Overclock failure

[Sierra Rose]

As some of you know, I've had big problems with my new computer. We finally got it back and now it won't boot up again. We got it to do so yesterday and got a message that said, "overclock failure" during the boot up process and then it got into Windows but now it doesn't. Now all it does is get the monitor on but never gets into BIOS.

Has anyone any ideas for us? I'm absolutely not taking it back to the wing nut we bought it from so we are trying other avenues to figure it out.

If anyone has info about this, thanks in advance.

[A1]

i've had a computer like that. It gave me all kinds of problems and i tried a lot to get it fixed, but it all seemed to be random
and so pinpointing the problem was a BIG problem. In the end it all came down to bad bars of ram.They made everything run wonky.
I got them replaced and all was fine. I'm not saying that is your problem, but it could be hardware related.
This will probably not help, but i thought i'd share my experience. ..

[Mandalaholic]

do you think it might have something to do with your security system?

[Sierra Rose]

It seems to us it's something to do with the new motherboard. Tomorrow we will call the man who built my first system which lasted 6 years when it failed. We went to someone closer who represented himself as competent, but proved otherwise.

Thanks for the idea, but it doesn't seem that's the problem. Of course we don't know and it may be yet.

[Sierra Rose]

Well our computer man couldn't find a thing wrong with the computer. He thought perhaps it was one of our peripherals.

We tried plugging in only one thing at a time to see. Everything worked fine.

Then this morning it wouldn't boot up again. We discovered the problem finally: our electrical current can't handle all the electronics we have in my corner of the house. We turned off the internet computer, radio, etc. and it booted up fine. Then I could turn all the other stuff on again. So I'm guessing it takes more power to turn on a computer than to run one?

The Overclock failure notice I mentioned earlier is just something you get sometimes when you reboot from a crash and means little.

I'm posting this in case anyone else runs into something like this.

[A1]

good to hear it worked out well!

[masterchief]

Then this morning it wouldn't boot up again. We discovered the problem finally: our electrical current can't handle all the electronics we have in my corner of the house. We turned off the internet computer, radio, etc. and it booted up fine. Then I could turn all the other stuff on again. So I'm guessing it takes more power to turn on a computer than to run one?

Sierra,

How many cords, and power strips are you connecting to the electrical outlet??? Do you have dedicated breaker or are there multiple outlets all on one breaker???


regards,
William

[Sierra Rose]

Thank you for asking, William. Just when we finally thought we'd found the problem, the computer again failed. This time we got messages that gave more of a clue and we learned there is probably something wrong with the BIOS chip on our motherboard. It's all beyond me, but I am forced to try to follow the resolution of the problem because we have to get our bad computer guy to use the warranty to replace the MB if the good computer guy is right this time.

So all the guesses about the power were just plain wrong. I thought it odd since I've been in this corner of this house for almost 5 years and hadn't any problem before. Then I thought maybe it's because the new computer is more powerful. Just shows how little I know.

[masterchief]

well, I just wanted to throw this out... if you have large number of devices plugged in, power strips, extension cords etc. and are pushing the load limit for breaker that protects that circuit.. turning on microwave, or temperature element kicking in on warmer for electric coffee pot is all it takes to trip circuit breaker. just try to be aware of power available to electrical outlet and how many additional outlets are tied in to same breaker. try to avoid use of extension cords and power strips as they multiply current load. extension cord become more of load on circuit proportional to its length

off my soapbox.


regards,
William

[Hervé]

Maybe, you should just check the power supply of your computer.

[Sierra Rose]

Well thanks, it's appreciated. These were the lines of our thinking before it showed the BIOS message. We did remove some electric devices to another part of the room that is on a different circuit when we thought that was doing it. But it failed anyway.

We haven't tripped the circuit breaker but we intend keeping the other electric devices where they are anyway, just in case.

It sounds like you know a lot about this kind of stuff.

Our good computer guy reset the BIOS yesterday and today it booted up fine but only after I removed my PowerMate which has been acting funny lately anyway. So who knows maybe this peripheral was the fly in the ointment. Such a guessing game.

Herve: Thanks, our "good" computer guy did that yesterday...it was fine.

[ZigOtto]

unfortunately, good computer guys are the few, whereas bad computer guys are the many ...!

[masterchief]

I screen applications for usage of facilities here where I work... we have concerts, film festivals, plays, fashion shows, graduations... you name it. I bring up plenty of issues overlooked in the area of usage of electrical power. Our facility is not designed for the events and its places limitations on lots of things they want to do here.
they keep coming back.

regards,
William

[malcooning]

sounds like indeed the motherboard is the culprit. difficult to say what's on the motherboard is the source of problem, but it's enough that one chip/card/dimm is sitting just slightly out of its house to cause a misreading of the whole digital circuitry. If you can replace the motherboard - you should definitely do it now. because if, for instance, you somehow get everything working alright and continue using this board, something much more concretely wrong can happen with later - and it might be out of warranty alreay.

Even if something is not wrong with the board, chances are that by the installation itself things will get a refreshment: The technician will reattach the different parts (memory sticks, cpus, fans, drive cables, power cables etc) - and this usually does a great job. desktop computers are still such a clumsy piece of technology, relying on so many parts to gel together and converse with each other.

tip: since you computer guy is untrusty (sound like it), make a little mark on the motherboard, somewhere unnoticed, with permanent pen, so when he returns the computer to you, you could check that he did not give you back the same board.

[Sierra Rose]

This experience has had a few twists. The first thing our "good" computer guy guessed was that maybe one of our peripherals was the problem. Then we got that weird "BIOS" message which he thought might mean the motherborad chip, but might not.

Then, when it booted up great for him and not for us after he had reset the BIOS, we thought to take out of the equation the PowerMate peripheral I use. And voila! It has worked perfectly well ever since.

The odd thing was that the PowerMate wasn't working at the time and I thought maybe I had to find a new driver for it just as I had to do for some other things. With so much re-installation, I hadn't got around to it, but neither had I detached it from the computer.

Ever since removing it, the computer works like a Swiss watch.