PC Problems

[PinkRabi]

Hey guys, its that time again when pink has run out of ideas to fix his pc so comes crawling for help, but this time, I thought i would at least try and be helpful by laying it out more nicely.

So, lets get started..

System:

OS - Windows Vista SP1 / XP SP2 both 32bit
Minboard - EVGA nForce 680i SLi MCP
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
Ram - 4 x GeIL 1GB PC 6400 800MHz CAS4
HDD - 2x 250GB Samsumg SpinPoint Sata-II 8MB cache
1x 500GB Samsung F1 Sata-II 16MB cache
Graphics - 2x EVGA 9800GTX Superclocked
Power - 550W and 650W PSUs

Problem 1:

Since about 4 months ago my computer seems to randomly crash fairly often on start-up, it is a complete freeze which requires a reboot, however windows error log shows up nothing.
Interestingly, after restarting from a crash, i have never had a sequencial crash. It may or may not occur again if i actually power down and boot up, but between shut downs it has only ever happened once, regardless of the number of restarts.
Also this problem started around the same time i got my new graphics cards, i do not know if that is coincidence or cause.

Tried and Failed Solutions:

Reinstalled OS and changed OS - problem persisted
Ran MemTest 86 - Showed no errors

Problem 2:

More recent, only in past couple of weeks i have occasionally got random blue screens while playing games but more often when quitting them and graphics returns to the desktop settings. Occurs in Vista, though do not know about XP as have no games installed there. Has occured with more than 1 game though

Well there you go, any help would be really appreciated, and sorry to bug you guys but several people are WAY more knowledgable than me with my google searches. Just lemme know if you need any other info.

Thanks

PinkRabi

[XoR]

First of all, nice setup Pink. I would usually point to the power supply in situations like these. Are you running the 550W and the 650W at the same time somehow? If so, try using just one or the other for a while and make note of stability with each. Same with your 2x9800 GTX's. Try using just one or the other for a while and note stability. If it's crashing before windows starts, it's probably something hardware-wise. If it's crashing as windows loads, you may have a driver issue.

I would recommend isolating each piece and do tests until you get a feel. I remember not too long ago I was suddenly getting random reboots and it boggled my mind ... I wasted HOURS re-installing windows, testing this and that and was about ready to throw the whole thing in a campfire and buy an alienware, but lo and behold - my ATX connector to my mobo was slightly ajar and not plugged in all the way tightly. I secured it and I haven't had one restart since.

Sometimes it's the little things. Good luck man.

[penguin]

sounds like a graphics card problem to me... one of those cards is more than enough to play any of the games that are out right now.. running 1 at a time definately sounds like the way to go until you can figure out which one might be causing the problem.. but it could be as simple as the newer drivers.. tried rolling them back to previous ones?

[BadAsh]

yes and while you're only running the one card you can just send me the second one for some extensive hardware testing.

[Vertisce]

Upgrade to Vista Ultimate 64bit. Will probably fix all the problems you are having now and give you new ones to deal with. lol But no seriously...it might help to upgrade. I was having the same issues with my system on XP before upgrading to Vista.

[z3r07w0]

Did you say you were having issues with XP and you upgraded to vista????!!!!!! Wow, somebody take a screenshot and send it to microsoft. I'm sure they could use the boost right about now.

[PinkRabi]

lol zero. Thanks for the input guys, and yes Xor I have the 550W doing 1 graphics card my fans and hdd drives, and the 650 doing the other card and the mainboard.

It was crashing after windows has loaded once I was logged in, only once happened before that when it was on the Select user screen.

Will try the individual graphics card thing to sort it, just means playing crysis on lower settings

In the meantime, give me your address BadAsh and il promise you'll at least get something through the post....

[Yazule]

First of all, nice setup Pink. I would usually point to the power supply in situations like these. Are you running the 550W and the 650W at the same time somehow? If so, try using just one or the other for a while and make note of stability with each. Same with your 2x9800 GTX's. Try using just one or the other for a while and note stability. If it's crashing before windows starts, it's probably something hardware-wise. If it's crashing as windows loads, you may have a driver issue.

I would recommend isolating each piece and do tests until you get a feel. I remember not too long ago I was suddenly getting random reboots and it boggled my mind ... I wasted HOURS re-installing windows, testing this and that and was about ready to throw the whole thing in a campfire and buy an alienware, but lo and behold - my ATX connector to my mobo was slightly ajar and not plugged in all the way tightly. I secured it and I haven't had one restart since.

Sometimes it's the little things. Good luck man.

goddamn xor that is the best damn post i have seen in a long time that "beore windows starts" and "while windows loading" is just a diagnostic tool i never thought about. Been a while since the light bulb turned on about something computer related like that.

[midnightservice]

well pink here is my 2 cents. you should double check but the 680i sli noard will not support the 2x9800 gt's as the 9800 gt in sli mode requires a quad sli board and not a dual sli board. the 9800 gt by itself is already 2 8800 gt's combined in an internal sli mode.

[PinkRabi]

your thinking of the 9800 GX2 not the GTX my cards are essentially a more overclocked 8800GTX not the 2 mashed together

[Vertisce]

If anything that would probably just be a chipset limitation. You don't need 4 PCI-E slots to make 2 cards work even though they each have 2 GPU's. Either way thats not the issue here...

[midnightservice]

Vertisce actually yes do

[BadAsh]

Vertisce actually yes do

Mid the GTX280's are 2 graphics cores on 1 PCB so you only need 1 pci-e slot instead of 2 to run them but basically get the same as 2 cards in SLI mode, having 2 gtx280's is like having 4 cards in SLI mode.

[penguin]

Vertisce actually yes do

Mid the GTX280's are 2 graphics cores on 1 PCB so you only need 1 pci-e slot instead of 2 to run them but basically get the same as 2 cards in SLI mode, having 2 gtx280's is like having 4 cards in SLI mode.

with as much power as computers are needing nowadays... its basically like running a microwave 24 hours a day if you leave it on... even more...
i started shutting off the computers in the house at night before bed.. and ive noticed a big drop in the electric bill INSANENESS

[midnightservice]

okay people here is the scoop straight from nvidia

Take the acclaimed NVIDIA® SLI™ technology to the next level with a pair of über-powered, dual GPU GeForce® 9800 GX2-based graphics cards running in Quad NVIDIA SLI® mode. Quad SLI enables up to four GPUs, 512 cores and 2GB of high speed graphics memory working simultaneously to deliver a 3.4x performance increase over a single GeForce 8800 GT. And combined with the speed, overclockability, and next generation features of an NVIDIA nForce® 790i Ultra SLI motherboard, you can build the fastest NVIDIA gaming platform to date and power through the latest Microsoft® DirectX® 10 games in Extreme HD resolutions.

so to run dual 280 gtx's that has 2 gpu's per card you would need a quad sli board or the 790i board.

-Mid