need serious help with a gaming rig
so my friend bought this pc at futureshop while i was out last summer, said he wanted to game with it. that means he's had it for more than 6 months. it was this pc a hp rebranded compaq with the model number sr5152nx. it had an onboard video but also had a pcie for expansion.
Product number
GC666AA
Introduction date
27-Apr-2007
Country/region sold in:
US
Canada
Hardware
Base processor
Athlon 64 X2 (B) 4000+ 2.1 GHz (65W)
2000 MT/s (mega transfers/second)
Socket AM2
Chipset
GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Motherboard
Manufacturer: Asus
Motherboard Name: M2N68-LA
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Ivy-GL6
Memory
Component Attributes
Memory Installed 2 GB
Maximum allowed 4 GB* (2 x 2 GB)
*Actual available memory may be less
Speed supported PC2-5300 MB/sec
Type 240 pin, DDR2 SDRAM
Hard drive
250 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec)
7200 rpm
16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe SATA drive
Must use Double-Layer media discs in order to take advantage of the DL technology
Must use LightScribe-enabled media discs and supporting software in order to take advantage of the LightScribe technology
Function Maximum speed
DVD-RAM Up to 12X
DVD-R DL Write Once Up to 8X
DVD+R DL Write Once Up to 8X
DVD+R Write Once Up to 16X
DVD+RW Rewritable Up to 8X
DVD-R Write Once Up to 16X
DVD-RW Rewritable Up to 6X
DVD ROM Read Up to 16X
CD-R Write Once Up to 40X
CD-RW Rewritable Up to 32X
CD-ROM Read Up to 40X
Modem
56K bps data/fax modem
Video Graphics
Integrated graphics
Sound/Audio
High Definition 6-channel audio
ALC 888 chipset
Network (LAN)
Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
Memory card reader
Supports the following cards:
Compact Flash I
Compact Flash II
IBM Microdrive
Secure Digital (SD)
mini-SD
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Reduced size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC)
MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus)
MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile)
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
Memory Stick Duo
Memory Stick Pro Duo
SmartMedia
xD Picture Card (xD = extreme digital)
External I/O ports
I/O ports on the front panel
Port type Quantity
15-in-1 (4 slot) One
USB Two
Headphone One
I/O ports on the back panel
Port type Quantity
PS/2 (keyboard, mouse) Two
VGA One
USB Two
LAN One
Audio (line in, line out, microphone) One
Expansion slots
Slot type Quantity
PCI Two (One available)
PCI Express x16 One (One available)
PCI Express x1 One (One available)
Drive bays
Bay type Quantity
5.25" Two (One available)
3.5" Three (Two available)
Keyboard and mouse
Compaq home professional keyboard
Quebec Keyboard Kit (French Canada only)
Compaq PS/2 ball mouse
upon getting the pc, he told me it kept locking up his games, in any setting even World of Warcraft which was cpu based, it wuold run smoothly, then lock up. it had vista32 on it, and hp doesn't support the downgrade from vista to xp so this made my friend very upset. thats ok, because the mainboard in question is an asus make below:
Manufacturer: Asus
Motherboard Name: M2N68-LA
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Ivy-GL6
and it was based off of the nForce430/6150SE chipset, which i got drivers off the nvidia website.
so he paid me to get him a videocard and a new powersupply. i got him the xfx xxx edition 8600gts (this was last year when the g90/g92 r670/r680 series wern't out yet) and i wiped out his sata hdd (a 250gb seagate sata barracuda 7200.10) and put in a 300gb maxtor pata because if somethign goes wrong i have an ide extractor that can easily make changes to it in case anything goes wrong.
well, i had no problem finding xp drivers, i gave him a clean install of xp, and updated it too with windows update, patched it and everything. i installed the modem drivers, the sound drivers (he has an alc 888 chipset off of realtek which i found the drivers for that too off of realtek.tw), the chipset drivers for the nForce430 SE which i got off of nvidia.com and were dated january 5th 2007 and are whql certified. i got nvidia drivers too off of the nvidia site whql for the xxx edition xfx 8600gts. all in all, newest drivers, whql and everything updated and patched on a clean install.
so, i gave him his computer back AND he reported freezing again. this time at his house i did a check and noticed his cmos battery died. his onboard video card was enabled in the bios and was preventing the xfx pcie from running properly. we went to the store and spent $5 canadian and bought a new cmos battery. i redid all the settings (and switched off the onboard) (there wern't much to toy with anyway in the cmos as this is an oem [strike]as-is[/strike] (sorry) ASUS board). so and then the lockups in world of warcraft stopped, but the freezes moved onto call of duty 4 modern warfare and bioshock.
fustrated, i installed a soundcard maybe it was a bug in the alc onboard sound codec. this time it froze even more.
not sure if i'm missing anything but no matter what, even on vista32 and xp, this computer locks up spontaneously on random.
is there anything i can do?
he has an extended warranty, but it has been over 6 months. i doubt they'd do a refund. a dead cmos battery is definately a bad sign and i'm just stuck. i'm guessing my friend needs a new mainboard and case as this is a microatx. i gave him an antec true power 430watts which should be more than enough for an AMD AM2 dual core 4000+, 2gig of vanilla standard ddr2 ram and a hard drive with the xfx xxx 8600gts pcie videocard. it was still freezing and locking up at that point.
please let me know what i can do, if that is anything at all. keep in mind the random freezing happened with vista and still happens with a fully updated and patched version of xp and proper hardware.
Product number
GC666AA
Introduction date
27-Apr-2007
Country/region sold in:
US
Canada
Hardware
Base processor
Athlon 64 X2 (B) 4000+ 2.1 GHz (65W)
2000 MT/s (mega transfers/second)
Socket AM2
Chipset
GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Motherboard
Manufacturer: Asus
Motherboard Name: M2N68-LA
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Ivy-GL6
Memory
Component Attributes
Memory Installed 2 GB
Maximum allowed 4 GB* (2 x 2 GB)
*Actual available memory may be less
Speed supported PC2-5300 MB/sec
Type 240 pin, DDR2 SDRAM
Hard drive
250 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec)
7200 rpm
16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe SATA drive
Must use Double-Layer media discs in order to take advantage of the DL technology
Must use LightScribe-enabled media discs and supporting software in order to take advantage of the LightScribe technology
Function Maximum speed
DVD-RAM Up to 12X
DVD-R DL Write Once Up to 8X
DVD+R DL Write Once Up to 8X
DVD+R Write Once Up to 16X
DVD+RW Rewritable Up to 8X
DVD-R Write Once Up to 16X
DVD-RW Rewritable Up to 6X
DVD ROM Read Up to 16X
CD-R Write Once Up to 40X
CD-RW Rewritable Up to 32X
CD-ROM Read Up to 40X
Modem
56K bps data/fax modem
Video Graphics
Integrated graphics
Sound/Audio
High Definition 6-channel audio
ALC 888 chipset
Network (LAN)
Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
Memory card reader
Supports the following cards:
Compact Flash I
Compact Flash II
IBM Microdrive
Secure Digital (SD)
mini-SD
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Reduced size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC)
MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus)
MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile)
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
Memory Stick Duo
Memory Stick Pro Duo
SmartMedia
xD Picture Card (xD = extreme digital)
External I/O ports
I/O ports on the front panel
Port type Quantity
15-in-1 (4 slot) One
USB Two
Headphone One
I/O ports on the back panel
Port type Quantity
PS/2 (keyboard, mouse) Two
VGA One
USB Two
LAN One
Audio (line in, line out, microphone) One
Expansion slots
Slot type Quantity
PCI Two (One available)
PCI Express x16 One (One available)
PCI Express x1 One (One available)
Drive bays
Bay type Quantity
5.25" Two (One available)
3.5" Three (Two available)
Keyboard and mouse
Compaq home professional keyboard
Quebec Keyboard Kit (French Canada only)
Compaq PS/2 ball mouse
upon getting the pc, he told me it kept locking up his games, in any setting even World of Warcraft which was cpu based, it wuold run smoothly, then lock up. it had vista32 on it, and hp doesn't support the downgrade from vista to xp so this made my friend very upset. thats ok, because the mainboard in question is an asus make below:
Manufacturer: Asus
Motherboard Name: M2N68-LA
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Ivy-GL6
and it was based off of the nForce430/6150SE chipset, which i got drivers off the nvidia website.
so he paid me to get him a videocard and a new powersupply. i got him the xfx xxx edition 8600gts (this was last year when the g90/g92 r670/r680 series wern't out yet) and i wiped out his sata hdd (a 250gb seagate sata barracuda 7200.10) and put in a 300gb maxtor pata because if somethign goes wrong i have an ide extractor that can easily make changes to it in case anything goes wrong.
well, i had no problem finding xp drivers, i gave him a clean install of xp, and updated it too with windows update, patched it and everything. i installed the modem drivers, the sound drivers (he has an alc 888 chipset off of realtek which i found the drivers for that too off of realtek.tw), the chipset drivers for the nForce430 SE which i got off of nvidia.com and were dated january 5th 2007 and are whql certified. i got nvidia drivers too off of the nvidia site whql for the xxx edition xfx 8600gts. all in all, newest drivers, whql and everything updated and patched on a clean install.
so, i gave him his computer back AND he reported freezing again. this time at his house i did a check and noticed his cmos battery died. his onboard video card was enabled in the bios and was preventing the xfx pcie from running properly. we went to the store and spent $5 canadian and bought a new cmos battery. i redid all the settings (and switched off the onboard) (there wern't much to toy with anyway in the cmos as this is an oem [strike]as-is[/strike] (sorry) ASUS board). so and then the lockups in world of warcraft stopped, but the freezes moved onto call of duty 4 modern warfare and bioshock.
fustrated, i installed a soundcard maybe it was a bug in the alc onboard sound codec. this time it froze even more.
not sure if i'm missing anything but no matter what, even on vista32 and xp, this computer locks up spontaneously on random.
is there anything i can do?
he has an extended warranty, but it has been over 6 months. i doubt they'd do a refund. a dead cmos battery is definately a bad sign and i'm just stuck. i'm guessing my friend needs a new mainboard and case as this is a microatx. i gave him an antec true power 430watts which should be more than enough for an AMD AM2 dual core 4000+, 2gig of vanilla standard ddr2 ram and a hard drive with the xfx xxx 8600gts pcie videocard. it was still freezing and locking up at that point.
please let me know what i can do, if that is anything at all. keep in mind the random freezing happened with vista and still happens with a fully updated and patched version of xp and proper hardware.
0
Comments
it's can't be over heating because there have been days where there was a day or two where my friend has played bioshock max settings from 1pm (when he wakes up) to 1am (past midnight) only stopping to eat and the bathroom with no lockups. then the next day it will lock up 5 times and he'll be pissed off.
Get him to run the computer two or three days with the case side off, then see what happens. I still think the most likely cause of the freezes is GPU overheating.
You might also want to try a Check Disk (thorough) on all hard drive partitions. (I doubt that is the problem, but it should be performed every now and then anyway.)
(I live in Canada).
Mike D just wrapped up his Corsair TX750 review. A very, very nice PSU.
Would it work well with 250w? If not.. can isiea please tell me what ones work with the comp?
But.. to topic creator and anyone else.. I have the same comp (SR5152nx).. how did you get a bigger PSU? Some HP reps told me you can't.. but if so, what type/kind am I looking for? (350w + is good)
Thanks.
Something that large would be a waste of money, IMO. OEM computers like these are very limited in what you can/can't do with them. Provided he's actually interested in BYO, it would be a wasted investment. That said, the price-to-performance of 300-400W power supplies might just make a 400W worth it.
I'm sure you could find someone with an old 350W that would just give it to you for cheap, andrelyn. A 250W will not cut it.
Tis true, but unless he plans to scrap this system when it's done and buy an entire new one, to be able to keep up later if he gets a low wattage power supply now he'll need to upgrade again sooner. Personally I think it's a worthwhile investment if he plans to continually upgrade like myself, but if you're going to do entire rebuids then go for a 300W+
I know what you're getting at, but in this case, it does not apply. Most consumers don't share your thinking on upgrading. To them an upgrade is a new computer entirely.
300? Sure, it will run some computers, but it's a real roll of the dice for any system with more than just modest power needs.
EDIT: looking back on it, 300 does seem very weak, but 350+ (I'm running a "pimped" system on a 350W, although I'm upgrading soon :P) should manage