Comp freezing... PSU can't handle it...?

[mx333]

haha u guys may tthink there rip offs but u wont think there rip offs when ur PSU over heats or give the wrong voltage to a HDD or a vid card  or a CPU and ruins it... may wanna think twice about PSU... check http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93 for some info on PSU and any info on comps

taken from hardforum.com

"a good 350 watt is far better than a crap 500 watt"

also read up on...
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=779582

twofour, the likely chance of a cheap PSU vs a quality or name brand PSU damaging the peripherals of your system, is like when your walkin down the street and u somehow rip a whole into the time space continum and travel through time into the future thru a worm hole. which is the chances of that are 1 in 100 billion trillion.

@cR, how does it crash again, full on system crash now? or just the game still? depending on that it could be a couple things.

[cR]

Whole system freezes...still

it froze my whole pc, have to reset or sometimes it reboots by itself..

[mx333]

is your version of xp ripped? or did u buy it.

[cR]

It's legal, came with pc XP Home + SP2 ... I'm thinking of installing my 'ripped' XP Pro, dunno why but I just like it better

[mcm2boys]

Do you get the full 1024mb tested in the boot up screen? You might need to change some of the memory settings in the BIOS, i think there's an otion in there to let the system work out the memory timing settings automatically (at least in my BIOS there is) which is a good starting point.


Laurie

[cR]

I'm gonna check that right now...

Edit: I'm in the bios right now, but can't find anything about it... at power management setup screen tho there is a 'CPU THRM-Throttling' option with a percentage, 50% right now... any idea what this is?

Edit: Increasded it to 75% and I've played MTX for about 10 to 15 mins in freeride, then I did a race and it froze/rebooted after about 30 secs But I do think I'm getting closer... gonna check what happends in Splintercell Pandora Tomorow...that allways froze at about 1 minute.

Edit: Man I should open a blog site for this... anyways crash at about 1 min, I'm positive the increase of 'CPU THRM-Throttling' percentage didn't help...

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

So...the PSU wasn't the problem...and the memory doesn't SEEM to be the problem. I'd say you're best bet...if you've got him on MSN is to ask OC Scotty about this.

Two_Four...just in case you didn't know...Scotty is THE MAN on pc's and he advised me to buy a 450watt Enermax PSU for my comp. They are a WHOLE lot less than the PSU's you linked to and if he tells me they are just as good as your two and three hundred dollar units...I'm gonna believe him. Enermax by the way is NOT some crappy generic or house brand. They are a well respected company who's been in the business for many years and Scotty has used them to build pc's for countless customers and never had any of them fail EVER. Not saying you don't know what you're talking about...but sometimes instructors at schools fall into a dubious classification- I.E. "Them that can DO...them that can't TEACH!"

Keep that in mind...also when teaching students it is often times the inclination to over-stress a point in order to keep people on the right track. But if you ever hope to build affordable pc's you're gonna have to learn where you can and can't save money. If all your components share the same value for your money your pc's are gonna be completely out of anybody's price range.

Also, speaking from the standpoint of somebody who built his own pc using ALL top-dollar parts (my old Water-cooled computer that Glen [VMX_PanicRev] now has)... you are just about as likely to experience component incompatibility or failure on top-dollar parts as cheap ones. I spent just under $4000 building my water-cooled pc and it lasted less than a year and a half. In that time my Antec True 550watt PSU failed twice, and my Nvidia Ti4800 video card blew up once, and finally my cpu fried...and I wasn't overclocking either! I also wound up taking my original Soyo KT400 Dragon Platinum motherboard out and replacing it with an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe and switching sound cards twice.

Now I've got a much better system, the reason is that I departed from my idea that top dollar=top quality and listened to OC's advice. I've got 1gig of PC4200 ddr533 Komusa ram (2 matched 512mb sticks) with copper heat spreaders that only cost me $220 (including shipping) and a P4 3.2Ghz E CPU with a 1mb L2 cache, a Enermax 450watt PSU, and an ATI Radeon 9600XT video card with 2 Maxtor SATA 120Gb HDD's (not running raid) and an ASUS P4P-800E Deluxe motherboard. The whole system cost me less than $1500 and that's including case, lighted fans, fancy wire ties, etc....

I can run ANY game with no trouble at all. Now if I could just figure out why although I have all the right ports open I can't seem to HOST IP or online games...I'd be happy as hell! lol

No offense intended at all Two_Four...just pointing out something that I think you might not have considered brother. Hope you take it the right way.

[tw0_f0ur_]

yep i just realised i should of ead even more. i was just reading up on a Toms review and the enermax came out to be a good PSU.. but defentally its worth it to buy a good PSU rather then a crapppy. paul dont worry i never take anything the wrong way with u. ur just trying to help. thanks you even tought me something.. well CR GL with ur comp problems... and paul thanks

[mx333]

dude paul, i got the ASUS p4p800 se works very well with my pentium 4, its awesome, and i think ASUS is prolly one of the best on the market right now. but damn i need more memory, i only have 512, via 2 256 sticks dual channeled. but yea ASUS=very good.

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

Check out Komusa.com (I think that's it) for your memory when your ready to buy it. Actually here's a link to the same stuff that I bought. It's on-sale right now for $189.00 http://komusa.com/1gbkit5pc53d.html scroll down to the bottom and use the drop-downs to choose "Platinum Grade-Major Brand Name" ($15.00) and "Ultra Cooling Copper Heat-Spreader" ($10.00) and you'll still have only spent $214.00 plus whatever they charge for shipping and handling. This stuff is matched sticks of dual channel and your motherboard will LOVE it!

I had the same basic memory configuration as you before I got this stuff. 2 Sticks of 256Mb PC2700 DDR333 (512Mb total). For some reason Sony thought it would be COOL to put that kinda memory in the Sony Vaio pc that I had at the time. Why in the HELL they did that when the CPU was a P4 2.8Ghz w/ HT 800Mhz FSB is WAY BEYOND me! You'd think that they would have AT LEAST put PC3200 DDR400 in there. That would at least have made sense with the CPU...plus they advertised it as having an 800Mhz FSB when (with the memory they had in it) it only REALLY had a 666Mhz FSB. Go figure!

Anyway...I started out thinking that I'd just stick some new memory and a video card in the Sony. After I found out what they'd done and that the motherboard was a POS and that the bios was locked and un-tweakable...I wound up just building a whole new pc myself...with Scotty's help and advice that is! I'm VERY happy that I did too! 

[mx333]

hey cool thanks for the info! i am prolly gunna consider getting that memory, and yes, i'd have to say building your own computer is much MUCH better than buying a pre-built one like an HP or god forbid, an E-machines at like Best-Buy and what not.  I just think its crazy how best buy charges like $100 just to come to your house and plug in your computer!!!! ONE HUNDRED bucks!!!!!!! its nuts. if people are actually buying that then they shouldnt even be allowed to own a computer!!!!

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

I agree 100%! LMAO...maybe I can use their example though to start a business. I doubt that they'd have that service if SOMEBODY wasn't taking them up on it.

[cR]

You'll be a rich man if you do hahaha

[Bunny]

hey cool thanks for the info! i am prolly gunna consider getting that memory, and yes, i'd have to say building your own computer is much MUCH better than buying a pre-built one like an HP or god forbid, an E-machines at like Best-Buy and what not. I just think its crazy how best buy charges like $100 just to come to your house and plug in your computer!!!! ONE HUNDRED bucks!!!!!!! its nuts. if people are actually buying that then they shouldnt even be allowed to own a computer!!!!

Hey, I have an emachines, lol, I just upgraded the ram and videocard but everything works great.

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

Hey, I have an emachines

You have my condolences! 

[Bunny]

My parents wanted a semi-fast, cheap computer, well that's what I gave em', lol.  It works great and I've never had a problem with it thus far, and we've had it about 2 years, but you can't tell too much in that short time frame.

Considering I'm also a gamer, that's why I made the necessary upgrades so I could run bf1942, halflife 2, and doom 3.

Our first 2 computers were compaqs...I hate those so much, one thing or the other always failed in it which made us end up getting another one.

[mcm2boys]

cR in case your still interested in finding the memory settings in BIOS this is how to find it in my AwardBIOS.

Advanced Chipset settings|DRAM clock drive control|DRAM timings and it is set to 'SPD' which means use the timing settings reported by the memory sticks.



Laurie

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

Bunny, most anyone here will tell you that 2 years is just about the life of a shelf computer system. You've got to either do a couple major upgrades or buy a new pc every 2 years if you're an avid gamer or programmer or else your out of the game (so to speak).

That's why building your own pc (assuming that you are actually capable of doing so) is the best way to go. Most shelf systems still use proprietary components that are not upgradable and some (if you read the story on my Sony Vaio above) aren't even capable of handling the demands of the components that they come with!

Short of building a computer yourself...you can always go to the local computer shop and have them do it for you. That has been my advice to every one of my friends who've gotten new computers in the past few years. I broke my own advice and bought the Sony Vaio and wound up regretting it in the end. It may take a little while longer to get your computer...because it's not in a box at some store, ready and waiting for you to plop down the cash and take it home with you. But if you are smart enough to talk to people who know what's up...and put together the right components...you will ALWAYS be happy you went that way.

[mx333]

yea its pretty self explanatory with installing and putting your computer together, thats how i got started, reading the motherboard manual and kinda guessing and hey watd uu know it works!!!

[Bunny]

Yeah, I'm taking a computer engineering technology class so I already know how to build one...we'll see how much longer this one lasts, before one of the components fail.  I might just replace it because I don't have the money right now to buy the parts and no job either.