Prototype blew up my computer (maybe)

Dac

This started yesterday when I finally got around to purchasing and playing Prototype, a game that I had heard a lot of positive things about but never had a chance to indulge in power fantasy.

On getting it and playing through, I saw that the reputation was earned fairly, though I didn't much care for the default graphics res of 1280. I run most of my games at 1680x1050 because, as my brother would put it, I hate my computer.

The game worked fine (over 30 FPS most of the time) until there was a loud beeping noise from my computer. Not knowing what it was, and seeing that it didn't continue, I kept playing. Eventually my computer shut off. I later discovered via my brother (who is somewhat more tech savvy than I) that this was the temperature alert from the CPU, and that it had automatically shut down to avoid damaging the chip.

Popping open the case, I found that the sink for the CPU had been practically choked with dust. It was hard to say that there was a legitimately free slice in that contraption. So I grounded myself, vacuumed it out, let it cool down over night, and continued play today.

Everything was going great until abruptly, out of nowhere, my computer went dead. Just shut off, as it had the other night, only this time without a warning bleep. Leaving it to cool for an hour anyway, I came back, tried turning it on, and was treated to a wind up of about ONE SECOND before it automatically shut off. A few seconds later it started again (of its own accord), and shut off again... And again. And again. Between shut down - turn on cycles, I clicked the switch at the back to the off position to stop this.

I've checked my connectors, and everything appears to be in order. I've reset the wires on the hard-drive to the motherboard, reseated the memory, graphics card, made sure the processor fan was properly in place, etc. Eight hours later, giving plenty of time between attempts, it still stubbornly refuses to boot.

Is my computer just dead in the water? Do you think it's an issue with the processor? Because up to that point, Prototype was running just as slickly as ever. It wasn't even in an intensely graphical section of the game when it shut down (inside an army base). If it had been my CPU burning to death, I would have expected some sort of warning, but perhaps I'm totally off base on this.

Thoughts?

Descendant X

I'm guessing that it was the vacuuming out your computer that did it. I know you say you grounded yourself and everything, but the words 'vacuum' and 'computer' in the same sentence rarely end with sunshine and rainbows in my experience.

Synthesis

I'm going with the vacuum. I mean, was this just a general purpose house vacuum? Is it even possible to ground something like that effectively.

For future reference, I would recommend a can of compressed air, in any case. It sounds like a static charge blew out something on your motherboard, but it could be any number of thinggs.

Also, what's wrong with 1680x1050?

Dac

It was plastic and small, and no part ever got near the motherboard, just the heat sink, which I don't think it even touched, just sucked the dust out from the top of the plastic spinning fans since the nozzle is a little too big to fit in there.

Also, it worked for hours and hours on various applications after the vacuuming the next day, including Prototype, before going out. If I had blown something out with the cleaning, I would have expected it to go out right then.

Edit: Nothing especially wrong with 1680, but my brother has noted that I seem to be obsessed with running games at that res even if the framerate goes to shit (which it didn't in Prototype's case, but hey).

exis

This is a long shot but I experienced similar symptoms (fans winding up, shutting down, rinse repeat) awhile ago. It turned out that while cleaning out my PC I'd knocked the motherboard's power connector slightly. It had a sort of clip on it that was meant to snap onto the motherboard, but the clip was loose and wouldn't latch on. So yeah, I know you said you checked all your connections, but take a close look and make sure everything's tight and not just sitting loosely in it's place.

Dac

Double checked before, double checked again after your post.

The connectors are sitting pretty where they are. The power snaps in, the fan is obviously plugged in because it spins (some computers automatically shut off if the fan isn't spinning), the hard drive cable has been reseated, though I suppose I could try switching around the connectors (though a malfunction with a cable seems unlikely, and it doesn't seem like a HD problem.)

DHS Odium

Standard troubleshooting advice: Remove everything from your computer, all the pieces. While doing this you might as well clean all the parts and the case with some compressed air.

Now, put the PSU, motherboard, videocard, and CPU + heatsink back in. Add one stick of ram. Do not attach a harddrive, dvd drive, or anything else yet, that includes more ram. Try to boot it up. If it doesn't boot, check your jumpers, try to reset the BIOS. Try again. If that doesn't work, swap out the RAM for another stick if you have it, if that doesn't work, try another videocard. Keep swapping parts if you have spares. Or put some parts in question into another computer to check them.

Khavall

And standard gaming advice: Run games at your monitors native resolution. 1680x1050 won't look that hot on a 1280 monitor, similarly, I can basically only look at games running in 1680 anymore, and they run better in it than other resolutions because there's no interpolation getting in the way.

Dac

DHS Odium wrote: »

Standard troubleshooting advice: Remove everything from your computer, all the pieces. While doing this you might as well clean all the parts and the case with some compressed air.

Now, put the PSU, motherboard, videocard, and CPU + heatsink back in. Add one stick of ram. Do not attach a harddrive, dvd drive, or anything else yet, that includes more ram. Try to boot it up. If it doesn't boot, check your jumpers, try to reset the BIOS. Try again. If that doesn't work, swap out the RAM for another stick if you have it, if that doesn't work, try another videocard. Keep swapping parts if you have spares. Or put some parts in question into another computer to check them.

Resetting my BIOS fixed the problem.

Thanks DHS!

eatmosushi

How do i reset my BIOS on a laptop with vista 32bit?

much love thanks

Occulus

Dac wrote: »

Resetting my BIOS fixed the problem.

Thanks DHS!

Since that fixed it, can anyone in here venture a guess as to what went wrong? Was there some timing or voltage issue with the CPU, perhaps?

I know it's silly to speculate on it now, but it might help people in the future. Dac, did you by any chance alter your CPU or RAM settings in the BIOS prior to this?

Stormwatcher

I would like to point out that Prototype is particularly CPU intensive, as opposed to most other PC games that usually stress the GPU a lot harder.

So it's a prime candidate for fucking up dust clogged CPUs

ronya

eatmosushi wrote: »

How do i reset my BIOS on a laptop with vista 32bit?

much love thanks

Depends on the motherboard. Typically, changing a jumper will do. Check what type you have, then Look It Up On The Internets.

Occulus wrote: »

Dac wrote: »

Resetting my BIOS fixed the problem.

Thanks DHS!

Since that fixed it, can anyone in here venture a guess as to what went wrong? Was there some timing or voltage issue with the CPU, perhaps?

I know it's silly to speculate on it now, but it might help people in the future. Dac, did you by any chance alter your CPU or RAM settings in the BIOS prior to this?

Speculation: the temperature sensor in your motherboard has involves some software-driven component in BIOS that got 'stuck' the second time it went off.