not sure what is wrong

[DramaLlama]

a few days ago, in the morning, i was playing cod4, and there were no problems.  that afternoon, i tried playing again, and i would be in a server for about 5 minutes and my computer would shut down entirely.  it happened several times.  i tried cod5, and the same thing happened.  after that day, it never happened again.

last night, i tried to connect to a cod4 server, and the game would lock up when the screen gets to "Setting up game...".  i would have to ctrl-alt-del to minimize and close the game, and there would be an error window that said "Need to allocate at least 4096 MB to load images."  it keeps happening today.

I have 4.096 GB of memory.  I tried cleaning the chips and the slots and switching their places on the MB, but it doesnt help.  I also tried 2 brand new chips (4 GB total also), and it didnt help.  i tried putting all 4 chips in, and it still didnt work.  still got the error.

i have Windows 7.  The Resource Monitor shows that my memory is fine, i never run out of it according to it.
I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, and it said nothing was wrong with the memory.

 

I am now thinking it might be the MB, but i honestly have no idea.

 

Anyone have an idea, suggestion?

[snaFU73]

It almost sounds like the computer is overheating.  I had similar issues when my water pump went out.  Is your CPU fan running?

 

Also, check your video card.

[sabreeyes]

also if you have not cleaned the fan on your vid card and heat sink lately, give it a go. also try turning your fan speed up

[BOILERDONXI]

snaFU73

It almost sounds like the computer is overheating.  I had similar issues when my water pump went out.  Is your CPU fan running?

 

Also, check your video card.

 snafu you aint right in the head with that rabbit suit.

[DramaLlama]

i took out and cleaned the CPU fan and video card.  put them back in.  turned up the speed of the 2 fans that are part of the casing. 

still didn't help.

 

video card drivers are up to date, as are all of the other drivers for everything else.

 

the only place i know to look for the cpu temp is the BIOS during startup.

CPU Temp (it is a duel core, fyi) - 92 degree Celcius at startup  ------  gets up to about 98 or 99 after 5 minutes -   100 after 10 minutes

MB temp - 44 deg. C

CPU fan speed - about 2800 rpm  (not sure how to increase this, if it is possible)

 

i also ran a program called Coretemp.exe after starting up, and the temps were the same as the BIOS recorded.

 

since i took out the cpu fan, i am going to reapply the thermal paste tomorrow.  don't know if it will help, but its worth a shot.

when i took the fan off, the paste was powdery.  is that normal?  I built the computer 2 years ago, and havent messed with the cpu or fan since, except for cleaning the fan.

[CobraBites]

you need to also check ur video card temp if its overheatin can cause same prob or ur video card could be goin bad its another possiblilty

[CobraBites]

couple other things u might want to check is ur power supply could be shortin out or even ur motherboard could be shortin out just couple other things u could check

[tsw 8.5]

the cpu temps look high to me ..on my old duel core 72 c ..was the max for it.. you need to see what the temp range is for that ..but it looks very high to me ..

[Dark Asylumn]

yes  physically check the fan on your video card.  the fan on both of my 4890's went out withing a week of each other. I couldnt figure out the random shut down.  finally I reached down and felt where the fan is and it was hung. tapped it  and it started working. and hour later shut down, fan had seized again.

[Bama]

tsw 8.5

the cpu temps look high to me ..on my old duel core 72 c ..was the max for it.. you need to see what the temp range is for that ..but it looks very high to me ..

+1

Definitely temps are too high. Powdery is not good.. should be a little thicker than peanut butter, even if a bit old. If you actually removed the fan from the cpu, which you would have to see the condition of the paste, you should ALWAYS reapply new paste when you put it back together. I would minimize the amount of time you run your system until you put on a good thermal paste. You should see pretty significant temp drops once you put on a good paste. 

 

Let us know how it goes.

[DramaLlama]

tsw 8.5

the cpu temps look high to me ..on my old duel core 72 c ..was the max for it.. you need to see what the temp range is for that ..but it looks very high to me ..

i think my post may have been a bit unclear on the temps. 

 

The total temp for the cpu (both cores) was in the 90's.  each core is about 42-60 deg celsius.

from what i can tell, my cpu cores can each handle up to 72 deg celsius.

 

i have an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500.

 

 

i know the computer will shut down if it gets too hot, but i don't see how the cpu temp is related to the game requiring more memory.

my computer isn't shutting itself down anymore.  i am just getting the memory error.

[tacobill]

Thermal paste shouldn't be powdery.  Most is more of a paste.  It might have overheated and dehydrated it to powder.  wierd.  I would definately reapply that and i bet it would be lower temps.  The cooler may not have been secured on the cpu properly last time.  It should feel pretty secure once installed.  Hope you get it fixed.

[DramaLlama]

Dark Asylumn

yes  physically check the fan on your video card.  the fan on both of my 4890's went out withing a week of each other. I couldnt figure out the random shut down.  finally I reached down and felt where the fan is and it was hung. tapped it  and it started working. and hour later shut down, fan had seized again.

video card fan is fine.  took out the card, and cleaned the entire card and fan with compressed air.  the fan spins no problem.

[DramaLlama]

i am now unsure about what temp is normal for my cpu.  the specs say 72 is normal, but it doesnt say if that 72 is the total of both cores or for each core.  I am reading other forums and seeing answers for both possibilities.  but i am leaning toward 72 as the total now.

[google]

ok....I fix you..)

delete you cod4 cfg.  put one default

and try again....

(in a future...not use high cfg on the net.))..

[Bama]

DramaLlama

i am now unsure about what temp is normal for my cpu.  the specs say 72 is normal, but it doesnt say if that 72 is the total of both cores or for each core.  I am reading other forums and seeing answers for both possibilities.  but i am leaning toward 72 as the total now.

I have never seen a manufacturer list a temperature as a 'total' of the temperatures of the cores... in other words... I do not believe your specs list a combined temp of cores.. it lists operating temp of any single core. The reason that I say this is it is not cumulative. IF 2 cores both were 32 degrees.. that would not make the overall temp of the cpu 64.. it would be 32. Overall temp is average of temps of all cores.

[DramaLlama]

I cleaned off the old paste.  i got IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound.  I put a pea sized blob on the cpu chip casing and pressed the fan down on it, then attached the fan to the MB.  I am leaving my computer on its side so the compound will settle evenly, hopefully.

 

how long should i wait till i turn the computer on, and how long does the computer need to run for noticeable temperature changes?

nothing seems to say online as far as i can tell.

 

never done this before.  kinda winging in right now.

[Dark Asylumn]

the [aste should never really dry  once powdery it no longer working. it will take a few heat cycles for the paste to become fully efficent. you should see slight impovements immediately ( depending on the severity of the removed paste) and gradually see the numbers come down over a few weeks/days.  that has been my experience thus far.  and you should be good to turn it back on now.

[X-RayXI]

The right way to let the paste kicks in is to turn your computer on and some say you have to overclock your CPU to have it kicked in. And turn it back to stock settings. Some cooler paste requires to have the meltdown first.

[DramaLlama]

i seem to be causing more problems or else my MB is crapping out.

 

tried turning on my comp, everything inside the cpu case is working fine, but my keyboard is not being recognized.  the lights on it are not turning on.  it is a usb connected to the MB.

 

and the monitor is on, but nothing is being displayed.  I took the graphics card out, then put it back in, and the startup process began, but it didn't finish.  turned off the comp and turned it back on, and there is nothing on the monitor.  everything appears to be working, but the keyboard and monitor aren't

 

im afraid all of my problems, including these 2 new ones, are all connected to my MB failing.

 

anyone agree or have other ideas??  all of this is beyond my computer knowledge.  I know enough to get by, but this is too much for me.

[Bama]

Don't panic..lol

 

Maybe you could list your computer specifications: Mobo, CPU, ram, hd, vid card, etc. This will help us to help you. 

 

When I have had similar probs, I disconnect everything that I can to get to a base setup and try to boot. If it boots, add components (turn off, add a component, restart) until I get hung up again.. and that is what is causing the trouble. Don't know if you can, but worth a try.

 

Also, since the last thing you did was add paste, inspect your CPU well. You may have squished out a bit of paste on a side and got it on the cpu pins. If you did, it's conducting pin to pin and causing problems. Clean with qtips and alcohol and BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO BEND ANY PINS. Clean the mobo cpu holder too if it got on it. Make sure your pin alignment is good and reinstall.

You can remove cpu with fan on it, just be careful.. or you can re-paste again.

[Nutcutter]

A few things I noticed-

 

Need to allocate at least 4096 MB to load images was an error on the new MW server and the fix was to increase the video settings.

 

I had a pc that has a bad usb port and some of the symptoms were the same, it kept resetting the bios and messing it up. I plugged it in another port on the front and all was fine.

 

If you have onboard video just go without the card and see what you get, and I agree with Bama you said pea sized and that sounds like about 5 times too much

 

Not sure what kind of PSU you got but I have seen capacitors go bad and cause the same. Same with ones on the board, some times it would start, and sometime just spin the fans and nothing else.

[tsw 8.5]

sorry but when you said your cpu was at 100c.. i just cold not see it running at all..as stated be for you can not add the cores ..if it is 45 c as the high end then it is 45 c ..if you add all the cores you give people the wrong thing to help you with ..hope you get it going ..good luck

[DramaLlama]

---Bama---

-i tried booting with parts removed.  i tried them separately and in different combos.  still won't boot.

-I checked the cpu, the paste is where it should be. I also inspected the entire MB for paste to be sure, and found nothing

 

 

---Nut---

-when i got the error, i was already running at the best settings possible.  i

tried lowering the settings as far down as they would go, and still got the error.

-all of the usb ports on my MB don't work.  can't tell if the front ports, but i cant say if they work since the computer won't boot.

-using onboard video doesn't work either.

-the pea size blob of paste did stay in its place.  it didn't leak out anywhere.  when it is compressed, it covers the same area as the manufacturer's paste did.  the instructions for the paste said pea-size as did the guy i bought it from.

 

 

I need my computer ASAP.  so i took it to a local computer shop, best in the area.  they are pretty sure it is the MB based on what i told them.  my college classes are starting tomorrow and i won't have the time to try everyone's suggestions, plus my capabilities in dealing with hardware are very limited.

 

 

 

i listed below my specs.  its is the best i can do from memory and from the documents i have.

 

Windows 7

MB - Asus P5N-D

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16GHz - came with its own cooling fan/heat sink

RAM - 2 2GB DDR2 cards in DIMM slots (i added 2 more cards and still had same issues)

video card - ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (don't know exact model)

monitor - Samsung Syncmaster 2343BW/2343BWX 24" widescreen

computer case - Antec P180

hard drive - 500 GB (not sure what model)

Power supply - Modu 82+ (don't recall the wattage, either 500 or 600, either way, it is more than enough)

[Bama]

Well, your idea about the MoBo may be right. Hope the computer shop gets you up and running without too much trouble and cash.