So, having a computer problem? Why not post it here? With any luck, someone will have an answer or some advice for you. Make sure to explain as many details about your problem as possible - things like:

The kind of computer you are using
The kind of OS you are using (WIN95, WIN98, Mac OS, etc)
And what it is exactly that you are trying to do

If you are reading, and you know the answer, or have a suggestion, please be a good neighbor and post your advice.

This TOPIC is intended for practical, immediate questions rather than theory.

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

I AM MIGHTY!!! ;> At work today, every project I took under my wing worked! I set up and delivered 2 new MAC G3's, got a failing printer to work, installed, set up, and delivered a big-ass UMAX scanner, set up a VR imaging turntable which was non-responsive for the past week (this one was kickin my ARSE until I got in touch with tech support for the device and FINALLY managed to download a software patch from their ftp site). AND, I got a digital camera software package to work after it had been freezing up a system...

I AM MIGHTY!!! ;> I return home victorious, my head held proud and high, after enduring several trials and tribulations, over which I demonstrated my technical prowess. Tomorrow, everything I touch will crumble, but today I am a GOD. ;> (hey, gimme my moment of glory. I don't have that many of them!) L8R!

By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

Good work, Fred! Way to end the year at work!

By Rigel (Nat) on Unrecorded Date:

-Warning- most of this message is one giant rant about the ongoing struggle with Bubbles, my computer-

Random reboots out of nowhere, no matter what app I'm using. My processor runs at a cool 92-95 degrees F on average(unless it's a REALLY HOT day), so there's no overheating problems. When I check the event viewer I find no unusual, relevant or warning flag type messages in the system, security, and application logs. All of my hardware is windows 2000 compatible except for my ethernet card, but since I downloaded the proper drivers there should be no problems. And everything works fine until BANG, bubbles hiccups and restarts out of the blue (or locks up)and then slowly but surely I get stop errors, some of them driver related, some of them IRQ related along with more strange reboots. Then I start up windows using the last known good config. and everything is ok for a while, then the same crap happens again eventually.

I have reinstalled everything- and I mean everything, including the OS- at least six times since early Late June.

After visiting several knowledge bases from various companies that manufacture my components, finally I go to the asus tek website to see if they have a bios update, or a relevant faq. Lo and behold I find my motherboard is being discontinued because:

"According to Intel® on May 10th, 2000, the memory translator hub (MTH) chip that translates signals from SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) to the Intel® 820 chipset is defective. The problem results in intermittent "system noise" that may cause some systems to suddenly reset, reboot, or just stall. In some instances it can also "corrupt", or affect the accuracy of, a computer's data..."

Hmmm. That sounds familiar doesn't it?

So I'm thinking, great. If that's truly my problem I need a new motherboard. So I take a look and see what kind of motherboards they sell that would suit my needs- just in case. And they had a convenient "improved" version of my motherboard (the mighty asus cuc2), but it requires that I buy RDRAM, which I can't afford for the life of me.

Moral of this story:

Fred, I will never doubt you again when you say "maybe it's your motherboard?"

What the dillio? This sucks!!!

By Rigel (Nat) on Unrecorded Date:

Yeah, so can anyone recommend a decent motherboard manufacturer?

By Subcriminal (Nat) on Unrecorded Date:

Greeting my techie drinking buddies!

Nat needs a little help. As you all know I am on a quest to find a new motherboard since the asus board I have came with a nifty defect. I have found an intel equivalent of the one I have now, but since I'm getting paid now all I can think of is MORE POWER.

Nat wants a dual processor board.

The problem: I can't seem to find one that includes all the neat-o trimmings I need for high-end 3D animation production (which would be what I have now, minus the extra processor).

Where can I find a motherboard with ALL (and I mean ALL) the following toys:

Dual motherboard supporting socket 370 PIII up to 900+
Five PCI slots
Holds a TON of ram
4X/pro AGP slot
Must also support 133fsb

I've looked high and low, but I can't seem to find one with ALL this stuff. Either I don't know the BIG secret on where to look, or it doesn't exist.

I figure if I'm gonna get a new board anyway, why not go all out if I can (possibly) afford it?

By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

Nat,

One good place to try is egghead.com on the net.
I don't know if they will list the specs 4 U, but maybe you can call around NYC, figure out what board the one U want is, then go to egghead who will sell to U for a decent price (ship it, too).

I'll keep my eyes open for info, too.

Sol

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

There's another site called circotech.com where you can build a barebones system from scratch, whether it be Intel or AMD. You should check it out.

By Vengence is Mine (Knight_Hawk) on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 - 08:22 pm:

HELP this is an all points call for HELP.

My computer just died for some reason and I can't figure out why. I had just installed a new floppy disk drive and was trying to do the same with a new printer. I had installed the drivers and tried to set it up when I kept getting a bad connection message. I had pulled out the usb wire and put it back in. When I looked back at the screen it looked really funcky, the menus were shifted slightly and the edges where bitty and I got no responce from the keyboard or the mouse. I was forced to do a manual shut off and let it sit for a second before I tried to turn it on. I think I heard a sound but I'm not sure, I did smell ozone. I quickly shut off the computer and disconected all the wires then I opened the case to check inside. everything looked okay, however I was concerened about how hot the proceser houseing was, I have no idea if that was normal. I hooked it back up and tried it again, the screen came up saying that the moniter was in power save mode and to turn on the computer.

I took it apart again and checked every connection and wire, I have since turned on the computer and left the side panal off. The proceser fan still worked as did the cd burner and disk drive. I am stumped, the only things I can think of are that I burned out the processer somehow, or the video card went, or I fried the motherboard. I hope I didn't lose the hard drive.

Since I built this system myself I can't call tech support. I plead with you to help me, please, please, please.

By Vengence is Mine (Knight_Hawk) on Thursday, May 01, 2003 - 03:27 pm:

I am now crtain that it was the processer when I removed the cooling fan the labeling had burned off and was stuck to the protective housing. I've also reasoned that it couldn't be the motherboard since all the other componets still got power to them. I know the video card still works simply because I put it and the other peices into my old computer. However it keeps giving me a Windows protection error message or simply rebooting itself. Does this mean the hard drive is fried?

Please help me as I really can't afford to replace every component to find the problem.

By Ms. Vice (Nat) on Thursday, May 01, 2003 - 04:42 pm:

You need to find a buddy who has a computer you are willing to swap parts with to help determine for sure what that problem is. Tho if you smelled something burning and your processor looks scorched, well, what kind was it? Athlon? Those are exceptionally heat sensitive and if your processor heat-sink and cooling fan aren't good quality ya can expect a short-processor-life span. Sounds like you need a new processor anyway, so get a new one, stick it in and see how it goes.

By Vengence is Mine (Knight_Hawk) on Thursday, May 01, 2003 - 07:50 pm:

That's acctually what I was about to do, because while the computer still won't boot up I was able to access the command prompt and inspect the contents of the hard drive and it looks okay for now. As to the old processer I'm not sure as to why it blew I only had it in there for about 5 months. I think I may have installed the secondary fan in backwards or I just might need another one, the case I bought can support three but I think the motherboard on;y does two. I will take any suggestions as to where and what type to buy, the old one was a P4 1.5 GHZ.

Thanks for the input Nat I appreciate it.

By Starlit simulacron (Ranger) on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 12:05 pm:

Computer is magic box.
Ugh.

By Vengence is Mine (Knight_Hawk) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 11:22 am:

Alright I am now really confused. I waited till the Marketpro show yesterday and bought a new Processer and Motherboard. I am positive I installed everything correctly but now it won't power up. When I push the button the fans will twitch and sometimes even spin for a bit but the computer won't start up. Any suggestions will be good. Can anyone recommend a good website maybe?

By Vengence is Mine (Knight_Hawk) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 11:59 am:

I've been looking over the web and found a few sites and one says it could be the power supply. However it worked fine up until now, what do you guys think?

By Vengence is Mine (Knight_Hawk) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 12:33 pm:

I think it might be the power supply because for some reason when I tried it yet again after my posts the fans got power, but none of the other components did.

By Vengence is Mine (Knight_Hawk) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 09:31 pm:

I am Mighty to steal a phrase from Fred. I had a thought to replace the 1.8 gig cpu with the old "Burned out" 1.5 and the computer came to life. It is still not out of the woods yet however. I'm still haveing some problems, the worst of which is it seeming to crash unexpectedly but I just have to tweak it some more. The onwe that has me scratching my head is that the Bios recognizes the second HDD but windows won't. As always any help would be appreciated as I thought I had solved the HDD problem before.

By Vengence is Mine (Knight_Hawk) on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 05:14 pm:

Okay it seems that my hard drive is no longer going to be as useful as it once was there are damaged parts of it and I think I'm going to have to get a new one. I'm still not sure about my 40 gig one so that may be a possibility but no matter what I'm going to have to start from scratch as far as the OS is concerened. Anybody know where I can get XP cheap?

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Friday, May 23, 2003 - 02:48 pm:

oy, stop reading LEV for a couple weeks and things EXPLODE, DANG!

Alright, you got a new CPU and Motherboard, with those should be a manual. this manual shall reveal to you the necessary voltage for the power supply needed to power the unit. You mismatch a power supply and CPU/Motherboard, and things happen like MELTING CPU'S (Which is the answer to your original issue, I'd bet.) Do yourself a favor my man, and get the correct power supply for the pieces you slam together. Too much power = fried parts, jumbled HD sectors, burned out fans, melted plastic, electrical discharge (which smells like ozone burning)... not enough power = frequent reboots, stuttering fans, corruption of open files on HD, memory leaks, and resource usage.

I'm sorry you had to get a new motherboard and CPU, but you aren't out of the woods yet, bud. GET THE CORRECT POWER SUPPLY. And don't throw out your HD--there are utilities out there that can resurrect it. I would, however, splurge and get a new HD, although the price tag now is gettin steeper and steeper for ya. The key is finding the right power supply.

Windows can recognize HD's above 2 gigs, but only if you have the right partitioning set up. either way, you're gonna lose the contents of your drive and have to reinstall. the 1.8 processor will work with the correct power supply. What it sounds like is that you had a power supply that had too much power for the motherboard CPU you had before, but not enough power for the cpu/motherboard you have now. what was the old motherboard? what is the new one? by taking the new motherboard and the old CPU you may have hit a balance that matches the power supply. the other thing that it could be is something inside the power supply burned out, but not enough to kill it completely. So now an intermittent amount of juice flows through.

There's the why and when and how of it, but the bottom line is still : GET A NEW POWER SUPPLY.

By GCM2235 (Norm) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 11:12 pm:

Um, how can a power supply have too much power? I can understand too little, but what is too much?

By the way, if you already have XP, I might try a hard drive copy utility.

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Monday, June 21, 2004 - 02:01 pm:

too much power through supply into motherboard = more resistance in thinner pathways = HEAT = BAD.