CPU Woes

[ewok_kebab]

I have a core 2 duo E6420 2048 bundle from Novatech and am having problems with what seems to be overheating. I have Novetech 8600GT 512 graphics card in it. It seems to run fine until you start playing games that push the card even a teensy amount (although it didn't seem to mind UT2K4)

I get a blue screen of death with an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

The CMOS was running on failsafe startup and it was a fresh install of XP.

If I reboot the system can no longer find the following folder...WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

This has occurred repeatedly and I have reformatted a few times and always ended up in the same boat, crashed on different games too. Novatech have replaced the graphics card already , but unfortunately that has not resolved the issue.

Tried on regular CMOS settings before the failsafe ones and same result.

Any out there who can help a very frustrated games geek?

[Danc1978]

hi there i would try a couple of things

1) turn computer off and reseat memory in the motherboard

2) run memtest on your pc you can get that from here

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

download it burn to cd and boot from it and see if it comes upw ith any errors.

Regards

Dan C
Technical Support

[ewok_kebab]

#Hmm interesting you should say that, I did get a BSOD with a MEMORY_MANAGEMENT error too.

Is this a bad time to mention it's a novatech motherboard bundle? :oops:

[ewok_kebab]

Ok , no errors showing on that application. The pc has booted into windows. Still get a whiff of ozone or something which is a bit worrying .

Going to try UT2K4 and put some strain on the graphics

[Coops]

Please can you provide detailed information on your entire setup including PSU information.

[ewok_kebab]

Touch wood it all seems to be running ok after swapping the memory out . I threw some graphically demanding games (LOTRO, COH) at it and it seemed to run fine.

Heck it even managed to make EQ2 look pretty.

[ewok_kebab]

Well it works on most things but World of Warcraft keeps crashing and locking up the pc. Any ideas?

My specs are
Core2 duo E6420
2048 mb RAM
Windows XP home SP2
Novatech 8600GT 512 MB
Maxtor 7200 80GB HD
550 watt power supply 20 pin (16 quid from Novatech)

[Ben]

Hi,


550 watt power supply 20 pin (16 quid from Novatech)


I wouldn't trust that PSU.

Can you get a spare one to test?

[ewok_kebab]

One of the tech support guys said something similar...any recommendations?

[JDowdall]

urrr i think everyone will agree on a hiper type r 580W lol

[wuyanxu]

im going to splash out on a Corsair HX620w. head great things about them, and they can do 8800GTX SLi with quads no problem :lol:

or the 520w version if you are not going to go SLi with quad

[djgandy]

urrr i think everyone will agree on a hiper type r 580W lol

I certainly will :)

Infact the 350 hiper will probably do. That's all I have, and it's the older version. I run a lot of stuff on it. A 8600 will not use much more power than a 6600 GT.

If you have the money get the higher rated models though. The 350 watt hiper is a great bargain though. It'll beat a 500 watt generic any day :)

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?HYP-4S350 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?HYP-4S350)

[JDowdall]

i have the 530w hiper type m and i havent had any problems with it i think its great

[ewok_kebab]

Well it seemed to be going great for a while, then it just goes unstable and locks up again. I have to open it up and reseat the RAM when it gives up the ghost completely.

I'm going to replace the PSU I think.

The always helpful (Nova)tech guys reckon that I'm running a vista friendly card on XP may be adding to the problems..

I'd be interested in folks opinions on that too.

Thanks for all the advice and opinions so far.

[Taxation]

running a vista card on xp
should be no problem with that in my eyes

[djgandy]

running a vista card on xp
should be no problem with that in my eyes

Haha yeah that's very weak.

Have you tried checking the card temps? Open the nvidia control panel and then play a game for a bit. Post your temps here and we'll advise from there.

[ewok_kebab]

Nvidia control panel tells me the temperature monitor has moved...and then crashes.

The only temp I seem to get is the gpu which runs at 50%. I reckon my 3 year old hard drive is causing the odd bottleneck too.

Oh and it only boots up if it feels like it and if it doesn't I have to reseat the RAM to make it work.

:roll:

[ewok_kebab]

Well it's given up the ghost completely now. Going to have to call tech support.

The memory test doesn't start at all now and nothing loads at all. I cant tell whether its a RAM issue, graphics or power anymore.

Is my motherboard faulty? Or do you guys think a decent PSUwill solve the problem?

[ewok_kebab]

Well time for an update,

Novatech kindly replaced the motherboard
I bought a new power supply...extra £30

Same issues as before windows seemed to become more and more ustable and eventually the pc would not launch windows at all.

Novatech took the board back for testing, No faults found, ok the board is bent, but no faults found.Sent it back.

Shelled out another £40 quid for a new hard drive.seemed to be ok for a couple of weeks.

Now the pc starts, goes for 10 seconds, gets bored switches off, reboots repeat ad nauseum.

Checked all the 'on switches' attached to the motherboard....all as per the manual,

Turn pc sideways, eventually mobo catches, powerlead to hard drive seems a bit 'loose' too.

get a few random lock ups , but generally behaves itself apart from when I had to do a rollback when windows couldn't work out if it had a processor at all (but I'm putting that down to software).

So 6 months and £70 extra later I have a pc that works (eventually..if you turn it sideways).

So any ideas on this issue with the start up, I reckon it will be ok once I have that sussed.

4 items returned later still no apology from Novatech for 6 months of on and off frustration and I still dont have a quite functional product.
All I want for xmas is the PC I ordered in June to actually work when I hit the 'on' button.

[system7]

That IS a tale of woe. :roll:

What is your current power supply and motherboard? What is the new hard drive model number? You will find it listed in the bios.

Can you try it with one stick of RAM?

Do you know how to clear the CMOS by taking the battery out for 2 minutes with the power unplugged and set the bios up again?

Any idea why turning it sideways helps? Can you describe that better? :?

[djgandy]

Not booting..

Bad Ram.
Bad cpu.
Bad mobo.

I'd put my money on cpu.

[system7]

Seems to me we have had enough guessing already here. Time for a little METHOD, I think. :lol: