Have I fried my mobo, CPU or graphics card?

bluep

Sigh. Having real problems this end.

Got a Atheon 2600, with a ASRock K7S8XE Motherboard, NVidia Geforce FX5600XT 128mb graphics card and 1.5 GB of ram.

It was overheating a couple of weeks ago and crashing when the processor temp got too high - got to the stage where it wouldn't boot up. So, I cleaned the heatsink and replaced the thermal gunk stuff and made sure the fan was dust-free - this solved the crashing and Speedfan reported that the CPU temp was much better. Then, I started getting blue screen of death and reported driver problems. Now it freezes up when booting, sometimes gets through to windows if I am lucky then freezes or resets, does the same in Safemode whenever I try and "do" something like virus scan or replace the graphics card driver.

Here's what I've tried so far:
1) replace fan & heatsink on the graphics card as it had broken
2) try to disable graphics drivers and install updated (freezes before I get that far)
3) disconnected all devices except for graphics card, dvd-rom and 1 hard drive
4) take out RAM and test each stick separately in the machine (so booting with 512 mb)
5) tried booting off of a windows XP disc (this freezes up after loading drivers, when it gets to "loading up windows setup")
6) tried a completely new clean hard drive after disconnecting all my other hard drives in order to do a clean new install of windows XP from the disc - same proble as 5).

Now I'm kind of reaching the end of ideas and as Windows won't even boot from the disc so I can repair or reinstall, I'm thinking along the lines that its a hardware problem rather than software. I really don't want to just dump it on my local computer shop and pay through the nose for them to test it but I cant see any other option at the moment.

So here's my questions:
1) could this be a virus? (bear in mind I run regularly updated NIS 2005 on the machine, am careful about what I download, don't open email attachments and regularly run an online panda anti-virus check to catch anything that NIS doesn't). I vaguely recall hearing of things that mess up your booting/bios but wouldn't this mean I could NEVER get through to Windows.

2) Could this be a IRQL routing problem - too many devices going through the same IRQL channel? If so, any ideas how to manually set this and what to?

3) Is there any way that I can get a clue as to whether the mobo/CPU or graphics card has been damaged due to overheating? I don't have spares of any of them that I can swop in or out nor do I have another desktop to test them out on (on Laptop right now)

4) Am I right in presuming that IF it won't go through to Windows install with a clean new HD and a genuine XP disc (not scratched etc... as it works elsewhere), then its got to be a hardware or bios problem? Could it still be a problem with the graphics driver rather than the actual card itself?

Any suggestions/thoughts from anyone who knows what I am talking about, would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

solly_2

I would first try resetting your cmos/bios by changing the jumper as per your motherboards manual instructions.

Then I'd check your fan on the graphics card was fixed correct (blowing heat away and not onto the card) not sure, but have seen fans fitted the wrong way on CPUs. Can you install a cheapo graphics card to see if it will boot?

Just a few suggestions to get you started.

Good Luck

bluep

Thanks Solly
Hadn't known about resetting the bios so will dig out the instructions and do that.

The fan on both the CPU and Graphics card are fitted the right way round - infact, the graphics card was done today at the store (free of charge of course ) and I remember now the tech guy even went off and stuck it in a machine and tested it was working...so...by deduction...its unlikely to be a graphics hardware problem!! The plot thickens!

Joe_Bloggs

You seen to have tried everything. Have you considered memtest86 ? See http://www.memtest86.com/ . This is a well known free utility that tests the memory just from a floppy. The size of the program is tiny and it does not need a hard disk or DVD rom to run. This tests performed are very thorough and can takesome time. Try one memory stick at a time. If this test fails then there is little point continuing without changing something to enable it to pass .

Motherboard components need cooling too. The memory controller is on the motherboard. If this is getting hot then it will appear that the ram is failing. Many northbridges have a cooling fan but if it can't get cool air then there is little point. This is often why a desktop fan directed at the motherboard can make the difference between a system working or not.
J_B.

blinky

In addition to running Memtest (bootable CD downloadable) try running Prime95. UBCD contains Prime95 on it's boot CD.

Memtest tests memory stability
Prime95 tests processor stability

MoneyWastingMe

Sorry if its been mentioned already, - only quickly scan read the post... have you checked to see if there are any new bios revisions out to flash to the board? that could fix your issues! or simply check to make sure there is not a BETA BIOS on the mainboard...

give it a shot..!

blinky

There's quite an active ASRock forum at www.ocworkbench.com You need to register to gain access to the forum.

boogiemaster

Most problems are caused because of hardware changes or software changes.
If you install new software and your computer crashes uninstall the software.
If after uninstall it works ok then it was the software that caused the problem.

If you install new hardware and that causes a problem uninstall it, if the computer works ok then? Try a different Pci slot.
Memory can cause boot up problems, software gets installed into memory and if the memory is going? No booting of your computer.

Your computers Bios may be infected with a virus, some virus writers target the bios and the computer will not boot up.
You could also try taking the motherboard battery out for ten minutes? That will reset the bios and hopefully will get rid of the virus.
Some people have the bios that badly damaged that it needs to be replaced by the maker.

Graphics cards can die and develop faults, if you have no picture on your screen? Then the graphics card could have died.

I built a new system for my brother, Asus A8n Deluxe 989 with Vga and an Athalon 64 3500.
Went to boot the system and it was dead nothing, looked at the memory and he hadn’t bought new 3200 ram.
He had given me his old 2700 memory to put in, as soon as I put in some new 3200 memory it booted straight away.

Two days later I got a call from my brother saying his computer wouldn’t boot up.
I went round to my brothers with a spare monitor and a graphics card, he told me it wasn’t the graphics card and it was the monitor?

I tried my monitor on the computer and it was still dead, I took out his old graphics card and put in my spare one, it booted up straight away.

If you have no picture on your computer then the graphics card can be broke, the memory can be damaged and it won’t boot up.

Computers need surge protectors and a little extra voltage can damage memory.
Static from your body can blow a memory stick in a few second.

The most important part on a computer is a decent power supply? If you have a cheap power supply and it goes? It can take out your whole computer in a few seconds.
It happened to my brothers computer and it damaged a £!500 system four years ago.
Now he has a decent power supply and a surge protector.

If your Cpu dose get warm it can be full of dust and will need the fan cleaning, sometimes the case builds up too much heat and that will cause shut down.
Mostly its just cleaning the fan and keeping the sides off until winter.
You could invest in a better cooler for your system? A cool Cpu will run a lot better than a hot one.
That’s why most Cpus slow down and your performance suffers becosue its too hot.

Rave

I'm assuming you have a 166MHz FSB XP2600 (most of them were). Try setting the FSB to 133, running the processor (and memory) slower can help restore stability on a system that's getting tired.

Resetting the bios and running memtest and Prime95 are good suggestions too. As blinky says, UBCD contains both these programs and can be very useful:).

bluep

Thanks for all the comments guys - very helpful. I'm going to try fiddling with the bios and the two boot up progs that test the memory and processor. The computer "posts" so I can see what it is recognising and go into setup bios etc...

I'm pretty sure the RAM is ok - to have 3 sticks of Kingston all go wrong at the same time would take some doing LOL. Swopping them in and out made no difference.

The graphics card is fine as it was tested by the tech when he sold me the fan (amazing what fluttering your eyelashes can get you hehe) - when I do get through to windows, its not freezing up on graphics intensive tasks, just processor intensive tasks.

I'd also be extremely suprised if it is a virus infecting the bios as I am very careful about updating and scanning regularly with different products to cross check. I've whipped out both HD's and put them in an external firewire enclosure to link up to the laptop and neither have any viruses on them, I presume they'd had to be infected in order for a virus to then jump to the bios.

No new hardware or software, and I've taken everything out except a barebones system to eliminate possibly problems. I'd bet its a fry-up on either the mobo or the CPU personally. However the good news is that I spoke to a lovely chap down at my comp shop and they'll look at it, test the bits and tell me what's wrong for £15!! Can't argue with that! I suppose they know I'll buy the mobo or CPU off of them afterwards LOL. Those are 2 years old anyhow, so I can look at this as one big opportunity to UPGRADE! heh! Silver lining to every cloud and all that.

Thanks once again

boogiemaster

You would be surprised that a virus could take out your bios even with virus protection!
New viruses can attack your system and the virus software makers need people to tell them about it, sometimes people don’t know it’s a virus attack on the bios and think the motherboard has gone funny.

Read this if you think a virus cannot attacked your bios?

http://www.exn.ca/nerds/19980828-52.cfm
http://www.fireav.com/virusinfo/library/cih.htm
http://www.srnmicro.com/virusinfo/kriz.htm
http://www.krollontrack.com/news/index.asp?getPressRelease=42


Original Message
Name: woa_is_me (by woaisme01)
Date: April 02, 2005 at 07:35:22 Pacific
Subject: BIOS virus--advice, please
OS: Win 2000 Pro
CPU/Ram: P4/512 Mb
System Manufacturer: Soyo/Microsoft
Comment:
I have recently been the victim of a malicious BIOS virus. I plan on getting a new
BIOS for my motherboard, and I need to know how I can safely scrub the infected hard drive clean, if possible.