PC failing me...

[jamie.neilson]

PC Problems

If anyone needs any Parts for Computers then I am probably your man...

have a unit of spares P4 Ht memory sticks tv cards graphics cards motherboards whole computers keyboards mice wireless cards wireless keyboards.. all just sitting there gathering dust!

Any assistance needed on a technical basis also!

Jamie

[Keeper of The Kitten]

I'll definitely bear that in mind Jamie!

Running P4 H/T at the moment but any potential spares are not going to be frowned upon. Cheers!

[shark_90]

Although that error points directly to a driver, it could easily be a faulty stick of RAM or a heat problem. And get rid of that USB ADSL modem and buy a router! Those things are the devil!

Hope the computer shop aren't ripping you off by too much.

[Cullam3n]

Like I said run the program called MemTest and let that run for about 24 hours, it will let you know if your memory errors out

And IMO 12gb of RAM is overkill really... anything past 4gb when you are not doing something stupid intensive like rendering 3d complex models will just go to waste.

[shark_90]

Agreed, and unless you're using a 64-bit OS, only 3gb (ish) of it is useable anyway.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Ah yes, 3D modelling - that's one thing I fully intend to be capable of (if I can get Pro Engineer to run on the PC) ....I'll take whatever RAM is possible at a not-too-silly price.

No the PC shop is being very reasonable, just awaiting the results of RAM test to see where we go from there.

I can also believe the heat problem with the PC in question, the components are packed a little too closely I think, a little more space to breathe would have been better.

Funnily enough a friend in Germany also told me to switch to a router, sounds like that's the thing to do then!

Back at work today so I have a halfway decent PC to get online with, but home to 128Mb/550KHz later...

[Cullam3n]

Ah yes, 3D modelling - that's one thing I fully intend to be capable of (if I can get Pro Engineer to run on the PC) ....I'll take whatever RAM is possible at a not-too-silly price.

No the PC shop is being very reasonable, just awaiting the results of RAM test to see where we go from there.

I can also believe the heat problem with the PC in question, the components are packed a little too closely I think, a little more space to breathe would have been better.

Funnily enough a friend in Germany also told me to switch to a router, sounds like that's the thing to do then!

Back at work today so I have a halfway decent PC to get online with, but home to 128Mb/550KHz later...

You can get 2gb (1gb x 2 pair) for not a silly price nowadays. Even with 3d modeling 12gb is still overkill. You will see more improvment with a quad core Core2Quad processor then you will going from 4gb (even 2gb) to 12gb memory.

If you had good airflow (cleaning out the dust may help ) then you shouldn't have to worry too much about components being dangerously close. The front of my case is metal mesh with a foam piece behind it that helps to keep the dirt out. I have a 80mm and a 120mm coming in, and a 92mm and a 120mm going out as well as a few ventilation holes. My last case I modded and put a top fan on but with proper airflow it's not totally necessary. Another thing you want to look at is getting the wires out of the way of the air (big problem on standard OEM computers). I spend ages with zipties to move mine out of the way.

Here's a quick mock up I just did of my computer, only problem with this setup is that the power supply will put out a fair amount of heat when gaming or when the video card is working hard. It keeps my overclocked system fairly cool without the expense of high speed smaller, whinier fans. At the moment it's still something I built at least 2 years ago now, but over half the computer wasn't paid for as I won in competitions or got parts from building other people's computers. Just a XP 64 3200+ (at ~2.5ghz), 2gb OCZ platinum ddr400, 512mb 7950GT (overclocked a fair bit), nforce 4 ultra motherboard, etc etc

[madwolf_Uk]

Thats not a bad setup there, ive got a 120mm in the bottom front position, 120mm in the back mid position and a 120mm same as ures on the power supply. And the useall graphics and CPU fan.

To be honest, under most applications that would be more than enough, im running 4 hard drives, 2 cd roms and at the mo an AMD 3200+ CPU with no heat issues, mind you the case is huge

Nothing is overcloked though, with 1.5 Gb of RAM and a geforce 6600 aslo at present.

Not even going to go into what im building next, buts its water cooled, 5/6 Hard drives 2/4 cd drives and 2 graphics cards, close to 2K worth all in!

[Cullam3n]

Thats not a bad setup there, ive got a 120mm in the bottom front position, 120mm in the back mid position and a 120mm same as ures on the power supply. And the useall graphics and CPU fan.

To be honest, under most applications that would be more than enough, im running 4 hard drives, 2 cd roms and at the mo an AMD 3200+ CPU with no heat issues, mind you the case is huge

Nothing is overcloked though, with 1.5 Gb of RAM and a geforce 6600 aslo at present.

Not even going to go into what im building next, buts its water cooled, 5/6 Hard drives 2/4 cd drives and 2 graphics cards, close to 2K worth all in!

Want to go into watercooling next friend of mine had a koolance kit on his, was pretty cool.

Never was into closed door systems but the Gigabyte Aurora is on my dreamlist, as it has holes already cut out for watercooling Can't really justify getting a Lian-li or Silverstone as they are stupid expensive or Mountainmod-type cases as they are huge and wide.

At the moment I have a Coolermaster Centurion that only cost $55 before shipping (bday gift ) with a window, although I cut another one of plexi as the acrylic standard one had a logo I didn't like and scratched easily

[Greg_S]

worth taking a look at Mik's Site too http://www.bleedinedge.com/cms/ he is the guy that I call on frequently to help with the techie stuff on the site and whom setup the S2forum.com domain and forum when we progressed from the yahoo forums

[jamie.neilson]

This is what you need!

QUAD CORE, 4GB SYSTEM MEMORY 2 X 640MB NVIDIA 8800GTS OC, SATA 1TB OF DATA STORAGE, DVB TV CARD... DIGITAL OUT.. HARMON KARDON SPEAKERS AND SUB AND FINALLY 4 X 22" SAMSUNG SYNC MASTER 225 MONITORS...

WATER COOLED THROUGHOUT

CORDLESS LOGITEC MX5000 BLUETOOTH

RUNNING SABAYON LINUX

I run this at home and the whole setup only cost me £2500, just had to put the puppy together!

I agree with the other guys on RAM even with windows xp and windows 98 running in a virtual machine I still have plenty of ram left...



Keeper of the K***en

If you need a router I have a few just sitting here... will happily send you one just give me your address.... I am assuming you are an adsl user as apposed to a cable modem user.... what ISP are you with?

Jamie

P.S If anyone is wondering why I didn't write his full name thats because I read an amusing thread from a moderator which I'm sure many of you are aware of about posting peoples names!

[Cullam3n]

Nice MX5000 set won the g15 keyboard a few weeks before it came out, still running it well to this day alongside it's faithful mx1000. Had a mx518 at one point but after playing with it side by side with the 1000 I sold the 518, don't regret it one bit

Used to run a dual monitor setup a while back but just haven't felt the need to go back at the moment, although that picture says otherwise

Also like I was telling Gary earlier, the 8800GTs are the better buy right now

[alg]

I think after reading this thread we should stick to car advice. This is a hardware problem so no software will resolve it. Please do not let someone who claims they can fit, let alone utilise 12G RAM make you a computer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[curlyks2]

Nice 4 x 22 setup. Couldn't afford it myself so drooling slightly at the thought of all that display space. Only slightly though since I just don't have desk space for a setup like that.

Back on topic... I've never seen a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL blue screen which didn't end up being a sign of impending component failure. Agree with all the suggestions about MemTest etc to give everything a good workout. Since it's possible it's USB related (from the blue screen) you could try disabling (probably in the BIOS somewhere) all USB interfaces and see what happens. Or do what I do on seeing such messages: sigh deeply and buy parts or new systems.

12GB RAM on a 32 bit operating system is a tad pointless. 32 bit can only "see" up to 4GB (read this and its linked articles for more). Even then, due to some motherboard designs and architectures and Windows reserving space, you might only see 3.2GB (or similar) actually present in Task Manager. It's even worse that this, because for Windows (XP) to allow any program to use over 3GB you need to change a boot option, and the program has to be compiled to then make use of it.

We write and run numerical modelling software at work. A different solution path not withstanding (i.e. a different set of near-solutions was found on the way to the final answer), we see the same answers in the same solve times using 32 bit and 64 bit, and we rarely see models which exceed 1GB, let alone 4GB.

For the record... my home computer is a Core 2 Duo with 2GB, SATA RAID and an nVidia 7600 GT. Since it sits by the side of the desk where I can't see it, the case has no window and nothing inside lights up or glows. Ventilation is provided by a 12cm front intake fan, 8cm exhaust fan together with a 12cm exhaust fan in the power supply. There's also the process and graphics card fans.

Right, I'm off to move house. Back in a week or so.

Ck.

[madwolf_Uk]

4 X 22" SAMSUNG SYNC MASTER 225 MONITORS...

Out of interest, why are you running 4 monitors?

Nice set up, wish i had the space for that, but then could hardly justify it myself either really, for just playing games and browseing lol