Hi, Ever since I bought my new GTX260 things have been getting really weird. It refuses to start on the intial 2 PCI-e slots I put them in, I have to use the one near the bottom of the case with the worst airflow. However bit of a "nudge" to the graphics card or my case it some times gets going?! When the Computer starts up the fan slowly spins up as opposed to spinning up right away. I also have to add that when the Graphics card's fan is spinning it sounds as if it isn't receiving a constant supply of power because the fan doesn't sound very smooth. However when I took it to Galaxy to test it front of me it worked perfectly. Now when I'm playing in a game the game will completely freeze up for a split second as if it's about to crash and some times it does a blue screen of screen, although this is rare. (BSOD error: irql_not_less_or_equal) Recently in and out of game I am experiencing my mouse disconnecting and connecting constantly, as if something is interfering with it (in fact whilst typing this message I got the mouse issue twice). I'm sure the mouse isn't dead, I'll test it out with a spare one I have. Here are my system's stats: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86ghz stock, OC'ed to 2.13ghz stable) Asus P5N32-E SLI nForce 680i SLI 2 sticks of Corsair PC2-6400 (400mhz) DDR2 Galaxy 260GTX+ So my questions are: Is my PSU faulty or not powerful enough? Can my GPU somehow be faulty? (I've gone to Galaxy and have them test it in front of me and it was working perfectly). Can my motherboard be at fault? PCI-e slots screwed up? What is going on? This is really frustrating I don't want to shell out money and buy new components when I find out it's just a minor issue or it's actually something else. I would also like to add that this is a new XP install which is only a two months old and I'm going to reinstall my PC with the latest graphics and motherboard drivers Thanks , ou7blaze
I spoke to a clan member about my problem and he gave this response: I've reinstalled my motherboard and graphics drivers and nothing has changed. Mouse still disconnects and connects whenever it feels like it. Anyone have any suggestions at all?
When you get a bluescreen does it tell you which driver is misbehaving? That'd be really helpful. It sounds to me like graphics card troubles - I had a similar problem with my graphics drivers stuttering and crashing, although mine was solved by a reinstall of my graphics drivers.
I'd re-install the latest drivers from safe mode and see what happens, then get another PSU (friends or spare with good wattage) if that fails and see what happens then. It's probably your PSU not being good enough or failing.
I can only remember it being "IRQL" something. The BSOD only comes up for a few seconds and disappears. I wish in the future BSOD actually contained English and not IT jargon so we could actually work out WHAT was malfunctioning and not read some gibberish. I've also reinstalled both my motherboard and graphics card drivers and still no change. I've also plugged in another mouse, same thing happens. I just tried that, same thing. Plus this is a fairly new install of XP. I guess I'll have to use my old PSU and plug it in with only the bare essentials as it only has about 300W, which for today's standards is nothing. I'll do that in a bit and then update. Thanks for the replies so far. EDIT: BTW, if I put in another nVidia based card or change the slots in which I put them in do I have to reinstall the drivers every time? I hope not, so bloody time consuming, bloody PC.
Update, unfortunately I haven't been able to borrow a PSU as none of my friends have a spare one and my old one seems faulty as well so I'd rather not confuse even more by testing with an old faulty PSU. Since I have narrowed the problem down to the CPU and Motherboard are there any specific diagnostic programs I can download to run scans on my system? I have read about the paperclip method to test the PSU. But that seems to tell you if your PSU works or not at all, not if it's possibly faulty like mine.
Just thought i'd add, I had the exact same problems you're experiencing with the same motherboard and graphics card only it had an E6600 as opposed to an E6300, the graphics card was taken from my old system which had previously been working flawlessly so my thoughjt was that the mobo was the issue too. In the end after trying each of the PCI-E slots several times with no luck and constant crashes it just decided to work and has been fine since however I've been scared to remove the graphics card incase it acts up again, absolutely no reason for it to start working and it completely stumped me but you can bet your luck the motherboard is causing the issues in one way or another. *edit* Should have added, during the problematic peroid I installed a working 8800GTS 320 and had the exact same issues as with the GTX 260 which pointed away from the graphics card being the centre of the problem.
Well an update. I managed to fix my mouse. I reinstalled it from the device manager on Windows XP, it's working fine now. Last night I tested my PC with the minimum power consumption ie. PSU connected to only the motherboard, graphics card, hard drive and one case fan. There was no difference, the fan for the graphics card still spins up weirdly at the start. I tried to play the Left 4 Dead 2 demo on Steam for the first time and it's almost like my computer WANTS to crash but doesn't go through with it?! It hangs for a few seconds and then works normally, this only happens in this game, very strange.
Another update. My computer failed a POST (power on self test) this morning and after I reset it it was fine until, it crashed moments later. That was it, computer wouldn't power on. Suspecting it was my power supply which is rated at 500W I replaced it with a 350W one and only connected the PSU to the essentials. The computer wouldn't boot, however with both instances a green light on the motherboard which shows there is power from the PSU was on. What the hell is going on? My computer doesn't even boot anymore but I can't find out what's exactly wrong with it. Are there any ways of testing a motherboard of PSU? Please help, thanks.
Oh sorry my PSU is the Coolermaster iGreen Power 500W. The product no. is RS-500 ASAA I'm going to try the paperclip test on the PSU to test if it's working or not. Is this a good idea? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXzrCr0RLm4 Seems simple if I follow all the steps and make sure I give the PSU some load.
Erm...Sorry can't help much, but sounds like a motherboard PCIe problem - unless you establish a PSU failure. The issues you described once running sound like hardware to me, could be any number of things, my bet would be PSU/motherboard though. To start with can you put back your old GPU, before the 260, or try just 1 stick of ram (then the other). Will a friend let you try your PSU with their system? Or let you try the 260 in their system? Forget drivers just see if the system will POST and load windows. If none of that yields any answers and your comfortable doing it, disassemble the whole system. CPU out and everything disconnected. Inspect for burnt componets and pins then reassemble the basics out of the case (breadboarding). clean and reapply thermal grease for the CPU hsf. Do you have a system speaker, or can get hold of one (you can decode the beeps - if it beeps at all)? Buy/borrow a reliable PSU and try this: Plug in just CPU + 1 stick of ram (nothing else, no HD, no DVD, no GPU should see the CPU fan spin (maybe just for a second) and get a no GPU beep code error (i forget what it is, your motherboard manual, or searching around the internet will help). There will also be codes for a memory error (in which case swap for the other stick of ram and retry) and a CPU error. If you get nothing at all, the motherboard is probably to blame buy new one - return the PSU for a refund while your there. If the CPU+ram works out install the old GPU, if no error replace with the new one, decode the beeps, plug the in HD, monitor etc, attempt to make it into windows. By definition a POST is a pretest of your hardware, so if its not POSTing that is where the problem lies. If in the meantime you make it into windows download coretemp and cpuz and run them in safe mode to monitor the basic CPU/memory numbers and temps. Given other peoples experience with that mobo i would suspect its the problem. Lol! I've been there, still am. Trouble shooting takes a lot of time.
Well I find out the problem to my problem. The power button cable which connects to the motherboard was loose. However now, I'm getting BSODs when playing games some times or using a full 3D application. The error I get is "BAD_POOL_CALLER". But after searching on the internet it seems to suggest I have a driver problem. However this is putting me back at square 1. I also plugged in another mouse and it seems to be faulty on this computer as well. I'm not sure what is broken in my PC. *sigh*
Could a moderator please delete/lock this post as I'd like to start a new post to avoid further confusion since I have a different problem. Thanks.
