Have you tried updating the drivers for both sound and video? Where you are seeing it crash to the desktop in a game like HL2 you could be seeing a driver problem especially sound or a disconnect from the game servers since you have to log into an online account to run it. A shaky supply would see more then a crash to the desktop. When going to run the game bring up the task manager ahead of time and end other unnecessary processes seen under your user name there to see if the same problem persists.
Buggered Memory Question
- Thread starter Tayl
- Start date
Tayl
VIP Member
I haven't tried to update my drivers yet, but I'll give that a go, although I've been using this version for many months now and the problems have only begun to occur for the past few weeks. Also, surely it couldn't be driver related as when it fails in memtest it hasn't even got to the point of loading them yet, let alone giving them the time to conflict with one another?
A fresh set of drivers would rule out seeing a corrupted set as a problem. But what is more likely here is what has been covered already. I have to wonder more about the memory itself as the actual problem not being faulty but the wrong type. When running a pair of 512mb of xms series dimms(matched) here SoF II and HL2 alike would freeze up or crash until the eventual offer for 2gb of ram saw 2gb of Kingston Value Ram go in. Since last spring there have only been about 3 or 4 game locks in that amount of time.
Tayl
VIP Member
Well I still haven't got around to updating the drivers yet but I've just restarted my machine after playing a computer game, it got as far as the desktop and then all of a sudden my monitor went black and it sounded like something was powering down in my PC, I looked at my HDD status like also and it was constantly on as if it was being used to the max. I quickly hit the power off button encase it done any damage to other components. But it was weird, I was just sitting looking at the desktop and all of a sudden I hear a power down noise come from my computer and my monitor shuts off and HDD goes mad.
It looks like your PSU. It has absolutely bloody nothing to do with drivers, BIOS or anything else.
Your negative voltages on your PSU are WAY off. However, it could also be the mainboard, so before you go sending your PSU back borrow another one and test it. If it works, you found the problem and you know where to go from there.
Your negative voltages on your PSU are WAY off. However, it could also be the mainboard, so before you go sending your PSU back borrow another one and test it. If it works, you found the problem and you know where to go from there.
A failing eprom or corrupted bios will send everything into limbo real fast since that also stores voltage settings in the nv ram. You may want to clear the cmos to see if you get the defaults back. A failing supply wouldn't see a hard drive suddenly become busy while everything is shutting down. But an unstable supply will see things. Now you have to rule each other thing out besides memory.
The positive voltages are fine, yeah. The negative ones aren't though.. Although it could be Speedfan that's the problem. My copy doesn't even show negative voltages???
A corrupted BIOS has nothing to do with his problem. A memory controller maybe. A mainboard powersupply possibly, but not the BIOS. The only effect the BIOS could possibly have is if it was telling the board to undervolt the RAM or something. The chances of that are extremely unlikely.
A corrupted BIOS has nothing to do with his problem. A memory controller maybe. A mainboard powersupply possibly, but not the BIOS. The only effect the BIOS could possibly have is if it was telling the board to undervolt the RAM or something. The chances of that are extremely unlikely.
Tayl
VIP Member
Sorry about my late response, I've only just noticed the replies in this thread. I rang them up (the company I bought the components from) and they said to send everything (my whole base unit) to them for testing. I agreed as I'm sick of the hastle with it now after the amount of problems I've had so they're going to test it all.
My question is, if they test the PSU and that fails, they then send me a new one back with my machine without having tested the other components, wouldn't a faulty PSU outputting the wrong voltages to the other components damage the others? For example if the motherboard is recieving the wrong voltages wouldn't that damage the motherboard as well?
My question is, if they test the PSU and that fails, they then send me a new one back with my machine without having tested the other components, wouldn't a faulty PSU outputting the wrong voltages to the other components damage the others? For example if the motherboard is recieving the wrong voltages wouldn't that damage the motherboard as well?
A bad PSU could damage the other components. I don't think they'd just replace the PSU and send it back without testing the rest.
If they do and you have the same problem, call them up and don't agree to send it to them unless they pay for the shipping both ways and possibly try to get some 'oh crap we screwed up, quick cover our butts' free stuff
If they do and you have the same problem, call them up and don't agree to send it to them unless they pay for the shipping both ways and possibly try to get some 'oh crap we screwed up, quick cover our butts' free stuff
The only thing a supply could do besides a direct short in a connection to harm a board is bounce up and down while you are running the system. One moment you have an abundance and the next a drop off. For the most part your hardwares pull current from a supply. The supply can't push current through on it's own.
An unregulated supply would allow "too much" to go through the board causing things to heat up there fast. That would allow too much to go past the max limit on several components. Something would then be bound to give out. You would see on defective mainly or simply "cheapo" supply. But even on the rare occasion don't think that a good make can't fail.
An unregulated supply would allow "too much" to go through the board causing things to heat up there fast. That would allow too much to go past the max limit on several components. Something would then be bound to give out. You would see on defective mainly or simply "cheapo" supply. But even on the rare occasion don't think that a good make can't fail.
There's no doubt there. When people start going oc crazy with bad supplies they suddenly wonder why things cook too fast and they get stuck trying to figure out what happened. This is one reason I never go by what amps are on a 12v rail but by the "stabiliy" of a supply. Unregulated supplies can be a hardware nightmare fast enough.
Jet
VIP Member
If a PSU goes out it can fry components...
If it simply quits there's no harm no foul. But if you have a supply that develops a short to ground or allows too much current from being unregulated that will certainly make toast out of a number of components real fast. I had one go right when going to first powerup the system. It did nothing. But if you have one go while everything is up and running... ut oh!
Tayl
VIP Member
Well, to my surprise I managed to get a full refund on the entire workstation (all individual components inside inc. the case etc.) even though they're nearly a year old and only had around 6 days left on the warranty. I'm now going to purchase an entirely different setup from a different more reliable company. I'm also considering purchasing a UPS to cover any surges or power defects.