Non DDO technical rant

[Aurora1979]

If your hard drive is louder than usual, your hard drive may be failing.

it is a little bit.... and the flashing light on the front keeps staying on. also, regards the opening files and stuff. yes, very much slower then before. like, waaaaay slower. takes measurable seconds now, used to be nigh instant... going back a year or so maybe.

[Aurora1979]

This is exceptionally good advice. The core of troubleshooting is isolating components, and identifying "known-good" components. If you independently add pieces back to your "known-good" bare bones kit, you'll know which piece is the problem when you boot up and see it all go south.

Ok, kool i can get behind that, thats quite a mechanical way of diagnosis too...... Ill give it a go. this rate im just making notes on a pad. Ill have to get into all this tomorrow night. 9pm here now.

[Cauthey]

it is a little bit.... and the flashing light on the front keeps staying on. also, regards the opening files and stuff. yes, very much slower then before. like, waaaaay slower. takes measurable seconds now, used to be nigh instant... going back a year or so maybe.

Based on this, I believe that you have an ailing hard drive. I'd be willing to bet a stack of Greater Good Essences on it.

Try a different drive, if you have one. Or, go to Fry's (or anywhere else that ISN'T Best Buy (hate them!) ), and splerge on a new hard drive.

You've already loaded from scratch before. Do that once more on the new drive, and I'm betting you'll be right as rain.

[Aurora1979]

Based on this, I believe that you have an ailing hard drive. I'd be willing to bet a stack of Greater Good Essences on it.

Try a different drive, if you have one. Or, go to Fry's (or anywhere else that ISN'T Best Buy (hate them!) ), and splerge on a new hard drive.

You've already loaded from scratch before. Do that once more on the new drive, and I'm betting you'll be right as rain.

ok. Ill give the other advice a go tomorrow. If all that doesnt work Ill fork out for a new drive. I have no real reasoning behind it but i kinda feel like thats the problem.... I dunno why... but yea.

Thanks for all the advice folks, really appreciate it. Ill let you know how it goes.

[sebastianosmith]

A few weeks ago I was having pc problems. I made a thread about it at the time but basically I replaced the PSU, the disk drive, the graphics card and the cooling unit (for a great big sub station looking beast)

As these are new components, that's the place to start looking.

More often than not these problems will be caused by either a video card and associated drivers or PSU with insufficient power output. I'll forgo the obligatory question about driver version as you recently reformatted the HD and downloaded the latest driver for your card. As you are running a GeForce 430 GT, the power requirements are at least 300 watts to support it. If your new PSU is in the 400 watt range, the MB, HD and other peripherals may be pulling in excess of 400 watts in combination with the video card. Or the PSU may simply have a bad 12v leg. That would explain many of the described problems. Try another PSU if possible.

It is also possible the new CPU cooler is not working properly and causing a heat-related issue. The proper application of heat sink compound and seating are key to the proper operation of any CPU.

I'll not comment on the Packard Bell motherboard because I don't want this to degenerate into a flame war.

[Aurora1979]

As these are new components, that's the place to start looking.

More often than not these problems will be caused by either a video card and associated drivers or PSU with insufficient power output. I'll forgo the obligatory question about driver version as you recently reformatted the HD and downloaded the latest driver for your card. As you are running a GeForce 430 GT, the power requirements are at least 300 watts to support it. If your new PSU is in the 400 watt range, the MB, HD and other peripherals may be pulling in excess of 400 watts in combination with the video card. Or the PSU may simply have a bad 12v leg. That would explain many of the described problems. Try another PSU if possible.

It is also possible the new CPU cooler is not working properly and causing a heat-related issue. The proper application of heat sink compound and seating are key to the proper operation of any CPU.

I'll not comment on the Packard Bell motherboard because I don't want this to degenerate into a flame war.

Hmm..... ok. my psu has 500watts stamped on the side. I dont know if thats full avaliable or what though. I cant try another psu unless i buy another one, same with all the new components i fitted.

When i fitted the cooler i was proper careful. As i say ive not done much on a pc so I was very slow and methodical. I cleaned both the surfaces with the spray in the box and then put a generous, but not squirting out the sides, blob of the gel.... im pretty sure i fitted it ok, that side of things id be fairly confident with. I can work well with my hands and im quite practicle. Its the stuff I cant see thats hardest for me.

With the motherboard... TBH up till all these problems started a while ago my pc was fantastic. I got it xmas 07.... i think, and it had worked fine up till then. DDO med-high settings. medieval total war 2 high settings, full fights no lag..... i used to be able to run a video in the back ground, music on windows media player and have 2-3 windows open with office running etc..... It used to be a good machine.

[Maxson]

Who manufactured the machine? is it a home build?

You might want to try http://hddscan.com/ before you go replacing a hard drive.

Your motherboard's BIOS (usually the delete key shortly after you turn it on, sometimes the f2 or f10 key) may have a self testing option for many connected components.

If possible, bin Vista or at least install Vista 64 bit, your Vista key should work with Vista 64 bit and it's completely legal to torrent a DVD install for Vista as a backup medium.

I highly doubt you only have 3 gigs of RAM on a machine, especially if it only came with Vista (triple channel was exceedingly rare at the time, and wasn't on core 2 compatible boards, which means anybody who's anybody was providing matching DIMMs in dual channel....I suppose 2 1 gig sticks and 2 512s is possible, but again, a cowboy technique).

Open up your PC case and take the RAM out (press the little plastic nubs at either end) clean the metal parts with a pencil eraser (preferably a hard one) it'll tell you on them what size they are and probably their speed (pc-xxxx where xxxx is 4 numbers) If they're different sizes or speeds, that might be an issue, try to keep just the ones with matching sizes and speeds in. Make sure you put it back in the right way round, the notch is roughly five eights of the way down the stick, press down on both ends at the same time, you'll probably hear 2 clicks of the little nubs slipping back into place.

You might also do something similar to clean the graphics card.

Ensure that the hard drive SATA cable is correctly seated both on the motherboard and the drive. If you want to physically check your hard drive, hold it (carefully) and put it to your ear while in use, it should sound like it's spinning with only some quiet clicking, if it sounds like it abruptly stops spinning then starts again, it's broken, if gentle shaking (WHILE IT'S TURNED OFF) makes any noise, it's broken. A CD or DVD drive is highly unlikely to cause crashes.

If you go start>control panel, then in control panel admin tools> event viewer on startup after a crash and go to windows logs > application or system, white Xs in red circles may indicate what is crashing/causing crashing.

Right-click "My computer" select properties then in the new window select "device manager", expand "display adapters". hold alt and press "print screen" on your keyboard, open paint and edit>paste then upload the new image to somewhere and link to it on here for me too. Send me a PM when you've done so as I'm liable to just miss forum replies.

[sebastianosmith]

it is a little bit.... and the flashing light on the front keeps staying on. also, regards the opening files and stuff. yes, very much slower then before. like, waaaaay slower. takes measurable seconds now, used to be nigh instant... going back a year or so maybe.

This is not unusual for a new installation of Vista. That OS likes to "fix" things automagically. For the first few days or weeks, depending on hours of use, there will be a noticeable thrashing of the HD as the OS moves files around to "optimize" the layout. After it's done, things will quiet down a bit. It's much more noticeable with an AV app like N360 installed as they like to compete with each other for disk priority. Additionally, Norton AV apps really enjoy performing repetitive scans with differing depth levels when first installed as they slowly update the virus defs in the background.

[kkoenig]

Yes very good advice. Pull 1 component and see if the issue still ocours, and again and again. It also helps to spare parts around to help identify bad components.

Generally poor system performance can be seen manifest itself via not enough RAM, or slow RPM HD's. You can have the fastest PC in the world but a slow HD will grind your system to a halt.

Windows is very poor at using RAM and loves to use it's swap file. More swap file activity means more HD activity, which means slower performance.

[sebastianosmith]

Hmm..... ok. my psu has 500watts stamped on the side. I dont know if thats full avaliable or what though. I cant try another psu unless i buy another one, same with all the new components i fitted.

500 watts should be sufficient, provided the PSU is actually supplying such. Can you provide the manufacturer of the PSU and the video card for us? A few, less than a handful really, of 430-based cards have SLI capability and an auxiliary power connector. I doubt you have one of those but it is possible.

When i fitted the cooler i was proper careful. As i say ive not done much on a pc so I was very slow and methodical. I cleaned both the surfaces with the spray in the box and then put a generous, but not squirting out the sides, blob of the gel.... im pretty sure i fitted it ok, that side of things id be fairly confident with.

A full explanation of proper heat sink compound application is beyond the scope of this discussion. Suffice it to say that a little goes a long, long way.

With the motherboard... TBH up till all these problems started a while ago my pc was fantastic. I got it xmas 07.... i think, and it had worked fine up till then. DDO med-high settings. medieval total war 2 high settings, full fights no lag..... i used to be able to run a video in the back ground, music on windows media player and have 2-3 windows open with office running etc..... It used to be a good machine.

Hence my original supposition that one or more of the new components is at fault. My money is still on the PSU, with the video card and perhaps memory for the place and show categories.

[Kreaper]

Are you sure all of you drivers are updated? I have seen very outdated drivers cause the BSOD. Download and run Drivermax. It will tell you about all of your drivers and makes the most current drivers available. Unfortunately, the free version only allows you to download and install two per day.

[Ugumagre]

.....
(nothing to say)

[Cauthey]

Hence my original supposition that one or more of the new components is at fault. My money is still on the PSU, with the video card and perhaps memory for the place and show categories.

If you play on Orien, I could tell you to put your money where your mouth is. Care to make it interesting? I still say it's the hard drive.

[Don1966]

actually i'm betting that your problem is norton 360. did you install it using default settings? if so then it is probably continually making backups of your hard drive which is slowing everything else down. go into the settings of norton and turn of the backups. might want to read up on the other things in it as well and turn other things off. have a friend that had this on his laptop and he kept running out of room on the hard drive. i installed space monger to see what was taking up all the space, turns out there were multiple backups of the hard drive stored in the norton directory. turned off the auto back ups, deleted all but the last one and his laptop went from full to being 90% empty and started running much faster.

[sebastianosmith]

If you play on Orien, I could tell you to put your money where your mouth is. Care to make it interesting? I still say it's the hard drive.

The HD is not likely given the symptoms. Slow disk access is because it's thrashing like crazy over N360 mucking about and Vista's file indexing and reordering. The rest, BSODs, freezing, failure to boot or POST, all point to a physical memory problem. Because he's using the same MB and memory as when it ran just fine, I'm going with insufficient power and possibly the video card.

And I'm not a betting man - Especially when it's over something a frustrating as computer problems. Those are painful enough without a bunch of yahoos gambling about the outcome.

[Missing_Minds]

If you play on Orien, I could tell you to put your money where your mouth is. Care to make it interesting? I still say it's the hard drive.

I'd say you have a strong bet, but I'm also willing to bet it is a multi problem.

shes actually a he just an incompetent and feeble one. I wouldnt want to insult women but being associated with them but.... okkkkk..... Im kinda with you on most of that, the last line has lost me though.

The sound card point you mentioned... sometimes, not very often, my sound HAS stopped working. When Ive been able to sort it (see my post about no access to sound card above) I have noticed that the other option is selevcted. I can choose "speakers" which its on now and working fine or "realtek digital output" but if I switch to realtek I actually get no sound back from anything.

First, OOOOPS! Sorry, Aurora.

Having both a sound card and your on board audio active at the same time can cause loads of memory mapping issues. You want to have one or the other active. To turn off the realtek, you'll have to turn it off via a BIOS setting.

The realtek digital output, means it is expecting digtial speakers connected. I'm betting you have standard analog (like headsets) so you'd get nothing out of them.

Oh yeah, and my opinion... LOSE NORTON. Yes, you need an anti virus and a firewall, but you can get much less memory hogs/disk thrashers than those. I've been using Panda Cloud without issue for my freeware anti virus. I'm certain there are others who can also give their favorite flavor as well.

[sebastianosmith]

I just had a thought looking over your DXDiag dump again. This popped out at me:

Display Memory: 2272 MB
Dedicated Memory: 993 MB
Shared Memory: 1279 MB

Your card probably has 1Gb of dedicated DDR3 memory as most GT 430s do. The MB obviously has the facility to provide shared memory. Tell me your last video card is not on-board, please. If that is the case, get into the BIOS and disable that and/or shared video memory and see if your problems persist. You may be having a memory timing mismatch between that much faster DDR3 VRAM on the card and your DDR2 (or possibly DDR1 - 2007 models still had it) RAM on the motherboard.

[Aurora1979]

First, OOOOPS! Sorry, Aurora.

Oh yeah, and my opinion... LOSE NORTON. Yes, you need an anti virus and a firewall, but you can get much less memory hogs/disk thrashers than those. I've been using Panda Cloud without issue for my freeware anti virus. I'm certain there are others who can also give their favorite flavor as well.

No problem.

I should be in bed now so ive given up on the diag for now just stalking the forums but Ill give this all another read tomorrow and get stuck in. Mean time though.... I just wanted to comment on your 2nd point there.... Dont take this the wrong way, I proper appreciate all the advice given so far... but.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. dont tell me nortons a badun!!!! lol

So, I got my first (actually, this is only my second) pc about 8 years ago. I ran norton on that all the time I owned it... I think.

I got this one with norton on it as a trail. when that ran out I got mcafee. Last year I brought norton 360 and got told i shouldnt of so i brought kaspersky (sp). Then I got advised to try agv, so I downloaded that. then got told about avast and how that was best, so I got that..... and last week I swapped that out as I got told theres conflict issues so I went and brought 360 again

I might just left the viruses through.... can you ever get to carrier status whereby they dont make you ill anymore?

[Aurora1979]

I just had a thought looking over your DXDiag dump again. This popped out at me:

Display Memory: 2272 MB
Dedicated Memory: 993 MB
Shared Memory: 1279 MB

Your card probably has 1Gb of dedicated DDR3 memory as most GT 430s do. The MB obviously has the facility to provide shared memory. Tell me your last video card is not on-board, please. If that is the case, get into the BIOS and disable that and/or shared video memory and see if your problems persist. You may be having a memory timing mismatch between that much faster DDR3 VRAM on the card and your DDR2 (or possibly DDR1 - 2007 models still had it) RAM on the motherboard.

good spot.

the blue screens come up and disappear pretty quick but bottom left of them i have been able to make out something about

"crash dump..... blahblah"

my old graphics card was a geforce 4. I got the 430 as the guy told me it was a pretty straightforward replacment item.... i.e would match the other things if the geforce 4 did.... i think.

EDIT: Also, "i was having a look over the dx report"... props to you and the others.... I might as well be looking through the phonebook from 20ft away for all the sense it makes to me.

[sebastianosmith]

my old graphics card was a geforce 4. I got the 430 as the guy told me it was a pretty straightforward replacment item.... i.e would match the other things if the geforce 4 did.... i think.

Then definitely disable video memory sharing in the BIOS. I can't tell you how to do that other than PB uses a modified Phoenix BIOS and usually responds to F1, F2 or DEL to launch into setup. From there look around under the options until you find one that says something about shared memory. Disable it or set to 0 (zero, zed, naught, however you say it).

And when you next see your "guy", let him know that DDR3 VRAM is not sharable with system memory of a lesser speed or different timings.

EDIT: Also, "i was having a look over the dx report"... props to you and the others.... I might as well be looking through the phonebook from 20ft away for all the sense it makes to me.

Hey, we're all in this together and knowledge costs nothing to pass along. I hope my advice works out for you.