[Bb84]

Hi,

I built this computer back around December and have had no problems since then. First time building a computer so sorry if I'm not super clear on all the technical details.

Specs:
Intel Core2 Duo CPU e8400 @ 3.00 GHz
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT
Gigabyte S-series EP43-DS3L
OCZ DDR2 2x2GB PC2-6400
BFG Tech 550W ATX 12V2.2
Vista Home Premium w/ all updates
(Please let me know if more is needed.)

Hubby was playing Fallout 3 today and broke it. He says it seemed fine, then the sound locked up and the computer froze. He restarted the computer but nothing came on the screen. He says the computer was starting, all the lights came on, then a few seconds later it turned itself off. It rebooted itself but same thing. Finally he says it stayed on but nothing happened so he turned it off.

He left it off for a half hour or so then tried again. He was able to start it in safe mode. He left it there for me to deal with but when I came in it had frozen. I turned it off, opened the case, and checked but nothing seems wrong. All cables plugged in, nothing amiss. Unplugged it while checking so plugged it back in and turned it on to see what would happen. All fans and lights came on, seemed to be loading normally, but nothing on the screen again and it seemed to just hang like that.

Now when I try to turn it on I get different combos of the above (powers on but nothing on screen, resets itself over and over, gets to safe mode but freezes pretty quickly, etc.). The couple times I got to the load choice screen, normal mode doesn't work at all and safe mode loads but freezes. I listened for beeping when it turns on but all I get is what I think is normal (two short beeps, then a second later another two short beeps). Trying not to turn it on again in case that's making it worse, so I'm not touching it until I figure out what to do.

So... What the heck is going on??? With my tiny knowledge of hardware it seems like maybe it's overheating, but I'm not doing anything crazy with this machine. Never had a problem until today. All fans are working. I did have all the case fans set to low, could that be the problem? I set them to medium today but obviously that's not an immediate fix. I don't really know anything about BIOS but if there's something I should check or set in there I'll give it a try.

I also think it could be Fallout 3 destroying my computer since we've had nothing but problems with that $#^$%& game. (Sound was crashing the game for a long time, fixed that, numerous other little problems but nothing like this.) But if that's it then I don't know what to do since I can't even load the darn thing to uninstall it.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Doby]

I would put a PCPower&cooling or corsair 650w psu in it first thing, I am not saying that will fix it but its a start and just may fix it, those BFG psu's are terrible and known to fail after a few months.

You could start it up and enter bios and look around for the voltages of the +12,+5 and +3.3 along with any temps and post them here for evaluation.

I doubt its heat at this point since its doing it on a cold boot and the symptons indicate a power problem but lets see what bios has to say

 

[Bb84]

Thanks so much! Will try that (bios) and post results tomorrow. Left for a few hours tonight and tried turning it on when we got back. Actually started and worked in normal mode, then froze. :/ Even hitting caps/num lock didn't change the lights on the keyboard.

Now let's hope BFG doesn't hassle me if I have to return this thing!

 

[djdat]

I would also check your fans are spinning and the heatsink is clean. A 3ghz cpu gets hot very quickly.

 

[Bb84]

Here's what I found in bios this morning. Didn't see +5 anywhere, maybe it's somewhere else? Here's what was there:

Vcore 1.140V
DDR18V 1.872V
+3.3V 3.360V
+12V 11.985V

Current system temp 31*C (climbed to 32 while writing list)
Current CPU temp 41*C (climbed to 44 while writing list)
CPU fan speed 1566 RPM

Then bios froze. :upset:

When I checked last night (multiple times) the CPU fan was going and the heatsink seemed clean. A little schmutz but really not even enough to come off with compressed air.

Thanks again for your help!

ETA: All fans were running when checked, not just the CPU fan.

 

[Bb84]

Um, so, emailed tech support at BFG about the power supply. All I said was "PC crashed during gaming, now won't boot, or boots but soon freezes."

Here's their reply:
"If you would like to setup a warranty replacement RMA, please reply to this
e-mail with the following information:

Full Name:
Phone Number:
Full Shipping Address:
E-mail Address:
BFG Model Number: (Will most likely start with BFGR)
Serial Number: (Will most likely start with 006 or G)
Brief description of the problem:

Once we have this information, we can continue setting up your replacement order."

Is it just me or does that sound like they assume it's a bad power supply? Wow. Now if only I could find a serial number since there's not one on the unit or box like their site says, ha ha.

 

[Doby]

Well that email is most likely a standard reply, your voltages look normal but that happens then all of a sudden one of the rails drops off and boom a reboot or freeze.

I suspect the psu because I have seen so many problems with that particular brand and if its freezing in bios you almost have to start somewere and in my oppinion thtas with a quality psu.

You could test the ram by running memtest just to see if that shows anything and what the heck memtest is free but I'll bet it will freeze there too

 

[Bb84]

To update, we got the replacement PSU and it didn't fix the problem. Then my husband suggested booting with one stick of RAM installed at a time to see if it was one of them. (Since the computer would freeze before we could run Memtest.) Of course that was it!!! Where was his brilliant idea before going through all this mess?

So the RAM is being shipped out right now for warranty. Should be fine once I get the new set hopefully next week.

Thanks for all your help!