THE PERFECT PC

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:38 pm

MY POWER SUPPLY IS ON THE BLINK AND MY HYPERTHREAD P4 NEEDS AN OVERHAUL, AS I KEEP MAXING OUT ON CPU POWER

WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD QUALITY DESKTOP PC TO BUY (MOTHERBOARD + PROCESSOR + RAM + TOWER) FOR AROUND £300- £500

THAT WILL RUN SMOOTHLY WITH PULSAR 1 CARD, AND RUN MORE VST'S THAN THERE IS MCDONALDS

HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO GLOAT ABOUT YOUR SYSTEM

LET ME KNOW MODELS NUMBERS ETC IF YOU CAN SO I CAN CHECK OUT YOUR SYSTEMS

UK BASED

SORRY FOR SHOUTING BUT SPENT MOST OF THE NIGHT TRYING TO GET MY PC TO BOOT UP, BUT IT KEEPS DYING UNLESS I UNPLUG THE MAINS AND PLUG IT BACK IN TO BOOT UP FOR IT TO DIE AGAIN

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:17 pm

for the first time in my life swaying towards a dual core AMD

I'm on my fifth intel chip now since purchasing my first pentium system from millenium music in 1998

My current system has decided to turn very strange (I think a power issue) it will boot up then just keeps turning itself off, and will only power up again if I unplug the kettle lead out of the back....? bizarre

anyway so i've sort of got it booting up at them moment(even though it still turns off) so I can back up some data quickly. but my dual monitors wont come on now,
confused....
the green led on my motherboard comes on though whatever when its plugged in, so I presume there's nothing wrong with the mobo

anyway if you can help me with that great..... but i'm sort of ready to upgrade my pc anyway as its never really performed how I would like (p4 3.0 hyperthread) 1024ram it would only ever run about 4/5 vst's then max out and maybe only 2 vanguard vst's which are rather processor hungry

so i'm a bit like when i changed mobile providers, i was with orange for 9 yrs and was reasonable happy but often dissapointed, so i finally went over to 02 and now i'm £30 better off a month, should of done it ages ago

so AMD sounds good, but the pcie compatabilty issue could be a problem for some...
I'm using a pci creamware pulsar with via lightpipe to my 01v desk, which i'm ok with, so that wouldn't mean a comaptibilty issue for me regarding pcie (or is there some super equivalant pcie soundcard i need to be looking at?)

the other issue is do I buy from a company like millenium (which I did by a p3 500mhz system a long time ago for £2200 which I never really think was worth the money, it was a long time ago thou) or do I settle for a novatech.co.uk hi-spec system which will be about £300 cheaper and probably just as good if not better

currently in the middle of an important project and very frustrated I cant finish it, can you tell???

p.s. am I in the wrong forum section?

Post by **garyb** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:34 pm

if you are getting a new processor/mobo, intel core2 w/ an intel d965lt or d965ry is the best performing combo i've dealt with.

i'll bet your problem is the power supply........

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:00 am

I've just fitted a 500 watt power supply and everything is currently on.

But my monitors won't kick in and display, it just says "no signal present"

any ideas to try to get the monitors on?

thanks

petal · Post by **petal** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:18 am

Have you tried a different graphics card?

Also are you sure your windows installation is not infected with virus?

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:27 am

it shouldn't be infected as its nots connected to the internet and I haven't installed much apart from loading on more samples lately

tried 2 graphics cards

the power issue seems to be ok now ive fitted the new power supply, could my mobo be partially dead? hope not.....

petal · Post by **petal** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:31 am

Well, it doesn't leave much else that can be broken, besides a complete reinstallation of Windows

Also try to remove everything from the computer, and test a complete basic setup.

If it still doesn't work, maybe it's time to let it rest in peace. Do a search here on planetZ, there are loads of posts about which systems works and which doesn't - or you can just take GaryB's advice, I'm sure it's a good one.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out for you

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:38 am

I can't re-install windows with no display

I am frantically looking for someone with the same symptons but no joy.

Basically the display monitors will not display anything they just say "no signal present"

tried 2 graphics cards both acting the same

monitors are brand new practically

---------------------------------------------------------

for some strange reason my display monitor is coming on now??????wtf
wierd I know.

but now i'm getting overclocking failed on the start up screen, even though I know for a fact my processor is running at normal speed

oh my god wat next, this is driving me insane

petal · Post by **petal** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:15 am

From here it sounds like your computer is dead and gone, but It's impossible to give you an exact prognosis on long distance.

You need a person who knows hes way around computers to have a look at your system.

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:29 am

Well believe it or not, the display is working now perfectly
well wierd, why are pcs so inconsistent?

anyway had to re-install all my mobo drivers for some reason, testing the system now, i'll be back with a report, on whether its survived or gonna be replaced

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:30 am

well I should have known...
PC back up and running, everything seems fine
then I open Cubase start playing a project and then....TOTAL SHUT DOWN AGAIN

argghh

what is up with the pesky thing, why is it doing that
now im back 2 square one, keeps shutting down.....

arggghhh is my motherboard dead

petal · Post by **petal** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:40 am

Hmmm...

Check that all boards are seated correctly and that all connections are clean for good connection.

Also check that the cooling of the CPU is working as it is supposed to. This behavior sounds like a CPU thats being getting hot. The fact that a heavy load on the CPU causes the pc to shut down supports this theory.
The same goes for the chipset.

Good luck!

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:14 pm

All boards seem to be seated correctly.

Processor temperature is running between 75% and 85% celcius
whats the best way to bring the temp down without installing a new cooling system

cpu fan speed 3500rpm

(p.s. I have already changed the cpu fan speed to higher)

petal · Post by **petal** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:47 pm

First you have to check if the CPU's tempurature is within working limits for that exact CPU. This varies a lot from CPU to CPU.

Next step could be to simply remove the cooling unit, clean the old colling paste away from the cpu and the cooling zink with tissue (don't use alcohol etc.) and reattach the cooling unit using new coolingpaste. This step can be a bit difficult, and if you are unlucky you could ruin your MB or CPU or both, especially if you havn't tried it before.

If this still doesn't do the trick, you'll have to buy a better Cooling unit.

But then again, there's no garuantee that this is actually your problem.

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:48 pm

Ok so I took the cooling unit out, cleaned off about 3 sinks full of dust using dry tissues and cotton buds.

replaced the unit back onto the processor and my cpu temperature is back down to 40 celcius

(should've done that a long time ago, didnt realise it was that caked in dust)

anyway so got PC currently booting up, but when I restart the computer, display monitors will not come back on, so I have to switch the tower off.

when I fire it up, the initial bios screen says "overclocking failed"

whats it on about??? i've checked the overclocking bit in the bios and its set to standard, not (overclock 5, 10% 20% etc)

just about to install an antivirus, just in case one has got in the system somehow (the pc in question is never connected to the internet)

I'm sure I used to have another admin pc that used to do the monitor don't come back on when restart? anyone else experienced this?

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:15 pm

mrvinyl wrote:just about to install an antivirus, just in case one has got in the system somehow (the pc in question is never connected to the internet)

did the virus scan and no virus's

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:46 pm

check this link about broken capacitors if something applies to your system

cheers, Tom

Post by **garyb** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:50 pm

don't panic.
these messages are normal after the trauma you and the machine have been through. it's possible that the hardware may really be damaged by the excess heat. more likely, everything just needs a proper reset.

unplug the power, turn it on and off, wait, plug the power back in and restart. a time or two and it will likely work. if not, you have an excuse to buy more gear. please don't be angry with the machine though. what probably happened is that the power supply was full of dust, making it overheat and fail, this is not good for the rest of the system. worse, the cpu was full of dust and ran hot. bad power and heat, two things that are fatal. i don't mean to be negative, it's just life. hopefully, it will still work.

one thing thast puzzles me, you have the monitor giving you post error messages and you can see the bios and you were able to reload your motherboard drivers, and yet you still talk about not having anything going to the screen(no signal message). which and when is it? just to be on the safe side, if you have access to another video card, you might try another and see if you get better behavior with it, if you are continuing to get "no signal" every other boot. if the monitor works after boot until the loading of windows, then you probably have a scrambled os and should reinstall over the top of the old install. my guess is that you no longer get that messsage and in that case i'd say, "yes", that kind of behavior would be normal after a catastrophic power supply failure.

mrvinyl · Post by **mrvinyl** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 4:06 am

Thanks Gary,

After a good nights sleep, I went into the studio this morning and fired up this problematic PC. on first boot the monitors did not display, but the tower is on...

So I turn off the machine, wait for a few secs then fire it up again
this is when I get the overclocking message (by the way I only get the overclocking message after when the monitors wont display and I have to hold my finger on power button to turn the tower off then boot up again this is when the error message is there)

I have 2 options F1 for bios set up or F2 load system defaults
I have tried both many occasions

I have tried a different graphics card and this seems to act very similar (no signal present) sometimes and sometimes booting up ok

check list so far

cleaned cpu fan and heatsink, got temperature back down to normalish
installed new 500w power supply
full virus scan
loaded default bios
taken out boards so its down to just memory mouse/keyboard/graphics cards

I think i'll now try and install windows over the top see what happens
should I take the motherboard battery out to reset things?

its a jumperless asus p4p800 with p4 hyperthread (tried enabling and disabling hyperthread)

and if I do a restart when windows is running the monitors never come back on after the reboot I have to hold finger on power button and start again to get the monitors to come on

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:30 am

mrvinyl wrote:...
So I turn off the machine, wait for a few secs then fire it up again
this is when I get the overclocking message (by the way I only get the overclocking message after when the monitors wont display and I have to hold my finger on power button to turn the tower off then boot up again this is when the error message is there)...

well, that seems to be an Asus bios feature - I have a similiar message on my TUSL-2c when the machine needed a hardware (power-cycle) reset.
It always mentions a wrong clockrate for the CPU though no visible changes in bios. F10 (save) exit does it for me then.

Btw there is gear that indeed needs a full power cycle to get rid of erroneous settings. Not sure if it applies to (any, most?) recent devices, but the old TDAT16 and the Korg 1212 definetely wanted it.

cheers, Tom