Re: Severely unstable system
From: Travis King (Anonymous_at_none.com)
Date: 07/08/04
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Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 21:23:02 GMT
The bad:
I'll tell you, my computer's a lemon for the most part. If it's not one
component giving me grief, it's another. This time, it seems to be several
at once. I have to repair my '88 Pontiac 6000 less times than I have to fix
this thing, and also, it's cheaper to fix it than this computer. This
computer drives me nuts. Let's see, I've replaced the memory because it
wasn't enough nor was it running 100% efficient, I've replaced the CPU
because it was partly my fault for chipping it, but it did run, I've
replaced my network card because my other one stopped working to the point
where it only worked some of the time, I've replaced my CD RW drive because
my old Lite On 32x would make my computer freeze up most of the time when
you try to burn, I replaced my case because the paint was chipping away on
it, etc., etc., etc. Moreover, this thing runs hotter than it should. I
also know that my motherboard's got some problems because sometimes the PS/2
ports (both of them simultaneously will quit responding, and yes I've tried
different mice and keyboards - I blame this on Asus because I've had other
ones that were Asus do this to me before)... Now my sound card - read
staticy microphone on this newsgroup. Oh yes, and my case can short out,
yes, can you believe it... a case shorting out? Try plugging a USB cable
into the USB port and once in a while, the temperature display on the front
of the case will go blank.
The good:
The only internal components that are not causing any problems (knock on
wood) are my hard drives and my floppy drive. The only other things that
are running okay are my hardware outside my computer including my printer,
although I had an HP printer that didn't even last 1 year, so I switched to
Canon and what a quality increase. Also, my scanner, keyboard though
flimsy, mouse, microphone - which could be slightly better, and speakers are
great. My Proview monitor has had a few problems here and there, but it
seems that it's snapped out of it. Also, my cheap $130 Olympus D-390
digital camera works fine, although the paint scratches easily and the
screen scratches easily... Needless to say, I've never used a computer
before with this many problems inside and out.
Other computer's I've built:
My grandma's computer runs fine for the most part except it had a restart
problem for a while, but I got that fixed. It's run fine since. My other
grandma's computer ran fine for the most part except the memory wasn't
working as fast as it's capable of, so I ended up 'underclocking' her
processor to get it to work. Her case also shorts out. (The same one as
mine) Finally, probably the best one I've had, my brother's computer.
(He's older than me) His computer is lightning fast and did I mention
stable? Oh yes. The only problem with it was when I built it, the computer
wouldn't detect any of the drives because Asus supplied us with some bad IDE
ribbons because when I used my spare IDE ribbons, it worked just fine.
Conclusion:
I think my main problem is choice of components. I've heard that most Lite
On products don't last a year, but most of them that I've used do, though my
Lite On CD burner was problematic since day one. I've heard Asus is a good
company, and I believe them, but I've had nothing but problems with them.
The most stable one I've used was my grandma's Asus A7V333 with RAID, and it
has the newer revision 2.xx instead of mine with 1.xx. I do think that AMD
is best for the price/performance ratio, but Intel is the slightest bit
better performance wise if you want to spend more money than you should and
get ripped off. I've heard Samsung is a good company, but I've had loads of
problems with them, especially their older optical drives and one of their
memory modules. OCZ is better, but I've heard that OCZ isn't really a
memory manufacturer. Kingston needs some improvement, and they aren't a
memory manufacturer either technically. I've found NVIDIA video cards to be
a little more stable than Ati. My Creative sound card is the only Creative
product that I've had problems with. Out of about 10 hard drives only one
of the ten of them was DOA. (Western Digital) I've used three Maxtors.
The first one didn't last three years before it went out, and it had
detection problems since day one. The second one didn't take any more than
6 months before it started having data loss issues. The third one is still
runnning and has been for a year now.
"Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> wrote in message
news:LQgHc.13294$WX.9214@attbi_s51...
> I tried reinstalling the soundcard drivers and the software, but now I
have
> a new problem with the Surround mixer. I get this error, which I've had
> before, but I don't remember how to fix it. "Devcon32.dll has returned an
> error. Mixer will now exit."
> "Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> wrote in message
> news:wLgHc.30773$JR4.12219@attbi_s54...
> > Yes, I did that. It took me three times to do it. The first time, it
got
> > half of it done and then it closed itself. Second time, the computer
> > restarted itself. (I know that was my fault because I had the processor
> > overclocked more than I should have, so I dropped it down) Third time,
it
> > worked with no viruses found. The third time's the charm I guess. I
did
> > that about three or four days ago.
> > "mickane" <mickane@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:B2257614-FA1C-4AA0-8065-C9F26AA2EA6C@microsoft.com...
> > > also worth trying:
> > >
> > > housecall.antivirus.com (trend-micro's online virus scan)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > "r" wrote:
> > >
> > > > Travis,
> > > >
> > > > Please check Event Viewer (Start - > Settings -> Control Panel - >
> > > > Administrative Tools - > Event Viewer) for possible errors.
> > > >
> > > > Also try this:
> > > >
> > > > Spyware Removal:
> > > > http://www.fixyourwindows.com/windowsxpsolutions.htm
> > > >
> > > > How to optimize Windows XP for the best performance:
> > > > http://www.fixyourwindows.com
> > > >
> > > > Good Luck!
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > "Travis King" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > My computer has been severely unstable the past month. Here's
some
> of
> > the
> > > > > things it's been doing. (I reformatted two weeks ago.) Adobe
> > Photoshop 5.5
> > > > > won't start. It freezes up every time. The iTouch software for
my
> > keyboard
> > > > > fails after it's been running for a few hours, then my shortcuts
on
> my
> > > > > keyboard quit working like the play/pause buttons, volume knob,
etc.
> > You
> > > > > have to restart to fix it. Creative Mixer freezes up when you try
> to
> > start
> > > > > it. Norton Antivirus 2002 says there's an error when trying to
scan
> > for
> > > > > viruses, uninstalled and put in PC Cillin 2000. It keeps updating
> > over and
> > > > > over again (the same update everytime) and when you try to go into
> PC
> > > > > Cillin, it comes up saying that it quit responding and the error
> > reporting
> > > > > thing comes up. Quake III seems slightly jerky during game-play,
> but
> > it
> > > > > never used to. I had the game progress saved, and I had it beat,
> but
> > when I
> > > > > went to play last night, it lost that progress and only showed the
> > progress
> > > > > I made before I played it the last time. It also forgot some of
the
> > > > > settings that I told it. When I restarted the computer yesterday,
> it
> > froze
> > > > > up completely.
> > > > >
> > > > > System specs.
> > > > > Windows XP Home (up-to-date)
> > > > > Asus A7V333 motherboard BIOS 1017 revision 1.xx
> > > > > Kingston HyperX 512MB DDR PC-3000 RAM
> > > > > AMD Athlon XP 2400+ overclocked to 2.2GHz
> > > > > Memorex 52x CD RW drive
> > > > > Lite on 16x DVD drive
> > > > > Panasonic 3 1/2" floppy drive
> > > > > Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM 2MB cache hard drive (C:) 10.8GB
used;
> > 63.6GB
> > > > > free
> > > > > Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache hard drive (D:) 4.66GB
> used;
> > 107GB
> > > > > free
> > > > > Chaintech NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti200 128MB DDR video card with TV out
> > (updated)
> > > > > Creative Soundblaster Live! 5.1
> > > > > Linksys 10/100 network card
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> >
> >
>
>
- Next message: Joe Donaldson: "Newbie question on Partition Magic, Drive Image Pro, Ghost, etc.. on Windows XP."
- Previous message: Carey Frisch [MVP]: "Re: webcam blocked by windows firewall"
- In reply to: Travis King: "Re: Severely unstable system"
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- Reply: Steve Nielsen: "Re: Severely unstable system"
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