Done_Fishin

The problem with this constantly changing technology is that its difficult to keep up with, in respect to having spare test boards & CPU.
The P4 has changed its physical shape several times and because of this the mobo's are constantly changing too! I have a P4 socket 423 CPU that I want to test out but can't find a guranteed working board to check it on. Likewise it sits in an Intel Mobo but I can't find a cheap enough 423 used mobo to try it on. I have found both a mobo and a CPU in different second hand shops, both are looking for around 60 Euros to sell me the bits I am looking for .. I only want and only require ONE! I can't afford both. We're in the same situation. Hopefuly though you're board is newer so you'll have more chance of getting someone to fit your CPU and test it.
If you're able to, use a young lady to flatter her eyelids and play lady in distress to get sympathy and your combo tested. There must be a Knight in shining armour out there who will spend an hour checking out what part went sour when the right presentation is made .. please don't get me wrong I am not implying any more than Damsel in Distress, flatter the eyebrows and plead destitution. Hopefully chivalry isn't completely dead yet!

FemaleTremonti

Haha, I am a young lady, age 20. I haven't found that knight yet... I've been calling local shops for the last little while. I just left a message at "Hillbilly Computer" and before that was on the phone with a guy who, when I said socket AM2, he replied "AM2? You mean AMD? There's a socket A?" lol

Most of the time when I go in person and ask guys technical questions, they stare at me and say, "What?!" because they were expecting me to ask them something stupid like... how can I put floppy disks in here? *pointing to cd drive*

linderman

thats funny / sad / but funny Female!

linderman

if I had a AM2 board and CPU i would test it for you for free!

but I dont have them in stock, if it were a socket 939 or P4 or any flavor I would have ya covered!


keep trying. how about local colleges, they are well known to enjoy "showing" their tech prowess

hell in my hometown, the local college hosts free computer building and troubleshooting help.

FemaleTremonti

I've emailed my hardware professor from last year here at East Tennessee State, but he hasn't answered me yet. I also worked for their Information Technology department, so I'm trying to find someone there as well, but everyone's gone for the weekend. I probably won't get anything done til Monday.

What's really sad is, this is my boyfriend's little brother's computer. He got a bunch of money to buy the parts for his 16th birthday and he was going to have to spend $200 to have it put together at a local shop (the same one I just called who had no idea what socket AM2 was). I've been working in computer repair as long as I've been able to work, that's the only job I've ever had and I've built a bunch of computers. So, the boyfriend convinced his parents that I could put it together just as well as any local shop and I wouldn't charge. Yeah... well... now this has happened and they probably HATE me lol

Done_Fishin

Something was giving me a gut feeling that I was talking with someone of the opposite gender but I didn't want to put it in writing because if you had been a guy you'd probably have flamed me for it!! I almost did but then erased everything and started over again. One of the shops where I used to get my second hand stuff had a young lass working for them for years .. unfortunately she had left the last time I went visiting. I can appreciate your position though! btw I didn't know what AM2 was either and I reckon I know enough to know I don't know everything!!
About the only advice I can give right now is be patient, I know you're in one hell of a spot where your boyfriend and family are concerned, but until such time as you find a test board and CPU, you really have no other choice.
Do the pins on the CPU look as though they've been damaged to the naked eye ? What about the mobo? Do you think that someone might notice if they got sent back under warranty? It's another possibility although a tad deceitful!

btw I reckon your boyfriend will be suffering more than you ... since he persuaded them to let you do the work. Don't try to defend yourself or wriggle when piut in the spotlight. Find a solution as quickly as you can and prove to them that in spite of things going wrong, you are able to do the work and get yourself out of trouble when things do go sour. Also show them that you don't panic and take control of the situation in a manner that is professional. It may not take away the sting from the situation right now but inthe future it should lead you in good stead. By taking a firm control over this and sorting it out in a professional manner you will stop them from using the situation against you at any time in the future.

FemaleTremonti

Okay, here is what has happened since...

We ordered a cheap AM2 mb/cpu combo. The Athlon XP will NOT work with the new mb. The new cpu DOES work in the ASUS mb. Assembled the computer and proceeded to install windows. It went through the format and then would not go any farther. We decided maybe the mb is bad too, so we were going to set up the computer with just the cheap mb/cpu combo and send the original parts in. Now the new/cheap combo will not work together. We tested them together out of the box and they worked fine. It would power on but give us no video from the onboard or from the pci-e gfx card. So, i put the cheap cpu back in the ASUS mb, and started running tests. Memtest showed bad ram. Then I tested one stick at a time. One stick tested bad, the other did not. I took out the bad stick and was able to get windows installed and some games installed and it worked fine for about a day and a half. Now it randomly shuts off. It shut off the first time in the middle of a game of Halo and took 20+ restarts to stay on. Now it will shut down at random times. Halo may run for a few minutes or the computer may shut off upon just starting the game. Sometimes it shuts off for no reason. It seems like it will only stay on if it's idle. If you're doing anything at all, it will shut off at some point. We ram memtest again and now the stick that tested good tests bad. I thought it might be the slot, so i moved them and they still test bad. I have had it with this thing. I am taking it to a local shop where I know the owner and leaving it. I'm not sure what else to do.

dai

if there is no error message on the restart
if the computer restarts straight away it indicates it is underpowered
if you have to wait before it will restart this indicates a heat problem
check your temps with
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownloa...oad-29890.html
you can run with it up on screen so you can see what is happening to the volts and temps

FemaleTremonti

it restarts right away. and i take back what i said about not restarting when its idle, because it just did. no one was touching it for like 20 minutes and it just restarted for no reason.

boyfriend bets power supply. he read some reviews on the one we have and some people say its awful.

i agree that it MAY be the power supply. but my money is on the motherboard because i dont understand how the ram can test bad sometimes and not other times if its just the power supply.

dai

run this ram tester
http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/fclick/fclick.php?fid=328

Done_Fishin

A bad power supply will not give "clean Supply Voltages" Clean means that the Voltage is free of noise and Voltage spikes. A Voltage spike can be positive or negative going.
when a positive voltage spike passes it can for a very short time exceed the allowed voltage that components are allowed to work at .. including exceeding any "safety margin" that a supplier has allowed before the component starts to "break down". The more hits that a component recieves the more likely it is to fail. Think of a voltage spike as being a needle being pushed into a piece of leather .. the needle due to its nature is designed to pierce its way through.
A negative spike has the disadvantage of temporarily disrupting the supply voltage. It turns off a device. In the case of memeory where there are no capacitors to smooth out changes in supply voltage this means that bits of data will be retrieved when the memory has no power to give the correct data.
A good supply will have filters on the supply rails that try to kill voltage spikes before they reach the motherboard. The motherboard has some filters of its own but expects that the majority of the "noise" (as we electronics guys call it) will have been removed before the power arrives. It's like the locks on your doors inside your house. They are a minimal defense to anyone breaking in and looting your property. You are expected to have proper security arrangements on your doors and windows that will prevent the looter getting in, in the first place. If you leave the front door wide open then everything gets through!

speedster123

What supply is installed?

Done_Fishin

according tothe first post it's a

Raidmax Aurora 580W PSU

However it might have been changed .. didn't see any references that mention a change though