SiSoft Sandra broke my PC

[asdfqwertyuiop]

Here's my story - had a Core 2 Duo E6600 + AsRock motherboard, couple of SATA drives, 2GB RAM, and an Antec TruPower 380W power supply.

Upgraded to Vista, and got stability problems (crashes in Vista) due to the onboard graphics on the motherboard. Bought an X1650 Pro, but didn't fix the stability issues

So I went out and purchases Asus P5E-Plus motherboard and 4GB Corsair RAM (prt number approved by Asus).

Fitted all together, and installed Vista.

After havingit working a few days and testing with Orthos (stable), I decided to overclock a little. I didn't change much - the PC wouldn't boot past 360MHz FSB, and wasn't stable at that, so I put it down to 350MHz with 1.45V Vcore. No other changes.

Stable at 350MHz on Orthos.

I tried running the Sisoft burn-in wizard and left it, and the PC had crashed in the morning when I checked it.

Restarted it and it was ok, but the PC rebooted itself a couple of times (in the event log is the error 'Unexpected shutdown at 11:59pm). Since then the PC got worse, and on boot said "Failed overclock". So I set it back to stock, but Vista wouldn't get passed the loading screen, and didn't load in safe mode either.

So I've tried now reinstalling Vista, but it doesn't get past the loading screen in Vista either.

So it seems like I have a hardware problem.

But I don't know what.

What should I investigate?

The only thing odd with my install is that my power supply only has an ATX power connector, and the motherboard ATXv2, so the plug is connected only to the first 20 pins (no second 12V rail). This should work ok. But it's possible this is causing the issues. The power supply should be plenty powerful enough (18A 12V line).

The other possibilities I guess are that I've fried my motherboard, my CPU or my graphics card.

Any suggestions what to do?

 

[stogez]

You said that it fails when reinstalling so obviously the mobo/proc and vid card still work and are probably ok. I would try a bigger PSU first and see if that helps. 380w should be enough but it depends on how efficient the PSU is. Antec has been crap lately
What is the model for the mobo? Its weird that it doesn't have a place for the 12v connector. Even if its only 20 pin there is usualy a place for a separate 4 pin connector.

 

[jpeyton]

Since you already swapped out the motherboard/RAM, I'd see if you can test the system with another PSU. Maybe you got a bum PSU?

For me, the PSU is usually the first or second thing I swap out...I rarely have memory or motherboard issues.

 

[asdfqwertyuiop]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Since you already swapped out the motherboard/RAM, I'd see if you can test the system with another PSU. Maybe you got a bum PSU?

For me, the PSU is usually the first or second thing I swap out...I rarely have memory or motherboard issues.

Sorry, I might not have made it clear.

I originally had a Sempron 2600+ build (about 2 years ago). Using the Antec PSU. Worked fine.
But it was too slow, so I upgraded to Core 2 Duo, new motherboard, same RAM, same PSU

That worked fine for 9 months, but I had minor compatibility issues when I upgraded to Vista a month or so ago (crappy Vista compatibility, poor drivers with the motherboard, not as far as I know, any actual hardware problems)

So I bought new motherboard, new RAM, new video card, but same PSU and CPU.

And now something has broken - it was working fine a couple of days ago but now it won't boot at all.

So I can't really say that I've already switched motherboard and RAM so these must be ok - because I didn't have the same problem before. The problem before was just bad driver support. The problem now is that something is borked.

Something has been damaged. And I don't know what.

The only thing I can say I changed:

My FSB was overclocked to 350MHz
My VCore was up to 1.45V
My DRAM voltage was up to 2.2V (but my RAM is rated at 2.0V-2.3V)

And then I put it through the Sisoft Sandra burn-in, and something has been broken in my PC, as it won't even load the Vista install program now. I just don't know what's wrong.

It's a big pain, because I could end up having to switch out CPU, motherboard, power supply, RAM and graphics card to find out what's wrong.

I had an idea it could be the graphics card (although it's been working fine for 2-3 weeks), because the problem only occurs when Vista gets into graphical mode.

 

[asdfqwertyuiop]

Originally posted by: stogez
You said that it fails when reinstalling so obviously the mobo/proc and vid card still work and are probably ok. I would try a bigger PSU first and see if that helps. 380w should be enough but it depends on how efficient the PSU is. Antec has been crap lately
What is the model for the mobo? Its weird that it doesn't have a place for the 12v connector. Even if its only 20 pin there is usualy a place for a separate 4 pin connector.

It's a Asus P5BE-Plus motherboard (very similar to P5B Deluxe).

The motherboard has a 24-pin connector, plus a 4-pin connector. My 20-pin plug from my PSU is plugged into the frst 20-pins on the 24-pin conector, and the 4-pin to the 4-pin connector.

The PSU is an old one (TruPower 380W), working well for a couple of years.

 

[asdfqwertyuiop]

Looks like a I could have a hard drive failure.

I've checked the POST messages (it doesn't stop for some reason), and I get:

SATA 1: WDC WD4000YR-01PLB0 01.06A01 Ultra DMA Mode-5 S.M.A.R.T. Capable and Status Bad

 

[btcomm1]

Yeah, smart status bad= backup and replace.

 

[JEDIYoda]

again what part did sisoft Sandra play on all this??

 

[IEC]

What kind of voltages are you getting on the +12V rail for the Antec 380W? That seems a tad under-powered for a E6600 + 4GB RAM + X1650 Pro + SATA drives

I'm running a Pentium D 930 + 2GB RAM + X850XT + 2xSATA + 2xOptical + 2xPCI on my Antec True 430W, but I've modified my Antec quite a bit from stock... getting 11.87V on the +12V which is pretty decent with almost no ripple.

 

[asdfqwertyuiop]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
again what part did sisoft Sandra play on all this??

after I ran the Sisoft burn-in program, the PC broke.

 

[tkistre]

The general purpose of burn-in software is to weed out bad parts. When I put together a computer for a customer, I always run burn-in software for minumum 24-48 hours. It puts stress on the system that it should be able to handle, but generally finds defective hardware, so I can replace it before delivering to customer. That way it doesn't fail in their hands and possibly cause negative feelings towards me or my product.

If Si-Sandra somehow caused this to happen, it may have done you a favor, by weeding out that drive before you put something important on it and lost it due to drive failing later.

 

[asdfqwertyuiop]

Originally posted by: tkistre
The general purpose of burn-in software is to weed out bad parts. When I put together a computer for a customer, I always run burn-in software for minumum 24-48 hours. It puts stress on the system that it should be able to handle, but generally finds defective hardware, so I can replace it before delivering to customer. That way it doesn't fail in their hands and possibly cause negative feelings towards me or my product.

If Si-Sandra somehow caused this to happen, it may have done you a favor, by weeding out that drive before you put something important on it and lost it due to drive failing later.

The drive had been in my PC for 15 months. It had important data on it .

Luckily I had it in RAID1 so no great loss.

 

[Boyo]

I still think part of the problem is your PSU, but after the SMART test you may also have HD problems. Back up all your info and prepare to buy a new PSU and HD.

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: asdfqwertyuiop

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
again what part did sisoft Sandra play on all this??

after I ran the Sisoft burn-in program, the PC broke.

after you overclocked...