Urgent advice needed

dave00 · 20 May 2007 at 23:51

Ok for a few months my PC has had some real problems, At first i thought it was my ram that was borked after i ran the memtest program it found thousands of errors, So i purchased some new ram and the problems persist.

The problems were a few things like rebooting at unregular intervals, Programs crashing like my firewall keep shutting down, Plus if i was using the net it would crash and the Dr Watson post debugger would do something? I cant play games as they just crash. Like i have Battlefield 2 and if i try to patch it, It fails but if its been off for ages it will patch ok.

The PC would run fine for a bit if it was switched off for a while, Like if i downloaded something that was rared it would say it was corrupt, Then if i shut down for about 2hrs it would then unpack fine.

So i just ran a PC-Doctor program that came pre-installed and i ran loads oftests that were fine, Until i tested my graphics card and the memory test failed giving this error code --> VC316-1W

This is my PC specs
HP A1128.UK
XP HOME SP2
Akasa 400w Paxpower
AMD64 3000+
1GB PC3200 Super Talent
160GB Samsung HDD
MSI MOBO?
ATI X800GTO2 LE

So does it look like my X800GTO2 could be to blame for these problems? As if it is, Then i can take it out and put my old PSU back in. And then go back to onboard graphics

Any help would be great as i need it

And sorry in advance for my terrible typing :rolleyes:

t31os · 20 May 2007 at 23:57

Does the system do it using onboard graphics?...

That would be the thing to test in my opinion, you said the bf2 patch fails, so you still patch with onboard graphics running, no need to load the actual game.

For the sake of testing, if games are not the only things with errors i'd be inclined to test the system with the onboard video to see if the problems disappear.

mk17 · 21 May 2007 at 00:02

A mate of mine had this exact same error out of PC-Doctor a while ago, it was some hardware error related to graphics memory. But I don't know if it was his card or onboard graphics as t31os suggests above.

He was on the verge of building a new system anyway, so never actually fixed it.

dave00 · 21 May 2007 at 00:05

Ive never actually went back to onboard graphics, To see if the problems vanish. As im typing now my firefox keeps getting the error message and that it has to close.

I always thought if the graphics card was failing it would only show it by displaying artifacts? And not by messing with the running of my whole PC.

The bf2 game that i patched will start up, But as soon as the game starts it crashes to desktop, After about 30secs of playing.

dave00 · 21 May 2007 at 00:07

mk17 said:
A mate of mine had this exact same error out of PC-Doctor a while ago, it was some hardware error related to graphics memory. But I don't know if it was his card or onboard graphics as t31os suggests above.

He was on the verge of building a new system anyway, so never actually fixed it.

And was he having all sorts of problems with his PC?

t31os · 21 May 2007 at 00:14

dave00 said:
Ive never actually went back to onboard graphics, To see if the problems vanish. As im typing now my firefox keeps getting the error message and that it has to close.

I always thought if the graphics card was failing it would only show it by displaying artifacts? And not by messing with the running of my whole PC.

The bf2 game that i patched will start up, But as soon as the game starts it crashes to desktop, After about 30secs of playing.

So turn the system off and get the onboard graphics running, if you've got problems anyway it's not like you're missing out on anything is it...

dave00 · 21 May 2007 at 00:24

t31os said:
So turn the system off and get the onboard graphics running, if you've got problems anyway it's not like you're missing out on anything is it...

Will i need to uninstall CCC? first and then remove the 800gto2? then put the vga cable back into the onboard graphics port?

t31os · 21 May 2007 at 00:40

Not necessarily, if the system lets you run an uninstall without a problem then do so, if not just boot in safe mode once you're using onboard and do it then.

And yes you'll need to put the VGA cable into the onboard video port..

mk17 · 21 May 2007 at 01:16

dave00 said:
And was he having all sorts of problems with his PC?

it had been shutting down, and locking up periodically - I don't think as bad as the problems you describe, though they do sound like the same symptoms, the error code being the strongest indicator.

This was late Jan/early Feb - it was a few years old and reaching the end of its natural anyway. just brought his new build forward a month or two, now running an E6600 with no snags.

dave00 · 21 May 2007 at 21:39

Right i have took my X800GTO out of me PC, Formatted once more and im now back to onboard graphics. Now the problems are still persisting?

So i can rule out ram problems and graphics card problems, Which leaves the CPU, MOBO, And my PSU in the spotlight.

I also had a BSOD during install, And had to start again. Then before the screen went black and came back on about 60secs later telling me the vpu had reset due to some problem with graphics? This now makes me think my MOBO is kicking me in the nuts.

mk17 · 21 May 2007 at 22:31

dave00 said:
I also had a BSOD during install, And had to start again. Then before the screen went black and came back on about 60secs later telling me the vpu had reset due to some problem with graphics? This now makes me think my MOBO is kicking me in the nuts.

sounds hosed, tbh

i.e. if you strip it down and still reproduce the errors.
how old is this build, btw?

as in, you may be looking at data loss - best case, and most likely at rebuild - worst case. former's harsh, latter not so bad. sorry bud.

dave00 · 21 May 2007 at 22:36

mk17 said:
sounds hosed, tbh i.e. if you strip it down and still reproduce the errors.
how old is this build, btw?

as in, you may be looking at data loss - best case, and most likely at rebuild - worst case. former's harsh, latter not so bad. sorry bud.

So i put the old PSU back in and thats not the problem, So i have now decided to invest in these.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-020-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=811

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-175-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=263

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-000-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=821

dave00 · 22 May 2007 at 17:45

Its 2 and a half years old.