Buff Computer Problems

[Elvtin]

So..
She says that she started her computer and it said "Unmountable Boot Volume"
So she went and got new a HD and put that in.
Got it formated through the windows setup.
Installed windows but it gets to 99% when it's copy'n files then restarts and the installation starts all over.


side note she said the CPU temp was at 170F. So getting some thermal paste to help with that.

Any thoughts?

[Tammarion]

2 things to check - power supply voltage, and memory.

voltage can be checked in the bios, and tools from the mainboard maker

memory can be checked with memtest (doesnt' need os installed)

edit: if you have an extra HD around, switching it in and seeing if it works would be the first thing to try. If not, try the other 2 things 1st before spending any money on new parts you might not need....

[Elvtin]

They got an extra hard drive and tried to format/install windows. It got to the point were it was copying files, got to 99% then restarted. Had to do the whole thing again. Keeps doing that.

[Murrie]

side note she said the CPU temp was at 170F. So getting some thermal paste to help with that.

holy shit thats hot! Talking dangerously hot! If its an Intel thats CPU shutdown hot!
Id look there first - at 170F good mobos will probably try to shut off for protection, much hotter than that and things start melting... And i dont think its a paste issue, more like the heat sink isnt set on correctly or the fan working properly

A CPU should not ever get hotter than 140F (or even close to 140 IMHO) - personally I start to get nervous and look for problems around 110F... My prior CPU a AMD XP2200 ran about 105F under load, and my current AMD64 hardly even cracks 100F

[Murrie]

Buffmomma yes/no??

Is this still right? http://www.legionoflions.com/member.php?u=251

1.76 ghz AMD Athlon XP 2100; GeForce3 Ti200; 1024 Mb DDR Ram; 140 Gb Hard drive

I would put money on the heat issue if its an Athlon XP 2100 - 170f is way too hot for that chip to be running.

[Elvtin]

Uhmm.. I think that is what she's still running. But I'll have to double check with her. :)

[Murrie]

alright, its very likely something is wrong with the cooling on the CPU - fix that and i bet everything will be fine. Pass this on too:

Shut the PC off and dust the heatsink/fan as best as possible-

Check in the BIOS to make sure its running at 1.7 ghz or whatever and didn't accidentally get overclocked or something silly...

If its still running the stock speed, look in the case while its running to make sure the CPU fan is spinning properly and not making weird noise. -


If its clocked correctly, fairly dust free, and the fan is spinning:

-Unplug the Power and leave it off over night or so to be room temperature.
-Open the case and check the CPU heatsink/fan - it should be firmly attached and not move separately from the entire cpu/mobo when fiddled with.
-if it still checks out ok yank the fan/heatsink off (carefully) and check it out
(was the plastic protective cover left on - ive seen it happen) is there thermal paste (no paste is bad, but shouldnt be fatal)
-examine the Chip itself does it look alright? no cracks, scratches or scorch marks?

Clean the bottom of the heat sink and the top of the CPU with rubbing alcohol, apply as per directions new thermal paste (usually a very very fine layer of paste, as in thinner than a sheet of paper) and carefully reseat the entire heatsink/fan dilly back onto the chip. Verify that its all secure and locked into place. (there are diagrams available on various hardware sites if they need a guide)
Put stuff back together and retry...

[Buffmomma]

Hey y'all! No, I'm not back . . .I'm sitting at an internet cafe type place drinking a smoothie =) We burned out our 2100 processor and now are using the 1.3 that we upgraded from. It's an Athlon. We have NO thermal paste on it. . . oops :ooer: anyhow, when we were trying to install setup for windows on the new hard drive it said 99% then went to blue error screen saying um damn i forgot =\ something about irql . .. I'll have to write it down. Elv was helping me run a fix on the hard drive but it seems like whenever it comes to a stopping point and shows a prompt or has a little menu with "choose this" if you pause more than 2-3 seconds without hitting something it automatically goes to a blue screen, usually saying the irql message. if we try starting it up without the xp disk in it gets to the screen where it says windows xp and says "unmountable boot volume" . . . i have no clue since it's starting up at 120 degrees (this is after just turning it on in the morning, power shut off all night) we were hoping it was just the thermal paste. We have taken off the heatsink and checked things out, it's on securely and has been dusted. A friend is sending us some since we don't have any good computer stores in town. So after we get that we'll put it on and try starting it up and see what happens. We just got a nasty call from our landlord about being behind on rent so most of our extra money will have to go there for a while. I am in the process of getting a better job so we'll have extra money in case we do have to replace things like the motherboard etc. We returned the hard drive since we figure that isn't the issue. I miss everyone and tell 'em I'm trying to get back ingame as soon as possible =) I'm hoping after the thermal paste gets here we can run the fix on the hard drive and all will be well. If not I don't know what to do. . . guess i"ll check back here and see what everyone says =) Talk to ya later all and if you think of anything just post here, I'll check back in a few days or so. =) Have a good week!
Buffy ;)

[Andolinni]

yea like someone else said, A. get thermal paste, it's cheap stuff.. personally i always got for the expensive stuff as 5bucks for a cooler CPU goes a looooong ways. get that silver stuff. B. clean off the heatsync... i love it when a buddy says his comp gets too hot, i go over to check it out and their heatsync is fregging caked with dust.

[binder_pellinor]

When you reinstalled windows did you delete all the partition? You can try deleting all the partition and create a new one. That will wipe out everything and start you out fresh.

The IRQL bluescreen usually indicates a device conflict/problem of some sort. You might want to take out any extra cards/hardware that you don't need. All you need is the bare minimum video card. Disconnect any printer, usb, network card, etc and then try reinstalling windows.

[Figtoria]

Then buy yourself an Intel and don't worry anymore.

:cheese:

[Elvtin]

ahaha.. So I was talking to Buff last night on the phone and she was curious about how hot the CPU would be since it had been off for 2 days. So she started it up and it came up as 120. So she decided to see how far it would get load. So she waited and waited and the computer loaded to Windows and appears to be working now.. lol..
So It looks like it's working but I still told her to put on the thermal paste and to make sure that they seat the heatsink/fan on right. :)

[Murrie]

120F is IMHO still way to hot for a chip to be running on startup, and i would consider it hot even under heavy load.

[Elvtin]

OH yah.. totally. =)

[Rooster]

Then buy yourself an Intel and don't worry anymore.

:cheese:You want it to actually catch FIRE!?! holy crap.. if they're having heat issues with that chip, putting an Intel in there will melt it down! (I love one trick ponies, they're so easy to smack down)

Anyway,
the trick to thermal paste is...

High quality (arctic silver) compound
&
Applying it properly

[Rooster]

And use °C instead of °F when dealing with CPU temps... the small variations in °F are too little to worry about.

And many motherboards (both intel & amd) are not very reliable with regards to temperature readouts.