7 256 N/A 0h 0m 12.122s
    8 512 N/A 0h 0m 13.779s
    9 1K N/A 0h 0m 15.312s
    10 2K N/A 0h 0m 16.641s
    11 4K N/A 0h 0m 18.080s
    12 8K N/A 0h 0m 19.563s
    13 16K N/A 0h 0m 20.897s
    14 32K N/A 0h 0m 22.334s
    15 64K N/A 0h 0m 23.789s
    16 128K N/A 0h 0m 25.445s
    17 256K N/A 0h 0m 27.014s
    18 512K N/A 0h 0m 28.653s
    19 1M N/A 0h 0m 29.362s
    Checksum validation...Borwein PASSED!!!


    Here si the Guass-Leg

    Calculating 1048576 digits of pi
    -----------------------------------------
    Turn: 6 Errors: 0 Threads: 1
    Running For: 0h 0m 0.000s ChkErr: 0
    Failed After: No fail yet
    -----------------------------------------
    Loop Digits State Time
    ---------------------------------
    0 1 N/A 0h 0m 0.807s
    1 2 N/A 0h 0m 1.260s
    2 4 N/A 0h 0m 1.838s
    3 8 N/A 0h 0m 2.415s
    4 16 N/A 0h 0m 2.995s
    5 32 N/A 0h 0m 3.577s
    6 64 N/A 0h 0m 4.137s
    7 128 N/A 0h 0m 4.713s
    8 256 N/A 0h 0m 5.342s
    9 512 N/A 0h 0m 5.922s
    10 1K N/A 0h 0m 6.481s
    11 2K N/A 0h 0m 7.063s
    12 4K N/A 0h 0m 7.645s
    13 8K N/A 0h 0m 8.208s
    14 16K N/A 0h 0m 8.839s
    15 32K N/A 0h 0m 9.429s
    16 64K N/A 0h 0m 10.056s
    17 128K N/A 0h 0m 10.632s
    18 256K N/A 0h 0m 11.247s
    19 512K N/A 0h 0m 11.797s
    20 1M N/A 0h 0m 12.382s
    Checksum validation...Gauss PASSED!!!


    I am going to go and check the other piece of software out you recommended now!

    Cheers,

    Law.
     

  11. Law

    Law Active Member

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    Hey,

    Here are the results from my 2p-1 test.

    [Mar 1 20:16] Worker starting
    [Mar 1 20:16] Setting affinity to run worker on logical CPU #0
    [Mar 1 20:16] Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
    [Mar 1 20:16] Please read stress.txt. Choose Test/Stop to end this test.

    [Mar 1 20:16] Test 1, 7800 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M9961473 using Core2 type-2 FFT length 512K, Pass1=512, Pass2=1K.

    [Mar 1 20:18] Test 2, 7800 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M9961471 using Core2 type-3 FFT length 512K, Pass1=512, Pass2=1K.

    [Mar 1 20:19] Test 3, 7800 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M9837183 using Core2 type-2 FFT length 512K, Pass1=512, Pass2=1K.

    [Mar 1 20:21] Test 4, 7800 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M9737185 using Core2 type-3 FFT length 512K, Pass1=512, Pass2=1K.

    [Mar 1 20:21] Torture Test completed 3 tests in 4 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.

    [Mar 1 20:21] Worker stopped.

    edit
    I just read the length of time this test should run for, so I'll go make dinner and leave it running!

    Both of these tests were run whilst my machine was showing no problems however. I intend to reboot and run them both again whilst the issue shows.

    Cheers,

    Law.
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2011
  12. Law

    Law Active Member

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    I ran the 2p-1 for 46 minutes, completed 31 tests with 0 errors or warnings from either core. I am now gonna reboot so the problem is in evidence and try again.

    Ok, so no CMOS errors on boot up this time but the problem is apparent, lost 25 seconds over 1 minute on the clock!

    Ran the System Stability and both results are fine over 1M, with the Borwenian being 5 seconds faster!

    Did a 4M Guass-Leg and it took 1m 5secs, the Borwenian took 2 mins 16 seconds.

    Now doing the 2p-1 and will update after 30 mins or so ... The 2p-1 test has all 'pass' results, however Worker #1 is slower than worker #2; on average worker #2 (I assume core 2) is a 1.5 tests ahead of worker #1. Also my gadget tells me that one core is running at 100% and another is running at 71% though Task Manager tells me CPU 0 and CPU 1 are both running at 100%!

    Is that the kind of information that is usefully generated?! :)

    All this was during a bad boot up, so sound and clock both lagged as do video's and general system tasks. I have the up to date drivers for everything because I just installed them from the appropriate web sites this week!

    Sent a msg to foxconn asking for advice!

    Cheers,

    Law.
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2011
  13. Watcher

    Watcher Ancient Guru

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    I was hoping to see errors or some kind?

    It's not an over heating issue since you can run the test without the computer crashing.

    You can try Unpluging and repluging all connectors on the Motherboard.

    You know, it may just be the motherboard.

    Let me know what Foxconn says.
     
  14. Law

    Law Active Member

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    The tests ran for 46 mins and 39 mins respectively, should I leave it for longer? Though tbh if it boots up with the problem I'd prolly quickly crash if it was overheating. I have a massive Zalman copper heatsink fan on my cpu, it's a beast (or I think so), so should do the trick!

    No errors, neither when problem shows or when absent. To me it seems the <something> isn't getting the Time right for the OS which causes all the other problems associated with the machine because the timings that all other programmes work off are out; i.e the sound and gfx lag, the slow opening of windows and downloads ...

    I have been pushing them in to make sure they are ok but haven't disconnected and re-connected, will do that Saturday and see what happens. Think I am gonna buy a fairly cheap DDR2 mobo (about £40) and have a go at fitting it tbh ... Unless there is an epiphany or a plug has worked its way loose!

    Cheers,

    Law.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2011
  15. Law

    Law Active Member

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    They said take everything out of chasis, unplug the lot, barebones it and see what happens. They think it might be a dodgy connection; we'll see if they're right or not tomorrow ...

    Law.
     

  16. Watcher

    Watcher Ancient Guru

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    They = Foxconn ? Let me know what you find. You can always point Foxconn to this thread so they can read what work you have already done.

    Good Luck

    Watcher
     
  17. Law

    Law Active Member

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    I fixed it ... phew ...

    I cba to un plug and re plug everything when I did not think it would make a difference so I bought a cheap micro ATX mobo to see if that was the problem Asus P5QPL-AM Intel G41 (Socket 775) DDR2 microATX Motherboard [90-MIB8E0-G0EAY0KZ]

    Dismantled and rebuilt the beast (first time for me) and put back in the relevant drivers and anti virus and it works, at least it has been through 4 restarts so far and not evidenced the problem, so I hope I am not counting my chickens before hatching, so to speak!

    Cheers for your advice Watcher, appreciated :) I might also run a few of those programmes you recommended to ensure system stability given the rebuild, and make sure I didn't mess up with the thermal paste! I put to much on the first time and had to scrape some off, still should be plenty left.

    :cheers:

    Law.
     
  18. Watcher

    Watcher Ancient Guru

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    That was a very odd problem.

    Congrats on your successful repair of your PC.

    Till next time.
     

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