Flashing the bios

thedude23

thedude23

thedude23

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11 Jul 2009
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Hi
I need to buy a new power supply for my computer as it keeps shutting down,when I start it up it will shut down again and then sometimes it wont even come on for a while.Also It could be working grand and then It will just randomly shut down,very annoying.

I've also decided to buy a new harddrive and get windows 7,I was watching a video on youtube of where a guy took out his old harddrive and swapped it for a new one but while windows was installing he got a corrupt file error and had to flash the bios?I'm just wondering is this something I'll have to do too?and how hard is it to do?
 
What are the specs of your pc and include PSU size, make and model.

There have been the odd occasion to update the BIOS but you should be ok, what hard drive were you after, this will allow use to make a better judgment.
 
You don't need to flash your BIOS. Either did the guy on Youtube. A corrupt file during a windows install has nothing to do with your BIOS what so ever.

Chances are your PSU is gone. I presume that's what RJC was about to get at by asking the make and model etc.
 
RJC said:
What are the specs of your pc and include PSU size, make and model.

There have been the odd occasion to update the BIOS but you should be ok, what hard drive were you after, this will allow use to make a better judgment.
Click to expand...


windows vista 32bit
4 gigs ram
gtx 260 896mb
quad core 9330 @2.50ghz

PSU Is A Antec TruePower Quattro 850 - UK - power supply - 850 Watt,not sure what you mean by size?Dimensions?

Harddrive I'm after is this one not sure what version of windows 7 to get but I want it to be a 64bit version so I can get full use of the 4 gigs of ram.

Thanks for the help.
 
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Your PSU is plenty for your system and would be surprised if this is coursing you problems, but can't rule this out at the moment.

Have tried any stress testing and run mem test to see if you have any general stability problems and possibly faulty memory.

850w is the size I was after;)

Is there a possibility of testing parts in a another machine.

Your hard drive link does not work, could you look on the Ocuk website and link to there as this rules out any competitor rules.
 
RJC said:
Your PSU is plenty for your system and would be surprised if this is coursing you problems, but can't rule this out at the moment.

Have tried any stress testing and run mem test to see if you have any general stability problems and possibly faulty memory.

850w is the size I was after;)

Is there a possibility of testing parts in a another machine.

Your hard drive link does not work, could you look on the Ocuk website and link to there as this rules out any competitor rules.
Click to expand...

Oh crap I forgot you cant link to competitors :o


I dont have another machine to test parts in :( so your saying it may not be the power supply after all?haven't tried any stress testing or mem testing of any sort,how do I do this?
 
Use the second link in the link below for mem test, this will create a bootable cd and run from startup, you would need to set your DVD drive as the boot drive in the BIOS.

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Download Prime 95 this will run in windows and stress your pc.

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

Link in centre of screen.

I don't think it's the PSU but if you can swop and test it in a different system that would help with the fault finding.
 
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RJC said:
Use the second link in the link below for mem test, this will create a bootable cd and run from startup, you would need to set your DVD drive as the boot drive in the BIOS.

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Download Prime 95 this will run in windows and stress your pc.

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

Link in centre of screen.

I don't think it's the PSU but if you can swop and test it in a different system that would help with the fault finding.
Click to expand...

So if its not the psu,what could be causing it do you think?like its working grand now at the moment but sometimes it cuts out and then when I start it up again it will get to the windows loading screen and die and then I try to start it up again and it will start up for about 5 seconds and die and then sometimes it wont start up for ages when I press the power button,very annoying at this stage :mad:

I appreciate your help though.
 
thedude23 said:
So if its not the psu,what could be causing it do you think?like its working grand now at the moment but sometimes it cuts out and then when I start it up again it will get to the windows loading screen and die and then I try to start it up again and it will start up for about 5 seconds and die and then sometimes it wont start up for ages when I press the power button,very annoying at this stage :mad:

I appreciate your help though.
Click to expand...

This is the fun and games of fault finding, you may have a faulty component like memory, by running the programs you can hopefully get a idea of what the problem is, if mem test shows errors or your system shuts down during stress testing with Prime as this would put load on psu.

This is were the 2nd pc comes in handy, as you can move parts around and see if the fault moves.
Your system would only pull 300w tops from the mains at full load.

My uncle had a faulty power supply and this coursed mem test errors and failed prime, changed the psu with his daughters pc and the system worked fine.
 
Well my initial thought was the PSU. However as it's been revelaed it is indeed a quality branded PSU, especially Antec! Then It may be another issue.

When you say, "cut's out" Do you mean, totally cuts out as if the power cable was pulled? Or do you receive any warning/error messages, blue screens at all?

I've never heard of RAM causing a computer to completely cut out without giving any wanring. Faulty RAM always in my experience gives blue screens.

Check your temperatures of your CPU and GPU. Download coretemp and or/HW monitor. Then report back the temperature of your CPU/GPU.

If it's overheating it will cut out to protect itself.

So possible contenders are.

1. PSU
2. Overheating
3. A faulty reset switch on the case. I've seen this on two occasions where the reset switch was faulty and caused the system to "cut out."

P.S. Please list your full system spec, including all expansion cards.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
When you say, "cut's out" Do you mean, totally cuts out as if the power cable was pulled? Or do you receive any warning/error messages, blue screens at all?
Click to expand...

Ya totally cuts out,no warning what so ever.I was playing shogun there and it totally cut out.

Buchanan0204 said:
I've never heard of RAM causing a computer to completely cut out without giving any wanring. Faulty RAM always in my experience gives blue screens.

Check your temperatures of your CPU and GPU. Download coretemp and or/HW monitor. Then report back the temperature of your CPU/GPU.

If it's overheating it will cut out to protect itself.

So possible contenders are.

1. PSU
2. Overheating
3. A faulty reset switch on the case. I've seen this on two occasions where the reset switch was faulty and caused the system to "cut out."

P.S. Please list your full system spec, including all expansion cards.
Click to expand...



windows vista 32bit
4 gigs ram
gtx 260 896mb
quad core 9330 @2.50ghz

what do you mean by expansion cards?
 
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Actually have core temp downloaded already.

Untitled111111111.jpg
 
You forgot.... Hard Drive and Motherboard. Expansion cards are things like, Wifi cards, tv cards etc etc. PCI cards. Peripheral Component Interface to be fancy :) The slots on the mobo where you add other things.

When doing a print screen, just use the snipping tool in windows 7. Saves capturing the whole screen. Temps look fine for cpu. Whats gpu like?
 
Buchanan0204 said:
You forgot.... Hard Drive and Motherboard. Expansion cards are things like, Wifi cards, tv cards etc etc. PCI cards. Peripheral Component Interface to be fancy :) The slots on the mobo where you add other things.

When doing a print screen, just use the snipping tool in windows 7. Saves capturing the whole screen. Temps look fine for cpu. Whats gpu like?
Click to expand...

I'm using vista unfortunately :)

Motherboard is a MAXIMUS II FORMULA S775 P45 ATX SND+2XGLN+U2+1394 FSB1600 SATA2R IN

and

harddrive is a HD Caviar SE/160GB SATA II 7200rpm 8MB

How do I check the gpu temp?

Oh I dont have any expansion cards.
 
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