Hello, and thanks to anyone who can help
I am a former mechanic and aircraft electrician, regardless no expert in PCs. I know about proper RAM, Card seating, wiring correctly, antistatic, driver installing and updating.
I am none-too-clear about firmware upgrades, CMOS clearing, and so I havent done or tried any of that. Seems (For starters) I need a Floppy to do firmware or CMOS clearing or upgrading?
The system has a new, 350w power supply, clean power from the pole outside and has a quality surge supressor, though I did run the Sharp Aquos screen off the same surge supressor, as well as the logitech z-5300e THX system.
This clone has a lot of symptoms, even though new. I will try to break down the issue into the following parts:
1) What was happening before it acted up: a through h,
2) Bizzare symptoms: a through i,
3) What I tried to do to fix it: a through h,
4) What improved the problem: a and b,
1) What was happening before it acted up a through h:
a) I had installed the CD-ROM version of the X-fi, Soudblaster, sound card drivers.
b) I had just tried a real movie (Bruce Almighty) and downloaded the software to play it, though it didnt work, and when uninstalled, it uninstalled.. a bit too quick to believe unless it was an incredibly small program.
c) Started, then changed mind, about installing the supplied hardware DVD-ROM software, in order to see Bruce Almighty and thus ascertain the video pixel-problem as not related to Music Video files on hand.
d) Played a few music videos tossed through home network into the puter (in other words, no risky access to internet from the problem puter). They played and sounded okay, but there was "pixel flashing" near motion on the screen. As a half hour passed, the pixel flashing turned to corrupt dialog boxes, as it moved from the video to the OS, WinXP desktop.
e) Changed video frequency to 85 hz, as specified as advisable by the LCD panel mfr. Changed back after pixellation problem didnt improve.
f) *THIS IS A BIGGIE* I changed the BIOS setting of the Gigabyte K8NSC939 board to "Top Performance" mode. This appears to be the action which changed a display-driver-problem into a ""Motherboard problem"". There is no way I can see (nothing changes) if there is any change when changing OUT OF "Top Performance" mode.
2) Bizzare Symptoms:
a) After the "Top Performance" selection, upon cold startup, BIOS says "Single Channel 64 bit" instead of something like "Dual Channel DDR" as it said previously. The memory testing said "65536k OK" (but there's 2 gig of RAM).
b) (this is not certain) It SEEMS the DVD-ROM, at boot, is reading a CD-ROM (the light flashes such that one thinks there is a CD in it) but there isnt.
c) (uncertain) There are occasionally in the OS times where the PC speaker beeps in response to an action, but perhaps my earlier system has trained my ear to think this is suspicious when it is not
d) The HDD light didnt come on anymore, but after the System Restore gambit, it indeed DID start to work, but intermittently.. but now, again, does not come on at all
e) the "Power" LED used to work... 99 percent certain.. doesnt work at all now, and yes, checked plugin and polarity of both HDD and Power LED many times- and just checked again.
f) Just ONCE it said Disc Error, right before or just after setting BIOS to "Top Performance" mode. I had to reboot to move on.
g) <removed>
h)Seems to lose "lock" on DVI LCD screen during each boot up to windows, but after the aforementioned System Restore, regularly boots in normal mode all the way, slowly, WITH THE SAME MOMENTARY LOSS OF LOCK.
i) After the (only) system restore, now I can play the exact same Music Video and not have pixellation, a clear picture, without the ATI video drivers (catalyst) and without the SB X-fi sound card drivers installed. System plays the video very well, but still the overall OS is a little slow..icons build slowly, for example.
3) What I tried to do to fix it:
a) tinker with Catalyst driver..
b) Remove the THX system from the 110v surge suppressor, disconnect from sound card..
c) Lower resolution of the LCD to 1024 by 768, 60hz..
d) Check all connections on Mobo..
e) Reinstall chipset (nforce3) drivers.. the program does not work anymore, in that only the fan software is accessible. so not possible.
f) Unplug the unecessary IDE drive from system
g) Scandisk (chkdsk) seemed to help somewhat..
h) System Restore: Though all problems are not solved, this DID make the OS bootable all the way through (not just through safe mode) and eliminated the repeated lockups at boot in BIOS after POST.
NOTE: CHKDSK and System restore occurred very nearly the same time period.
4) What improved the problem: a and b,
a) As stated, System restore to pre-ATI drivers (catalyst) made OS fully accessible, but slow
b) Chkdsk seemed to help in that the slowness of the OS (in safe mode or normal) was rectified.
Thanks so much, everyone who can help, I am really grateful, hoping for some clues. Am willing to tear it apart and start over from square one.
Mike
I am a former mechanic and aircraft electrician, regardless no expert in PCs. I know about proper RAM, Card seating, wiring correctly, antistatic, driver installing and updating.
I am none-too-clear about firmware upgrades, CMOS clearing, and so I havent done or tried any of that. Seems (For starters) I need a Floppy to do firmware or CMOS clearing or upgrading?
The system has a new, 350w power supply, clean power from the pole outside and has a quality surge supressor, though I did run the Sharp Aquos screen off the same surge supressor, as well as the logitech z-5300e THX system.
This clone has a lot of symptoms, even though new. I will try to break down the issue into the following parts:
1) What was happening before it acted up: a through h,
2) Bizzare symptoms: a through i,
3) What I tried to do to fix it: a through h,
4) What improved the problem: a and b,
1) What was happening before it acted up a through h:
a) I had installed the CD-ROM version of the X-fi, Soudblaster, sound card drivers.
b) I had just tried a real movie (Bruce Almighty) and downloaded the software to play it, though it didnt work, and when uninstalled, it uninstalled.. a bit too quick to believe unless it was an incredibly small program.
c) Started, then changed mind, about installing the supplied hardware DVD-ROM software, in order to see Bruce Almighty and thus ascertain the video pixel-problem as not related to Music Video files on hand.
d) Played a few music videos tossed through home network into the puter (in other words, no risky access to internet from the problem puter). They played and sounded okay, but there was "pixel flashing" near motion on the screen. As a half hour passed, the pixel flashing turned to corrupt dialog boxes, as it moved from the video to the OS, WinXP desktop.
e) Changed video frequency to 85 hz, as specified as advisable by the LCD panel mfr. Changed back after pixellation problem didnt improve.
f) *THIS IS A BIGGIE* I changed the BIOS setting of the Gigabyte K8NSC939 board to "Top Performance" mode. This appears to be the action which changed a display-driver-problem into a ""Motherboard problem"". There is no way I can see (nothing changes) if there is any change when changing OUT OF "Top Performance" mode.
2) Bizzare Symptoms:
a) After the "Top Performance" selection, upon cold startup, BIOS says "Single Channel 64 bit" instead of something like "Dual Channel DDR" as it said previously. The memory testing said "65536k OK" (but there's 2 gig of RAM).
b) (this is not certain) It SEEMS the DVD-ROM, at boot, is reading a CD-ROM (the light flashes such that one thinks there is a CD in it) but there isnt.
c) (uncertain) There are occasionally in the OS times where the PC speaker beeps in response to an action, but perhaps my earlier system has trained my ear to think this is suspicious when it is not
d) The HDD light didnt come on anymore, but after the System Restore gambit, it indeed DID start to work, but intermittently.. but now, again, does not come on at all
e) the "Power" LED used to work... 99 percent certain.. doesnt work at all now, and yes, checked plugin and polarity of both HDD and Power LED many times- and just checked again.
f) Just ONCE it said Disc Error, right before or just after setting BIOS to "Top Performance" mode. I had to reboot to move on.
g) <removed>
h)Seems to lose "lock" on DVI LCD screen during each boot up to windows, but after the aforementioned System Restore, regularly boots in normal mode all the way, slowly, WITH THE SAME MOMENTARY LOSS OF LOCK.
i) After the (only) system restore, now I can play the exact same Music Video and not have pixellation, a clear picture, without the ATI video drivers (catalyst) and without the SB X-fi sound card drivers installed. System plays the video very well, but still the overall OS is a little slow..icons build slowly, for example.
3) What I tried to do to fix it:
a) tinker with Catalyst driver..
b) Remove the THX system from the 110v surge suppressor, disconnect from sound card..
c) Lower resolution of the LCD to 1024 by 768, 60hz..
d) Check all connections on Mobo..
e) Reinstall chipset (nforce3) drivers.. the program does not work anymore, in that only the fan software is accessible. so not possible.
f) Unplug the unecessary IDE drive from system
g) Scandisk (chkdsk) seemed to help somewhat..
h) System Restore: Though all problems are not solved, this DID make the OS bootable all the way through (not just through safe mode) and eliminated the repeated lockups at boot in BIOS after POST.
NOTE: CHKDSK and System restore occurred very nearly the same time period.
4) What improved the problem: a and b,
a) As stated, System restore to pre-ATI drivers (catalyst) made OS fully accessible, but slow
b) Chkdsk seemed to help in that the slowness of the OS (in safe mode or normal) was rectified.
Thanks so much, everyone who can help, I am really grateful, hoping for some clues. Am willing to tear it apart and start over from square one.
Mike
