THREE Dead PC's in one week...

Yeah..thats right, ALL 3 of my gaming rigs are dead for various reasons, I can understand one, even two... but THREE?

The first one was last week, my ol' reliable workhorse, a Mobile 2500+ DFI LP NF-2 that was doing a few benchmark runs at a mere 2.5GHZ just shut down and would not restart. I threw in different power supply and memory, but, no responce...

Fine..so the next day I just dug out my AMD64 3200+ DFI LP and swapped over the X-800 Pro from the other rig, and went back to business as usual...so I thought!

I did something I have done on occasion that has never caused a problem before, I plugged in my 5.1 speakers while it was running, and it shut down instantly!

I didn't bother trying to figure that one out, I knew something got a nice little surge of power and was toast. This one was my fault..I KNOW better than to plug anything in while it's running

So..fine, 2 dead PC's no biggie, I'll just put the ol' NF-4 SLI/4000+ Hot Rod into service as my main rig.

Hell, I had never even played a game on it, figured it was time to see what it could do, all that power was overkill for the games I play realy, I had only used it for Benchmark Racing up till that point.

It was running like a top for a day or so, I was even using it to run Folding@Home all night as I slept.

I came home from work, got online and gamed online for a few hours, and while in the other room making something to eat during a break between round, what I heard sent me flying for cover!

KABANG! for a second I thought it might have been a drive by shooting or something, since I don't live in the best area, but it was the sound of a Capacitor blowing in my PCPOWER & Cooling 510 watt !!!

Well, at least thats what I suspect, I don't have another power supply that will work with PCIE to do any testing, and I was not about too open it up and find out since it's under warranty.

Normally, I would have been realy upset by all this, in fact, I was surprised how calmly I took it all.

See last week (Aug 24) my divorce became final, it had been dragging on for over a year, and had me extremely depressed for so long, I realy thought I would feel worse when it was final.

Oddly enough, for the first time in a long time, I felt "Normal" and was actually quite relieved.

In fact, a few days later, I felt better than I could ever remember feeling over the last few years!

So..am I bummed? a little, but it realy did not "Phase" me too much, If this had happened just a few weeks ago, I would have realy felt despair over it.

I called a friend of mine ($SOLID$ TREEMAN) and he asked me to drop by and look at his PC that was having Spyware issues, and after fixing them, he asked me if I could take his other rig home!
(To hide it from his son...long story)

I was like...Uhh, funny you should ask..I have 3 dead rigs at home, and was just about to see if that old 266 P-1 still worked so I could surf the net!

This rig I am typing on now is nothing special, a basic XP2400+ (Actually it was my first T-Bred CPU in there!) with 512MB of PC2100 and a GF-2 MX200, your basic surfing rig, but with a few basic software and OC tweeks, I was able to get it to play RTCW ET for the most part at 800x600 and all the eye candy off, it lags a bit when the action gets heavy (9FPS at times!)

So..I shall be doing my penance to the OC gods for a while on this, out of curiuosity ran 3DMARk 01 on it and ripped off an amazing 1322 points at stock clocks, and an AMAZING 1592 points with the CPU, Memory and Vid Card tweeked up a bit

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8702175

I am heading down to Digi-Worlds with a car load of busted rigs for an Orgy of troubleshooting, I need to find out what I can RMA, hopefully I won't have to cough up any cash, I was kinda tryin to save up for a 3800+ X-2 for a little Dual Core action, this kinda put a little damper on that plan though

So in conclusion, this was why I was not able to post on my normal day of Sunday, I almost skipped it this week, but I thought It was a story worth sharing.

In the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzinegger... I'll Be Back

Somebody stop that man before he kills again!

Yea I went through a blue period a few months back.
Seems like every time I sat down to PC I ended up formatting the damn things.
Things yes I said things. In just two weeks time
I managed to reformat 6 hard drives from 3 diffrent PC's.
Mostly just stupid mistakes that normaly would not have happened.

I am my computer's worst enema.

Damn thats unlucky Necro. Glad you're talking it calmly though!

If only one of my machines went down the pan, id despair, I need them both and I am poor

I suggest you pray to the OC'ing Gods, maybe use something along the lines of this:

My computer, which art in the bedroom,
Hallowed by thy mainframe,
Thy modem on, chat will be done,
Online, in PR heaven,
Give us this day our daily post,
And forgive us our downloads,
As we forgive those who download it to us,
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the Babe Thread,
For thine is the hard drive,
The Power PC, and the Internet,
Forever and ever,

Logged on.

One I could understand - that happens to all of us. Two is unusual but hey, crap happens. Three? Time to throw a virgin into a volcano, or at least into bed. When you get to Digi's just remember that beer and electricity don't mix unless you are building a peltier beer cooling unit.

My favorite method of exorcising evil computer spirits is to strip down nekkid, anoint myself with thermal interface material and dance backwards around the bar-b-que while throwing old mobo's and pci cards on the grill. Add a punch bowl full of Bawls and Vodka, invite some friends over and make a party of it.

Of course, don't be surprised if it rains for forty days and forty nights afterwards.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex Damn thats unlucky Necro. Glad you're talking it calmly though! If only one of my machines went down the pan, id despair, I need them both and I am poor I suggest you pray to the OC'ing Gods, maybe use something along the lines of this: My computer, which art in the bedroom, Hallowed by thy mainframe, Thy modem on, chat will be done, Online, in PR heaven, Give us this day our daily post, And forgive us our downloads, As we forgive those who download it to us, And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from the Babe Thread, For thine is the hard drive, The Power PC, and the Internet, Forever and ever, Logged on.

Ohh thats good + rep from me!
And necro, maybe its time to sell some stuff off? I would imagine now would be as good a tiem as any..

Quote: Originally Posted by AntiM My favorite method of exorcising evil computer spirits is to strip down nekkid, anoint myself with thermal interface material and dance backwards around the bar-b-que while throwing old mobo's and pci cards on the grill. Add a punch bowl full of Bawls and Vodka, invite some friends over and make a party of it. Of course, don't be surprised if it rains for forty days and forty nights afterwards.

WOW! I thought I was the only one who did that! Small world!

$Solid$ no doubt you and Digi will sort out the problem(s).

Shows how mcuh of a crazy overclocker you are, if 3 pc's die on you and you start on the 4th...

Are you sure that the power supply blowing up and the other pc having a power surge or simlar arn't connected?

Necro you have helped me out in the past. I am at college right now but i might be going home for a weekend pretty soon. I have alot of old parts around you can borrow cuz im not using them.

Antec Neo Power 480 W with one PCI E connector
AMD Athlon 2700 XP
AMD Athlon 3000 XP
DFI NFII 400 AL
Aopen AK 77 400 Max mobo
ATI 9600XT
I would say my 9800 AIW but its on loan
Some crappy PC 3200

Whatever you need lemme know. I will see when im going home.

Quote: Originally Posted by kipman725 Shows how mcuh of a crazy overclocker you are, if 3 pc's die on you and you start on the 4th... Are you sure that the power supply blowing up and the other pc having a power surge or simlar arn't connected?

Yeah..I CANNOT leave a system stock, even if it's borrowed...it's a sickness!

I was suspecting maybe the power strip, I will be picking up a new heavy duty one just in case soon.

Seems to be fine with this rig, but it's low power requirements might not be making it work hard.

I love the ideas for "Exorcism" of the Demons sent by the OC gods...I dunno bout the Nekid part though...that could get pretty ugly

Capt. Planet... I may take you up on it if I can't figure things out this wekend at Digi's
Your a true "Blue" friend..thanks for the offer

Oh...and I don't realy drink BA, I kinda left the party scene behind in my late 20's, I think the last time I had a drink was over 6 months ago, but I might end up having a few beers at Stompfest if the mood strikes me!

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro Yeah..I CANNOT leave a system stock, even if it's borrowed...it's a sickness! I was suspecting maybe the power strip, I will be picking up a new heavy duty one just in case soon. Seems to be fine with this rig, but it's low power requirements might not be making it work hard. I love the ideas for "Exorcism" of the Demons sent by the OC gods...I dunno bout the Nekid part though...that could get pretty ugly Capt. Planet... I may take you up on it if I can't figure things out this wekend at Digi's Your a true "Blue" friend..thanks for the offer Oh...and I don't realy drink BA, I kinda left the party scene behind in my late 20's, I think the last time I had a drink was over 6 months ago, but I might end up having a few beers at Stompfest if the mood strikes me!

hmm...that's interesting. was it all plugged into the same electrical connection that killed all 3 systems or were they different parts of the circuit?

Well..you have seen my setup, I have been using this same configuration for months and months without issue, but who knows?

I know I will be changing it up soon, I found a decent corner desk for 80$ and a new heavy duty power strip is a given, I don't realy know what caused the havoc, should grab my volt meter and see what kind of power is coming out of the wall and current power strip.

The Mobile 2500+ I can just write off to being old and OC'd to death, and it has been through numerous hardware configs, it's bound to take it's toll..

I know I killed the 3200+ AMD 64, plugging in speakers to it while it's live shouldn't hurt..but it did.

The SLI 4000+ rig, well, after thinking about it, I have heard that DFI does not recomend using the memory at 3.3v or higher anymore until they can fix an issue.
Up until the other 2 died, it never realy ran as a daily use rig, so..you do the Math

In the immortal words of Marvin the Martian... CLICK HERE

Ya Great, Just got the final parts in to build my 1st 64 bit ,Having my morning coffee b4 i start. Now i am a bit shaky here , Ya the coffee is strong, Damn i would have felt alot better reading this about 2 hrs from now.Well im gonna finish my coffee and do a bit of wimpering, Hoping i don't do a >Necros<

Quote: Originally Posted by michaelwolf59 Ya Great, Just got the final parts in to build my 1st 64 bit ,Having my morning coffee b4 i start. Now i am a bit shaky here , Ya the coffee is strong, Damn i would have felt alot better reading this about 2 hrs from now.Well im gonna finish my coffee and do a bit of wimpering, Hoping i don't do a >Necros<

You better hope you do a Necro...his rigs are tough and run like crazy...and they all gotta die sometime...

Well man ya gotta clear out the old to get the new stuff in there sometime

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro Well..you have seen my setup, I have been using this same configuration for months and months without issue, but who knows? I know I will be changing it up soon, I found a decent corner desk for 80$ and a new heavy duty power strip is a given, I don't realy know what caused the havoc, should grab my volt meter and see what kind of power is coming out of the wall and current power strip. The Mobile 2500+ I can just write off to being old and OC'd to death, and it has been through numerous hardware configs, it's bound to take it's toll.. I know I killed the 3200+ AMD 64, plugging in speakers to it while it's live shouldn't hurt..but it did. The SLI 4000+ rig, well, after thinking about it, I have heard that DFI does not recomend using the memory at 3.3v or higher anymore until they can fix an issue. Up until the other 2 died, it never realy ran as a daily use rig, so..you do the Math In the immortal words of Marvin the Martian... CLICK HERE

Has the though occurred to you that JUST POSSIBLY, it was quite literally overclocked to death? A slow death, but a death nonetheless? (I know, I know, you're thinking...OMG...how dare I say something like that). But, I mean...at least consider it as a possibility?

Ironically enough, I think that the only system that I can overclock right now is my Duron server. *shrug*

Quote: Originally Posted by ZENNZZO You better hope you do a Necro...his rigs are tough and run like crazy...and they all gotta die sometime... Well man ya gotta clear out the old to get the new stuff in there sometime

It's the circle of life. (breaks into song...)

Quote: Originally Posted by alpha754293 Has the though occurred to you that JUST POSSIBLY, it was quite literally overclocked to death? A slow death, but a death nonetheless? (I know, I know, you're thinking...OMG...how dare I say something like that). But, I mean...at least consider it as a possibility? Ironically enough, I think that the only system that I can overclock right now is my Duron server. *shrug*

I conceded the fact the Mobile 2500+ and DFI LP NF-2 have been put through the ringer and beat to within an inch of its life, it was no surprise.

The 3200+ DFI LP NF-3 was not killed due to overclocking..just plugging in speakers while it was running...MY FAULT

The SLI 939 Rig is the one that is somewhat questionable, I suspect it might have been due to running the high memory voltages for long periods of time, something DFI warns against currently...but I would not say it was OC'd to death

It's funny you mention this. My DFI LP2 died I think.

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro I conceded the fact the Mobile 2500+ and DFI LP NF-2 have been put through the ringer and beat to within an inch of its life, it was no surprise. The 3200+ DFI LP NF-3 was not killed due to overclocking..just plugging in speakers while it was running...MY FAULT The SLI 939 Rig is the one that is somewhat questionable, I suspect it might have been due to running the high memory voltages for long periods of time, something DFI warns against currently...but I would not say it was OC'd to death

I wonder how many people would hate me if I were to blackbox their computer systems that records system parameters and stuff, so that way if stuff gets send back for RMA, all I would need to do is tap into the blackbox for operating environment/conditions. Nothing about software or anything like that, but it would store a log of the same kind of information that Motherboard Monitor would read.

It would build a "file" (for lack of better terms at the moment) similar to what would be generated when the command "prtconf -pv" is issued in Solaris. And that it would be updated with new hardware change.

And the only way to clear it would be to plug it into the debugging station. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if people don't know about it.

As much as I hate engineering specifications, there's a reason why we publish them. I guess that the only thing that I can say is "bite the bullet and get yourself another system."

the percentage of systems dying through overclocking dosent make economic sense to have a pricy black box, also intell and amd love overclockers they spend all day pimping there chips ect.