Dell Computer Troubleshooting - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Agamemnon · 03-24-2010, 03:45 PM

Looking for some advice... I think I've got a good idea of what to do, but I'm not that computer-savvy.

I bought an XPS 8100 Studio Desktop from Dell, upgraded to the ATI Radeon 5750 Video Card.

The computer crashes somewhat frequently (2-3 times/night), and it seems to be at random, sometimes watching a movie, sometimes surfing the net, sometimes I'll just leave it on all night and it will have crashed at some point.

I talked to Dell, they came out and replaced the Video Card, Motherboard, & CPU Fan. The comp worked fine for about 16 hours (left on overnight) but then crashed again. The crash is a freezing of the machine, it 'blue-screens', emits a buzzing sound from the speakers, and requires a hard re-boot.

Since the VCard & MBoard have been replaced, I'm getting a bit stuck on what the problem could be. I'm running Windows 7 and dual-monitoring to the TV. Is there a chance the ATI Radeon Driver just doesn't work that well with Windows 7? Is it the dual-monitor aspect?

I'm going to have to call Dell again and see what to do next... I suppose I could re-install Windows 7 and all the drivers first just to be sure the crash I experienced this morning wasn't a hangover from the current setup.

Some friends have advised I just go to Windows XP, as this would probably solve any Driver/Windows conflicts as XP is a lot more solid (obviously) than Windows 7.

Anyway, any ideas or trouble-shooting help would be much appreciated. I assume if I call Dell about the problem, they'll try to replace the Hard Drive this time... I've done a lot of diagnostics on it and it seems fine.

Ideas? Suggestions?

photon · 03-24-2010, 03:57 PM

Take the side of the case off (and point a fan at the insides if you've got one) and see if that alleviates the problem. Could be heat. Maybe one of the fans isn't working.

ricosuave · 03-24-2010, 03:58 PM

Maybe its just overheating?

Can you try running it with the side/cover off for a while and see if anything crashes?

GoinAllTheWay · 03-24-2010, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Some friends have advised I just go to Windows XP, as this would probably solve any Driver/Windows conflicts as XP is a lot more solid (obviously) than Windows 7.

I'd say your friends have it backwards. Win7 is more stable than XP. That being said, ATI drivers are terrible. The catalyst drivers have caused me issues in the past, try Omega drivers instead.

ricosuave · 03-24-2010, 04:21 PM

^ yes, omega drivers are the way to go

photon · 03-24-2010, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

I'd say your friends have it backwards. Win7 is more stable than XP. That being said, ATI drivers are terrible. The catalyst drivers have caused me issues in the past, try Omega drivers instead.

Long time no ATI card?

Omega drivers aren't available for Windows 7 or even Vista, it's been a looooong time since he's updated his drivers.

The last time I had an ATI card their drivers were far better, with monthly releases.

photon · 03-24-2010, 04:24 PM

Hey I just checked his site, seems he's going to start updating again! Cool!

Agamemnon · 03-24-2010, 06:07 PM

I don't think it's a heat issue... the video card's heat reading is fine (40-50 degrees), all the fans work inside.

I hadn't realized Windows 7 is more stable than XP... I've run an XP machine for several years and never had a crash once... my experience with 7 so far is nothing BUT crashes.

I installed a new driver that was released today... maybe that will do it. It's definitely (I think) a software problem, not hardware.

Right now I'm having fun googling "ATI Radeon 5750 Video Card Windows 7 64 crash", more results than I can shake a stick at!

Thanks for the responses.

Agamemnon · 03-24-2010, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

Hey I just checked his site, seems he's going to start updating again! Cool!

Should I be trying this Omega driver thing? I used to use Catalyst, now I'm just using the straight ATI driver, no Catalyst.

photon · 03-24-2010, 06:27 PM

I would still try the case thing, at the very least it will eliminate something for sure. Make sure the power supply fan is running too, the video card could be nice and cool but the power supply could be burning up. (though be aware that some power supply fans turn themselves on and off, if it's off but the PS isn't burning hot and you have the computer under load it's probably ok).

He hasn't released anything yet though, so you can't try the Omega driver on Windows 7. But I ran ATI for a long time since they cleaned up their driver development and never had crashing problems, so it's not the driver, at least not specifically that. The ATI = bad drivers thing is oooold.

Next thing I would try is memory.. take out memory sticks one at a time and see how it runs without one or the other.

After that I'd start to suspect the power supply itself, a bad power supply can show up as very odd problems, and will actually take devices out.. I've seen cases of computers with failing components being replaced one after the other and eventually the PS was replaced and it was all good.

photon · 03-24-2010, 06:36 PM

You could also try burn in tests to see.

Memtest has a bootable CD so you can just boot and test all the memory:
http://www.memtest.org/

HWMonitor can tell you what all the temperatures and stuff say:
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
(though interpreting the results properly can be tough, it's easy to get results that look horrible but actually aren't)

With MWMonitor you can use Prime95 to stress the computer and watch MWMonitor to see if anything overheats:
http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=12155

It could still be heat, if a heatsink on the memory isn't right, or if they're installing the CPU heatsink just a little wrong, etc.

GoinAllTheWay · 03-24-2010, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

The ATI = bad drivers thing is oooold.

Not that old, I was just reading on another forum that I frequent of a guy that just bought a brand new ATI card, he spent 2 hrs getting the drivers to load properly and he is quite a knowledgeable computer person.

I'm sure they have cleaned up their act but I still read about people having problems with ATI drivers.

Agamemnon · 03-24-2010, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Not that old, I was just reading on another forum that I frequent of a guy that just bought a brand new ATI card, he spent 2 hrs getting the drivers to load properly and he is quite a knowledgeable computer person.

I'm sure they have cleaned up their act but I still read about people having problems with ATI drivers.

Certainly you can find plenty of people on boards blaming ATI for bad drivers for the Radeon 5750... I just wasn't sure if you could find those threads about basically every video card & driver, or if this was an abnormal problem for this card/driver.

photon · 03-24-2010, 06:46 PM

And I read people have problems with nvidia drivers.. and sound card drivers, and chipset drivers. Took me a while to get my 8800GT working properly in my current box and motherboard.

There's so many permutations and combination that it's impossible to never have problems, but I don't think there's anything to indicate that one has significantly more problems than another.

Creative Labs on the other hand, their drivers are crap.

Agamemnon · 03-24-2010, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

HWMonitor can tell you what all the temperatures and stuff say:
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
(though interpreting the results properly can be tough, it's easy to get results that look horrible but actually aren't)

This is a cool application... though I have no idea what the temps are supposed to be

It looks ok though, everything is around 35-40 degrees (48 vcard).

Quote:

It could still be heat, if a heatsink on the memory isn't right, or if they're installing the CPU heatsink just a little wrong, etc.

This is what Dell thought, I think the tech installed a new CPU fan/heatsink, not sure though. The Dell techs were........ shady.

Hack&Lube · 03-24-2010, 07:02 PM

Run HWMon and then start up Prime95.

Run the Small FFT stress test and monitor your CPU temperatures and see what the maximum it goes to. If the Small FFT test crashes - the problem is likely with the CPU

If the Small FFT test goes well and the CPU temps don't go too high, then run the Prime95 Blend test and that will test your memory as well. If that crashes or a worker thread dies, the problem may be bad memory. If that is the case, install Memtest onto a floppy or USB key or rewritable CD and boot from it and scan your memory for problems.

Step 3: Call Dell and b*tch!

FanIn80 · 03-24-2010, 07:16 PM

From my own recent experience, ATI > Nvidia.

Agamemnon · 03-24-2010, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Run HWMon and then start up Prime95.

Run the Small FFT stress test and monitor your CPU temperatures and see what the maximum it goes to. If the Small FFT test crashes - the problem is likely with the CPU

If the Small FFT test goes well and the CPU temps don't go too high, then run the Prime95 Blend test and that will test your memory as well. If that crashes or a worker thread dies, the problem may be bad memory. If that is the case, install Memtest onto a floppy or USB key or rewritable CD and boot from it and scan your memory for problems.

Step 3: Call Dell and b*tch!

What's 'too high' for the CPU temps? While running the tests their currently at 75 degrees.

photon · 03-24-2010, 07:38 PM

What kind of CPU is it?

EDIT: Have to be pretty specific.

Agamemnon · 03-24-2010, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

What kind of CPU is it?

EDIT: Have to be pretty specific.

Intel i5 750 2.67GHz quad