SerraGeorge Posted June 9, 2006 Share Posted June 9, 2006 I have a Frankenstein'd machine that I put together out of old parts from other systems. Formatted the hard drive, fresh install of Windows, all the current drivers, everything works... for awhile. After it's been on for a few hours, it starts to craaaaaaaaawl. Occasionally, it'll BSoD on me, though I haven't been able to write down the specific error code yet. I don't want to go out and buy a bunch of new parts to try to figure out what's wrong, so if anyone has an idea, or can point me to some tests to try, I'd be grateful. There doesn't seem to be any harddrive noise, so according to the literature I've read, that doesn't jump out as the problem. (Guess it still could be, but yeah.) Could it be a weak power supply? Over heating? Anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Elvis Posted June 9, 2006 Share Posted June 9, 2006 Or bad ram. What kind of CPU is it it and what's the wattage on the PSU? What kind of heat readings are you getting? If nothign else you should be able to see a temp reading in the BIOS setup somewhere. I'm not sure what's out there now as far as dianostic software for windows. I always used to use sisoft sandra to find out all the stuff windows tried to hide. It looks like the lite version is still a free download. I'd be very supprised if there was malware attached. http://www.sisoftware.net/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SerraGeorge Posted June 9, 2006 Author Share Posted June 9, 2006 It's an Athlon 1.2 GHz. I downloaded Memtest, and I'll try that to see if my RAM is being stupid. I've got Sandra on there too, so I'll look for any issues there. All the fans are running, and the side is off, so unless something is messed up to begin with, I doubt it's a heat problem. I don't think I checked for updated BIOS when I was doing all the updates, so I'll look into that too. BUT... *right now* it's downloading and patching my world of warcraft game without any problems, so I'm not going to do anything to upset it. I'm going to go make a sacrifice to the MMORPG gods now to appease them enough to make this thing work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Elvis Posted June 9, 2006 Share Posted June 9, 2006 It's an Athlon 1.2 GHz. I downloaded Memtest, and I'll try that to see if my RAM is being stupid. I've got Sandra on there too, so I'll look for any issues there. All the fans are running, and the side is off, so unless something is messed up to begin with, I doubt it's a heat problem. I don't think I checked for updated BIOS when I was doing all the updates, so I'll look into that too. BUT... *right now* it's downloading and patching my world of warcraft game without any problems, so I'm not going to do anything to upset it. I'm going to go make a sacrifice to the MMORPG gods now to appease them enough to make this thing work! And you've got at least a 250w PSU pushing that? I'd use a 300. It's the stupidist thing on earth, but I've done it. Did you remeber to take the the backing off the termal sticky thing on the back of the heat sink, assuming you didn't use paste? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SerraGeorge Posted June 9, 2006 Author Share Posted June 9, 2006 lol... hmm.. max power output 157W Oddly enough, I suspected the power supply might be the culprit when I put the thing on the shelf and built a new one. Would that make it work fine for awhile and then slow down and slow down until eventually I get irritated and turn it off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Elvis Posted June 9, 2006 Share Posted June 9, 2006 That's probobly it. I'd not use it until you get the right PSU in there so you don't fry the mobo. How many parts do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SerraGeorge Posted June 10, 2006 Author Share Posted June 10, 2006 Hokay.. The case everything was in was a stupid micro tiny one that hp thought was cute or something. Soooo, I just bought a new case with a 300W PSU already in it. Switched the guts around, and after a few brief moments of it thinking there was no OS, it works perfectly! My bf and I have been playing WoW all night without a hitch! (Unless you count him being a barbaric button smasher who can't understand why he dies so much when he refuses to use any of his abilities and spells.) Teehee! Am I officially a geek if I have three running systems in the house and I've done lots of parts moving around and upgrades on two of them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Elvis Posted June 10, 2006 Share Posted June 10, 2006 Hokay.. The case everything was in was a stupid micro tiny one that hp thought was cute or something. Soooo, I just bought a new case with a 300W PSU already in it. Switched the guts around, and after a few brief moments of it thinking there was no OS, it works perfectly! My bf and I have been playing WoW all night without a hitch! (Unless you count him being a barbaric button smasher who can't understand why he dies so much when he refuses to use any of his abilities and spells.) Teehee! Am I officially a geek if I have three running systems in the house and I've done lots of parts moving around and upgrades on two of them? You, and anyone who followed this thread. So six hours later it's still fine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SerraGeorge Posted June 10, 2006 Author Share Posted June 10, 2006 It's been running WoW consistently for all I know since it was started up at around 5pm last night. I went to bed right after I posted. Bf did not. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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