Major problems with PC after windows updates

P4ULY

P4ULY

P4ULY

Associate
Joined
24 Jan 2008
Posts
41
Location
Brighton, East Sussex
I put my pc together at the beginning of Feb this year (all parts brought from Overclockers) Everything went fine and everything was running perfectly.

The reason for the pc was to play the latest games, watch Hi-Def movies and listening to music.

This continued for a few months until around June when a windows update killed my pc stone dead (blue screen of death jobbie!)

This is when all the problems started. I completely wiped the hard disk and reinstalled everything. All the programs ran fine but no game (and I mean from the oldest games like Diablo 2 all the way to Crysis) would not work properly, the video would 'stutter' every 30 secs or so for about 5-10 secs then return to normal then 'stutter' again, this also happened with the sound, it would 'stutter' at the same time as the video. Also with the sound at each 'stutter' there would be a strange 'clicking' noise.

This happens with blu-ray films, normal dvd's, music, everything.

To sort the problem out I have:
Reinstalled the PC multiple times
Tried various video card drivers, ranging from some of the oldest to the brand spanking new
Updated my DVD/Blu-Ray playing software
Changed my sound card
Checked all the cables and connection

I don't know where to go next, my pc can't do any of the bits I brought it to do, the most annoying thing about this is that it was working fine until Microsoft screwed it! (Updates are now turned off!!)

Does anyone have any ideas at all?
 
Sounds hardware related & not software. If updates screw up, reformatting should make the problem(s) go away.

I'd start by searching around (Google/forums/etc) if any know problems with your components especially mobo, GFX & or PSU.

But you say it stutters when gaming, I'd point a finger at the GFX being the culprit. First thing to check is temps i.e. is it getting sufficient cooling. Use GPU-Z (here) or RivaTuner for that. Also physically check if the fans are spinning fine ;)
 
I'd suggest motherboard chipset drivers..you have installed them right?

I cant imagine windows updates breaking anything..especially as you've formatted several times now.

Try swapping the ram around to rule out a dodgy stick,I've known that to cause the symptoms you've described.

Good luck anyway and let us know how you get on :D
 
hp7909 said:
Sounds hardware related & not software. If updates screw up, reformatting should make the problem(s) go away.

I'd start by searching around (Google/forums/etc) if any know problems with your components especially mobo, GFX & or PSU.

But you say it stutters when gaming, I'd point a finger at the GFX being the culprit. First thing to check is temps i.e. is it getting sufficient cooling. Use GPU-Z (here) or RivaTuner for that. Also physically check if the fans are spinning fine ;)
Click to expand...

Will double check the temps, I'm pretty sure they are fine though. Will also have a search round on the net :D

ExRayTed said:
I'd suggest motherboard chipset drivers..you have installed them right?

I cant imagine windows updates breaking anything..especially as you've formatted several times now.

Try swapping the ram around to rule out a dodgy stick,I've known that to cause the symptoms you've described.

Good luck anyway and let us know how you get on :D
Click to expand...

I haven't installed the chipset drivers no, but I didn't before either. Will do it when I get home though just to make sure.

I'm pretty sure I have swapped the RAM around plenty of times due to reinstalling, but will do it again just to make sure :)

Cheers for the help guys :D I was up to 2am last night trying to get this sorted!
 
As general order for install I go for XP > SP3 (download before) > Chipset Drivers > LAN Drivers > Windows Updates (Priority then extras) > Graphics and Sound Drivers etc
 
P4ULY said:
Will double check the temps, I'm pretty sure they are fine though. Will also have a search round on the net :D



I haven't installed the chipset drivers no, but I didn't before either. Will do it when I get home though just to make sure.

I'm pretty sure I have swapped the RAM around plenty of times due to reinstalling, but will do it again just to make sure :)

Cheers for the help guys :D I was up to 2am last night trying to get this sorted!
Click to expand...

I think we have a winner in chipset drivers :D
 
I'm going to feel pretty stupid (and rightly so) if it's the chipset drivers lol
 
Well I went to install the chipset drivers and it's well ******! I switched on the pc only to get a blue screen of death saying that my bios is not ACPI compliant.

Was running with the 1303 bios! So ok, use my old mans pc to get the new bios, flash that onto the board and fine, but I'm now getting a boot up manager that says start windows vista or run memeory test. Click on run vista and blue screen of death again.

Fine so I click on run memory test and guess what it's fine! But no I keep on getting to the boot manager page and every time with the same to options!

I then try reinstalling vista, it goes through fine then at the end of the installation needs to restart. It restarts gets to the boot manager screen and falls over. Now it want's to me to install vista again even though I only just did it!

I hate this board with a passion, I certainly won't be getting another Asus peice of gear ever!

Any ideas what to do? Does anyone know of any good repair places in the South East?

Help, I start firefighter training school in just over a month and I need this sorted for then!
 
Bit of a wild guess this, but I noticed you appear to have Vista x64, does your disc already have SP1 slipstreamed?

If not, then you might have to remove 2gb of your memory prior to installing Vista, then, once installed, download the x64 version of patch found at this page.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

Install it, then re-install your second stick of RAM.

If this fails to resolve things, then it may well be a hardware issue. Have you run memtest (not the vista memory test) but the program found here:

http://www.memtest.org/
 
Nah I have to remove 2gb everytime I install then update with the patch. I have been removing the chip each time :D

Can I run that test if I can't get the pc to boot?
 
The exact part number of the memory is (as taken from my receipt): OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz SLI-Ready Edition Low Latency Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2N800SR4GK)

The saga continues.

I have managed to get me pc to boot up 3 times now, the first time it booted I installed vista, then the chipset drivers. This was working fine so I decided I would bite the bullet and try installing all the windows updates (all 260mb of them!) once that was done I restarted my pc and bang it was dead, would lock up on the vista progress bar, tried booting up in safe mode and it would still lock. I tried both way multiple times and I couldn't get it to boot at all.

I also noticed before I installed vista that on the post screen it can't seem to detect my chip properly, it says it's a Q6600 @ 1.59ghz!! I haven't done anything to the bios to make this happen.

I have installed vista again last night and after I had installed the chipset drivers I restarted the pc and then got the blue screen of death again saying that my bios wasn't ACPI compliant again, even though this is the latest bios from Asus and it's had worked before.

I have ordered a new motherboard, but it would be good to know why this was happening.
 
Did you try memtest? Would be good to rule out (or confirm) the memory as the culprit given the random nature of these problems!

The Striker has a habit of slowly murdering Micron D9s (which I believe that RAM uses) when any voltage around 2.2 or above is used, doesn't matter if it's guaranteed.

I speak from experience.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom