Well, I currently have very serious issues with my computer. I post them here, because I guess there are hardware-specialists over there. I have some experience with computers (more than 10 years), but I never had this kind of issue before.So, at this point, I take any ideas.
The last-resort option being, of course, buying a new computer...
Replacing the MB or any other component may prove difficult, because this is "old" hardware that stores do not sell anymore.
Core Hardware :
Motherboard : ASUS, A8N-SLI Premium (Socket 939)
CPU : AMD, Athlon 64 3700+
GPU : NVIDIA, GeForce 7600 GT, "Point of View", PCI Express, 256MB GDDR3
RAM : 2x 1024MB, total 2048MB.
Power Supply : HEDEN, 480W
HDDs :
n°1) MAXTOR STM3500320AS (IDE) e120GB
n°2) SAMSUNG SP1213N (SATA) e500GB
Software :
OS : Windows XP Pro SP2, installed on the n°1 IDE HDD
MB : supports NVIDIA nForce 4, installed (2006). BIOS up to date (2006), flashed with no improvements.
GPU : NVIDIA Drivers, up to date
HDD : NVIDIA IDE drivers
Antivirus : AVIRA, Antivir Personal, up to date.
Firewall : CHECK POINT, ZoneAlarm, free edition, up to date.
Maintenance : CCleaner, Spyware Terminator.
Other peripherals :
TV Tuner : ASUS MyCinema-P7131-Hybrid (PCI slot1)
CD/DVD ROM driver/writer : LG, super multi
Mouse : USB, Microsoft
Keyboard : "non-USB", Microsoft
External SoundCard : LINE6 Toneport UX1
Modem : SAGEM LiveBox-mini (ADSL), connected via Ethernet to the MB (Marvell-Yukon driver).
First time the issues appeared : a few seconds after launching Orbiter 2010 (Rel. ed), the case is described below.
SYMPTOMS :
- Issues when booting the computer. I get apparently random re-boots, which seem not related to the booting process itself. I can try to classify these issues in 4 great families :
- Other misc. issues :
:hail:
The last-resort option being, of course, buying a new computer...
Replacing the MB or any other component may prove difficult, because this is "old" hardware that stores do not sell anymore.
Core Hardware :
Motherboard : ASUS, A8N-SLI Premium (Socket 939)
CPU : AMD, Athlon 64 3700+
GPU : NVIDIA, GeForce 7600 GT, "Point of View", PCI Express, 256MB GDDR3
RAM : 2x 1024MB, total 2048MB.
Power Supply : HEDEN, 480W
HDDs :
n°1) MAXTOR STM3500320AS (IDE) e120GB
n°2) SAMSUNG SP1213N (SATA) e500GB
Software :
OS : Windows XP Pro SP2, installed on the n°1 IDE HDD
MB : supports NVIDIA nForce 4, installed (2006). BIOS up to date (2006), flashed with no improvements.
GPU : NVIDIA Drivers, up to date
HDD : NVIDIA IDE drivers
Antivirus : AVIRA, Antivir Personal, up to date.
Firewall : CHECK POINT, ZoneAlarm, free edition, up to date.
Maintenance : CCleaner, Spyware Terminator.
Other peripherals :
TV Tuner : ASUS MyCinema-P7131-Hybrid (PCI slot1)
CD/DVD ROM driver/writer : LG, super multi
Mouse : USB, Microsoft
Keyboard : "non-USB", Microsoft
External SoundCard : LINE6 Toneport UX1
Modem : SAGEM LiveBox-mini (ADSL), connected via Ethernet to the MB (Marvell-Yukon driver).
First time the issues appeared : a few seconds after launching Orbiter 2010 (Rel. ed), the case is described below.
SYMPTOMS :
- Issues when booting the computer. I get apparently random re-boots, which seem not related to the booting process itself. I can try to classify these issues in 4 great families :
Case 1) The BIOS screen briefly displays, then I get a reboot. Sometimes I can access the BIOS, but the re-boot occurs when I'm inside the BIOS menu. The reboot seems time-related rather than process-related. I can get a few seconds in the BIOS menu if I'm fast. Time seems limited.
Case 2) The booting process successfully passes the BIOS screen. Then I have the MS-DOS prompts screen. At this point, the process usually freezes a few seconds (2-3s) to allow me to enter the SATA-RAID utility, which seems to be present in the Motherboard. Same issue as above : I can briefly get into the utility, but a re-boot occurs anyway.
Case 3) The booting process reaches the memory check / sys.ini MS-DOS screen, which displays very briefly (1-2s) as usual. Once this step finished, a reboot can directly occur, or I can get to the Windows lowres "Pre-loading screen" ("Windows is loading"). But then it doesn't last more than a few seconds and the reboot occurs.
Case 4) The booting process ends and Windows takes command. This is the critical step : from there the OS is stable. I launched antivirus/spyware scans last night and Windows ran flawlessly during more than 8 hours, the scans were complete as expected (negative reports).
- Issues when loading a "power-3D" application. I took Orbiter 2010 (Rel. ed.) and Moonbase Alpha as exemples.Case 2) The booting process successfully passes the BIOS screen. Then I have the MS-DOS prompts screen. At this point, the process usually freezes a few seconds (2-3s) to allow me to enter the SATA-RAID utility, which seems to be present in the Motherboard. Same issue as above : I can briefly get into the utility, but a re-boot occurs anyway.
Case 3) The booting process reaches the memory check / sys.ini MS-DOS screen, which displays very briefly (1-2s) as usual. Once this step finished, a reboot can directly occur, or I can get to the Windows lowres "Pre-loading screen" ("Windows is loading"). But then it doesn't last more than a few seconds and the reboot occurs.
Case 4) The booting process ends and Windows takes command. This is the critical step : from there the OS is stable. I launched antivirus/spyware scans last night and Windows ran flawlessly during more than 8 hours, the scans were complete as expected (negative reports).
- Orbiter 2010 loads any scenario correctly, displays the scene a few seconds (controls work), and then I get a reboot, followed by the same issues as above (yeah, that really sucks !!)
- Moonbase Alpha fails to load : I get the Windows "Moonbase Alpha encountered a problem" screen 2 times, then I get back to the Desktop.
- Google Earth works perfectly though. But unlike the two applications above, it uses OpenGL.
- Other misc. issues :
- I try to reboot the computer after a Windows session. The Windows process seems to close correctly, and I fall under the booting problems described above. However, I noticed that Windows often displays the "Windows did not close correctly last session..." MS-DOS screen when the booting process gets this far.
- The probability to get a successful booting process seems again time-related. If I let the computer power off during more than 10 minutes, chances that the computers boots correctly are fair. However, if I power down the computer less than 30s., there is almost no hope to get a successful boot. Which makes me suspect capacitors (MB or Power Supply) : looks like things are better if they can fully discharge.
- The booting process loops when it fails. Usually, the process loops 3 times (with different results), then the computer gets in a frozen state, all systems powered and running but actually doing nothing. The only way to get out of it is the power-off button pressed for 4 secs. Sometimes however the computer might seem frozen, and suddenly loads windows, with no screen display before that (here I suspect the GPU).
:hail: