Requiring pc vista help.

[Syt]

Change the cables.

May try that.

[Syt]

Buy a Dell.

Oddly, the most reliable, most uncomplaining system I ever had was my previous system, an HP Pavillion. I only kept upgrading the gfx card now and then and was otherwise fine.

[Syt]

Alright, latest update.

1. I replaced the new rig's RAM with the 2x 1GB sticks from my old machine which was in working condition when I exchanged it against the new one. No change.

2. I hooked up my old system's hd after that (has XP installed). BIOS recognizes the drive but will refuse to boot from it (blinking cursor, like the other drives). Trying to run Win setup from disk nets the same result as usual: blue screen, pagefile error.

At this point I'm inclined to consider the interlude of "high end goodness" ended and revert to my old sytem, or to go for cheap low end rig and quit graphics intensive gaming.

See if you can get an RMA on the board from ASUS.  You've had this for less than a year, right?

Half a year. I'll have to check their warranty clauses, and how it relates to my original supplier, and the fact that I added hardware.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Alright, latest update.

1. I replaced the new rig's RAM with the 2x 1GB sticks from my old machine which was in working condition when I exchanged it against the new one. No change.

2. I hooked up my old system's hd after that (has XP installed). BIOS recognizes the drive but will refuse to boot from it (blinking cursor, like the other drives). Trying to run Win setup from disk nets the same result as usual: blue screen, pagefile error.

At this point I'm inclined to consider the interlude of "high end goodness" ended and revert to my old sytem, or to go for cheap low end rig and quit graphics intensive gaming.

See if you can get an RMA on the board from ASUS.  You've had this for less than a year, right?

Half a year. I'll have to check their warranty clauses, and how it relates to my original supplier, and the fact that I added hardware.

I hope they take it back then.  some of them are pissy about things like that.

[Syt]

Well, I already contacted my (independent) trader after the power supply had died (two months after purchase) and they refused to treat it as warranty, because I had modified the rig and opened the case (to install an additional HD). 

I will stay clear of their products in the future, though.

[Syt]

I will put the components of the new system (RAM, hard disks, gfx card into my old system to make sure they work fine there. If they do I guess it's time for a new mainboard.

[grumbler]

Half a year. I'll have to check their warranty clauses, and how it relates to my original supplier, and the fact that I added hardware.

Generally, after 90 days or so, the manufacturer covers the warranty.  Check out their website.  ASUS has some tools that can help you diagnose board problems.

[Gbeagle]

It seems to me like it is a problem with the motherboard. Since ram from a another computer produces the same problem its not ram dimms themselves. Do you have a way of making a boot disc with memtest on it? If memtest is throwing errors then, its probably the memory controller on the motherboard that has the problem (since you know the ram itself is okay). I've had ram that worked fine in other computers throw errors in memtest and have random BSODs on one of my ASUS boards. What fixed it was raising the voltage on the northbridge. Most ASUS motherboard bios I've seen let you do this.

Also if your power supply sucks or is going again when you are drawing a lot of current on a rail the voltage will sag, like when the harddrive motors spool up. So depending what rail the motherboard uses to provide power to the ram, the ram voltage will sag which can cause memory errors. Raising the nominal ram voltage can help with this. One caveat is that the ram will run hotter, and doing that might void the warranty on the ram.

In the end though the motherboard may well just be effectively dead.

[DontSayBanana]

Well, I already contacted my (independent) trader after the power supply had died (two months after purchase) and they refused to treat it as warranty, because I had modified the rig and opened the case (to install an additional HD). 

I will stay clear of their products in the future, though.

Good idea. The case is supposed to be openable, so you can keep dust from accumulating on the mobo and expansion slots; for a company to say that breaches warranty is fishy, at best.

[Syt]

Well, I already contacted my (independent) trader after the power supply had died (two months after purchase) and they refused to treat it as warranty, because I had modified the rig and opened the case (to install an additional HD). 

I will stay clear of their products in the future, though.

Good idea. The case is supposed to be openable, so you can keep dust from accumulating on the mobo and expansion slots; for a company to say that breaches warranty is fishy, at best.

I never owned a computer where this was *not* the case, no matter if it was Fujitsu, HP or custom made.

[Syt]

Half a year. I'll have to check their warranty clauses, and how it relates to my original supplier, and the fact that I added hardware.

Generally, after 90 days or so, the manufacturer covers the warranty.  Check out their website.  ASUS has some tools that can help you diagnose board problems.

Will do.

[Syt]

It seems to me like it is a problem with the motherboard. Since ram from a another computer produces the same problem its not ram dimms themselves. Do you have a way of making a boot disc with memtest on it? If memtest is throwing errors then, its probably the memory controller on the motherboard that has the problem (since you know the ram itself is okay). I've had ram that worked fine in other computers throw errors in memtest and have random BSODs on one of my ASUS boards. What fixed it was raising the voltage on the northbridge. Most ASUS motherboard bios I've seen let you do this.

Also if your power supply sucks or is going again when you are drawing a lot of current on a rail the voltage will sag, like when the harddrive motors spool up. So depending what rail the motherboard uses to provide power to the ram, the ram voltage will sag which can cause memory errors. Raising the nominal ram voltage can help with this. One caveat is that the ram will run hotter, and doing that might void the warranty on the ram.

In the end though the motherboard may well just be effectively dead.

Thanks for the hints. I have a 1000W power supply for my machine these days. Currently I don't get to the point where the HDs do anything, though.

This weekend a friend of mine (IT techie) will come over with some tools to check.

[grumbler]

It seems to me like it is a problem with the motherboard. Since ram from a another computer produces the same problem its not ram dimms themselves. Do you have a way of making a boot disc with memtest on it? If memtest is throwing errors then, its probably the memory controller on the motherboard that has the problem (since you know the ram itself is okay). I've had ram that worked fine in other computers throw errors in memtest and have random BSODs on one of my ASUS boards. What fixed it was raising the voltage on the northbridge. Most ASUS motherboard bios I've seen let you do this.

Also if your power supply sucks or is going again when you are drawing a lot of current on a rail the voltage will sag, like when the harddrive motors spool up. So depending what rail the motherboard uses to provide power to the ram, the ram voltage will sag which can cause memory errors. Raising the nominal ram voltage can help with this. One caveat is that the ram will run hotter, and doing that might void the warranty on the ram.

In the end though the motherboard may well just be effectively dead.

A lot of this is true, but probably not applicable to a situation where the computer worked fine for a while and now quits.

The exception would be the power supply issue, which should be dead easy to test, and which I should have thought of myself.

[Grey Fox]

Have you tried the cables?

[grumbler]

Have you tried the cables?

Kinda hard to get a PC to run without using cables. I daresay he has tried them.