Weird behaviour...

[Zoomby Woof]

Hi all. My son has a brand new computer, that behaves a bit weird. When
he turns it on, no application (games) that uses the graphics card
works, the game hangs the computer totally and a button-reboot is
necessary. If the comp is booted first time on a day, that is after have
been turned off for a while like overnight, and no games started and
just used for surf etc it works just fine, and when it has been powered
on for about half an hour the games works just fine. It seems that some
component needs to be warmed up properly before the graphics (or
wherever the problem lies) and the games is working.

Anyone recognizes this problem ?

Specs:
Intel core 2 duo 2.2 Ghz
2*1GB Kingston DDR2 memory modules
Asus P5K motherboard
Western Digital 250 GB SATA drive
Asus nvidia 8600 GTS graphics 512 MB RAM
WinXP Professional SP2, Directx 9.0c

Games and apps that hangs after start when comp been off a while:

Hellgate London
Oblivion
Mountain
3D Mark

Running Asus PC-Probe program tells me that cpu temp is 20 degrees
celsius and motherboard 35

Any help much appreciated. Thanx

/ZW

 

[GT]

...[snip]...

Running Asus PC-Probe program tells me that cpu temp is 20 degrees celsius
and motherboard 35

I can't help directly with the problem reported, but I would use a different
piece of software to monitor your temperatures. I can tell you now that the
CPU temp is not 20 degrees C - it is probably around this temp (room
temperature) when turned off! The motherboard temp sounds about right, but
the CPU is more likely to be 40-50 degrees and the individual core
temperatures could even be higher. SpeedFan or Everest would give you better
readings.

 

[kony]

Hi all. My son has a brand new computer, that behaves a bit weird. When
he turns it on, no application (games) that uses the graphics card
works, the game hangs the computer totally and a button-reboot is
necessary.

So this system is entirely stable except trying to run
games? What if you run a stress test like Prime95's Torture
Test? Leave that running for a half hour or more and see if
there are any errors... though running this will warm the
system up faster.

If the comp is booted first time on a day, that is after have
been turned off for a while like overnight, and no games started and
just used for surf etc it works just fine, and when it has been powered
on for about half an hour the games works just fine. It seems that some
component needs to be warmed up properly before the graphics (or
wherever the problem lies) and the games is working.

Anyone recognizes this problem ?

Specs:
Intel core 2 duo 2.2 Ghz
2*1GB Kingston DDR2 memory modules
Asus P5K motherboard
Western Digital 250 GB SATA drive
Asus nvidia 8600 GTS graphics 512 MB RAM
WinXP Professional SP2, Directx 9.0c

If it were a more power hungry video card, I might suspect
the PSU is flaky and improving in performance once it's
capacitors get warmer (that lowers ESR).

Otherwise I suspect the video card is bad, if you are
running out of time to get an RMA replacement you might want
to report the problem and ask for video card replacement
before it's too late... and keep troubleshooting, if you
find some other problem you can just not send in the card
and cancel the RMA.

You might also pull the card out of the slot and reseat it,
inspecting it while it's out just in case any problem is
visible. If there is any chance that fiddling inside the
system could void the warranty, if it were a pre-built whole
system, be sure to contact the seller first to receive
direction.

 

[Zoomby Woof]

Problem solved. It turned out the graphics adapter was broken, the
reseller had had 3 other cards like this replaced recently, and I got a
new one, and now the machine works just fine. Thanx to the ones that
showed interest in this and answered.

And GT: I actually think the temp readings are correct, when the machine
is working hard it goes up to 25, but Im using a *very* big cpu-fan, a
Zalman fan that seems to work extremely well. I will try Everest also
and check it out though.

/zw

 

[GT]

Problem solved. It turned out the graphics adapter was broken, the
reseller had had 3 other cards like this replaced recently, and I got a
new one, and now the machine works just fine. Thanx to the ones that
showed interest in this and answered.

And GT: I actually think the temp readings are correct, when the machine
is working hard it goes up to 25, but Im using a *very* big cpu-fan, a
Zalman fan that seems to work extremely well. I will try Everest also and
check it out though.

Try this little tool for reporting the Core temperature:

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

My e6400 (2.13GHz Core 2 Duo) is currently running with the side off the
case and Both cores are around 40 degrees C. If you have a temperature as
low as you say, then why not consider either turning down the fan speed for
quieter operation, or overclock your FSB a bit and get more performance.

 

[~misfit~]

...[snip]...

Running Asus PC-Probe program tells me that cpu temp is 20 degrees
celsius and motherboard 35

I can't help directly with the problem reported, but I would use a
different piece of software to monitor your temperatures. I can tell
you now that the CPU temp is not 20 degrees C - it is probably around
this temp (room temperature) when turned off! The motherboard temp
sounds about right, but the CPU is more likely to be 40-50 degrees
and the individual core temperatures could even be higher. SpeedFan
or Everest would give you better readings.

Agreed. The folks in a.c.h.o seem to think that Core Temp is the best for
accurate temps of Core 2 Duos/quads.

I have an Asus P5K series mobo and Asus PC Probe II reports 17°C CPU (same
as room temp) and 23°C case. Core Temp reports 22°C for die temp. This is
idling, in a case with a 25cm fan in the side, 12cm fan in the front and a
Thermaltake Mini Typhoon (all copper) heatpipe cooler that has been lapped
cooling the CPU. (Also a C2D 2.2GHz, only overclocked to 3.2GHz)

After using several different temperature monitoring programmes, all of
which read slightly differently, I have come to the conclusion that PC Probe
II is only good for accurate vcore, voltage rails (checked against
multimeter) and fan speed, certainly not for CPU temps.

 

[kony]

Agreed. The folks in a.c.h.o seem to think that Core Temp is the best for
accurate temps of Core 2 Duos/quads.

I have an Asus P5K series mobo and Asus PC Probe II reports 17°C CPU (same
as room temp) and 23°C case. Core Temp reports 22°C for die temp. This is
idling, in a case with a 25cm fan in the side, 12cm fan in the front and a
Thermaltake Mini Typhoon (all copper) heatpipe cooler that has been lapped
cooling the CPU. (Also a C2D 2.2GHz, only overclocked to 3.2GHz)

After using several different temperature monitoring programmes, all of
which read slightly differently, I have come to the conclusion that PC Probe
II is only good for accurate vcore, voltage rails (checked against
multimeter) and fan speed, certainly not for CPU temps.

Another option is to check the reported temp against the
bios health/hardware-monitor page's reported temp and if the
bios temp doesn't look right, periodically check on a bios
update.