XP Keeps Dying: computer sounds running, but "no signal detected"

all of the above?

"psu? cpu? or my current mobo? "

Yes, all of the above, I'm afraid, have to be suspected.

Before throwing in the towel, remove the old memory and run for a while with the new only, to see what happens. Then place both in and test some more.

Otherwise, the simplest test for now is to watch the temperature with mbm, as I suggested, and set the shutdown temp in BIOS as above also, and wait to see what happens, avoideng your music until your university year is done. You may have to take the computer into a good dealer's shop for tests of the mobo, psu, and cpu when school is out.

I think it's either that or test by substitution yourself, starting with the psu, then the cpu, and finally the mobo. Could be expensive!

 

New infection?

Bissnatch,

Since you are having more trouble, Here's another idea.
Check out the Sasser Worm at:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp

 

sorry PeteC, it seems to have evolved into something uglier!!

after installing motherboard monitor i realised that my mainboard is not the sl-75ERV cause soltek and thi sprogram don't have that listed the erv seems to be known as the sl-75DRV4, despite what my manual says, anyways it gives me a case temp of 55 and a cpu temp of 41 this doe snot deviate when i'm playing winamp.

somehting that's starnge here is the -12v is a -3.9 where in my soltek moniroting program everyhting appears fine. the -5v is 0, is this jst that their program is perhaps not set up 100% correct???

still getting the error, very confused......not sasser worm, i wish it was almost, this is so annoying!!!


------------------edit missed post above pete's---------------
yeha you're right there sparrow i tried alone and together ram wise, i guess i will next substitue psu, and then try mobo and cpu but i mean even an xp format could sort it, sometimes it just gets so messed up............but yeah for now i will wiat till after uni 2 1/2 weeks left.

thankyou.

 

Bissnatch.

Format and reinstall sure beats expensive repairs. Check things out with aida first and let us know what you find.

Then do the format-reinstall after school's out.

 

Hi Bissnatch,

Wondering if it could be resources/drivers (or maybe even a compatibility problem).

You have onboard sound as well as a sound card. For the card to work I think you may have to ensure that that the onboard sound is disabled in the BIOS and the drivers removed in Device Manager, run the (Creative) card's drivers program again, then uninstall and reinstall Winamp.

After that it may still be something like a resource conflict with your LAN, modem etc.

As a test, before formatting or buying more parts I would remove all the added hardware and try running Winamp with just the onboard sound. It would be a shame to format, etc., just to have the same problem again after.

Luck with your studies
Matt

 

hey

i actually found a post on amdmb form another guy with the same board that had the same problem and he said the lan card was causing him trouble
so I think when I have the time I will just experiment with the bare bones ocmponents and then tets from there.

I have made sure the on board sound is disabled again and when I removed my soundblaster card the error still occurred but it look slike the idea of spending more money is not needed which makes me feel better.

everest confirmed my power and voltages were correct within liek 0.1/0.2 volts of what they should be. sounds like i will do a big autopsy and tets next week some time.

 

Just something I noted:

I hope that the CPU temp turns out to be higher than the case (system) temp. It should be impossible for the CPU temp to be lower unless it is water cooled (refigerated?), otherwise something is drastically wrong.

Matt

 

for some reaosn i odn't understand this my cpu temp is around 40 and my case temp a number of diagnoistic tools read around 50-55 but they all have (-) in front of the figure like some voltages do. I don't understand it. but yeah for now i just want MsWord to work!!

STrangely enough Counterstrike still functions too tho, i suspect not a much work will take place as it should.

Thankyou for your time

 

That probably means that the case temperature probes are not connected. The CPU temp sounds good at 40, but to verify that it is reading correctly, you should get some fluctuations, eg. 40 just after startup (idle) and 45 after playing an intensive game. You mention 40 and 41 so it would seem to be correct.

Matt

 

reversed connection?

Fans probably plugged into wrong connectors on mobo.

 

sheeeeeeeee's baaaaaaaccccckkkk!!!

well guys with one exam to go i thought why not take a more thorough look at this problem. i borrowed a psu off a mate and the errors listed earlier in this thread still occurred.

(winamp is still a sure fire way to crash the machine - a test for new configs - but it is happening when gaming now or when it's just had enough)

so i formatted and started a new xp/linspire dual boot and went into xp and still the error occurred whilst playing an mp3, this must be a hardware problem.

hdd, mobo or cpu?? - the temperatures I have been monitoring coudl it be that they are wrong, like what the soltek utility (came with my board) says is everythigns fine at 39 degrees but everest reports this as a case temp. i am thinking coudl this be overheating, but also wouldn't my mobo's temp utility kick in and beep away and shutdown.

any thoughts would be appreciated guys, i don't mind replacing a part but i want it to be the right one now! really only hdd, cpu and mobo are left but they are big money parts!

guys your help is really appreciated, thanks.

p.s. thanks for the tweakUI reccommendation peteC awesome program for shifting around thos edocument folders, if only the **** pc would work!

 

What's your experience?

rehi,

We're going to have to advise you how to troubleshoot hardware, and that requires taking your machine apart and putting it together again. Did you build it in the first place? Who did? We know you can replace memory and cards, but what's your experience with the rest of the machine?

 

Before spending $'s on parts, first I would try resetting the CMOS. You may have to change the BIOS settings back, but test in between each change. Have you identified the motherboard, it will have the model number printed on it? Could try a BIOS upgrade, but you must be CERTAIN of the mobo model. Follow the instructions carefully (and if they have a choice of flash methods, I would use the floppy (DOS) method).

Matt
PS Have a look in Device Manager for any problems (I'm more familiar with Win98). If Windows is installing it's own drivers for the sound card or video find updated drivers for them. If Windows has installed drivers for the onboard audio disable them. Did you install the motherboard chipset drivers? They should be installed straight after installing Windows.

 

hey guys, thanks for interest

hey guys,

to be honest, experience with other parts - pretty novice cards and memory i'm good with but mobos and hdd freak me out!

i think the problem resides in hard drive, cpu or motherboard.

i decided to format my hard drive to ensure it wasn't an OS problem, i have had xp freak out like this before. so i formatted, and on reinstall the problem happened again. like i said i also installed lindows purely to test if xp was like destroyed on my machine. the same crash also occurre din another operating system. so that's tuled out xp.

currently i have borrowed another hard drive off a friend i am going to install that, install xp and then see if the problem occurs again. slowly i wanna eliminate the pieces to this. myself i suspect motherboard. I cleaned off the motherboard and cpu heatsinks (northbridge actively cooled) and temperatures in the bios did drop so they are being properly recorded.

i dunno guys, a walkthrough diagnosing hardware woudl be awesome, one thign i have not done is actually removed the heatsink and looked at the processor, (is it necessary??) but yeah the bracket looks more complicated then the p4 mounting arms!! - - i didn't think it was necessary so haven't bothered yet.

thankyou for your attention

 

phew

that's put my mind at rest for sure.

this hard drive i have borrowed form my friend seems to have been previously use din a raid configuration. i found the xp installer disk kept hanging. i used the mandrake format tool to format the drive in fat32 and the xp disk seems to have no problem now, will see what happens in next few hours.

interesting tho that the cd had problems with that.

thanks pete for your input.

UPDATE---------------------->

installed xp finally on other hard drive and just after the setup the same error/clash/pc death occurred. i guess that comes down to mobo and cpu???

 

Confused?

mattman,

What's the difference between that and entering setup to "use default settings "? I know you need to do that if there's a pwd you need to get around, but what else?

This is the compter, from his first post:
AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Soltek SL-75ERV Mainboard
Nvidia MX 420 GFX Card (if you can call it that)
256MB DDR 2100 RAM

 

specs updated

just thought i should update the system specs.

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Soltek SL-75ERV Mainboard --> Everest reports as the DRV3 (Soltek used some different name system but the board seems to be this)
Nvidia MX 420 GFX Card (if you can call it that)
512MB DDR 2100 RAM
SBLive! 5.1 Card
400w. PSU

I did reset the cmos and have played with all manner of BIOS settings. I am sure it's motherboard or cpu, the strange intermittent cuts out seem to correspond to overheating, but no high temps are reported by software or bios and the mobos burn control doesn't do anything.

I just want to be right c ause i can like not really afford it right now, i personally suspect motherboard not cou, but woudl appreciate thoughts on this. my current configuration has run fine for 2 1/2 years so i don't think it's a conflict or anything somethings probably just died after 24/7 use!

thankyou for help