Major PC Meltdown - Out of Commission

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:08 am

Well guys I had a major PC meltdown, and I'm out of commission for the foreseeable future. Not sure if it's my motherboard, vid card, OS, or what, but it's probably gonna cost some money I don't have right now. I'm using an old pc now that can't even run A&A and is missing all my important software.

That means no gaming or working/fixing site for awhile now. I have several hard drives, but they all still have important stuff on them so i cant try a complete re-install til i can get a new drive. I will work on it more today, but not real hopeful that it's fixable under my current situation.

This is what is happening:

Left to run errands, pc was working fine, shut it down. When I returned my monitor wouldnt display at all when i booted up. PC made an error tone when starting, like it would if you have a keyboard error (cat sitting on keys or something) Tried different keyboard and mouse, same... Tried no keyboard mouse, same... Tried on board video and removed vid card, and was able to get in, but it didnt recognize alot of my hardware/devices and was trying to reinstall them all.

In device manager, my VIA CPU to AGP controller stated it didnt have enuff resources to run. I reinstalled that and at least in device manager it appears to function. Put my vid card back in and tried, and I was back where i started....

Was there a windows update yesterday????

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:38 am

As a matter of fact there was. I booted up the home PC adn the update prompted, I let it run but the only thing I notices was my net connection ran a little slow, semed to free up later on.

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:42 am

UP date was installed at work, have been getting calls on PCs booting up in the safemode menue, if selecting normal, the PC just boots in a loop. OVer 100 calls this morning on it. Ranging from laptops to desktops. Seems the update was non discrimatory it what it was going to break. these PC are being reimaged.

Dont know if this helps, but good luck.

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:52 am

Did you perhaps notice "RTHDCPL.EXE error" if so KB935448 is the fix. Again we are having some serious issues at work with this update from yesterday.

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 12:44 pm

those bastards.....

i got it running with on-board video in a really crappy resolution. Print so big i can read it from across the room Razz

any time i try to get vid card running I end up with no display at all so hard to know what's happening Sad

the fact there were numerous other oddities makes me think it isnt the card.

i havent had energy this morning to try to get any farther, but gives me something new to look at when im ready Smile

thx

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 1:36 pm

poor spas get it fixed we need u man

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:44 pm

unfortunately looks like i wont be "playing" anything for awhile tho.... my vid card has been pulled in and out about a dozen times today, with no luck. Stuck with "on-board" video for awhile. Everything else seems to be working.... Looking for an old agp card i had laying around to do some more testing, but cant find it of course.....

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:57 pm

what can i do to help . pm me spas

Secretary of Defense Joined: Feb 16, 2007 Posts: 2379

u siad you got a beep when u started up? Possibly a power supply or memory error. Video car dnto getting enough resources.....power supply issue or a motherboard issue cuased by a short of the power supply. ive seen some funky reasons for video cards not working, including a disc drive not functioning on the right setting...anyways i would check otu your power supply be4 anything sounds like a power supply issue.not really sure though

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 8:39 pm

Depends on the beeps (how many) and what sequence

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 8:40 pm

i bought a nice one about 6 months ago, 550w, but i guess it's possible. i will take a look at it. i found my old agp card and gonna do some more testing too.... i did get rid of the beeps after updating some via chipset stuff. maybe it's in bios somewhere still, i've been thru the registry all appears ok..

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 9:59 pm

Damn..not good when your pc fries.

I turn my windows update thingy off so I update my pc MANUALLY every few months. Reason being, if microsoft has an 'update' it might be a wrong fix, then microsoft has to release a patch to fix the 'fix'

Above all else spastic...save your hard drives. You dont want to loose all that good data.

Let us know how it goes with ya PC spastic...looks like something for you to muck about with this weekend?

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:15 pm

your problem sounds like something in relation to incompatible drivers. that would explain the problems with graphics card. try to reinstall default video drivers. that is the only OS problem i can think of. if it is a hardware problem then i think you're on your own. hope this helps. Very Happy

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 9:35 am

well i tried my older agp card, and it booted up right away... Unfortunately, the card worked just about how I remembered it working, like crap....

Very glitchy.... I was able to load up BF2 but it wasnt long before it became unplayable.

looks like I'm gonna need a new AGP card... I'll be out of commision for awhile,.....

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 11:58 am

if its agp that you need then try looking here:http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=318&

or here:http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609639&name=AGP+4X%2f8X

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 6:18 pm

Time to pull out the condoms, them tight plastic shiny pants and wax that arse.

Looks like you'll be having to 'gigalo' a few nights to get some $$ up for that new card.

Fuck, if you love your work so much, we might loose you altogether LOL

On a more serious note...at least you are able to visit the website and talk to us. Whilst you arent gaming, at least you arent off the grid totally.

Major General (MG) Joined: Sept 29, 2005 Posts: 1384

I get those weird shapes in BF2 sometimes. Shutting down the game isnt enough, shutdown comp, wait 15 secs and try again.

Secretary of Defense Joined: Feb 16, 2007 Posts: 2379

that means u need a better graphics card dirty Razz