strange problems with my PC *LONG READ*

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

ok, so as some of you know… I just went with another gig of ram. But first I should give a background on my machine, as I highly doubt the memory has anything to do with it.

When I unplug my USB steering wheel from my front USB connector, my PC will shut down. No warning or anything… just goes black.

the thing is, I really dont have a front USB port per say… I have it hooked up and hanging out the side of my case (my current case doesnt have a slot to mount the pannel hence having it hanging out the side of the case).

My power supply is also out side of my case… it’s shaped a little wierd and my case interferes with it. So I justh have it sitting next to the box, which isnt a big deal to me (it’s on a hard surface… not on carpet, and the fans arent blocked.)

so… now with that said, I got a Gig of ram … installed it and the PC read it ok (at the computer startup) and went into windows. I logged in and was working in it for around 4 seconds and it reset itself.

So I tired going into safe mode… and the same results… restarted again and this time it would only get to the loading windows XP screen, and reset itself again. Now… remeber what I siad about the USB thing… almost the same shit.

so I thought I’d test each chip and see if one of them was bad or something. Tired each and everyone of them in different combos and not a SINGLE problem. Tried throwing all 3 back in and the resetting thing starts again. I figure that maybe it could be a short… turned off PS and messed with some wires and same result… resetting itself.

So at this point I was fustrated and took out one of the sticks and BAM… working like a charm.

anyone have ANY idea whats doing this? I also, after I had everything working ok for a few hours, reset the machine, and when it loaded… went into the check disk utility to check for errors. Shortly after that… when loading windows, I got an error saying that it couldnt find or was corrupt “c/windows/system32/congif/”.

just reset it and everything is fine again.

you think any of this is related… or should my machine just DIAF? lol

know of any good applications to test memory AND HDD health? I’m stumped. It’s not even that big of a deal… I just wish I could figure it out

oh and BTW… I ran AVG AND spybot with no errors/virii

2

based on your description, I would say it’s either the power supply or the motherboard. easiest thing to do is to try another power supply - if that doesn’t cure the resets with the chip in, then its most likely the mobo.

3

http://www.memtest86.com/

4

How many watts is the power supply?

Some ram doesnt like to be mixed,sure they say its all backwards compatible but sometimes motherboards can be picky.

Almost sounds like not enough wattage.

5

thats kind of what I was thinking… but I dont see how a little bit extra memory would require that much juice.

it’s a 350watter btw

but I should note (I didnt make it very clear above) that I switched out the memory (so 512 of the new was in with 512 of the old) and it worked fine

6

have you tried to properly disconnect the USB device or are you just pulling it out?

7

If the memory doesn’t match just right it could hurt ya becareful with that. Do you have to do anything before ripping teh steering wheel out of the USB? Would it kill ya to leave it plugged in for now? Sounds messed up man… get that shit back in it’s case where it belongs!!

8

Word. I had huge problems with the computer I built a few months ago. Turned out that the matching RAM I was sold didn’t match and I couldn’t run them dual channel.

9

I would say RAM like everyone else, but also I think static might be killing you. Static electricity can cause all kinds of odd things in computers. Is this machine on a rug or anything?

10

power supply