Another computer meltdown + lots of updates

[Ross Scott]

Hey everyone, I'm having some technical difficulties with my system, you can see the current state of things in the picture below:

 

 

My main system that I do everything on has been unstable for days and I've been spending a LOT of time trying to diagnose what was happening as the errors were varied and very elusive. It will be a few days before everything is back in order as I'm on a backup system at the moment.

 

--- start geeky hardware explanation ---

 

I was having a lot of random restarts and vague blue screen errors, nothing seemingly related to processer or GPU load. All signs suggested that the problem was either with the power supply or RAM, but after days of testing, nothing diagnosed reliably (memtest kept coming up fine, except when the graphics corrupted), it was driving me nuts. What finally DOES seem to be the problem is the northbridge chipset on my motherboard is consistently running way too hot, at over 80 degrees Celcius (the rest of the system temperature is fine though). The heatsink must have come loose from the chip somehow and I'm really not sure how long I've been running it at these temperatures. I've ordered a new chipset heatsink from a local store near me, but it may take them a day or two for it to come in. Assuming the northbridge hasn't been permanently damaged, I should have things back to normal in a day or two. If it IS damaged, I guess I'll have to get a new motherboard. Right now I'm typing this on a secondary system I've built solely for motion capture and it doesn't really seem to be worth the hassle of configuring all my software on another system if this will be down for only a couple days.

 

--- end geeky hardware explanation ---

 

 

 

This has brought things to a halt at the moment, but it shouldn't be for very long. Here's the state of everything I was working on before this happened:

 

SOUND EDITING MINI-CONTEST: I was expecting to have a new post on this up by now, but it will have to wait until I get some more files together and my system operational again.

 

FREEMAN'S MIND: I was planning to get moving on Episode 39 and I think people will be pleased for what I have in mind for it. You'll have to wait longer for the downloadable copy of Episode 38 because the raw video files are sitting inside a gutted computer at the moment (see picture).

 

SOURCE ENGINE BUG: After exhausting all other options, I send Valve an email for the first time about the animation bug I was having in particular regarding demo recording in the Source engine. I received no reply. I then contacted a fan who had emailed me in the past and had some contact with Valve, who referred me to contacting someone else there personally. I then emailed them, then got referred to yet another person, who has looked into the problem and I have just recently heard back from, saying they may have a solution. This gives me some hope for staying on the post-2006 engine.

 

MYSTERY VIDEO / SERIES: After spending some time with the toolset of Dragon Age, I've decided to abandon using this engine for the medieval fantasy video I want to work on. In addition to encountering some difficulties that wouldn't happen to me in Source, I've realized the mapping support just isn't there. I've found maybe 10 custom maps created for Dragon Age, versus some 10,000+ made for the Source engine. My new plan is to do this all in the Source engine, which I think is doable, except I'll need a lot of custom rigged humanoid NPC models with face flexes, which is somewhat of a tall order. I've received a couple very promising offers on this however, so I'm optimistic this video / series will eventually get made.

 

ALTERNATE VIDEO FORMATS: Even though opinion on what format I should use is quite divided, the H.264 codec does seem like the best quality to size option out there, which would steer the format towards either .MP4 or .MKV. I was planning on doing some encoding tests to test compatibility. My goal is to find an encoding option that will work on multiple players without having any framerate drop, rendering errors, or the sound becoming out of sync, even on a system with a botched codec install. So if somebody is using VLC Player, ffdshow, MPC-HC, some nightmarish codec pack, whatever, I want to see if I can come up with encoding settings that will work properly on almost anything.

 

MICROPHONE: This is actually a past issue, but I never made a news post about it. Around the time I was getting fed up with volume clipping issues, I was also getting fed up with driver issues on my old sound card, a Soundblaster Audigy. Since I already wasn't a fan of Creative Labs' policy about fixing their drivers, I decided to go with a soundcard from another company, in my case an Asus Xonar. In addition to the sound quality being perceivably better than my old Audigy, the volume clipping problem I had on my old mic has utterly disappeared on this new soundcard. I'm not exactly sure what aspect of it has made the problem disappear, but I'm just happy it's gone. This means I'm no longer in a rush to get a new microphone, I'll probably look into something again later based on all the suggestions I received.

 

That's it for now, I'll try and catch up on email in the meantime.

[J.C.]

Is that your mouse, next to your keyboard? What kind of unholy contraption are we you using now and more importantly, do you have some sort of cyber implants on your hand?

 

I like the gutted PC look.

[Bugthing]

Take an extra case fan and mount / tape it directly over the bridge, see if it makes a notable difference.

[HLPrincess]

It's photoshopped!

[Ross Scott]

Is that your mouse, next to your keyboard? What kind of unholy contraption are we you using now and more importantly, do you have some sort of cyber implants on your hand?

 

I like the gutted PC look.

It's the Cyborg RAT 7, I bought it after my older mouse was dying because of many rave reviews online. I generally don't like it and plan on selling it actually. The shape isn't as customizable as reviews led to believe, it's generally a bit heavy, and most of all the tracking on it feels quite twitchy and slightly imprecise. I haven't gotten around to boxing it up yet and have just been using it for secondary system.

[Alyxx Thorne]

It doesn't look very comfortable to be honest.

[Oktobermensch]

Ah , the Random Blue Screen of "I'm cooking eggs on my motherboard." Had a similar problem couple of yerars ago. Tried different things, just like Ross, and it came down to the motherboard.

Unfortunately for me the thing just melted because of the temperature and it was a new motherboard for me.

Lets hope that new heatsink will fix things.

[tnt90]

I got a Logitech G5 mouse a couple years ago on newegg for about $50. Works great and definitely have gotten my money worth out of it.

Hmm, not a whole lot else to say, suppose I'll go donate $10 for a new mouse.

[Serva]

...

 

*Stares at provided picture*

 

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...

 

Sorry, I'm not very computer savy. If it doesn't have a baseball bat embedded into the side of it, I won't be seeing any problems. Geeky hardware explanation is complicated too. I got 'blue screen error', but that's about it.

 

Well, I guess it makes no difference. I've got no patients for computers, so I won't try to understand. Computer problems make me spaz out. It's great that you know what the problem is, plus it doesn't seem like it'll take too long to solve. I look forward to Freeman's Mind 39.

[Trickiert]

Dammit Ross why are you so unlucky?

[albert6014]

This picture reminds me of my *normal* room, except that I have more wiring and more tools lying around (plus alot more in drawers)

So get used to it

 

P.S. Get the heart back to your bottom cpu

[BTGBullseye]

I wish I was in your area... I have north/southbridge repair stuff, and experience.

 

I recommend getting some Arctic Silver (or comparable) thermal grease, and not using any included grease that you might get. (Rosewill has a decent one for $6 on Newegg)

[Lord Sinister]

Mysterious PC problems are always annoying. Particularly those that fail to give useful information to work on. Hopefully a new CPU will indeed fix the issue, and hopefully nothing else has been damaged.

[theriddlen]

Yet another computer meltdown? The rule of thumb in continuous problems with computer is that user is the source of all evil. You probably are doing something stupid you didn't think it'd matter, but if other people saw you doing it you'd have so much egg on your face one could slap you with a frying pan and call you and omelet.

 

Examine your habits, Ross. There you shall find the answer.

[icthulu]

I am very sorry about your computer problems, but more so, I need to ask about the elephant in the room...

 

Namely... What in god's name was someone thinking with that wall color. I mean, seriously?! XD

[HLPrincess]

Yet another computer meltdown? The rule of thumb in continuous problems with computer is that user is the source of all evil. You probably are doing something stupid you didn't think it'd matter, but if other people saw you doing it you'd have so much egg on your face one could slap you with a frying pan and call you and omelet.

 

Examine your habits, Ross. There you shall find the answer.

 

 

You want to be really rude or are you a troll??

[Ross Scott]

Dammit Ross why are you so unlucky?

Ah I think my overall luck is pretty good. I mean jesus, Valve says they'll be repairing a bug that's been in place since 2007, that's pretty lucky.

 

I wish I was in your area... I have north/southbridge repair stuff, and experience.

 

I recommend getting some Arctic Silver (or comparable) thermal grease, and not using any included grease that you might get. (Rosewill has a decent one for $6 on Newegg)

Yeah I don't like how flimsy the mounting system seems for this. In general I don't like to spend too much on a custom heatsink for a part that may already be failing, I got burned by that last year on my 8800 GTS. This was a Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 board, it's kind of a shame, since it has the other features I wanted on it (specifically RAID support and ample PCI-E slots). If you've had any luck with other motherboard manufacturers, you can let me know.

 

Mysterious PC problems are always annoying. Particularly those that fail to give useful information to work on. Hopefully a new CPU will indeed fix the issue, and hopefully nothing else has been damaged.

The CPU should be fine, it's the northbridge chip that's maybe screwed. At least I was able to finally diagnose this thing, the symptoms were suggesting the PSU or RAM, but weren't consistent enough to make it either.

 

Yet another computer meltdown? The rule of thumb in continuous problems with computer is that user is the source of all evil. You probably are doing something stupid you didn't think it'd matter, but if other people saw you doing it you'd have so much egg on your face one could slap you with a frying pan and call you and omelet.

 

Examine your habits, Ross. There you shall find the answer.

Come on man, we're talking about a motherboard heatsink that got dislodged somehow, not opening mysterious email attachments. It either got bumped hard in transit and is just now having the problems and/or the build quality on the motherboard was a little shoddy to being with. There's not a lot of wiggle room as to what else would cause that.

[theriddlen]

Yet another computer meltdown? The rule of thumb in continuous problems with computer is that user is the source of all evil. You probably are doing something stupid you didn't think it'd matter, but if other people saw you doing it you'd have so much egg on your face one could slap you with a frying pan and call you and omelet.

 

Examine your habits, Ross. There you shall find the answer.

Come on man, we're talking about a motherboard heatsink that got dislodged somehow, not opening mysterious email attachments. It either got bumped hard in transit and is just now having the problems and/or the build quality on the motherboard was a little shoddy to being with. There's not a lot of wiggle room as to what else would cause that.

 

What I had in mind saying this, is that you may have treated the PC without needed precaution, like dropping it accidentally when moving etc. - and I didn't mean "opening mysterious email attachments", because it's not a problem with software . Also, if you put together the PC yourself, you may be doing something wrong. Next time I recommend you ask someone to do it for you.

[HLPrincess]

Yet another computer meltdown? The rule of thumb in continuous problems with computer is that user is the source of all evil. You probably are doing something stupid you didn't think it'd matter, but if other people saw you doing it you'd have so much egg on your face one could slap you with a frying pan and call you and omelet.

 

Examine your habits, Ross. There you shall find the answer.

Come on man, we're talking about a motherboard heatsink that got dislodged somehow, not opening mysterious email attachments. It either got bumped hard in transit and is just now having the problems and/or the build quality on the motherboard was a little shoddy to being with. There's not a lot of wiggle room as to what else would cause that.

 

What I had in mind saying this, is that you may have treated the PC without needed precaution, like dropping it accidentally when moving etc. - and I didn't mean "opening mysterious email attachments", because it's not a problem with software . Also, if you put together the PC yourself, you may be doing something wrong. Next time I recommend you ask someone to do it for you.

 

Friggin troll.... go feed yourself somewhere else.

[Axeldeath]

I know you're a huge Ross fangirl HLprincess, but everything anti-Ross isn't trolling. Even if I disagree with him personally he has a point.