Potential Suicide.

Hairy

Hairy

Hairy

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1 Dec 2009
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103
Okay.

4 Months into my HTPC build. And i'm genuinely thinking about throwing it out the window.

The start - I wanted a HD ready nas box to watch all my hd films on. Brought a zotac 9300 - core2 E5300 and 2 gig DDR2 to stick in here - -apologies for the link - its a hotswap HTPC case with a 200w psu -

After a month of bluescreens and crashes, I diagnose a motherboard fault.

I sent this back to OCUK who cant provide me with a replacement. So for 2 weeks im left without a PC (This is not OCuK's fault, its Zotacs. But its still annoying)

So eventually I get a refund, and I decide to bite the bullet and buy a Zotac H55, i3 and 4gig OCZ low voltage.

It all comes,

I put it together.

1 Stick of ram is dead. Fails memtest every time.

DOH.

So new ram comes. Fresh windows install.

Now my new PC, is compleatly unstable.

DWM crashes a lot along with media player.

I get random hangs where whatever im typing is repeated across my screen, interspersed with random bluescreens.

Have hardware tested with Hirens boot CD.

Any ideas guys?
 
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If re-installing you could trying getting newer drivers if you originally used ones off CD that came with motherboard.

Work out what you need from Zotac download section then check chip manufacturer sites for more recent versions
 
Bane said:
If re-installing you could trying getting newer drivers if you originally used ones off CD that came with motherboard.

Work out what you need from Zotac download section then check chip manufacturer sites for more recent versions
Click to expand...

I used the latest 64 bits from the zotac website.

You think I should use Something else?
 
Run something like this to check values. HWMonitor, incase it's not a Windows problem as such.

Before reformatting disable automatic reboot on blue screen errors, so you can record error details. Might be able to correct issue from that if points out cause.

Reading the spec sheet on Zotac website didn't seem too informative. From quick search I've found these (if correct)

chipset: Intel inf (release date on Zotac page for this Jan 2010, but file version is 9.1.1.1024 and Intel website version is 9.1.1.1025)
64-bit ACHI driver incase you wanted it.
Intel(R) Management Engine - not found it after single search, or know what it is
JMicron controller JMB36x
Audio: Realtek ALC888 currently version R2.47
wi-fi - Zotac site lists multiple brands, so see which yours uses and then find it on that manufacturers website.
Not found what onboard graphics chip is used.
Not found what onboard network chip is used.
 
How many hard drives you got in there?
When i built for my folks using a zotac 9300, which you ahve now upgraded from, for some reason the machine would hang when a second drive was connected. Took me a ridiculous period of time to determine this was the issue.

try a single drive
 
Im thinking it might be the PSU.

Stripped it down to the bare essentials (no storage drives) and it seems stable atm.

Will keep testing.

Will also try drivers.

Thanks for the opinions guys
 
Since you've checked over almost everything else the PSU is almost the only thing it could now be.

Do you have a spare you can test the system with?

gt
 
i just dont see how the PSU could be a problem. Surley it would just bluescreen due to lack of power at load times?

WHy would it cause program crashes?

I will see if i can borrow another PSU to test with.

Thanks again guys
 
PSU might not be coping with the whole system, the CPU and GPU might be demanding too much from it. Reason it crashes is because the program may be demanding too much power.
 
Hmm okay. I got a Tagen Xeye 350 spare i think.

You think this should be enough for an i3, 4gig ocz gold low voltage, zotac h55, 2x1.5tb WD's a dvd rom and a 320 OS storage drive?
 
People always seem to overestimate how many watts you need, I have a 650W when my system actually uses around 400, 140W of that is the CPU!

If you have another though, can't hurt to try it. (Y)

Also, could try this to get an idea of what you need: http://www.antec.outervision.com/
 
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