Question... well ... problem.. and need advice plz!

anderson2005

anderson2005

anderson2005

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Hi, I bought a base unit from overclockers: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-084-OK&groupid=43&catid=1078&subcat=&name=

to be exact ^

with the 500GB hard drive and Geforce 8600GT extras.

I recieved the computer and installed Windows XP, all drivers and everything installed perfectly with no error messages, lag or anything at all.. was very happy :) however... this was short lived as I noticed that when I restarted the computer, it sometimes did not start up.. well.. it turned on, the power light was on... but nothing showed up on the monitor and there were no hard disk activity or any of the normal sounds the PC makes when starting up. The only way to come out of this is to shut it down by holding the power button as there is simply no other way... and waiting for 30mins achieved nothing either. This problem seemed quite bad... but I figured aslong as this is the only problem I can live with it... again... this was also short lived as the problems grew... today (the day after it arrived) I can't even play games anymore, the system simply freezes up after 5mins or so, (sometimes sooner...) with (what I think is called pixels) all over the screen... I imiediately thought the graphics card was over heating or something so I switched off the computer and asked a friend who knows a bit more about hardware side of things for advice. He said this could be one of a few things, taking in account the startup issue and this issue he thought the PSU was either faulty or not giving in enough power to the system components but I figured this can't be the case as it's a brand new system and overclockers wouldnt make that mistake. I began testing various things, hard drive, graphics card, memory, one by one on the system. The results of this was:

If I took out the graphics card and 1 of the 1GB memory sticks, the system would run like a dream... no start up issues, no graphic issues... it was ... how it should be... as soon as I add 1GB of memory back in, I begin to experience issues with starting up... (i've tested all the posssibility and it's never a specific memory module that is the problem, it's just whenever I have2 in the system). If I add then add the graphics card back into the system, everything pretty much falls apart... the system will get to desktop, run for awhile then pixels/blue dots start to appear around the screen which eventually just gets worse an worse till it either freezes up or you just can't see anything.

At this point, I was stumped... how could the system have so many faulty components in one system? I mean i've owned a lot of computers and never has this many faults occured on a single system, heck.. out of all my computers put together I never had this many components fail hehe. This is when I started to wonder whether it was any of the above components... and started to wonder whether infact it was something else entirely... at this stage, I had foudn out that instead of getting what I ordered (the nvidia 8600GT) I had been given an nvidia 9600GT which don't get me wrong is great... but... this requires more than 300WATs infact, on the nvidia site, it requires a minimum of 400WATTS and the PSU that came with this system is only 300WATTS, so my question is this... (as im unsure myself) are all these issues with the graphics and the starting up a result of having an under powered system? It's deffinately not a driver issue... nor is it an OS issue. And I can't imagine this many components going at once so is the system simply not getting enough power?

I'll be calling Overclockers on monday to see what can be done about this I mean I don't want to loose the 9600 but i'd rather have a working system with an 8600 card than a non-working ssytem with a 9600 card lol. Do you think I could have them send out a replacement PSU? and fit it myself? or is the only option for them to collect, repair an send back?


thanks in advance for any advice.

PS: I'm not bad-mouthing overclockers in anyway shape or form here. Overclockers are great, and will always be me an my families number 1 place when it comes to computer related products. I'm just trying to explain my situation the best way possible.
 
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Welcome to the forums :D

Anyhow,it certainly sounds like a PSU issue to me.You've done all the tests I would have except maybe checking the voltages in the BIOS when you've got all the components in place to check for low readings.Also maybe a reset of the CMOS might be in order,but as it's a new system this shouldn't be the case.

As for whether OCUK will send out a new PSU / GPU or require the entire system,only they can answer.My gut feeling says they'll require the entire unit but hopefully I'm wrong.

Good luck and let us know how you get on :)
 
thanks for the welcome. :)


I never like to tinker with the BIOs hehe so i'm a bit unsure of how the voltages would look. What would be a low reading and what would be a good/safe/high reading?
 
It does sound like a PSU issue, i think its a 250-300w PSU supplied with that barebones used in that system
Having said that i used one of those barebones with a 6800GT, which im sure needed more power than an 8600GT does which should be ok.

However, a 9600GT is a better card and i think that may be the problem.

If it works fine in windows but crashes in games its deffo a power issue. Does the card have a power supply plugged into it as it needs one, unlike an 8600GT
 
Voltages will be easy to read..whilst in the BIOS navigate to the 'Hardware Monitor' section and have a look.It will look something like this

biosmon.jpg


BIOS' do differ so yours may not look exactly the same.It's fairly straightforward to tell if a voltage is low.Not that it matters a great deal as you'd simply be confirming what we both suspect to be the problem.IMHO the best thing to do would be to phone the store,as you plan to,and go from there.
 
Yeah the 9600 needs to be plugged into the power and yeah it looks like it is a 250-300w PSU, least thats what is written on the side of it anyway.

Good if its just the PSU then least I know what it is... I'm sure it won't be too much hassle to get it fixed up so I can finally play GTA IV that I got for my birthday last week and still not been able to play! grrrr! hehe.

thanks for help guys, much appreciated :) I'm sure OCUK will fix this for me, but out of curiosity would a power supply of 450wats be suitable? I mean I figure since the minimum is 400watts, I guess 450watts PSU would be good so it has the bit extra or would it need more than that?

@ ExRayTed, yeah gonner call em monday, dont think system support are open on sundays :( I just wanted to get peoples opinions and to confirm what I suspected just so I knew what the prob was e.t.c. Anyway, thanks. :)
 
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Hey I replaced the PSU with a 480WATT PSU, it didn't solve the problem :(

I called Overclockers, they're requesting the unit back so it's going back to them tomorrow. I'll post back when I hear from them.

They believe it could be something wrong with the motherboard itself, somethign with the memory port not the actual memory stick but the socket you plug it into...that. That could possibly explain the start-up issues but not the graphics pixelating issues though so I dunno.. i'll wait till they receive it an go from there.
 
Sounds very much like the RAM isn;t getting enough voltage to me... I had a similar problem a few years back on an old rig, where I hadn't manually told the mobo to supply x voltage tot he RAM, done that and never got a problem again.

The RAM sticks will have a label on it saying what voltage it should be set at, also will give you the timings (i.e. x-x-x-xx). Manually put those settings (especially the dram voltage) to that and try from there, you make have some success.
 
keogh said:
Sounds very much like the RAM isn;t getting enough voltage to me... I had a similar problem a few years back on an old rig, where I hadn't manually told the mobo to supply x voltage tot he RAM, done that and never got a problem again.

The RAM sticks will have a label on it saying what voltage it should be set at, also will give you the timings (i.e. x-x-x-xx). Manually put those settings (especially the dram voltage) to that and try from there, you make have some success.
Click to expand...

thanks for the advice, I would try this out but i've just sealed up the box ready for the guy to come tomorrow really don't fancy undoing it all only to find out it still dont work hehe but then on the good side... if it does work, thats one work I don't have to wait for it to come back to me hehe ... hard decision ><

How would I set the voltages for the ram?
 
thanks! OMG, I just rememebered something... from time to time when I restart the comp it says some stuff about the bios checksum not matching and then it says "Erasing ..." then "Programming..." e.t.c


any clues what this means? the ONLY thing I changed in bios is the boot priority.. as I needed to boot off of CD because theres simply no other way to install an OS lol.
 
There will be a option in the BIOS called DRAM voltage/RAM Volt or similar (they use a few different names, but I think ASUS usually go with DRAM... but could be wrong). You want to set this to whatever voltage it says on the label (i.e. 2.1v etc).

I've just looked at your spec, and oddly enough, the RAM that I mentioned I had this similar problem with was the exact same RAM you have :) Coincidence maybe?
 
Can I apologise now if this don't work though, it may work, but on the other hand it may make no difference what so ever and you will have to pack it all up again, so sorry if that is the case.

But you can only regret NOT doing it, you won't regret doing it... if you know what I mean.

Good luck, got my fingers crossed for ya!
 
heh yeah I'll just regret not trying it if I dont try it =)

I have a prob tho, I cant find anything in the bios about the voltage for *** ram, and the voltage on the label says 2.1 but I see nothing in the bios voltage hardware monitor thingie taht has any voltage level around this mark. =\ ill continue google searching tho
 
Sometimes it can be said as 'overvoltage' or something similar. My gigabyte board says that. You just then bump it up over the default voltage (usually 1.8v ish) by adding 0.1v at a time. So for +0.3v setting you'd have 2.1v effective if the default was 1.8v.
 
I'm guessing my motherboard is one of the ones you can't change the voltage on? As whenever I try, it changes from digits to "Ignored" and then if I change it again whilst it sas ignored it simply goes back to the original value lol. I think i'll just leave it now, let them take it back an go from there but thanks anyway though :)
 
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