Another computer meltdown + lots of updates

[Bugthing]

Hm. Well he's not trolling of course, but I have to disagree on how easy it is to run into similar hardware failures. I put a lot of myths and fables about screwdrivers leaving scratches on the mainboard, cola dripping into PCI slots and static electricity to the test with some older hardware. It's not completely indestructable, but I found it far harder to leavy any damage than I expected. Especially with scratches and static electricity.

 

Running into the same issues again and again that often requires some serious abuse that I don't believe mr Ross is capable of. I think he's just the victim of bad luck. And not nearly getting paid enough for what he does.

[HLPrincess]

Well... it's easy to preach someone having no idea what you're talking about using a tone with no respect at all. That's what I call trolling and trolls piss me off. This is what they mean anyway

[Ross Scott]

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.

Dude, I've been building and repairing PCs for 13 years and have had 3 jobs before as a technician. You seem to be excluding the possibility that I know what I'm doing, plus your tone is kind of condescending. Yes, I have computer problems every now and then. Mechanics also have cars that can break down. The more heavily you use something, the higher your chances are that something eventually goes wrong.

 

Running into the same issues again and again that often requires some serious abuse that I don't believe mr Ross is capable of. I think he's just the victim of bad luck. And not nearly getting paid enough for what he does.

Guys I think there's some misinformation here. I'm not running into the same issues again and again. Here are all the problems I've had with my PC in the past year:

 

Currently: Northbridge heatsink came loose somehow and caused overheating to the chipset. This took a while to diagnose since the symptoms are quite similar to failing RAM and/or PSU, which are much more common.

 

Several weeks ago: I upgraded to Windows 7 from XP and from a 32-bit to a 64-bit OS. I predicted this was going to be an ordeal, and it was. I use maybe 100 different programs regularly in all kinds of things. When you use such an extensive array of programs designed for a specific OS, no one has a 100% smooth transition, ask any business.

 

Last year: My videocard overheated and died during the summer, something that is not unheard of for the G92 series.

 

 

Don't worry about this stuff, I've got it under control. This update was just so people didn't think I was screwing around instead of working on the videos.

[J.C.]

This update was just so people didn't think I was screwing around instead of working on the videos.

And if you had been screwing around instead of working on the videos, that would have been ok too.

 

All of this (the videos, main site, forums) you do using your personal time, out of your own pocket, and for free. People should say "thank you", and go about their business (and, God forbid, maybe donate a couple of bucks for the cause, you freaking leeches!).

[BTGBullseye]

This update was just so people didn't think I was screwing around instead of working on the videos.

And if you had been screwing around instead of working on the videos, that would have been ok too.

 

All of this (the videos, main site, forums) you do using your personal time, out of your own pocket, and for free. People should say "thank you", and go about their business (and, God forbid, maybe donate a couple of bucks for the cause, you freaking leeches!).

Indeed.

[Bugthing]

Ah, well.

[Lux Arbuckle]

Way to be a dong, theriddlen.

 

And if you had been screwing around instead of working on the videos, that would have been ok too.

 

All of this (the videos, main site, forums) you do using your personal time, out of your own pocket, and for free. People should say "thank you", and go about their business (and, God forbid, maybe donate a couple of bucks for the cause, you freaking leeches!).

 

Hear hear. We should make Ross an appreciation quilt.

[Axeldeath]

I'd probably donate if I had some spare money but I literally have no money and wont until at least next February.

[gomorrha]

 

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).

Heh...funny, I have the exact same motherboard and my northbridge is running at 80°C as well. I've been googling for this for a while now and it seems to be pretty common. Must be a design flaw. I think the chipset can handle up to 100°C (worst case), but the high temperatures still concern me (and might be the cause of your problems). I agree with you on the mounting system, it's a joke lol, you shouldn't be able to move the cooler around like that.

One question btw: Since you do a lot of video and audio work on your computer (duh), do you have all 4 memory banks equipped with RAM?

I bought another 4gb kit a while ago, when they were cheap, cause I thought I might need it in the future. However, when I put the 2nd kit in, my computer randomly blue screens or applications fail. Happens mostly when there is heavier load on the system, like when playing games.

I did memory testing on all banks and it didn't come up with any errors. Maybe I wasn't being thorough enough, but I think the RAM itself is fine. Maybe the board doesn't like it when it's fully equipped? I've read about errors like that before. Some boards also tend to undervolt slightly when all memory banks are used, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this one. Things, for some reason, have been working fine for me since I removed 2gb of RAM, so now I'm running on 6 instead of 8 gigs.

Anyways, I hope your northbridge didn't fry itself and that the new cooler will fix the problem. Good luck!

 

If you've had any luck with other motherboard manufacturers, you can let me know.

I was using an Intel system before this one. ASUS P5WDH Deluxe. It was rock stable for me. I would probably get another ASUS if this Gigabyte should bite the dust some day.

[Rosco[CoF]]

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.

 

Ross,

I'm curious as to which Xonar you bought. I have a X-Fi Titanium Fatality card, and while it is an ok card for games it is lacking in multimedia using Windows 7 64bit. I only play games occasionally these days and use the system more as a multimedia pc including bluray and HDTV viewing. There are currently 10 listed at NewEgg and I am considering pulling the X-Fi and getting a Xonar myself. Do you have a link to the particular card you acquired? Is it PCI or PCI-e?

[113]

 

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.

I got a fun story, so up until last year in November I was using an old motherboard from about 2003 when I was changing it to the current one I have it was warped from the heat in my case (it was also in a horribly old case that had bad ventilation, have new one yay!) which I thought was odd because it ran perfectly fine. Another funny thing it also has a small crack in it, currently it is in my dad's tower running perfectly fine despite being warped and having a small crack. Oh one more funny thing my first computer I put together (with my dad which was actually using the old case I just mentioned) it had all new parts in it one day the fans quit for unknown reasons mind you none of the things in there ever got dropped and the only thing I ever really did on it was play a couple games I had at the time on it (and not very long) any way fans quit processor gets fried fun shit.

I got more 'wacky' stories involving my sisters old laptop which was put together poorly by the company the whole series of those laptops where crap (bad HP bad) and the one currently happening to me. =D I think I got my point across in some way though maybe, possibly, hoping so... Wacky things computers can be no?

On topic: Hopefully nothing else in your computer got messed up (or is). o_O

[SirNicholas]

Oh well, while on the subject of weird computers, the peculiarities of mine:

- One (and only one) BIOS-submenu is broken; the BIOS crashes when I try to access it. Even weirder: the rest works fine.

- Within that submenu, however, is a switch to disable CPU-fan-checking which needs to be disabled or the computer will make an alarm beeping sound because it believes the CPU-fan not to be running (it does, don't worry).

- One RAM slot is broken.

- The other 2 slots have to be filled in a specific order: 256Mb first, then the 1Gb bank, or it will give RAM errors beyond the 1Gb range.

- I stuck a GeForce FX 5500 in an AGP 4x slot.

- The PS/2 mouse port failed simultanously with my dad's PC, which is a lot newer.

 

All in all not bad for a computer that I've been using for almost ten years. It also boots up faster than any other computer in our household (about 1~2 minutes).

Theriddlen is not entirely wrong, computers do behave better when you treat them better (http://james.hamsterrepublic.com/technomancy/), but it might also have something to do with upgrading from Windows 98 to XP. But as Ross described himself I doubt he treats his computer worse than I do.

 

Anyway; good luck with your bridge, as you can read, I'm very content with my MSI motherboard.

[BTGBullseye]

Oh well, while on the subject of weird computers, the peculiarities of mine:

- One (and only one) BIOS-submenu is broken; the BIOS crashes when I try to access it. Even weirder: the rest works fine.

- Within that submenu, however, is a switch to disable CPU-fan-checking which needs to be disabled or the computer will make an alarm beeping sound because it believes the CPU-fan not to be running (it does, don't worry).

- One RAM slot is broken.

- The other 2 slots have to be filled in a specific order: 256Mb first, then the 1Gb bank, or it will give RAM errors beyond the 1Gb range.

- I stuck a GeForce FX 5500 in an AGP 4x slot.

- The PS/2 mouse port failed simultanously with my dad's PC, which is a lot newer.

 

All in all not bad for a computer that I've been using for almost ten years. It also boots up faster than any other computer in our household (about 1~2 minutes).

Theriddlen is not entirely wrong, computers do behave better when you treat them better (http://james.hamsterrepublic.com/technomancy/), but it might also have something to do with upgrading from Windows 98 to XP. But as Ross described himself I doubt he treats his computer worse than I do.

 

Anyway; good luck with your bridge, as you can read, I'm very content with my MSI motherboard.

Sounds a lot like my old computers... Have you tried flashing the BIOS?

[SirNicholas]

Oh well, while on the subject of weird computers, the peculiarities of mine:

- One (and only one) BIOS-submenu is broken; the BIOS crashes when I try to access it. Even weirder: the rest works fine.

- Within that submenu, however, is a switch to disable CPU-fan-checking which needs to be disabled or the computer will make an alarm beeping sound because it believes the CPU-fan not to be running (it does, don't worry).

- One RAM slot is broken.

- The other 2 slots have to be filled in a specific order: 256Mb first, then the 1Gb bank, or it will give RAM errors beyond the 1Gb range.

- I stuck a GeForce FX 5500 in an AGP 4x slot.

- The PS/2 mouse port failed simultanously with my dad's PC, which is a lot newer.

 

All in all not bad for a computer that I've been using for almost ten years. It also boots up faster than any other computer in our household (about 1~2 minutes).

Theriddlen is not entirely wrong, computers do behave better when you treat them better (http://james.hamsterrepublic.com/technomancy/), but it might also have something to do with upgrading from Windows 98 to XP. But as Ross described himself I doubt he treats his computer worse than I do.

 

Anyway; good luck with your bridge, as you can read, I'm very content with my MSI motherboard.

Sounds a lot like my old computers... Have you tried flashing the BIOS?

 

I haven't, but I actually like the beeping, combined with the wake up at time, it makes a useful alarm clock plus; the computer is booted up when I get out of bed. (:

And I'm intending to buy a new one anyway.

[BTGBullseye]

And I'm intending to buy a new one anyway.

I would suggest building it yourself. Far less expensive, and far more customizable.

[Ross Scott]

People should say "thank you", and go about their business (and, God forbid, maybe donate a couple of bucks for the cause, you freaking leeches!).

Well I'm happy for donation money, but I don't want people to feel like leeches if they don't contribute anything financially. I'm happy to have an audience, especially long-term people. If people never donate anything, but are still watching my videos years from now, I think that's great.

 

One question btw: Since you do a lot of video and audio work on your computer (duh), do you have all 4 memory banks equipped with RAM?

I did have all 4 banks filled, but once the problem started I went down to 2, with the stability problems still occurring (and with different sticks).

 

"]Ross,

I'm curious as to which Xonar you bought. I have a X-Fi Titanium Fatality card, and while it is an ok card for games it is lacking in multimedia using Windows 7 64bit. I only play games occasionally these days and use the system more as a multimedia pc including bluray and HDTV viewing. There are currently 10 listed at NewEgg and I am considering pulling the X-Fi and getting a Xonar myself. Do you have a link to the particular card you acquired? Is it PCI or PCI-e?

I got the Asus Xonar DX. It's their cheapest PCI-E model, and from reading a lot of reviews, it sounds like the audio difference between this and more expensive models is almost imperceptible. One article had blind listening tests, where listeners could tell the difference between the cheaper models (though not much of one) and the DX, but only one person being able to notice a difference between the DX and more expensive ones. The fact that it solved my recording problem makes it worth it to me alone, but I can absolutely tell the audio difference on songs I'm very familiar with. Don't know how it sounds against the X-Fi, but some users say it has a slightly warmer sound to it.

 

But as Ross described himself I doubt he treats his computer worse than I do.

Well I haven't overclocked anything in about 10 years, try to have adequate cooling on everything, more than ample power supply, and make sure things don't accumulate too much dust, I'm relatively on guard against malware and viruses, and my most important data is backed up on external redundant hard drives.

 

 

 

Update on the computer: The cheap heatsink replacement didn't even have the right peg sizes for mounting it on the Gigabyte motherboard, so I ended up buying a new one. This one is by Asus, is working fine so far, and actually has a different design so that the northbridge heatsink is completely out of the way of the CPU cooler, so there should be no risk of it getting bumped during CPU installation or in the future. I'll get a new post as soon as I can, the next one will be about the sound editing contest.

[SirNicholas]

And I'm intending to buy a new one anyway.

I would suggest building it yourself. Far less expensive, and far more customizable.

 

A friend of mine has his own computer shop, so I'll give him a pile of dosh and let him build one for me, according to my preferences. I haven't built a computer in ages so I don't trust myself with the task of making sure everything fits and won't blow up in my face.

 

Update on the computer: The cheap heatsink replacement didn't even have the right peg sizes for mounting it on the Gigabyte motherboard, so I ended up buying a new one. This one is by Asus, is working fine so far, and actually has a different design so that the northbridge heatsink is completely out of the way of the CPU cooler, so there should be no risk of it getting bumped during CPU installation or in the future. I'll get a new post as soon as I can, the next one will be about the sound editing contest.

 

Good to hear everything's ok now, hope this will last a bit longer.

Looking forward to the next FM and, hopefully soon, a new CP as well. (:

[BTGBullseye]

Update on the computer: The cheap heatsink replacement didn't even have the right peg sizes for mounting it on the Gigabyte motherboard, so I ended up buying a new one. This one is by Asus, is working fine so far, and actually has a different design so that the northbridge heatsink is completely out of the way of the CPU cooler, so there should be no risk of it getting bumped during CPU installation or in the future. I'll get a new post as soon as I can, the next one will be about the sound editing contest.

Glad you're back up and running, even if it did cost you getting another mo-board.

[Rosco[CoF]]

I got the Asus Xonar DX. It's their cheapest PCI-E model, and from reading a lot of reviews, it sounds like the audio difference between this and more expensive models is almost imperceptible. One article had blind listening tests, where listeners could tell the difference between the cheaper models (though not much of one) and the DX, but only one person being able to notice a difference between the DX and more expensive ones. The fact that it solved my recording problem makes it worth it to me alone, but I can absolutely tell the audio difference on songs I'm very familiar with. Don't know how it sounds against the X-Fi, but some users say it has a slightly warmer sound to it.

 

Thank you for the insight on this. Helps me to make a more informed decision on which to get.

[J.C.]

People should say "thank you", and go about their business (and, God forbid, maybe donate a couple of bucks for the cause, you freaking leeches!).

Well I'm happy for donation money, but I don't want people to feel like leeches if they don't contribute anything financially. I'm happy to have an audience, especially long-term people. If people never donate anything, but are still watching my videos years from now, I think that's great.

I know. I was a very annoyed when I posted that. Sorry.