Help me diagnosis a problem with my K8V system, please

[Mtimerding]

Hello all,

I've developed a problem with my homebuilt system the past 3 days
that is driving me nuts trying to figure it out. Until recently, everything
HAD been working fine ....

The system is a K8V (non deluxe) motherboard, with an AMD 3400 64
cpu ... an ATI Radeon X800 Pro video card, TWO internal Maxtor IDE
harddrives (both 300 gb) and two internal Maxtor SATA harddrives (again,
both 300 gb) .... this system also has two internal dvdrw's (Pioneer 108 and
a Pioneer 109) .... I also have an INTEL PRO 1000 NIC card installed, and
a Texas Instruments IEEE94 Card installed. The system is powered with
an Antec 550Watt TRU POWER powersupply. (This is all in an older Alienware
Case, and has 5 cooling fans - 2 front intake, 1 side intake, 2 rear
exhaust)
I am running Windows XP Pro, with SP2, and pretty much all updates.

The problem is:

About 3 days ago, all of a sudden the machine would start to shut off the
video display. Doesn't matter what I am doing, or if the machine is just
sitting
idle, the monitor will all a sudden go blank. This is anywhere from hours
after the
machine is powered up, to just 5 minutes. It seems to be just the video
display
going off, as the tower itself is still on and I can hear the fans and all
running.
(unfortunately with this mobo, I have no IDE light, so I have no idea if the
harddrives are still running)

The only way to get my display back is to reboot, IF it will reboot at all.
Sometimes
it will reboot with a blank screen, sometimes it will reboot normal until
the next shutoff,
sometimes it will reboot immediately into the BIOS setup screen with the
message
"overclocking failed" ..... with my only two options being to load setup
defaults or 'Enter Bios
Setup" .... (at which point I just enter the setup util, then immediately
save and exit)
Then it will boot normal, until the next occurrence.

Sometimes it will not boot back up until I do a chkdsk /r c: (using the
windows cd) ....
and it always reports "Found and Fixed one or more errors" ..... and
sometimes
it run the chkdsk automatically during the bootup, and giving me a ton of
reports
about deleteing some corrupted file(s) named something like INDEX .....

I have Everest Home Edition Ultimate and it usually gives vital stats such
as:

Temperatures: Motherboard 29 °C (84 °F) CPU 36 °C (97 °F) GPU 45 °C (113 °F)
GPU Ambient 40 °C (104 °F) Maxtor 6Y250P0 44 °C (111 °F) Maxtor 7B300R0 34
°C (93 °F) Maxtor 6B300S0 35 °C (95 °F) Cooling Fans: CPU 2360 RPM Chassis
5625 RPM Voltage Values: CPU Core 1.58 V +3.3 V 3.28 V +5 V 5.05 V +12 V
11.55 V +5 V Standby 4.99 V
I have no ideas if those values are good or not, so I have no idea.
Can anyone tell me where I can possibly start looking for a problem?
Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

[milleron]

Hello all,

I've developed a problem with my homebuilt system the past 3 days
that is driving me nuts trying to figure it out. Until recently, everything
HAD been working fine ....

The system is a K8V (non deluxe) motherboard, with an AMD 3400 64
cpu ... an ATI Radeon X800 Pro video card, TWO internal Maxtor IDE
harddrives (both 300 gb) and two internal Maxtor SATA harddrives (again,
both 300 gb) .... this system also has two internal dvdrw's (Pioneer 108 and
a Pioneer 109) .... I also have an INTEL PRO 1000 NIC card installed, and
a Texas Instruments IEEE94 Card installed. The system is powered with
an Antec 550Watt TRU POWER powersupply. (This is all in an older Alienware
Case, and has 5 cooling fans - 2 front intake, 1 side intake, 2 rear
exhaust)
I am running Windows XP Pro, with SP2, and pretty much all updates.

The problem is:

About 3 days ago, all of a sudden the machine would start to shut off the
video display. Doesn't matter what I am doing, or if the machine is just
sitting
idle, the monitor will all a sudden go blank. This is anywhere from hours
after the
machine is powered up, to just 5 minutes. It seems to be just the video
display
going off, as the tower itself is still on and I can hear the fans and all
running.
(unfortunately with this mobo, I have no IDE light, so I have no idea if the
harddrives are still running)

The only way to get my display back is to reboot, IF it will reboot at all.
Sometimes
it will reboot with a blank screen, sometimes it will reboot normal until
the next shutoff,
sometimes it will reboot immediately into the BIOS setup screen with the
message
"overclocking failed" ..... with my only two options being to load setup
defaults or 'Enter Bios
Setup" .... (at which point I just enter the setup util, then immediately
save and exit)
Then it will boot normal, until the next occurrence.

Sometimes it will not boot back up until I do a chkdsk /r c: (using the
windows cd) ....
and it always reports "Found and Fixed one or more errors" ..... and
sometimes
it run the chkdsk automatically during the bootup, and giving me a ton of
reports
about deleteing some corrupted file(s) named something like INDEX .....

I have Everest Home Edition Ultimate and it usually gives vital stats such
as:

Temperatures: Motherboard 29 °C (84 °F) CPU 36 °C (97 °F) GPU 45 °C (113 °F)
GPU Ambient 40 °C (104 °F) Maxtor 6Y250P0 44 °C (111 °F) Maxtor 7B300R0 34
°C (93 °F) Maxtor 6B300S0 35 °C (95 °F) Cooling Fans: CPU 2360 RPM Chassis
5625 RPM Voltage Values: CPU Core 1.58 V +3.3 V 3.28 V +5 V 5.05 V +12 V
11.55 V +5 V Standby 4.99 V
I have no ideas if those values are good or not, so I have no idea.
Can anyone tell me where I can possibly start looking for a problem?
Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I'd wonder about the usual suspects -- PSU, RAM, display driver --
before motherboard, HDs, or video card.


1 -- Did you change anything on the system right before this started?
2 -- If not, then I'd open the case and ensure that all cables and
cards are extremely reliably seated.
3 -- Can you report the results of running Memtest86 for a few hours
and/or of running Prime95's torture test?
4 -- If memory checks out perfectly, you may want to disconnect
nonessential peripherals -- both optical drives and two or three HDs
to see if lessening the load on the PSU helps. You might need to
locate another PSU for troubleshooting purposes.


Ron

 

[mtimerding]

I'd wonder about the usual suspects -- PSU, RAM, display driver --
before motherboard, HDs, or video card.

Thanks for the reply ... since my post, the computer has totally
failed .... boots up, but immediately the screen goes blank.
When trying to boot off a cd (i.e. windows), I always get a blue
screen BEFORE the option to repair, or install. indicating either
ntfs.sys, or atapi.sys, or something different each time.

I did run the memtest, and it ran fine for several hours, with no
errors (at least it booted off that cd).

I unplugged every device (dvdrw's, hard drives) one at a time, no
difference.

I tried different video cards (an ATI Radeon 9700) from my wifes
computer (which I am typing this on now) and that made no
difference. So, I am left to beleive it is either the power supply
or motherboard. And as I have always has 'flaky' issues since
putting that mobo in (i.e. Panda Antivirus, Iolo System Mech)
which I always have used, would NOT work since putting that
mobo in .. so my money is on the motherboard.

As luck would have it, I can't find a K8V (non deluxe or deluxe)
anyhere ... I just got frustrated (or stupid) and said to hell with
it, and ordered another whole computer. (Guess I was gonna
have to make the move to PCI Express eventually anyway)

This machine is gonna have an Nvidia Nforce mobo ... don't
know how good those are, guess I will find out.

Hate to see my ATI x800 pro going to waste tho, but I guess
I cant use AGP anymore. (so, I ordered this with an ATI x1800 xt)

But, thanks for taking the time to reply