Graphics corruption, occasional hang

[Digital Photography Now]

Hi, I'll try to offer as much info as I can in hope that this problem can be
pinpointed:

This Windows XP Pro PC (32-bit Athlon 3000+, 2x 512MB DDR (iGB total)) used
to run reliably but for no obvious reason it would start to hang a while
after booting. The period between power on and hanging has got shorter and
shorter and been characterised by graphical break up of the screen display,
both in DOS mode and after Windows has booted.

The VGA card originally in the machine was a power-hungry ATI Radeon 9700
All in Wonder and initially I thought that was the culprit as putting in an
older less powerful spare card seemed to fix the problem. I decided to
replace the 9700 with a more power-efficient Asus Radeon A9600XT card and I
thought all was well at first, but the problem wasn't actually cured.

Points worth mentioning:

Although the total RAM fitted is 1GB, I noticed that 256MB seemed to be
missing on the memory count at boot-up. I have tried booting with one and
both memory modules and swapped them around and moved slot positions, but
without much benefit.

The hang can happen in DOS mode prior to Windows booting or in Windows, so
doesn't appear to be OS related. The screen can break up with flashing and
changing pixels or the computer just freezes. Immediate re-booting normally
doesn't work.

I thought it might be a heat problem, but the BIOS reads a CPU temperature
of nothing more than 50C. All the fans in the unit seem to be working and I
have had the side of the case. The PSU is 450W rated.

If there is anything else I can provide to try to solve this problem,
please don't hesitate to ask.

Many thanks!

IB

 

[Dave]

Hi, I'll try to offer as much info as I can in hope that this problem can
be pinpointed:

This Windows XP Pro PC (32-bit Athlon 3000+, 2x 512MB DDR (iGB total))
used to run reliably but for no obvious reason it would start to hang a
while after booting. The period between power on and hanging has got
shorter and shorter and been characterised by graphical break up of the
screen display, both in DOS mode and after Windows has booted.

Electronics components run more efficiently when they are cooler. To me, it
sounds like you have a power supply that is too weak to begin with, but gets
worse the hotter it gets (the longer it is left on) -Dave

 

[JAD]

Hi, I'll try to offer as much info as I can in hope that this problem can be
pinpointed:

This Windows XP Pro PC (32-bit Athlon 3000+, 2x 512MB DDR (iGB total)) used
to run reliably but for no obvious reason it would start to hang a while
after booting. The period between power on and hanging has got shorter and
shorter and been characterised by graphical break up of the screen display,
both in DOS mode and after Windows has booted.

The VGA card originally in the machine was a power-hungry ATI Radeon 9700
All in Wonder and initially I thought that was the culprit as putting in an
older less powerful spare card seemed to fix the problem. I decided to
replace the 9700 with a more power-efficient Asus Radeon A9600XT card and I
thought all was well at first, but the problem wasn't actually cured.

Points worth mentioning:

Although the total RAM fitted is 1GB, I noticed that 256MB seemed to be
missing on the memory count at boot-up. I have tried booting with one and
both memory modules and swapped them around and moved slot positions, but
without much benefit.

this is a problem.

The hang can happen in DOS mode prior to Windows booting or in Windows, so
doesn't appear to be OS related. The screen can break up with flashing and
changing pixels or the computer just freezes. Immediate re-booting normally
doesn't work.

another sign of memory problem

 

[Digital Photography Now]

OK, my other desktop, which runs a Dual Athlon, has a 550W PSU. I will
temporarily fit that to the problem machine and see what happens.

The only thing that bothers me is that the machine that's having problems is
a couple of years old and didn't exhibit a problem last summer.

Will let you know what happens!

IB

 

[Digital Photography Now]

Thanks for that - but wouldn't the problem afflict one or the other, rather
than both modules? The modules are different makes, by the way - and have
worked fine for months before this problem started.

IB

 

[Rod Speed]

Hi, I'll try to offer as much info as I can in hope that this problem
can be pinpointed:

This Windows XP Pro PC (32-bit Athlon 3000+, 2x 512MB DDR (iGB
total)) used to run reliably but for no obvious reason it would start
to hang a while after booting. The period between power on and
hanging has got shorter and shorter and been characterised by
graphical break up of the screen display, both in DOS mode and after
Windows has booted.
The VGA card originally in the machine was a power-hungry ATI Radeon
9700 All in Wonder and initially I thought that was the culprit as
putting in an older less powerful spare card seemed to fix the
problem. I decided to replace the 9700 with a more power-efficient
Asus Radeon A9600XT card and I thought all was well at first, but the
problem wasn't actually cured.

Points worth mentioning:

Although the total RAM fitted is 1GB, I noticed that 256MB seemed to be missing on the
memory count at boot-up.

I'd concentrate on fixing this and see if it makes
the other problem go away when its fixed.

I have tried booting with one and both memory modules and swapped them around and moved
slot positions, but without much benefit.

What happened with the amount of ram reported tho ?

It should report the correct amount with one of the modules used.

If it doesnt, likely its the memory controller thats developed a problem.

 

[Paul]

Thanks for that - but wouldn't the problem afflict one or the other, rather
than both modules? The modules are different makes, by the way - and have
worked fine for months before this problem started.

IB

Time for memtest86+ from memtest.org . I've had two lots of
RAM go bad, just outside their one year warranty, and maybe
you've had a similar kind of in-service failure.

Paul

 

[Digital Photography Now]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

I decided to swap out the PSU from my other desktop. With the different PSU,
all was well. So a finger pointed at the original PSU. I decided to reinstal
the old PSU (which was a high rated one than I recalled - and not a cheap
make, either) and lo and behold, things are back to normal. I left it
running an ATI Smoothshader demo and a low level virus check this afternoon
and it didn't miss a beat. The mis-reported memory problem has gone away
too. So it remains a mystery... but at least things seem to be back to
normal!

IB