help ! too many problems with my new pc :((

[r0bber]

HI! IT HAS BEEN 3 DAYS SINCE I BOUGHT A NEW PC AND I AM ALREADY HAVING STRANGE PROBLEMS WITH IT.

OS: WINXP PRO 32BIT
MB: Asus P5NSLI
CPU: Pentium D 915 2.8 GHz
MEM: 2 X 512MB KINGSTON 667MHz
GRAPH CARD: Asus EN7300GT SILENT
PSU: SMART TECH 435W
HDD: MAXTOR 250 GB SATA II
NETWORK: onboard MARVELL YUKON 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI gigabit ethernet controller
MONITOR: LCD LG 19" L1952S-SF
.. and my problems are:

1. i installed nfs carbon and fifa 2007 to see how they run on my pc but when playing my monitor goes black like on standby(the led turns orange) with the message : "some ranges of hertz/out of range" .. also a rrrrr sound hears in my headphones and i have to reset my pc to make it work.

2.sometimes my pc suddenly resets and i noticed that this probably happens when i am using a lot of its resources (cpu,ram,gpu maybe)

3.my internet connection is disconnecting too often(at least once at half an hour); i contacted my isp but they said to try disabling and enabling my network adapter from device manager and it worked. but i have to do this everytime it disconnects. can it be because of my network adapter? or my isp?

4.my hard drive appears in system tray as a "safely remove hardware icon". why is that?

PLS I REALLY NEED SOME ADVICES cause i really don't know if it is the windows or the net adapt or the graphic card or hard drive or the powersupply ...

 

[PC_Side_Line]

uninstall those 2 programs u mentioned

and the "Safely remove hardware" is a root kit (dont click on it) goto www.lavasoft.com and d/l and install ad aware se personal : do a deep scan

also get ccleaner from www.cnet.com analyze and do a cleaning

ur also gonna need to put up a firewall but not nortons systemworks.

 

[qwertycopter]

1. You need to set the refresh rate to one supported by your monitor:
Right-Click Desktop > "Properties" > "Settings" Tab > "Advanced" Button > "Monitor" Tab > Select a different refresh rate and try it

2. How's your airflow?

3. Try downloading the latest ethernet drivers for your motherboard.

4. SATA drives are hot-swappable. They will show up as a removable device like a thumb drive or external optical drive. If you need to hide the removeable devices icon from the taskbar:

Right-click the task bar > "Properties" > "Customize" > Locate the Removable Devices icon > Change its "Behavior" to "Always Hide"

 

[qwertycopter]

and the "Safely remove hardware" is a root kit (dont click on it) goto www.lavasoft.com and d/l and install ad aware se personal : do a deep scan
also get ccleaner from www.cnet.com

No it's not. It's a feature of Windows XP for removable devices like usb drives and other hot-swappable items.

That's also bad security advice. Ad-Aware and ccleaner will not detect and remove rootkits! Rootkits hide themselves from the OS. If an OS is compromised by a rootkit you have two options:

1. Reformat drive
2. Boot from a live CD with rootkit removal tools such as Rootkit Revealer or Rootkit Unhooker.

@r0bber -
You should still do a spyware scan with Adaware. It could be related to your network disconnects and potentially your random reboots. But seeing as this system is only 3 days old, I might suspect a driver issue and possibly overheating if the airflow is bad. What are the temps on your processor? You have an ASUS board, so download and install PC Probe II or check in the BIOS. Either method will report your temps.

 

[yipsl]

and the "Safely remove hardware" is a root kit (dont click on it) goto www.lavasoft.com and d/l and install ad aware se personal : do a deep scan
also get ccleaner from www.cnet.com

No it's not. It's a feature of Windows XP for removable devices like usb drives and other hot-swappable items.


I was about to state that it's a regular Windows feature. Here's a good basic discussion of what it does and whether it's really necessary for all devices:
http://ask-leo.com/safely_remove_hardware_where_did_the_icon_go_how_do_i_safely_remove_hardware_without_it.html

I question whether internal drives should every be listed under that icon, as many people might accidentally remove a needed drive from their OS and have to reboot to get it back. It seems to be one of those unneeded features that Microsoft insists is necessary.

SATA drives are hot-swappable. They will show up as a removable device like a thumb drive or external optical drive. If you need to hide the removeable devices icon from the taskbar:

I'd forgotten they were hot swappable. That answers my "unneeded features" question. Still, with static and all, don't find that feature that useful. I prefer having the power cord disconnected from the PC when it's open.

 

[StevieD]

If you really have a rootkit, there are detection methods:

Sysinternals has a rootkit detector. PC Mag, CNET etc have the link on their download pages.

Sysinternals was absorbed/bought up by Microsoft. There is a link at Microsoft, but good luck finding it.

The rootkit detector works. Or I think it works. Or it seems to work. It found residue from a spyware detector that was left on a computer after the spyware detector was removed. It was just residue ... registry hooks and an .exe program specific to the spyware detector that did not get closed or removed when the software was removed.


By the way, I have an external HD for my photos connected by USB cable. The symbol in your system tray is really an Windows XP feature that appears whenever an external USB device is connected. It will disappear as soon as you shut down any external USB device(s).

 

[r0bber]

thanks a lot guys. a lot of the mentioned i already tried(re-installing drives for ethernet, graphic card); i have the "hide modes this monitor can not display" checked so i am using 75Hz on 1280x1024.
this thing with rootkits really wonders me cause after i installed xp i just searched for common programs (firefox, adobe reader, flash player, cd burner, and also AVG Antivirus).
i'll check it out.

 

[PC_Side_Line]

qwerty: ur not very experienced with hackers....there is a hacker version of " Safely remove hardware" icon , so we really dont know which version he has.

deep scanning with ad aware se personal does a lot to help remove rootkits...it does get most of them.

we've had very high success rates on it with over 12700 pc's for our customers.....so its one of the security progs we recommend to our customers

sysinternals are good and trend micro too

its always best to have many multiples of security progs...these days.

 

[misry]

qwerty: ur not very experienced with hackers....there is a hacker version of " Safely remove hardware" icon , so we really dont know which version he has.

You admit you don't know which version he has yet in the previous post you claim without qualification that it's a rootkit. AdAware can sometimes help show the presence of a rootkit. The chances of detecting one are more than doubled if AA is used in conjunction with Spybot S&D. Detecting, they just give you clues that something deeper needs addressed. Removal is a different proposition entirely. AdAware will not remove a rootkit nor does it claim to. You are doing a disservice to your customers if you claim that it does and a disservice to the OP by taking him down an unlikely path.

*If* you have a hacked SRH who did the analysis? Who did you upload it too? What is the rootkits official name? Where are links to the fix? I am very, very interested.

Keep in mind that there are people who read these forums who have detected, removed and documented 0day, (as yet unnamed), threat level 9.9 viruses within the last 2 weeks.

Oh, and to the Original Poster, the system is only 3 days old. Take it back. Explain the problem(s). Get complete satisfaction before you take it home.

 

[qwertycopter]

qwerty: ur not very experienced with hackers....there is a hacker version of " Safely remove hardware" icon , so we really dont know which version he has.

It's a 3-day-old PC. And we have a legitimate reason for the safely remove hardware icon: the sata drive. There's no reason to suspect a rootkit, no need to be an alarmist. Actually, I have 3 years of experience in malware removal..

deep scanning with ad aware se personal does a lot to help remove rootkits...it does get most of them.

This is absolutely wrong. Ad-Aware is not reliable at detecting/removing rootkits. If your system is compromised by a rootkit, you can't trust anything it reports to you (virus/spyware scan, etc). I have seen this first-hand where the rootkit is supposedly detected and removed, but reboot and it's back. The only sure way is to do a scan outside of the kernal with a program that compares the reported OS image against a default and reports the differences.

 

[Fedor]

My friend had some of the same symptoms, at least 2 of them. The game startup showing out of range error on the monitor and needing to restart, and random restarts. After a lot of investigation, we concluded it was the power supply. When the gfx card went into 3d mode and thus used a lot of power, or we did stress testing like the cpu, the machine would sometimes, unpredictably, restart.

So for you, I'd suggest one of these two things:
1) Get a friends power supply to try out
or, easier but less definitive
2) Plug out any components that you dont NEED, so just keep the motherboard, ram, cpu, gfx and hdd. See if it still has problems.

"2" wouldnt have worked for my friend cause his PC was already at the bare essentials so we had nothing to strip away.

 

[lmimmfn]

crashes when gaming where the screen goes black and the sound still plays in a fuzzy loop for 2-3 seconds before rebooting is a heating/overclock issue, usually linked to the GPU.

Do the following:
1 download and install SYSTool
2 enable all mobo temp monitoring/GPU temp monitoring
3. downlaod and install ATITool( the 3d test for cheking overclocks works on nvidia cards also ).
4 Run the CPU test in systool, open the 3d test in ATITool and just to increase system load, play some tunes, now leave it for 15 minutes and watch the temps, it should reset but youll be able to see where the culprit is

If you dont experience a crash then download windbg from the microsoft site and look at the windows dmp file generated in c:\windows\minidmp
The last dll accessed should point to your hardware problem, e.g. when i connected my GPU fan to the lower voltage for lower RPM's accidentally it wqas always crashing in the ATI drivers, i bumped up the fan speed and everything was sorted

 

[Fedor]

Thats an easy thing to diagnose, so go for it, but frankly i put the odds of that being the problem at very low indeed, since it doesnt fit into the other symptoms, whilst the PSU certainly does.

 

[pmr]

WAR FEDOR!!! :twisted:
lol

 

[lmimmfn]

Thats an easy thing to diagnose, so go for it, but frankly i put the odds of that being the problem at very low indeed, since it doesnt fit into the other symptoms, whilst the PSU certainly does.

not really, as when i was having the problem it was during the bf2142 beta, i could play bf2 for hours( even oblivion ) without issue, yet 2142 would consistently crash after 40 minutes play

 

[Fedor]

As I mentioned it's probably best to try your advice first cause it's a hell of a lot easier to implement than mine.

 

[lmimmfn]

definately , yours is definately the follow up solution BUT in between if mine fails id suggest connecting 2 PSU pins with a safety pin and connecting it to the mains to ensure it has constant power output( can check it with the fan ). i had to do this when i connected the PSU to my mobo using the wrong connector for the last 4 pins on a 24pin mobo. or the OP you can decide which is easier, disconnecting everything you can top find the culprit or check the PSU first

Google it to find the PSU safety pin check,otherwise i can try and dig it out

 

[r0bber]

Finally i decided to go to the store i bought it from. It was no rootkit cause i formatted my hard drive and installed win xp 64bit edition and today still got reseted. and again my os got blocked and and on the screen was "168,4KHz/65Hz out of range" .
personally i think it is the psu cause everytime the system crashes it happens when i use my processor a lot.. or maybe when i get around 500 MB Ram.
If it's not the power supply then it is the graphic board. maybe it crashes and forces my system to restart. I forgot to mention before: when starting the pc and then the desktop appears... in systray it appears a baloon pop-up from "nvidia settings" icon saying something like "sli multi-gpu rendering has been disabled" .
Anyways tomorrow(actually later on today) i`m going to the computers shop for some tests. when it gets fixed i'll let u know about the solution. thank you all for helping with ideas.

 

[Fedor]

Yeah I would really appreciate it if you could tell us what it was, that way maybe we could learn a thing or two

 

[r0bber]

i am very dissapointed of the personnel from the computer's shop. after they tested and updated bios and re-installing windows they came to the conclusion that it one of the rams was not ok and got it changed. i came home... re-installed xp .. and same problem... when running fifa2007 it crashes... tomorrow i`m going again .. maybe they send it to their central store.
god knows...

 

[Fedor]

Well I still say that its 90% chance its the PSU. Monkeys at the store...

 

[Guest]

NETWORK: onboard MARVELL YUKON 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI gigabit ethernet controller

3.my internet connection is disconnecting too often(at least once at half an hour); i contacted my isp but they said to try disabling and enabling my network adapter from device manager and it worked. but i have to do this everytime it disconnects. can it be because of my network adapter? or my isp?

I had this problem with the same onboard NIC,
DON'T use the newest driver, it is bugged. Try to find a previous version and you should be fine.

PS also make sure in your Nvidia settings you don't have Optimize for SLI enabled.

 

[NamelessMC]

HI! IT HAS BEEN 3 DAYS SINCE I BOUGHT A NEW PC AND I AM ALREADY HAVING STRANGE PROBLEMS WITH IT.

OS: WINXP PRO 32BIT
MB: Asus P5NSLI
CPU: Pentium D 915 2.8 GHz
MEM: 2 X 512MB KINGSTON 667MHz
GRAPH CARD: Asus EN7300GT SILENT
PSU: SMART TECH 435W
HDD: MAXTOR 250 GB SATA II
NETWORK: onboard MARVELL YUKON 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI gigabit ethernet controller
MONITOR: LCD LG 19" L1952S-SF
.. and my problems are:

1. i installed nfs carbon and fifa 2007 to see how they run on my pc but when playing my monitor goes black like on standby(the led turns orange) with the message : "some ranges of hertz/out of range" .. also a rrrrr sound hears in my headphones and i have to reset my pc to make it work.

2.sometimes my pc suddenly resets and i noticed that this probably happens when i am using a lot of its resources (cpu,ram,gpu maybe)

3.my internet connection is disconnecting too often(at least once at half an hour); i contacted my isp but they said to try disabling and enabling my network adapter from device manager and it worked. but i have to do this everytime it disconnects. can it be because of my network adapter? or my isp?

4.my hard drive appears in system tray as a "safely remove hardware icon". why is that?

PLS I REALLY NEED SOME ADVICES cause i really don't know if it is the windows or the net adapt or the graphic card or hard drive or the powersupply ...

Problem 1) Common problem with low end Nvidia cards' DVI ports. Especially the case on 7300GT's and 6800GT's. This especially happens with video-cards that use VGA and DVI connections. Skimp on the video-card but using a 19" monitor was a bad idea.

Problem 2) Your PSU is the 100% culprit for this. You went too cheap on the PSU. Sure it has 435 watts but it probably has horrible 12v amps and the quality of the PSU probably sucks. (I've never heard of that brand) When people told you, "Don't skimp on the PSU or you'll be sorry" they really meant it.

Problem 3) Uninstall all your MB drivers/programs including the Nvidia firewall. The Nvidia firewall is always a problem with onboard ethernet. It causes major ethernet instability. You MIGHT have to reformat, a lot of people have had nightmares trying to uninstall the Nvidia firewall entirely.

Problem 4) That one sounds like your SATA controller. I have no idea how to fix that issue.

 

[PC_Side_Line]

Qwery says: The only sure way is to do a scan outside of the kernal with a program that compares the reported OS image against a default and reports the differences.

And wahts the name of that program qwerty?

show me 10 noobs who are gonna do a kernel scan

Most of my customers have little time for tech stuff, so i give em a quick program that does a pretty good job

Ad Aware SE personal is good for most rootkits, but unfort qwerty u got a lil upset cause ur deep or full scan didnt catch urs, out of the 50000 possible rootkits....

 

[lmimmfn]

Qwery says: The only sure way is to do a scan outside of the kernal with a program that compares the reported OS image against a default and reports the differences.

And wahts the name of that program qwerty?

show me 10 noobs who are gonna do a kernel scan

Most of my customers have little time for tech stuff, so i give em a quick program that does a pretty good job

Ad Aware SE personal is good for most rootkits, but unfort qwerty u got a lil upset cause ur deep or full scan didnt catch urs, out of the 50000 possible rootkits....

AdAware SE, Kerio Personal Firewall and Spybot S7D are a good combination for a safe system. Rootkits and the likes wont reboot the system, viruses and the likes only tap into the RPC, in which case it comes up with the "system will reboot in 20 seconds error". To diagnose reboots:
1. Leave the bios screen open for ages -> eliminates most hardware problems except temps
2. If 1 passes, monitor temps
3. If temps are ok and it still reboots, check windows/minidmp for a dmp file
4. If none exists, run memtest for several hours
5. if no problem with mem test and as a last stop cafe, run HijackThis, remove any suspicious software which is run at startup. Close all browsers and explorer windows, run AdAware, then Spybot S&D

If all the above fails, remove all possible hardware, DVD drive, sound card, plug in keyboard and mouse as PS/2 devices, remove all other USB drives and see if that fixes the issue