A Quick Fix, or Fail...... ?

[Para]

Ah Bolloks !!

got home from work last night and switched on the pc as usual for some game time, the pc boots to windows as normal but when i start windows media center to watch some telly the rig totally black screens and the machine goes dead ! WTF ! Cock !!!

I try resetting and re booting the machine several times but nothing, it wont even Post, but all the fans are still running. Hmmmmm........
i then rip out all non essential components untill all thats left is the very basics to get the machine to boot ie, mobo, psu, gpu, 1 stick of ram & boot drive. this time the machine starts and posts as normal then boots to windows, i am then displayed a huge amount of error messages of various types, so i restart the machine again and all appears to be normal on reboot.

but the machine is now very unstable, even with only the bare components in, it still displays an alarming amount of error messages on start up. bearing in mind i only installed a new boot drive a few weeks ago and she is running a clean install of windows.
i fear the old girl may have had it, i reckon its the Mobo or possibly the psu thats about to go. i may be offline for some time as i cant afford a new rig and she aint really worth spending money on a 6yr old socket 775 c2d e6700 machine, but then again i cant live without my pc !!! shiiiiittte..........

Any one got any ideas or an old 775 mobo lying about ?
ime currently keeping an eye on eBay but i think its only wise to save for another Rig..........

[shutteh]

hmm sounds a little bit like problems with the RAM.

A new Sockel 775 is not too bad. you can upgrade the cpu after the motherboard upgrade to an Intel Q9550 2.83GHz E0. Its a great CPU.
Do you have no other PSU and/or RAM for a Test?

[Para]

thats what i thought for a start shutty, i tested each Ram module (4x 2Gb) indavidually in the first socket and they appear to be fine, it may however be one of the ram sockets on the mobo thats at fault. i only have one 2Gb stick installed at the moment, but i dont have a spare Psu so i cant check it without buying a new one ! fek !!

have you seen the price of even a second hand Q9550 ? they are going for £100-130 at the moment, thats crazy when a i5 2400 is only £150 !

[MegaYoda]

I have a spare psu and other bits and bobs you can have for free. Let check what specs they are and I will pm you

[shutteh]

yoda ... you have a spare girl for me for free?! GREAT

[Para]

been pissin about with it all night and it looks like Dimm slot No2 is the culprit, but i still need to do more testing .
stupid question but will the rig run ok using Dimm Slots 1, 3 & 4 giving me 6Gb ? or will i just have to use slot 1 on its own and abandon the rest ?

[LK3da]

the DIMM slots used to be cabled in a parallel way, for best performance u should use the straight together but when performance does not matter, u should be able to use whatever bank is left and it works. BIOS will recon the RAM inserted.

[Para]

Right still having issues with the rig, now fairly certain its the mobo thats buggered and possibly more than just Dimm slot 2.

But, after a super human effort by our very own Yoda, i have aquired another 775 mobo thats a very similar model to the one currently installed (mine a P5WDH *fuked* and yodas P5WD2.)

Now another stupid question ? is it possible to change over the Mobos without having to do a reformat & install of windows?

i can boot the machine to windows as it is, but its dodgy ! i was intending to boot the machine, uninstall every hardware driver i could find, Gpu, Sound card, mouse, keyboard, tv tuner, Ect.... then power off and change out the mobos then restart and reinstall all the drivers again, is this method sensible ? or can i just change out the mobos and not bother my arse....?

[shutteh]

the motherboard has some driver for there chips. did you deletet it and installed the new motherboard driver?

you can try to reinstall the drivers, it could work but its not the best way for a good windows.

[LK3da]

Windows 7 will still work after changing the mobo, even if it has a different chipset, but shutty´s right if u have time u can spend it on a clean reinstall when everything is sorted out.

[jackDEFECTORbauer]

On XP there was a trick you could do to force windows to forget all drivers and hardware settings, bypassing the need for a format. I'm afraid I can't remember how to do it but I would think Win7 could do the same.

[Para]

thanks Jack i will look into that, got the mobos swapped out ok without doing a full reformat, i just did as above and removed the basic drivers, then reinstalled them,

got the system stable again with no errors, had a quick test on CSS late friday night and so far alls well......