GolfProRM Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 Back story: I bought my computer in March of this year (built it myself, but bought all the parts from the same local store). My motherboard has gone out on me once already this summer, so had it replaced (under warranty thank goodness), but now I've got problems again.My problems seemed to start when I installed the new game patch for Diablo II, so I thought I might just be having some software issues and was planning on formatting/reinstalling things this weekend, but my system spontaneously rebooted twice and crashed once last night, and now I can't even get it to boot into Windows/Linux or from a CD. It would boot as far as LILO and then crash, or if I put in a bootable CD (XP or Knoppix), it would crash right after I told it to boot from CD.I left it off for the night and tried booting it this morning. Booted through LILO into XP, gave me an error saying the ntoskernl was corrupt and would need to be repaired. Put in XP CD to reinstall - error with an inf file right after "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration" and would not run setup. Rebooted with different XP CD and didn't make it past selecting the CD.I've tried booting with my harddrives unhooked/rearranged, but no difference. I'm thinking my MoBo is gone again! Home PC Brand: Home Built Case: Generic Power Supply: 300w Enermax Processor: AMD AthlonXP 2000+ Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7VA Chipset: VIA KT400 RAM: 512 MB DDR PC2700 (333 Mhz) Harddrives: 80Gb Western Digital 7200rpm ATA100 30Gb Maxtor 7200rpm ATA133 Video: 128 Mb GeForce4 Ti4200 8x AGP Audio: Onboard - six channel CDROM: 52x24x52 CD-RW drive Other: 6 USB 2.0 ports, 5 PCI slots, 1 8x AGP slot. Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro Mouse: Logitech MX500 Optical Joystick: Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital OS: Windows XP Professional/Mandrake 9.1 Windows XP (Version 5.1, Build 2600.xpsp1.0208281920: Service Pack 1) Quote
nlinecomputers Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 I'd replace that power supply too. You'd be surprised what a P/S that appears to be working can do your your system. Quote
Stryder Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 I got plenty of guns if you need to borrow one, Ryan.Have you went into your bios yet? Made sure everything is recognized and that there are no errors being reported? Quote
GolfProRM Posted November 5, 2003 Author Posted November 5, 2003 BIOS looks fine... All drives being detected and nothing looks wrong... CPU's running quite cool... Even defaulted everything to make sure I didn't have something messed up.Luckily my warranty is still good, so I'm just going to take the whole box into the shop and have them figure out what exactly's wrong. I don't have any spare ATX power supplies laying around, and my girlfriend won't let me take her machine apart to test stuff. The case is only about 2 months old, and I've had a UPS running ever since I replaced the mobo the first time. Quote
nlinecomputers Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 I know you don't repair'em for a living but P/S get so funky so often and so easily that it is worth the extra $40 to have one in reserve just for times like this. Quote
GolfProRM Posted November 5, 2003 Author Posted November 5, 2003 Maybe for Christmas... on my budget, $40 for something that's going to sit in a closet as a backup isn't really doable. Once I use up my warranty at the computer shop, I'll definitely want one, but for now I'll make it their problem... It just sucks that something's died twice now in 6 months... Quote
Guest LilBambi Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 Wow! That is a royal pain!Good luck on it Ryan ... thankfully you are still under warranty. But it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.Hopefully they will this time, replace the power supply for you. Might want to mention that some computer techs suggested it.You also might want to do look at the following google search on Gigabyte GA-7VA problems:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-...+GA-7VA+problemThis particular one sounds hauntingly familiar...different game...but similar initial symptoms ??:http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/7758/ Quote
GolfProRM Posted November 5, 2003 Author Posted November 5, 2003 Thanks Fran for the links!I'm going to try to work out a deal with the shop to give me credit for my warranty and let me buy a different board by paying the difference... I'm tired if this board's problems... I'd heard nothing but good things about Gigabyte boards when I bought mine, but I haven't had anything good come from the one I've got. I think there were a LOT of problems with the VIA KT400 chipset, and I'd really like to move to an Nforce2. Quote
nlinecomputers Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 It may just be the mobo. There are a lot of bad Capacitors on the market. Some Twian company flooded the market with millions of bad ones and they are showing up in lots of mobos in allmost every brand.IEEE story on leaky caps. Quote
Jeber Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 I got plenty of guns if you need to borrow one, Ryan.Just loan him your shovel, Stryder. Then he can kill it and bury it all in the same afternoon. Quote
GolfProRM Posted November 5, 2003 Author Posted November 5, 2003 None of the caps have shown to be leaky... Everything on the board looks normal...I'm going to head to the shop here in a few to drop it off... Quote
Agent007 Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 It could be the RAM...Have u tried replacing the memory?007 Quote
GolfProRM Posted November 5, 2003 Author Posted November 5, 2003 It could be the RAM...Have u tried replacing the memory?007That's what the guys at the shop said... They're going to try that first... So long as there's actually a defective part in the computer, it won't cost me anything to have them fix it. I didn't have any spare RAM sticks laying around (and only have one in my machine) so couldn't test it myself. I'll find out the real reason hopefully tomorrow. Quote
zox Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 My first suspect would be memory, then PS and mobo.Go on your girlfriend PC, download Memtest, burn it and boot from the burned CD.In an couple oif minutes at most you'll be sure if it is RAM or not.Memtest86 sitePrecompiled Windows packageSource and Binary for LinuxI give it 5 stars out of five, great software, free too. Quote
GolfProRM Posted November 5, 2003 Author Posted November 5, 2003 Zox, that would work except for the fact that the computer locks up before it'll actually boot from a CD... I tried other CD's, but couldn't get them to boot. Quote
Jeber Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 I'm starting a computer excorsism service. Let me know if you require my services. You'll qualify for the SFNL discount rate. Quote
Stryder Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 I got plenty of guns if you need to borrow one, Ryan.Just loan him your shovel, Stryder. Then he can kill it and bury it all in the same afternoon. The shovel is for people only. One tool devouring another just seems too cannibalistic to me.l Quote
GolfProRM Posted November 5, 2003 Author Posted November 5, 2003 I'm starting a computer excorsism service. Let me know if you require my services. You'll qualify for the SFNL discount rate. I appreciate the offer, and will let you know if the shop can't figure it out... So what kind of discount is it? Quote
Guest LilBambi Posted November 5, 2003 Posted November 5, 2003 Thanks Fran for the links!I'm going to try to work out a deal with the shop to give me credit for my warranty and let me buy a different board by paying the difference... I'm tired if this board's problems... I'd heard nothing but good things about Gigabyte boards when I bought mine, but I haven't had anything good come from the one I've got. I think there were a LOT of problems with the VIA KT400 chipset, and I'd really like to move to an Nforce2.You're welcome Ryan!I hear ya! That would be a very good idea IF they will do that for you. That board has been a bit of problem for quite a few folks according to those Google links.Good luck on it! Quote
havnblast Posted November 6, 2003 Posted November 6, 2003 Hope everything works our Ryan! Gigabyte usually is a good mobo too, hear nothing but good things about it Quote
Stonegiant Posted November 6, 2003 Posted November 6, 2003 Both myself and tbird9768 had different Gigabyte boards where the chipset fans were poor quality. I had my fan replaced and (I think) tbird lubricated his with 3-in-1 oil. Just FYI Quote
ibe98765 Posted November 6, 2003 Posted November 6, 2003 Angry at your PC? But bet not as angry as this guy... http://home.ripway.com/2003-11/34573/Angrydesk.mpegP.S. This was an old file I got somewhere on the net long ago.P.P.S: This is the first time I have tried this service to host a file. They have a 5mb daily transfer limit and this file is about 420kb, so only 11 people can download it in a day.... Quote
GolfProRM Posted November 12, 2003 Author Posted November 12, 2003 Okay... FINALLY got my computer back... The problem was that for some reason, my mobo defaults are set to overclock my RAM. When I flashed my BIOS about a month ago, it reset my settings, and I must not have noticed that the RAM was overclocked. This for some reason caused my system to eventually stop working.An odd situation is that they said my video card was going bad. I had noticed a few things recently, but figured it was related to the RAM problem. They've ordered a new card for me (at no cost), and they said they're giving me an upgrade since they don't carry my old card anymore. I'm going from a GeForce4 Ti4200 to the FX5600... I'm quite happy about this! Hopefully the new card will be in on Friday!!!! Quote
havnblast Posted November 13, 2003 Posted November 13, 2003 Wow - that should be a nice card - can't believe the other one is going bad tho - seems to be a really good card too, but than it also depends on the brand of the card, some brands not as good as others. Quote
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