Crashed and burned Mav'

[Zebb]

I have been working all weekend but unfortunately my wife decided it would be a good idea to let my kids play on my comp while I was away, needless to say that they have managed to bugger it up somehow and when I fired it up today I had a complete crash, and now when I fire it up it makes all the right noises but I don't see a thing and my monitor flashes as if it's on standby.

 

I opened it up, reset the CMOS again and checked all the memory and video cards to see if it would make any difference but nothing, I even tried my old monitor but that still sat there on standby.

 

I have no access to the bios so I can't even try to start in safe mode and if I try to go into the bios or safe mode during the bootup it just locks up and never completes booting.

 

I will drop in when I can using this laptop my wife has but until I get a new rig sorted out then I'm stuffed..

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

45 Time-POW!

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

Zebb there was another user with the same problem recently, although your problem may be different, check out:

 

http://www.legionofspartans.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=2685

 

Dam it was you last time !

 

 

 

p.s. BACKUP using ACRONIS !

http://www.acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

 

The easiest and best backup and recovery software, ever, if you can not recover with this, then you have a hardware failure !

 

 

http://www.legionofspartans.com/forums/ind...&hl=acronis

 

 

 

 

Best of luck Zebb !

[custard~SPARTA~]

You speaking to the wife yet?

 

Everytime my kids go near my PC I get the shakes thinking about what they might do, my son takes stuff apart and my daughter is sooo clumsy she trips over her own feet.

 

 

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

Are you getting any "beep codes" as it tries to start? It should if its a hardware issue.

If it can't boot... it might not be your OS, it could be ram, video card, powersupply or motherboard.

 

Someone else needs to confirm this (Viiiper? or someone?) but I think if the bios is corrupted you should remove the battery on the board for a certain amount of time during the reset process. Although the procedure varies a little by manufacturer.

 

 

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

That should work if the cmos is not corrupt. If it is, then a new bios chip is in order. But if it is a hardware issue then the power on self test = beep code should indacate what componet failed. But keep in mind that all beep codes are not the same. you need to get the right one for your board.

Edited November 5, 2008 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[MedicSN6]

Ye, Ath is right, time to "Colt that bitch!" (Save what you can first though, RAM, Optical drives, CPU/fan, etc.) ;)

 

Kids are always a good reason to get a new computer. This is the perfect situation. It's the wife's fault because she let the kids play on it. So you get to use it against her.

[Krambo]

yer colt that b1tch!

 

no seriously....

 

process of elimination would be best, take out each part and try it in a diff machine.

 

or try replacing each part in ur machine with another 1 at a time.

 

this is such a pain in the arse problem that every1 has in there computer life. But its the only way 2 sort it, identifying which peice of hardware is causing the problem.

 

Just checkin ur monitor cable is plugged in2 ur gfx card and not in2 the integrated gfx? i have done that b4 DOH!

 

sorry 2 hear it anyway and best of luck!

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Sorry to hear this bud hope you get something sorted in the not to distant future.

 

 

 

[Zebb]

On the upside by jamming a screwdriver into the workings and jiggling it around a bit I have managed to get my comp to fire up, not stable enough to do much with it except grab anything I want to transfer onto my next one and stick it in my external drive.

 

I have put together an order for another rig and would be grateful if you anyone can let me know if it sounds like a decent setup or what alternative might be worth looking at, thanks guys.

 

 

 

Intel® Core?2 Quad Q9550 (4 X 2.83GHz) 1333MHz FSB/12MB Cache

 

 

Memory (RAM)

 

4GB CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 1600MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY (2x2GB)

 

 

Motherboard

 

ASUS® RAMPAGE EXTREME: The Ultimate OC / Gaming Platform

 

 

Operating System

 

Genuine Windows Vista? Ultimate + SP1, CD & Licence

 

 

USB Options

 

8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT)

 

 

1st Hard Disk

 

1000GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

 

2nd Hard Disk

 

1000GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

 

 

 

1st CD/DVD Drive

 

6x BLU-RAY Writer & HD-DVD ROM Drive, 16x DVD ±R/±RW

 

2nd CD/DVD Drive

 

20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

 

 

Graphics Card

 

1024MB GEFORCE GTX280 PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

 

 

Sound Card

 

sound Blaster® X-Fi Titanium - Fatal1ty Professional Series

 

 

Network Facilities

 

2 x ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORTS

 

 

Floppy Disk Drive

 

1.44MB - 3.5 INCH FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

 

 

 

Power Supply & Case Cooling

 

900W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

 

 

Processor Cooling

 

ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER

 

 

Firewire & Video Editing

 

3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card

 

 

TV Card

 

DUAL DIGITAL TV CARD & MULTIMEDIA REMOTE CONTROL FOR VISTA/MCE

 

 

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

Awesome specification Zebb, even I've drooling.

 

 

If I could recommend any change:

 

The 2 x 1000Gb drives I would replace with 3 x 750 Gb drives

 

 

I had 2 1000Gb drives recently and sent both back, Problems with formatting & spindle clicking, I realized that maybe 1000Gb was just too much to risk in one drive for today's technology.

 

I love the 750Gb drives and even that I hate Samsung Spin point, after a recommendation from 'MUTILATOR' I tried one and shock! I love it, plus it's dam cheap ! & well specced.

 

Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB Hard Drive

SATA II / 32MB Cache

 

 

It's Samsung 'F1' Range and it's quiet & smooth.

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?...amp;tid=hd753lj

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zebb]

Cheers mate that's the sort of stuff I need to know, I just saw 1000 and thought gimme.

 

I'll change them to 3 x 750's.

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

SATAII

 

With the 3x 750Gb drives I speculate a price of £180 total

 

I would also suggest an external USB2 or eSATA drive for external backups

I used to have an internal drive but invested in an external for BACKUPS of the BOOT drive & Personal data.

 

 

Something like a 500GB drive & use Acrnis True image Home edition, it is simple yet powerful software.

Making live backups of the whole boot drive & compressing it.

 

Restore is simple too and needs no OS or pre-formatted drive.

 

It simply relies on a special boot CD that will boot a window similar to Windows install (but more nice) and take you through a 5 click restore menu.

 

 

With this you can not loose your operating system, only Hardware failure will stop you booting...... 10/10 from me.

 

 

 

ACRONIS

http://www.acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

 

EXTERNAL DRIVE, you find one you like.....

[custard~SPARTA~]

I have one of those 750 drives its a good HD

 

OMFG what a spec list

 

enjoy yerself with that mate

[Xross]

Wow Bud....nice parts list......

 

Here's a link to a couple PSUs in the 850 Watt range I would highly recommend (they also have 1000+W) if you're list isn't firmed up yet:

 

Link

 

 

Link

 

 

Hope you're back up and running strong soonest.

 

 

 

 

 

[MedicSN6]

Good God man, that will be one hell of a Rig. Too bad you play games that are two or more years old and dont really need it. I bet ARMA will look fantastic though. Good luck setting up. I hope all goes well.

[Zebb]

Thanks for the tips guys, I will get it ordered today with these changes and them we can see how it all goes..

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

The vid card is great. But I like AMD not intell, Ive heard about alot of ram problems lately with the intell platform. But to each his own. You might even go to a 1000 watt p/s

Edited November 6, 2008 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[Zebb]

Thanks Athlon up until now I have only had AMD's as well but I figured Intel were worth a shot now so I'll have to see, as it happens I ordered a 1010 W psu so I am hoping that will be big enough..

 

Just have to wait for it to arrive now which is the hard part for me...

 

 

PS, I also grabbed a 24 inch monitor while I was at it..

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

Hope you don't have trouble. and the p/s is great! Check the sight of the mobo your getting and do the ram compatibilty chart to make sure the ram your getting has been tested on that board. That is a must for trouble free start up. According to the teck news sights AMD is fixing to blow intell away again, they have new billion dollar(oil money) investiors and will be made in new york and germany soon.

Edited November 6, 2008 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

So how much did you bribe your kids to spike your old rig

[Seven]

Dont get anything but a 9800 GTX or something the like Zebb. You cant go wrong for 100 or so bucks. 9800 might not be the top of the line, but it will rip thru Crysis, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, and just about anything else u throw at it. And for a hundred bucks, you cant go wrong.

 

Then in 6 months when games can actually take advantage of the Nvidia 260, the card that your looking at now that will tear up OFP2/ArmA2, will prob be under 200 bucks. So why pay premium now when nothing can even make it sweat. Grab it when u can use it and prob save a few hundred bones

 

I remember when the 9800 was $350+. Im just saying since the new stuff runs smooth on the 9800's no reason to pop for a new card that cant be taken advantage of. Unless you really really want 80 fps instead of 60 lol.

[Zebb]

Lol, thanks for the tip mate but patience isn't my strong point so with a bit of luck it should be here by the end of this week or early next so I guess I'll take the extra fps and bathe in the glory of my new 24 inch monitor...