Long string of problems with a new system

Harlon

Harlon

Harlon

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Joined
24 Nov 2009
Posts
47
RIght recently i decided to get myself a new machine and not knowing that much i based what i bought on this rather helpful thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18060182

from that i went ahead i bought
most items from the £700 intel build with the exception of the case and the PSU
bobobo.jpg


with that i transfered these into the new machine
Corsair VX 450W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-450VXUK)
Pioneer DVR-212DBK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM

now i find that my PSU cant handle the 4890 which is warming up a little to much for comfort so i decided to swap it back over for the old X1950 PRO

So now everything is set up i pop in XP PRO and install that followed by the drivers for the mobo
Problems start when i try to install the drivers for the X1950 from the CD which it came with at a certain stage which is roughly 15% ish on the progress bar (estimated) the machine desides its not happy and reboots without any warning
when its finished i look into the add/remove programs window and ofcourse the ATI drivers havnt installed, so i try to download the drivers from the ATI site and get the latest version of CCC i start installing that and the machine throws another hissy fit.
In vain i attempt to use the install fle from the ATI site one more time when it decides to comply to my request.

So next i decided to install World of warcraft next and while installing at 3% my lovely new build decides once again its not happy and reboots itself
Now this time i get an error where windows tells me it has encountered a critical error and had to shut down i try to find out more info and i get nothing

If anyone has advice or questions that may help me fix this i would be extreemly grateful as right now i have no idea where to start looking to fix this as i dont even know what the problem is
 
One thing i didnt quite point out was that i gave up on windows 7 and chose to go back to win XP for the time being as the drivers i was looking for aparently didnt exist

anyway back on subject i went to ATI's site and looked at the trusted PSUs and got myself a
Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK)

Also im not sure what you meant by running a minimal setup with essential parts?

About the memtest i finaly managed to get it onto a disc and removed the 2nd stick of RAM and ran the test so far its done 1 pass and already im staring at 2500 errors and ill leave it running over night and test the other stick tomorrow

If both sticks turn out to be "faulty" what is the likelyhood its a compatibility issue or just a set or that they are actualy faulty and is it worth me running the tests again after i install the new PSU?
 
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i tried the minmal approach seeing as thats basicaly what i have barring the extra stick of RAM

P1010205.jpg


counting that many errors in so few passes is it worth me continuing the test or should i just move onto the 2nd stick?
 
small update
After running 4 passes n the 1st stick of RAM i was looking at over 10k errors i decided that was probably enough for me to assume that the ram was faulty and i started running the test on the 2nd stick and as expected it poped up with over 7000 errors in just 10 mins on the walltime

also jamie i read what you said but as i pointed out that earlier thats not really my problem at the moment as after i realised my mistake i swapped out the 4890 for an x1950 pro which was working fine in my previous machine so i doubt im overloading the 450W PSU currently
with

Mobo: MSI P55-GD65
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield)
Video card: ATi Radeon X1950 PRO
RAM: OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9
Case: antec 900
HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 160GB
 
right i know what voltage should be applied to the ram but im unsure how i go about actualy checking to see what is being applied
 
Strangely nothing is displayed under the POST screen but thats not an issue

I get into the BIOS and see that the DRAM Voltage(V) is set on [AUTO]
the help menu tells me that the settings are
AUTO: 1.500V
Min: 0.906V
Max: 2.405V
If user keyin voltage BIOS will select the closest value

entering 1.65 results in the bios setting it to 1.651 should i try this and see how i get on or am i rght in thinking that the auto setting of 1.5 should not be any problem?
 
ok so i exit the bios and boot up XP normaly and then my wireless network connection has strangely vanished from the network connecttions list so i go to reboot again and then midway through the process when i get the windows loading screen it reboots itself AGAIN

i really dont know why this is proving to be so difficult the machine i had previously never had any problems at all which suprised me for the 1st computer i ever put to together but this 1 seems to be causing me endless amounts of grief and i have no idea why


Also something ive just picked up on, when im actualy in windows iif i go to system properties it tells me i have 1.99GB of RAM which is strange as i have 2x2GB sticks installed so yet another problem my machine has thrown at me
 
Ok so im going to go though the process of an RMA to sort the ram out and right now it may be suprestition or nonsense but im thinking i want to go back to using corsair RAM as it worked wonderfuly in my previous machine

im wanting to build a gaming machine so if anyone could make any suggestions they would be well recieved

the plan for the new machine so far is thus
build.jpg


i was thinking of one of these
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-196-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-195-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517


now the subtle differences in timings between the first two are lost on me so if anyone could point me in the right direction with any of those 3 or indeed recomend something more suited that would be great
 
Ok so the new PSU and HDD arrived this morning so i thought i would start a fresh

with
Case: antec 900
Mobo: MSI P55-GD65
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield)
Video card: saphire radeon hd4890
RAM: OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9
HDD: Seagate barracuda 7200.12 250GB
PSU: corsair tx750W

the 1st thing i notice is that the video card is stil heating up
tohot.jpg


these 3 points are reaching temps over 45 degrees and thats just from trying to install win XP, im really worried what will happen if i try to load up and play any game

Should i be concerned about my card and if so what is the problem here



next problem im encountering is when i try and install win XP when i get past the point where i enter the serial key time date keyboard settings etc and get a time remaining left to install i come to a blue screen

Does this sound like a RAM problem or is this something else as well

thanks once again for any feedback
 
Ok so after mist recent batch of errors my mind is swinging to the solution that the ram is most certainly faulty
I had read that doing the memtest and getting errors could possily be a compatibility issue but that together with failed tests using windows memory diagnostic as well as the WoW dev team saying error 8 during installation is usualy cuased by a RAM issue not to mention
ramram.jpg

seems to clinch it

So i called up ocuk and they provided me with an rma number to send them back and hopefuly when they test them my suspicions will be proved correct.

meanwhile in the 10 days up to that point which i was told it could take i will be going back to corsair which was what i had in my previous machine
and i went with
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-196-CS
 
JonJ678 said:
A bit hard to follow your thoughts here. It looks like you're throwing money at the problem rather than working out what it is.

The ram is unable to run stably at 1.5V. Since this is what you're asking of it errors are likely, before rma'ing the ram you need to set it to 1.65V (or 1.66, or 1.651) in the bios then run memtest again. If it still errors, at all, it's faulty and must be returned. Even a single error in memtest means faulty, and this could very easily explain all the issues you'd been having before. Things not installing, rebooting etc.

By all means change to corsair ram, but be aware that if you run 1.65V rated corsair at 1.5V you'll get the same issue you did with the ocz. It may or may not set this by default.
Click to expand...

When sr4470 1st asked about the voltage i went a had a look and discovering it wasnt 1.65 i changed it and bios did set it to 1.651
after this memtest still reported over 2000 errors on the 1st pass on one stick and 6000 on the other


JonJ678 said:
The corsair 450W would probably have been fine with the 4890. 33A at 12V should be enough, though it's borderline according to conventional wisdom. Replacing it with a 750W was ludicrously excessive however, unless you want to put another 4890 in the machine. Is it possible to return this on the basis that you made a mistake buying it?
Click to expand...

Somthing i should have looked at a lot more closely was the minimum recomended hardware for the machine ati even say 500W minimum (600 recomended) and the guide i used from the forums had a 500 in the basket list and i thought i could stretch it a little, yes for this getting the 750 was probably like throwing money at the problem but in future i am intending to set up a 2nd 4890 when needs be, i picked it out from the list of certifieds from ati with the idea that i could install a 2nd in future without concern.
 
Like i posted before im happier with the corsair ram (provided its not faulty :P )
maybe purely because its one of those things people like to stick with what they are used to
i was a bit reluctant to get the ocz in the 1st place and i know this is not a fair indication of OCZ as a whole but i think ill just go to what im used to seeing as i had corsair in my 1st build.

If when ocuk test it the ram does indeed turn out to ne faulty (would be extreemly suprised and gobsmacked if it doesnt) then ill be getting a refund anyway so not a straight swap over, quite decent of them to acquiesce to my request

JonJ678 said:
I think your problems will be over shortly. Good luck
Click to expand...

please excuse the language but i bloody well hope so, 3 days with what is essentialy a rather expensive cuboid :rolleyes:
 
Well the new RAM arrived this morning 1st thing i did was stick in the windows memory diagnostic cd and to my delight no failed reports from that on either stick, just to make sure im running memtest as well so far 3 passes with no errors
 
Yeah i eventualy figured it out and i installed XP x64 instead right now windows 7 can wait until i have saved up enough cash to get a new home network as there are no drivers that support win7 for
either the
netgear wg111v3 wireless adapter
or
netgear dg834g wireless router
 
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