Hi all,
about 6 months ago i built a system as follows:
E8400 Core Duo
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3 Motherboard
ASUS Radeon 4870HD 1gb
4gb ddr2 RAM
standard optical drive, hdd, and run-of-the-mill PSU 650W.
Using xp, all drivers fully updated.
I've had plenty of issues, the two main ones being:
1. The computer will take a varied amount of time to start. Turning it on results in a series of beeps, about 5 seconds apart, before the computer turns off and then starts again. it does this for a varying amount of time - sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes half an hour. Pressing restart does nothing, nor does pressing the power button again. And sometime in the next 30 minutes, the computer will beep and then start normally. also the time it takes to start up seems to be very gradually increasing - 5 months ago it would only take a minute or two everytime.
2. Some games will force the computer to shut down, every so often i actually see a BSOD, but mainly the sound jars, the monitor switches off immediately with no warning and the computer needs to be restarted.
In an effort to fix this i have replaced, in order:
*an optical drive (it was originally set as a slave to the hdd's master, but now a new optical drive runs off SATA - HDD is still running off IDE)
*the PSU (to a Thermaltake 750W QFAN - problem 2 was thought to be related to not enough power. made no difference)
*the CPU Cooler (the stock intel one was running at stress at nearly 100 degrees celsius - the computer SEEMED to restart more often in hot weather, so i replaced with a Zalman quiet fan and it now runs at a much lower temp [max around 60 degrees celsius], but made no difference)
after putting in the cooler, the computer has decided to not recognise directx for some games (war3 and supreme commander forged alliance are the only two so far) while playing others perfectly. and if i restart i can play them, but not if i have selected another game where the resolution is different.
soooo.. an impossible task i think for anyone to diagnose? my last two thoughts are: i knocked something when putting it together originally, and it is now completely ruined - OR i have a faulty motherboard? has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing before?
oh and before i installed the new cooler, the Prime95 stress test ran for 15 minutes before identifying a 'hardware error' - it now runs for exactly ONE SECOND before giving me the same error. i may have installed the cooler wrong as it is quite finicky? but i dont think so.
please someone help me because it would be a shame to have to buy an entirely new pc.. in fact i cant afford to!
cheers
about 6 months ago i built a system as follows:
E8400 Core Duo
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3 Motherboard
ASUS Radeon 4870HD 1gb
4gb ddr2 RAM
standard optical drive, hdd, and run-of-the-mill PSU 650W.
Using xp, all drivers fully updated.
I've had plenty of issues, the two main ones being:
1. The computer will take a varied amount of time to start. Turning it on results in a series of beeps, about 5 seconds apart, before the computer turns off and then starts again. it does this for a varying amount of time - sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes half an hour. Pressing restart does nothing, nor does pressing the power button again. And sometime in the next 30 minutes, the computer will beep and then start normally. also the time it takes to start up seems to be very gradually increasing - 5 months ago it would only take a minute or two everytime.
2. Some games will force the computer to shut down, every so often i actually see a BSOD, but mainly the sound jars, the monitor switches off immediately with no warning and the computer needs to be restarted.
In an effort to fix this i have replaced, in order:
*an optical drive (it was originally set as a slave to the hdd's master, but now a new optical drive runs off SATA - HDD is still running off IDE)
*the PSU (to a Thermaltake 750W QFAN - problem 2 was thought to be related to not enough power. made no difference)
*the CPU Cooler (the stock intel one was running at stress at nearly 100 degrees celsius - the computer SEEMED to restart more often in hot weather, so i replaced with a Zalman quiet fan and it now runs at a much lower temp [max around 60 degrees celsius], but made no difference)
after putting in the cooler, the computer has decided to not recognise directx for some games (war3 and supreme commander forged alliance are the only two so far) while playing others perfectly. and if i restart i can play them, but not if i have selected another game where the resolution is different.
soooo.. an impossible task i think for anyone to diagnose? my last two thoughts are: i knocked something when putting it together originally, and it is now completely ruined - OR i have a faulty motherboard? has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing before?
oh and before i installed the new cooler, the Prime95 stress test ran for 15 minutes before identifying a 'hardware error' - it now runs for exactly ONE SECOND before giving me the same error. i may have installed the cooler wrong as it is quite finicky? but i dont think so.
please someone help me because it would be a shame to have to buy an entirely new pc.. in fact i cant afford to!
cheers
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