2 PC problems - 1 big, 1 small

Small problem - every time I restart my desktop machine the mouse defaults to the standard pointer speed. I have a Dell WS monitor, so I need it up a little more so I do not have to constantly pick up my mouse and reset it just to get the pointer across the screen. Every time I’ve got to go in control panel and slide it to the right. Not a big deal, but annoying.

Big, scary problem - last night while watching a TED video my PC just stopped, as if the power had been cut. I wasn’t doing anything other than watching a local video file. I check cord connections, retry, but nothing. The machine won’t even POST. I cycle the power on the back of the case, check my surge protecting, take off the side panel to clean the air intake and check interior connections and everything looks OK. I then try the power one more time and surprisingly it starts with no problem. However, 90 minutes later I’m just streaming some audio via Pandora and the exact same thing happens. This morning, I wake up and it power-ups up just fine.

This has got to be heat related, right? It wouldn’t be the power supply, would it? I wasn’t doing anything CPU intensive other than running some basic multimedia. If the CPU were to go, wouldn’t than be an all-or-nothing scenario? I’ve fried a CPU in the past, but it would never have this irregular usage I’m experiencing.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

-Jim

I would say it’s definitely heat related and maybe something as simple as a fan failure somewhere in the case. Pop the side cover off and point a desk fan into it, then run some intensive stuff for a bit. If you can’t replicate the problem with over-the-top cooling like that, then it’s clearly heat related somehow or other.

For software settings make sure your group policy isn’t changing them on login.

For hardware lockups heat related… well, get rid of the heat. If you can’t post then you aren’t even getting power to the bios, and your power supply is shutting off so that your house doesn’t burn down.

Thanks, guys. I’ll probably replace the fans this afternoon to see if that helps.

On a related note, I’ve been chasing down a CPU overtemp problem on my production system. The overtemp alarm only kicks in at weird times (like the character creation screen in Neverwinter Nights 2!)

But it was consistently idling at 55-60. (This is a Core 2 Extreme QX6850.) I’ve been running at the stock 3.0GHz on an Asus Maximum Extreme board (X38 chipset) with a Scythe Ninja cooler and Arctic Cooling PWM fan.

At first, I thought the cooler wasn’t set right, but resetting it multiple times didn’t fix it. Then I noticed a BIOS update for the board that was supposed to change the CPU temperature detection algorithm. After installing that, the idle temps got higher.

Then I noticed I was running my CPU voltage at 1.5v, which is pretty high. Then I remembered that I’d swapped in the QX6850 after I needed to pull out a 45nm Penryn CPU, which had been running overclocked. I reset the voltage to default, and now I’m idling at 38 degrees C.

Moral of the story: if you change anything as substantial as a CPU, make sure you start your system at a known good state.

Thanks, Loyd. I do have one other quick question. I’m trying to figure out acceptable temperature range for my chip. I’ve got an Athlon 64 Dual Core 3800+ running at 2Ghz on an ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe. Sandra tells me that my board temperature is 36 C and my chip temp is 34 C and my case tells me that my fan is running at 90% and about 1500 rpms. No idea about my chip fan, though.

All of that seems well within normal ranges, right?

As far as the shutdowns, I agree that it may be heat-related, but maybe not in the same way the other posters described. Some Dell laptops (including the one I use at work) are known to shut down unexpectedly, and the speculation is that there are one or more weak solder points on the mobo. I guess it’s similar to the theory about the 360’s RROD.

Those temps are nice and low.

If it’s not heat, it could be a failing power supply. I had shutdowns like that when I had an Enermax power supply go belly up. Once the PS started to get warm, it would die.

I second what Denny said. Those temps are fine – so it may be your PSU is finally going south.

Yeah, I think you guys are right. The PC has been working fine all weekend, except for these occasional and seemingly arbitrary shutdowns. And considering the machine won’t post for a few minutes, but runs for hours once it’s been turned on after a few minutes, leads me to believe it is heat-related with the power supply, or perhaps dirty power.

I’ve never had my PSU die on me before, so looking at mine I notice that it has a sizable fan on the underside that is not moving. Now, because it’s on the underside, I haven’t the first clue if the fan has ever been working at all (I’ve had this case and PSU for about a year now) because the case fan itself is pretty loud and probably drowned out any noise made by this fan.

So my next question is, does the power supply fan have a setting at all? Is it somehow possible that it’s been set to off in the bios? I’ve looked through Sandra it is doesn’t give me a whole lot of information about my power system.

I’m going to start surfing Newegg to see what a new PSU will cost. Thanks again, guys.

We should hook our power supplies up in parallel. Or was that in series?

Some PSUs have a cable that can connect to a motherboard fan header to allow the MB to control the speed of the fan. But generally those will just run the fan at full if that’s disconnected. Sounds like it may have gone south.

Fans are pretty important, alas. My 8800 GTS 640MB suddenly started getting a 3000 on 3DMark06 – turned out the fan had died.

On the power supply front, Seasonic and Corsair are good choices. I had a high-end Enermax, with a 3-year warranty, die on me. Even though it had only been manufactured for two years, they wouldn’t fix it because I didn’t have the receipt. So they’re on my “not-recommended” list.

Thanks, Denny. I’m not sure if my board has a fan header, but after talking to a couple of guys here at work, they tell me this sounds like a classic case of the PSU shutting down to cover its own ass because that fan has decided to stop working. A quick trip to NewEgg resulted in this, so that’s what’s on the way. The two guys I know here both have Rosewill and give it thumbs up, so given that it has positive reviews and I only need 550W, I’m hoping that I can have a more stable system Wednesday night.

Thanks again, guys!