Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 16 of 28

Thread: my most unreliable pc has almost kicked the bucket...help- several seriou problems :(

  1. #1
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    231
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts

    my most unreliable pc has almost kicked the bucket...help- several seriou problems :(

    Hey all, ive had problem after problem with my pc and wonder if you could diagnose any of these before i drop it out of my window. Its my first home build (using both old and new parts). The latest problem is this...

    1. When i switch the power button sometimes, it will give a small surge - you hear the fan start and then suddenly it switches off within a second. You cannot after that push the power on again, and the only cure seems to be to switch the plug off at the socket, give it about 30 seconds and then try again- if im lucky it will boot fine.

    2. However things recently got worse, xp seems to load really slowly in comparison to my other computer of lower spec, and i did a reboot tonight- got it powered up and was greeted with a "ntldr missing" error. I checked in the bios and it appeared there was no master!! only my slave drive was there- as if it didnt recognise it.

    It doesnt help that the drive with the operating system on is an 80gig sea gate which is apprently refurbished. The slave is a new 200gig seagate. The jumpers are set fine to my knowledge (folowed the simple seagate diagrams for master and slave)

    I wonder whether these issues are interlinked. All i want is a reliable pc

    My only thoughts are power supply has died, the IDE cable is faulty, hard disk is possibly knackered, and maybe a dodgy power switch. Hopefully you guys might have some suggestions for me

    Cheers!

    Kev

  2. #2
    Senior Member Workaholic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Manchester
    Posts
    1,500
    Thanks
    187
    Thanked
    14 times in 12 posts
    Problem with my system (Socket 775) is that the CPU heatsink fan isn't as secure as the old Athlon clipped fans and first time I put it on, I didn't do so secure enough so one of the fan's retaining clip thingys fell off. That stopped my system booting up completely...

    So you might want to check that the fan is on securely and attached to the board.

    Secondly does the ntdr missing show up after you've installed windows on it or has it just shown before? Does the partition (through custom install) of Windows XP show the drive/partition?
    Woohoo now Assistant Manager!


  3. #3
    Senior Member FatalSaviour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    London/Oxford/York
    Posts
    1,876
    Thanks
    42
    Thanked
    12 times in 11 posts
    • FatalSaviour's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI P55-GD80
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core i7 860
      • Memory:
      • 4x2GB GEiL PC17000
      • Storage:
      • 3x1000GB, 2x500GB (RAID1), 1x2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX 470
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX700
      • Case:
      • Antec P180
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2311, Dell 2005FPW
      • Internet:
      • VM 30Mb
    I don't think it would be the power switch, but I wouldn't discount either a faulty PSU or HDD.
    What make of PSU is it? What model Motherboard too please? Is it possible to use the PSU from your other PC and install it into your problematic one, to see if this fixes anything?

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    231
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Workaholic
    Problem with my system (Socket 775) is that the CPU heatsink fan isn't as secure as the old Athlon clipped fans and first time I put it on, I didn't do so secure enough so one of the fan's retaining clip thingys fell off. That stopped my system booting up completely...

    So you might want to check that the fan is on securely and attached to the board.

    Secondly does the ntdr missing show up after you've installed windows on it or has it just shown before? Does the partition (through custom install) of Windows XP show the drive/partition?
    Hey guys, thanks very much for the replies so far.

    Yeh, the fan has been in the same place it always has, tight to the top.
    The error seems to occur a few days after installng windows after i put some software on maybe. I really dont like the slowness of the boot... it gets there , but just nowhere near as quick as this computer's.

    The partition was made in the windows installation. It seems sometimes the hard disk is recognised and sometimes not at the moment. Thats why i maybe suspected the IDE cable, altho i think its bloody unlikely.

    Quote Originally Posted by FatalSaviour
    I don't think it would be the power switch, but I wouldn't discount either a faulty PSU or HDD.
    What make of PSU is it? What model Motherboard too please? Is it possible to use the PSU from your other PC and install it into your problematic one, to see if this fixes anything?
    It is a cheap power supply (im gonna rip it out and test another soon), and the motherboard i think is foxconn winfast bios. This rubish is just eating my time lately... beginning to wish i never attempted a home build actually lol.
    Last edited by themaidenmaniac; 11-05-2006 at 11:53 PM.

  5. #5
    Senior Member FatalSaviour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    London/Oxford/York
    Posts
    1,876
    Thanks
    42
    Thanked
    12 times in 11 posts
    • FatalSaviour's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI P55-GD80
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core i7 860
      • Memory:
      • 4x2GB GEiL PC17000
      • Storage:
      • 3x1000GB, 2x500GB (RAID1), 1x2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX 470
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX700
      • Case:
      • Antec P180
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2311, Dell 2005FPW
      • Internet:
      • VM 30Mb
    The IDE cable could also be faulty...I've had this before and it can be annoying.
    Any reason why you have both hard drives on the same channel?
    If it were me, I would be tempted to put the Primary (OS) Hard drive on the Primary Master, the secondary HD and any optical drive on the Secondary Master and slave respectively.
    However, the cable issue seems unlikely to be causing the power-up issue that you mention first.
    My money's on the PSU first and foremost...it may even just be a loose connection at the Hard drive molex....if you can swap that out and test it again, then see what happens, we may be able to help you a bit more.

  6. #6
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    231
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by FatalSaviour
    The IDE cable could also be faulty...I've had this before and it can be annoying.
    Any reason why you have both hard drives on the same channel?
    If it were me, I would be tempted to put the Primary (OS) Hard drive on the Primary Master, the secondary HD and any optical drive on the Secondary Master and slave respectively.
    However, the cable issue seems unlikely to be causing the power-up issue that you mention first.
    My money's on the PSU first and foremost...it may even just be a loose connection at the Hard drive molex....if you can swap that out and test it again, then see what happens, we may be able to help you a bit more.
    yeh i reckon it probably will be. I just saw it as a simple cheap way to do it- 1 cable into two drives and into the mobo. I really doubt it to be the ide cable, as it has been fine for the last 5 yeears (but you never know!) Test it tomorrow i suppose! Thanks for your time so far tonite bro

  7. #7
    Senior Member FatalSaviour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    London/Oxford/York
    Posts
    1,876
    Thanks
    42
    Thanked
    12 times in 11 posts
    • FatalSaviour's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI P55-GD80
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core i7 860
      • Memory:
      • 4x2GB GEiL PC17000
      • Storage:
      • 3x1000GB, 2x500GB (RAID1), 1x2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX 470
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX700
      • Case:
      • Antec P180
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2311, Dell 2005FPW
      • Internet:
      • VM 30Mb
    No problem...I know how frustrating it can be when you're at your wits end!
    Other things I've thought of that you can do now....or at least at some point...
    Run a program called MemTest86 (www.memtest86.com)...This will check your memory, and make sure there's no errors with that....
    Secondly, and perhaps more usefully...
    Seagate provide diagnostic tools to detect most HD based problems....it may be that you have some bad sectors on your hard drive...you can download this FOC from http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html

  8. #8
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    231
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by FatalSaviour
    No problem...I know how frustrating it can be when you're at your wits end!
    Other things I've thought of that you can do now....or at least at some point...
    Run a program called MemTest86 (www.memtest86.com)...This will check your memory, and make sure there's no errors with that....
    Secondly, and perhaps more usefully...
    Seagate provide diagnostic tools to detect most HD based problems....it may be that you have some bad sectors on your hard drive...you can download this FOC from http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html
    well, thanks very much mate! I'll give these a run, and see what they find.

  9. #9
    Senior Member FatalSaviour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    London/Oxford/York
    Posts
    1,876
    Thanks
    42
    Thanked
    12 times in 11 posts
    • FatalSaviour's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI P55-GD80
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core i7 860
      • Memory:
      • 4x2GB GEiL PC17000
      • Storage:
      • 3x1000GB, 2x500GB (RAID1), 1x2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX 470
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX700
      • Case:
      • Antec P180
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2311, Dell 2005FPW
      • Internet:
      • VM 30Mb
    Not a problem at all...Hope they don't find anything

  10. #10
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    231
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by FatalSaviour
    Not a problem at all...Hope they don't find anything
    haha yeh.. gotta manage to get back into windows first

    windows repair console here i come again...

  11. #11
    Senior Member FatalSaviour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    London/Oxford/York
    Posts
    1,876
    Thanks
    42
    Thanked
    12 times in 11 posts
    • FatalSaviour's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI P55-GD80
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core i7 860
      • Memory:
      • 4x2GB GEiL PC17000
      • Storage:
      • 3x1000GB, 2x500GB (RAID1), 1x2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX 470
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX700
      • Case:
      • Antec P180
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2311, Dell 2005FPW
      • Internet:
      • VM 30Mb
    Not for those two programs you don't...Both are bootable....in fact...it's the best/only way to test for these sorts of errors.

  12. #12
    Senior Member FatalSaviour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    London/Oxford/York
    Posts
    1,876
    Thanks
    42
    Thanked
    12 times in 11 posts
    • FatalSaviour's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI P55-GD80
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core i7 860
      • Memory:
      • 4x2GB GEiL PC17000
      • Storage:
      • 3x1000GB, 2x500GB (RAID1), 1x2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX 470
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX700
      • Case:
      • Antec P180
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2311, Dell 2005FPW
      • Internet:
      • VM 30Mb
    If you can use your other PC to burn the ISO's of both programs onto CDs, (or extract to floppy's if you can bear it), set your BIOS on the PC to boot from the respective media, it should do it's job...no windows required.

  13. #13
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    231
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by FatalSaviour
    If you can use your other PC to burn the ISO's of both programs onto CDs, (or extract to floppy's if you can bear it), set your BIOS on the PC to boot from the respective media, it should do it's job...no windows required.
    oh! great, i'll give that a go too.

  14. #14
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    231
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by themaidenmaniac
    oh! great, i'll give that a go too.
    Get a load of this dude... Its on the way back to seagate now Thanks a hell of a lot for that link!

    Run: 12/05/2006 13:20:28

    Primary IDE Channel : ST380011A
    Model: ST380011A
    Serial Number: 5JVE4BH9
    Capacity: 80.02 GB
    Test result: Self-test routine completed with a S.M.A.R.T. alert error!

    The Drive Self-Test has determined that the drive may have one or more failing sectors. Please run SeaTools Desktop for additional information about this problem.
    Primary IDE Channel : ST3200826A
    Model: ST3200826A
    Serial Number: 3ND0Z1XK 3ND0Z1XK
    Capacity: 200.05 GB
    Test result: Self-test routine completed without error.

    Any drive reporting a S.M.A.R.T. error should be considered likely to fail at any time. You should back up your data from any such drive as soon as possible. Contact your computer or hard drive vendor to obtain return information.

  15. #15
    Senior Member FatalSaviour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    London/Oxford/York
    Posts
    1,876
    Thanks
    42
    Thanked
    12 times in 11 posts
    • FatalSaviour's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI P55-GD80
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core i7 860
      • Memory:
      • 4x2GB GEiL PC17000
      • Storage:
      • 3x1000GB, 2x500GB (RAID1), 1x2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX 470
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX700
      • Case:
      • Antec P180
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2311, Dell 2005FPW
      • Internet:
      • VM 30Mb
    No problem. Hope you've managed to nip the problem in the bud...not lose any important data on it.

  16. #16
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    231
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by FatalSaviour
    No problem. Hope you've managed to nip the problem in the bud...not lose any important data on it.
    thanks once again mate. I wonder if it will solve my power issue, i reckon they could be two seperate problems, but i can always hope lol. Oh im going to have some fun tonight...

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. My experience with Windows XP Pro x64 Edition
    By Paul Adams in forum Software
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 20-04-2007, 11:59 PM
  2. Windows kicked the bucket. HELP!!!
    By dkmech in forum Software
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 15-04-2004, 07:20 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •