XPC P9500g Shuttle Problems.

Hello All,

I’m new here and I’m having problems with a new Shuttle XPC P9500g. Actually, its BECAUSE these problems that I even found this forum.

Its my hope that someone here can help me out.

My problem is this...

I bought a brand new XPC from the gamming section on the Shuttle Site. It hasn't worked properly yet, and Shuttle is claiming that I am not eligible for a refund so I’m stuck with what they gave me. My chances of getting a refund from Shuttle at this point look grim, so now I need help to try and get this system to run right.

Default XPC P9500g with the below Upgrades.
Upgraded NVida G-Force 7800 GT Video card.

The Tech:

XPC P9500g
Intel Pentium 4 650 3.4GHz 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 w/HyperThreading
1GB (512 x 2) PC2-4200 533MHz Dual-channel DDR2
200GB Serial ATA 7200RPM 8MB Buffer HDD
52X CDRW 16X DVD-ROM Combo IDE
Onboard 7.1 Channel Audio w/Digital (SPDIF) Ports (by Realtek)
GeForce 7800 GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-E
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

SOFTWARE USED:
Games:
First Install of the OS
F.E.A.R. Demo
X2: The Threat Demo
Wolds of Warcraft (MMORPG)
Starwars Galaxies (MMORPG)
Half Life 2

Other Software:
AGV Virus Protection and Firewall
Comcast Cable Modem Software
Winamp

Second Install of OS
Worlds of Warcraft
Starwars Galaxies
Winamp
AVG Virus Protection and Firewall

Here is what my Shuttle is doing...
Let me know if any of the following sounds familiar to any of you.


The Problems:

Problem A)
While playing Games the system seems to Freeze and sometimes Crash to blue screen "Physical memory Dump" usually resulting in trouble in restarting.

The freezes and crashes seem to happen when new sound channels are add while playing. The freezes last anywhere from 15 sec to 45sec. During the freeze the sound is stuttering (much like a skipping CD) and the system is totally locked.
This happens frequently and sometimes results in a Bluescreen ending with "Physical Memory Dump".

Sometimes after a bluescreen my system has trouble restarting. It will start up, and at the loading Windows XP screen will restart. Usually this ends badly for the system, with more bluescreens, and a OS repair is needed (using the repair CD).

My guess is there is a conflict between the Sound card and the Video Card.

At once point the Video card actually burned out and I had to send the system back to shuttle.

Problem B)
Last time this happened, the Sound became "Staticy" in both the front and rear jacks as well as with headphones and Speakers. This has stopped after I got it back from Shuttle, and the techs seem to claim there was nothing wrong to begin with.

The Sound still does freeze with the system however and I’m am not entirely convinced this problem is solved. I have a feeling it will come back as it did before, seeing as how it seemed to be a progressive problem, and nothing was fixed.

Problem C)
Continual Slow down of the Hard Drive as time went on, leading to a damaged hard Drive and me sending my system back to Shuttle for a second time. I expect this to be fixed when I get my system back, but decided to mention it incase it ment anything to anyone.
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OTHER INFORMATION:

When the Video card burned out the first time, I had left the system on over night downloading Half-life 2 using Steam. When I launched Half-life 2, the screen went dark. This is why I suspect a heat problem. The game launched, the fans wound up, and ... pop.

Tech Support says it isn’t the system that is the problem, but the games I'm playing which I just cannot swallow because I play these games on other systems flawlessly. Besides, I bought a Gamming System, and all of these games are well over a year old.

I have (after the video repair) Updated the video drivers from NVida and was in the process of updating my Sound drivers when my system died the second time.

I suspect a Cooling problem and/or a power problem, but I am not totally sure on that.

Please, If anyone can help me get this computer to run correctly I would greatly appreciate it. Shuttles Tech/Customer Support are no longer working for me at all, and I cannot afford to keep sending a broken system back to them till they get it right.

I honestly dont know what else I can do about this system. Any help I can get, would be great! All I want is to have a great system to play, edit, make games on with as little fiddling as possiable.


Cheers,
Jareth McBrehon

Do you have any more memory sticks to test n the shuttle, as from what ive read i would suggest its memory, the slow downs can be caused with the swop file on your hard drive having to be used thoroughly due to lack of memory,

Suggesting this as an old system of mine crashed frequently with blue screens concerning physical memory dumps, a change of ram solved this.

do your memory sticks have heat spreaders on them?

Thanks for the Reply Jonny,

I only have the Memory that came with the XPC.

At the moment its back at Shuttle getting a Hard Drive replaced. I may give the techs a call and let them know what you recomend. I would hate to send this back a 3rd Time.

Ill let you know what they say.

Here is what was said...
I called Tech Support, and told them to speicificly have the Lab Techs look at and test the RAM.
All I got was that "it wasn't the RAM, sir." and they laughed. I hope they actually go over it and make sure its not anything to do with the RAM.

Cheers,
Jareth