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| Computer Problems |
 Jock |
Some real weird stuff been happening with my computer recently and i'm not sure if they are all connected or if its all seperate incidents and im just unlucky. Was wondering if anyone here may be able to shed some light on any of them.
So about a week ago my computer wouldnt boot and i had to have a poke about inside, taking some bits out and back in and and finally reinstalling windows. Everything seemed ok after that, well for a little while.
So a few days later i bought myself a new hdd and went to install it. Now my motherboard has 6 sata ports and four are in use, but nothing will work when i plug them into the bottom two. Ive swapped things round and doesnt matter the cable or device, anything in the bottom two wont work. Though why would two specific ports not work?
Next my keyboard wouldnt work the other day, so i plugged it into a different usb in the back and it says something about an error installing drivers and still doesnt work. I tried other things like my camera into the same usb sockets and they work fine. Now the weird thing is that if i plug the keyboard into the front usb sockets it works fine every time. I plugged it back into a rear one the other day and it worked. Come in tonight and its not working again, but still works in the front one....
Last issue is that my dvd drive seems to be acting weird. Ive never had any issues with it since it was built. Now out of the blue im burning stuff and 1/3 of the discs dont even burn, they get errors. The ones that do burn i bring downstairs and they dont work. Some will work after being put in for the tenth time or something daft, but some just refuse point blank to work on my dvd player. The same discs though work fine on the computer.
Like i say i dont know if this is all linked or its just damn bad luck. Anyone got any ideas or heard of anything like these problems before.
read 385 times
9/8/2010 11:19:17 PM (last edit: 9/8/2010 11:19:17 PM)
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| Nik Clark |
Sounds like the power supply is dying. I've had similar random issues when that happened. If not, perhaps your motherboard is about to die. I'd try a new power supply first.
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9/8/2010 11:23:12 PM (last edit: 9/8/2010 11:23:12 PM)
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| Jock |
I really hope it aint the motherboard as it cost a small fortune.....
I'll need to try and get hold of a power supply and test it i suppose.
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9/9/2010 12:04:16 AM (last edit: 9/9/2010 12:04:16 AM)
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| Stephen R. |
gonna have to go with motherboard on this one. These arent symptoms of a dying psu.
Clue 1: The Southbridge controls the SATA Ports, if some arent working, the southbridge is probably at fault
Clue 2: Sata Drive not functioning/causing errors in burning means bad transfer of data between the data source and its target (the drive). Southbridge at fault again.
Clue 3: USB is controlled by the Southbridge as well, getting wierd USB errors with devices is a tell-tale sign of a bad motherboard
Gonna have to say the southbridge got overheat/damaged, or your board is shorting on some dust or a loose screw or something. Bust open that badboy one more time, give everything a blast with some canned air, and shake it gently to make sure there are no loose screws or anything rattling around.
Usually what causes bad southbridges after re-assembly is people press too hard on PCI/PCI-E cards when they re-install them, and it bends the PCB enough to break some of the circuit paths inside the PCB, leading to errors when those paths get used.
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9/9/2010 12:37:37 AM (last edit: 9/9/2010 12:37:37 AM)
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| Jock |
With regards burning the discs though, they work fine every time if i play them back on the computer, its only if i take them to my downstairs dvd player that they dont work, well most times they dont but one i out in like 9 times and on the 10th it worked.
So for cleaning the case out, just some compressed air will do the trick?
If it is the mb, heres hoping i can do something on my insurance.
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9/9/2010 12:42:08 AM (last edit: 9/9/2010 12:42:59 AM)
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| Stephen R. |
if it is the motherboard and it failed during normal use and has not been modified it is most likely covered under its 5 year warranty (most boards come with a 5 year warranty). Make sure you check before you go complaining to your insurance, as they will send you a replacement (even cross ship if you ask most of the time) for free as long as it was equipment failure and not abuse/misuse.
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9/9/2010 1:50:34 AM (last edit: 9/9/2010 1:50:34 AM)
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| Jock |
One other thing that seems weird though is that although the keyboard wont work in most of the back usb ports, but all other devices do like camera, mouse etc. I mean would that be the case if the mb is failing too? Id have guessed that if it doesnt work it shouldnt work for anything though I know theres a good chance im wrong.
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9/9/2010 8:17:44 AM (last edit: 9/9/2010 8:17:44 AM)
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| inmateresource |
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read 253 times
9/26/2010 9:40:18 PM (last edit: 9/26/2010 9:40:18 PM)
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| TiMoN |
the two bottom SATA ports not working, could be because they are set up for RAID.
My current motherbord had two SATA ports that would not work, unless I reinstalled WinXP with the proper drivers.
Are the two SATA ports black where the rest are red?
We had some specific motherboards, where the USB ports simply died, everything else worked fine, but the USB ports had simply died..
that the keyboard only works in the front port is a bit odd. Often things wont work in the front ports but works fine in the rear ports. This is because the rear ports, for some reason, supply a little bit more power than the front ones normally do.
Haven't seen this particular problem before, so it could be anything from the USB controller having hardware or driver problems. Possibly some sort of problem supplying power, which tends to cause weird stability problems.
In the BIOS you should be able to see if your PSU is running stable. It could change under load though, so its not a bad idea to try another PSU if you can borrow one.
If you just bought a new HDD, you can try installing a new OS on that one, just to see if a new winstall (with fresh drivers) will fix the issues.
Terribly boring signature.
read 236 times
9/27/2010 8:13:05 AM (last edit: 9/27/2010 8:13:05 AM)
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| Jock |
Cheers for the help.
Since i last posted theres been some progress though still a fair amount of oddity.
So i bought a new keyboard and this ones plugged in the back and so far theres been no issue so it would apear that the keyboard is sorted.
Though now, my EHDD has stopped working, when i plug it in, whether it be the back or the front, it says the USB device has malfuntioned and you dont get to see it. I'm going to bring it into work and test it tommorow.
I'll need to have a look at the sata ports and see if they are a different colour, I cant recall.
As for the psu, the problem is no one i know has anything as powerfull (1200w) and its not like a replacement is so cheap like the keyboard that I can afford to buy one just in case, they look to be about £250.
Is there a way to test exactly what size power supply your computer needs, maybe I could reduce the wattage.
My problem is i'm not 100% what the problem is so I could end up spending a lot of money and getting no further forward which i really cant afford to do at the moment.
As for the dvd issue, I now wonder if its the player downstairs, for the past two weeks every disc has worked first time then yesterday everything stopped working again, well any home made dvd's. shop bought ones still work fine. Thing is my daughters for ever mucking around with it, trying to jam dvd's where they shouldnt go etc so i wonder if its the player and not the computer.
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9/27/2010 9:34:04 AM (last edit: 9/27/2010 9:34:04 AM)
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| Mashedpot8er |
Here ya go. First one I found :)
http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/
wannabee 3d artist
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9/27/2010 2:58:33 PM (last edit: 9/27/2010 2:58:33 PM)
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| Stephen R. |
do NOT, and I cannot stress this enough, do NOTTTTTTTT, buy thermaltake's CRAP power supplies.
If you want the latest and greatest, the best 1200watt (and probably overall on the market) power supply is the Corsair AX1200.
Other brands to consider:
PC Power and Cooling
Antec
Silverstone (Be wary, these guys are hit and miss, some of their PSU's are made by a really good manufacturer, and the rest by a cheap chinese company)
There's basically like one or two good companies that make power supplies, and then other companies rebrand them and sell them under their own names.
read 187 times
9/28/2010 4:06:39 AM (last edit: 9/28/2010 4:06:39 AM)
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