The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Regular crashes have turned into epic crashes
Matt!
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
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.
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
0
Posts
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?!
I am offically going crazy.
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?
Ive called all my local places and none of them have a socket 754
so off to the internets!
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.
Check the link I posted.
http://www.pricewatch.com/motherboards/socket_754.htm
hopefully this ends my problems!
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.