The Devil Is Inside My Computer

[Guest Reimar]

Is it possible that a loose connection or poorly seated component could cause this kind of erratic behaviour?

Maybe?! But not common!

If the MB still has Warranty, I would take the computer to that supplier and let them deal with it!

Cheers.

[meadish_sweetball]

As people have said before, the slurring sound is a known issue and reported in several forums around the net with the ASUS P5K board. I was recently looking for information on motherboards and the P5K was one candidate but that issue put me off it.

If it is gone now it probably means ASUS has fixed the problem with the BIOS update. If it comes back again, I read other threads where people said they had solved it by completely disabling the onboard sound to use a slotted sound card instead. Obviously not an ideal solution though.

[JSixpack]

I do love the way people dont read tposts properly all those people saying check drivers etc as the OP had said that it has also happened with ta clean install of Vista..

But your enjoyment derives merely from the most blissful unawareness that Windows installs only basic generic drivers for most but not all hardware and even those drivers may be quite old and barely working. Mainboards and graphics cards, for example, have their own particular optimized drivers supplied and updated by the vendors. To get the latest ones, compatible with the latest of everything--including Vista itself--you download and install from the 'net. And you fix many an instability issue precisely and most inexpensively that way.

In the OP's case, I think he does have a hardware problem of some kind--could even be the usual cheap power supply--but before I spent money I'd check connections and seatings, update the BIOS, get all the latest drivers and then run the tests. That is, the usual dance.

[Crushdepth]

Just an update on this - it turned out it was a hard disk after all. The computer started crashing out again and after yet-another-blue-screen Vista 'checked online for a solution'. Usually this is an utterly pointless exercise that generates insulting results like 'Check the vendors website. Was this solution helpful?', but this time, it was actually useful.

What it said was that this particular problem could be the result of a failing hard drive, and suggested that I run check disk and look through the system log for relevant error reports (51 and 55), which I did. Sure enough many problems were found and there was a 55 error in the log, with some additional notes saying the file structure on the disk was corrupted. Now that the cat was out of the bag, one of the drives owned up and started making nasty clicking noises.

So yesterday (after recovering from a dose of food poisoning!) I went and bought a new Hitachi drive and restored the last working image with Acronis. At last, things seem to be working well. Thanks to everyone for your help.

I think I have bought my last Seagate drive though. I used to think they were good but I've have a few problems with them last couple of years (coincidentally, since they started being labeled as 'made in China', I never had a problem with ones made in Japan).

Edited July 2, 2008 by Crushdepth

[JSixpack]

I went and bought a new Hitachi drive and restored the last working image with Acronis. At last, things seem to be working well.

Tnx for the update. Eventually the cause of a problem will become known one way or the other. I also got a Hitachi about 6 mos ago and it's been great so far--though it could fail tomorrow of course, who knows? The warranty was 5 years, same as Seagate.

[JetsetBkk]

Hands up all those who said "check the error log!"

Didn't think so - neither did I.

[Crushdepth]

I'm kind of embarrassed to say that my computer has resumed bluescreens and randomly turning off, and the new Hitachi is making the same clunking noises. Ok ok, will test the memory now. Then I'm ripping the bloody motherboard out!!

And I take back all the nice things I said about Vista's automatic solution checking being useful!!!

Edited July 3, 2008 by Crushdepth

[awakened]

I'm kind of embarrassed to say that my computer has resumed bluescreens and randomly turning off, and the new Hitachi is making the same clunking noises. Ok ok, will test the memory now. Then I'm ripping the bloody motherboard out!!

And I take back all the nice things I said about Vista's automatic solution checking being useful!!!

Sod's law says when you take the m/c back to the shop and they test it, they will find nothing wrong. It's a pity you don't have another machine to swap out components.

I once had a server corrupting data. Spent days trying to resolve. Great minds came up with a variety of scenarios. All wrong. It was the power cable.

Intermittent probs would be consistent with this. As would the slurring sound and clunking. Smacks of a short draining your voltage. The power cable gets hot. the expansion breaks the circuit, hence sudden loss of power. When the cable cools again, the connection/voltage picks up and away you go again.

Just a hunch.

[Crushdepth]

Yeah I've put off taking it back to the shop for as long as possible, because I know if they can turn it on and wiggle a mouse around they will insist that everything is 'fine'. If it comes to that I'll just buy a new board, I need to get back to doing some real work pretty quickly!

Edit: Memtext86+ just finished its first pass, no errors thus far. Looks like I'll be buying a new board this afternoon!

Edited July 3, 2008 by Crushdepth

[awakened]

Yeah I've put off taking it back to the shop for as long as possible, because I know if they can turn it on and wiggle a mouse around they will insist that everything is 'fine'. If it comes to that I'll just buy a new board, I need to get back to doing some real work pretty quickly!

Edit: Memtext86+ just finished its first pass, no errors thus far. Looks like I'll be buying a new board this afternoon!

PCBs rarely break down when new. Sometimes a screw can be forgotten and the MB doesn't sit properly or memory chips are not fully secured. Or as I feel here, it's a power issue. Does the PC operate normally for a while before starting to fail, first thing in the morning? If so, then it would be consistent with my hunch.

Where it is breaking down is the rub. Remove the UPS from the circuit and re-check the power cable from the m/c to the wall socket. It's not a matter of just plugging it in, seeing the power come on and thinking the cable is ok. If there is a partial short it will take time before it breaks down completely. Swap out the cable. If it's still causing probs, let the shop fix it.

You didn't say if tinkering with it yourself would invalidate any warranty. Replace any seals so no-one can tell.

The other possibility is the power supply unit. Sod's Law aside, the shop have the skills and the parts to do the testing.

I know I'm repeating myself but your response didn't indicate you were going to try it.

Good luck.

[Crushdepth]

I hope this will be the final chapter in this sorry saga. I took the whole shebang down to our regular shop at Pantip and asked them to look at it. They dissasembled/cleaned/tested things and found a problem with the power supply, which they replaced. So, a tentative gold medal to the people who said power :-)

But I won't call it fixed until I've gotten through a few days with no problems!

[JSixpack]

So, a tentative gold medal to the people who said power :-)

We could at most suspect at this distance, but I'm glad I mentioned power.

Now, the power supply could have led to the HD problem too. Lesson here is to spend the extra to get a good power supply like Enermax.