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Regular crashes have turned into epic crashes

Matt!Matt! Registered User regular
edited November 2008 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
First, I will set the stage.

For bout the past 6 months my computer has this habit of just kinda turning itself off. Sometimes it would happen moments after turning on my computer, sometimes it would take a few days, but it would just *flip* off. There was no specific software related behavior i could associate it with, it appeared totally random. Troubleshooting the problem has been a nightmare. I've switched RAM, videocards, power supplies, reseated the CPU, reformatted, and just about everything i could think of.

Whereas it used to just be annoying, now it has gotten epic, my computer was usable for the most part because it only happened every few hours once I got the computer running. But now, my computer refuses to make it past the windows loading screen.

Adding to the pain, I tried to use a Ubuntu Live CD, and when it gets to the ubuntu loading screen, it turns itself off, which leads me to believe it kinda has to be hardware right?

Anyways ill drop the obligatory specs

Asus K8N motherboard
AMD 64 3000+
Geforce 6800
1 gig kingston ram
SB Live! card
Western digital 250gig and 80 gig
Antec smartpower 500w (it was like 70 bucks, i never know how to guage power supply quality)

so im kinda ancient, but i am going nuts! This thing could actually run fallout and i have been jonesing for some dead super mutants but now this piece of ass wont boot!

Anyone have any clue what i can do? I am thinking maybe its the motherboard dying? I ahvent really swapped HDD so that might be it too but i was hoping the collective insight of you fine gentlemen (and gentleladies) could help me out.

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Matt! on

Posts

  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited November 2008
    Antec's a decent brand, so that's probably not it. If it has crashed during the POST, before it begins loading the OS, it's probably not the hard drive. Are all the fans working properly, particularly the CPU fan? Are the fans very old? It might be overheating. Did it get worse after you did anything in particular, like changing a certain part? Have you checked the new sticks of RAM to make sure they're good?

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
  • Matt!Matt! Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    BahamutZERO wrote: »
    Antec's a decent brand, so that's probably not it. If it has crashed during the POST, before it begins loading the OS, it's probably not the hard drive. Are all the fans working properly, particularly the CPU fan? Are the fans very old? It might be overheating. Did it get worse after you did anything in particular, like changing a certain part? Have you checked the new sticks of RAM to make sure they're good?

    I dont think it's really ever crashed during the post, i feel like its always been right after the post.

    Heat doesnt seem to be the issue, even after its been off all night and it will crash 20 seconds into loading, the heatsink not being hot to the touch even. The fans are all in working order, although i am using a vantec stealth as my cpu fan right now because my thermaltake just bit the dust, it doesnt move a lot of air but my heatsink is a beast. My temps were doing alright when i could check them, idling at around 38C and going to around 60C at load.

    The RAM i just ran a memtest86 on for like 4 hours yesterday and according to the test its ok, and i have switched RAM slots thinking maybe a DIMM was going haywire.

    Which is also weird because my computer ran the memtest for 4 hours just fine, without crashing, but wont boot for longer than 30 seconds when going into linux or windows.... wtf?!

    Matt! on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Matt!Matt! Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    just swapped hard drives, and it did the same thing to both, just shut off.

    I am offically going crazy.

    Matt! on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Your motherboard has bit the dust. I'm sorry to say, you may have collateral damage to RAM and your processor, but probably not.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • Matt!Matt! Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    bowen wrote: »
    Your motherboard has bit the dust. I'm sorry to say, you may have collateral damage to RAM and your processor, but probably not.

    Thats what i was afraid of... :(

    the problem is that its an AGP socket 754 so i have to find one of those or just start building a new machine.

    Matt! on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Matt! wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    Your motherboard has bit the dust. I'm sorry to say, you may have collateral damage to RAM and your processor, but probably not.

    Thats what i was afraid of... :(

    the problem is that its an AGP socket 754 so i have to find one of those or just start building a new machine.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186010

    I mean there's still a chance it's not the motherboard, but I find it highly unlikely that it'd be anything other than your power supply. I've had this exact same thing happen to me about 4 months back and I had 4 power supplies to test with so I quickly ruled that out. Have any you can test with?

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • Matt!Matt! Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    the power supply i had purchased was to fix my current problem, which it did not, so i assume that since it happened to my old and new power supplies, its not a problem with either.

    Ive called all my local places and none of them have a socket 754 :(

    so off to the internets!

    Matt! on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    This sounds EXACTLY what was happening to my old PC. I have almost the same specs that you do, except a Gigabyte motherboard instead of ASUS.

    I replaced the power supply, heat sink, hard drive..

    I gave up and am saving up for a new mobo, proc, and RAM instead. It's old enough to warrant just upgrading rather than trying to fix. Fortunately, my power supply and drives are fine so I don't need a whole new setup.

    ArcSyn on
    4dm3dwuxq302.png
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Matt! wrote: »
    the power supply i had purchased was to fix my current problem, which it did not, so i assume that since it happened to my old and new power supplies, its not a problem with either.

    Ive called all my local places and none of them have a socket 754 :(

    so off to the internets!

    Check the link I posted.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • Dark ShroudDark Shroud Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I'll throw in another link as well.

    http://www.pricewatch.com/motherboards/socket_754.htm

    Dark Shroud on
    http://gplus.to/DarkShroud
  • Matt!Matt! Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    so i went with a ASUS GeForce K8U-X, it was 26 bucks, the one from newegg doesnt accept double sided ram out of the box and i dont want to have to flash the bios before it even works.

    hopefully this ends my problems!

    Matt! on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Let us know.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • Matt!Matt! Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    oh hi!

    so i switched over to an Asus K8U-X , which was very similar to my existing motherboard, and so far everything works perfectly.

    Also I didnt reformat, which i heard was kinda par for the course when switching mobos, so i think everything is good and thanks for the help.

    Matt! on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Congrats. As long as you have around the same model of motherboard you had you probably won't have to reformat so I'm glad that worked out for you.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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