Hardware Problem?

[kidzer]

Odd one for y'all tonight

A few weeks ago, my mate (whos a tall bugger) fell into my PC (long story ), and gave it a good dunt, ever since - running Windows, i've had general system instability and apps closing randomly.

In my haste to want to blame windows (because im silly like that), I killed it off my HD and run ubuntu for the past week or so, but it has random app crashes and apps just closing, I'm running my Vista RC2 at the mo, and its having the same problem - pretty much ruling out software errors I think.

I've tested the RAM with Memtest, the HD reports no SMART errors, and the CPU is underclocked by about 20Mhz so it doesnt crash in 3D apps, i've yet to stress test it but , its looking like its gonna be the culprit...I shall run orthos and see how it lasts with that and keep the thread updated

Any suggestions welcome

[kidzer]

Just run orthos' 'blend' test, failed after a few mins with a rounding error, I take it thats a math error - ergo a CPU error?

[Metier9]

Could be the ram?

[kidzer]

Perhaps, I shall give memtest another run tonight and see what it throws up.

Just had my 2nd BSOD/Reboot tonight aswell, boo

[Metier9]

Random thought, depending how hard ya mate fell over drunk into the computer, did he lodge the heatsink on the CPU a bit?

[kidzer]

I dont think so, i've reseated the CPU cooler anyways, so its all on right, given the orientation of the machine, and that he hit it at the motherboard side he would've more likley loosened the cooler rather than forced it onto the CPU.

Cheers,
David


ooh yeah, he wasn't drunk, he fell off the chair!

[Metier9]

lol the muppet...

might as well run the memtest over night, that will see if its in the equation or not

[Clunk]

Its worth borrowing another psu if you can

[Thorsson]

Often issues with the motherboard can seem like they are CPU or memory. What about chipset cooling? Have you checked fan speeds and/or temperatures? Are all the cards/cables properly seated?

[kidzer]

Its worth borrowing another psu if you can

Dont say that, its my lovely new (new = 2/3 months) Seasonic S12-380!

Yeah, all temps are fine - CPU idles at 33C, GPU idle @ 49C, northbridge/southbridge havent got temp. sensors on 'em, so I cant check them other than touch (touching the NB heatsink it doesnt seem hot, touching the SB - it has no Heatsink - also feels pretty cool).

David

[Clunk]

Ram and psu would be my first stops as far as hardware is concerned.

Your mate falling on it could just be coincidence.
Have you done a fresh install of windows?
Latest drivers?

Short circuits - build it up on cardboard, away from the case.

[Thorsson]

Short circuits usually equal failure to boot. I'm wondering about capacitors on the mobo. Did one of those get bent too far?

[Clunk]

Short circuits usually equal failure to boot.

Not always, heat inside the case can make things expand and short out. Its best to check everything still

[derchris]

That sounds like a Memory error.
I say that because one of my friends has a problem with his Memory, but memtest86 was not showing any.
So we wrote a little Test script to test CPU and Memory, by compiling the kernel on a Linux distro over and over again, and then check the output of each run.
After, lets say 20-30 runs, the system crashed.
We then changed Memory, and it ran for 1-2 days, without any error.

So it could be a Memory problem.

[kidzer]

Right, couldn't find my Memtest ISO last night, but i've found it now - I shall leave it going when I head off to watch the Man Utd game next door.

I had a few reboots today, but after those its been solid as a rock for about 5 hours, intermittent and odd indeed.

I have another machine sitting next to me, with 2x256MiB sticks of RAM, I might stick those in and test those to see if they're any good and swap them in and see how it goes tomorrow.