More problems arise

[Dresden]

Well just when I thought everything was cool with my computer, more problems arise. The computer I just built is apparently either extremely sensitive to being rocked whatsoever or something is wrong. The slightest vibration would shut it down, with my motherboard beeping. Whats happening? Is this a heat issue of some sort? Power?

Thanks guys-

Norton

 

[Zaphod]

If it's a shutdown and not a reboot that sounds like something is causing the PSU surge protection to trip. Loose or damaged power connector/wire, motherboard grounding issue, or possibly a broken trace/pin somewhere related to the motherboard power cicuitry.

Hard to troubleshoot, but often fixed by a total dismantle and rebuild.

 

[Dresden]

If it's a shutdown and not a reboot that sounds like something is causing the PSU surge protection to trip. Loose or damaged power connector/wire, motherboard grounding issue, or possibly a broken trace/pin somewhere related to the motherboard power cicuitry.

Hard to troubleshoot, but often fixed by a total dismantle and rebuild.

I've gotten a blue screen twice with a message telling me to disable shadowing or chacheing in BIOS or something along those lines. Any idea what that means?

 

[Zaphod]

Other than disabling those options in BIOS? Nope sorry. Those things wouldn't be vibration sensitive, though.

Also missed that part about the motherboard beeping, and if it's power-related it would probably shut off totally (requiring a 'physical' on/off on the PSU before it would boot again), so my original suggestion is probably wrong.

If it's not a power issue, then it's likely something broken on the MB, but if you're lucky it could also just be something making bad contact. For starters I'd reseat the graphics card, RAM, and remove any other PCI(e) cards and see if that helps.

 

[Dresden]

Other than disabling those options in BIOS? Nope sorry. Those things wouldn't be vibration sensitive, though.

Also missed that part about the motherboard beeping, and if it's power-related it would probably shut off totally (requiring a 'physical' on/off on the PSU before it would boot again), so my original suggestion is probably wrong.

If it's not a power issue, then it's likely something broken on the MB, but if you're lucky it could also just be something making bad contact. For starters I'd reseat the graphics card, RAM, and remove any other PCI(e) cards and see if that helps.

gotcha, just disconnected everything and reconnected it. I'll keep you updated.


Also using one version of XP Pro on two computers apparently doesn't allow you to download service pack updates. Is there a way to contact Microsoft to fix this? The same version is installed on my broken computer, therefore i cant rightly just uninstall it.

 

[Dresden]

Hmm, so far so good. Haven't encountered any errors yet. I think something was loose somewhere along the lines internally.

 

[ANova]

Also using one version of XP Pro on two computers apparently doesn't allow you to download service pack updates. Is there a way to contact Microsoft to fix this? The same version is installed on my broken computer, therefore i cant rightly just uninstall it.

You have to call them and 'activate' it for the new system.

 

[Dresden]

You have to call them and 'activate' it for the new system.

ah, thank you!

 

[Dresden]

Yep, reformmated everything today and reinstalled everything and it still shuts down at will. I can't get an entire day in without there being some sort of error. And the problem is that I can't accurately pinpoint exactly what it is because the number on my motherboards LCD keeps changing. Now it's giving me malarkey about Uguru. What do you think it is? Power? Heat? Bad hardware? Should I take it to some technicians to get analyzed and fixed? The problem with us custom builders is the lack of any real techincal support when in times of need like this. What would you guys do?


Please help.

Thanks-

Norton

 

[KimB]

Well, since it sounds like you have a second system there, it seems like the next step would be to one by one swap individual components between the systems (as much as compatibility allows), starting with the power supply and motherboard, and see if you can narrow down the culprit.

 

[_xxx_]

I've gotten a blue screen twice with a message telling me to disable shadowing or chacheing in BIOS or something along those lines. Any idea what that means?

If you don't know what that means, than you really need someone with at least a little bit of knowledge about BIOS settings and such. Probably that's where the problem is, wrong BIOS settings.

 

[KimB]

But if the default BIOS settings don't provide stable operation, and BIOS settings are the problem, then I'd say it's a bad motherboard.

 

[_xxx_]

But if the default BIOS settings don't provide stable operation, and BIOS settings are the problem, then I'd say it's a bad motherboard.

Well there are quite a few pieces of HW which are usually not very happy with the default settings. "Assign IRQ to USB"-option and nV cards come to mind, for example. Also, many mobos don't detect the RAM timings/freq. correctly.

EDIT: typo, I meant "Assign IRQ to VGA"

 

[KimB]

Well there are quite a few pieces of HW which are usually not very happy with the default settings. "Assign IRQ to USB"-option and nV cards come to mind, for example. Also, many mobos don't detect the RAM timings/freq. correctly.

Well, if that's not fixed by a BIOS update, then I stand by my position.

 

[_xxx_]

Well, if that's not fixed by a BIOS update, then I stand by my position.

Unfortunately, such issues are pretty much never fixed. Mostly becuse the problem is not with the mobo/BIOS in the first place (ever tried RAM timings "by SPD"?). Also, stuff like "Assign IRQ to VGA" is a normal option that can be set wrong, nothing to fix there. Some HW likes the default settings, some doesn't.

 

[KimB]

I'd be highly surprised if such things were still a problem today (in any decent motherboard). Maybe if you're talking 5-year-old hardware. But I haven't built a system that had any such problems in a very long time.

 

[_xxx_]

Could be. My very new Asus mobo with latest BIOS has the problem with detection by SPD, for example. Just like any other mobo I've ever had.

 

[KimB]

Well, I will admit that I had an ASUS motherboard not too long ago that incorrectly detected my RAM, but a simple BIOS upgrade fixed that problem pretty much right away.