Computer Help Thread

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 03 Jun 2009, 03:12

I've got an issue that just cropped up after "spring cleaning". I cleaned and rewired the inside of my desktop yesterday, but when I put everything back together and turned it on, the onboard LAN was no longer working. What's more, none of the USB ports on that back end are working either. I don't have an eSata or Firewire device to test if those are working. The interfaces just don't show up in the Device Manager; they're not even listed with the yellow error icon. Wierd thing is that the PS/2 connection and the serial port are still working.

My motherboard's an ASUS M2R32-MVP, and I'm using WinXP.

I'm wondering if I shorted something out. If that was the case, wouldn't everything on the back stop working, and wouldn't it also take the northbridge down with it? Any ideas on what I could do to possible diagnose the issue?

vellu · Post by **vellu** » 03 Jun 2009, 17:52

Odd indeed. Failed back connectors usually does mean a soon completely dead board.

You could try resetting the board BIOS to factory defaults, maybe it got a bit of static during cleaning... (not likely though).

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 03 Jun 2009, 22:48

vellu wrote:Odd indeed. Failed back connectors usually does mean a soon completely dead board.

You could try resetting the board BIOS to factory defaults, maybe it got a bit of static during cleaning... (not likely though).

DAMMIT! I don't have the money to spend on another board, I just restored a computer that was in a fire two years ago....

I've tried a CMOS reset to no avail. The connection shows up in the BIOS - I'm able to enable or disable the onboard LAN. It just has no effect once Windows takes over. Could it be a corrupted chipset driver? I did upgrade my graphics drivers before cleaning, and don't remember if the LAN still functioned after the driver upgrade. I did try a bootable CD, but I've never been able to access the LAN from a bootable disk even when it was working properly.

I've also noticed that only the two USB ports directly beside the LAN port aren't working. Everything else is working smoothly. Is there any way I can identify if the board is going to die and possible be prepared for it?

xHaZxMaTx · Post by **xHaZxMaTx** » 04 Jun 2009, 01:13

Try reinstalling drivers? :/

vellu · Post by **vellu** » 04 Jun 2009, 19:12

prince1142003 wrote:I'm able to enable or disable the onboard LAN. It just has no effect once Windows takes over. Could it be a corrupted chipset driver?

Btw, do the lan socket indicator led's light up when you plug in a cable (atleast one should, even when windows isn't even booted up yet). If not, then the connector is truly dead.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 05 Jun 2009, 02:51

No lights, never did light up at boot though. Wouldn't light till after POST, and by then I'm assuming Windows has already taken over.

I haven't been back home yet for a few days, so haven't been able to try any suggestions or see if the thing works now or has completely died.

Carcrazy · Post by **Carcrazy** » 05 Jun 2009, 09:45

Okie, got more problems.

As some may remember, I posted about what seemed to be a PSU issue a while back. Seeing how long it's been, I think the entire PSU would've died by now, none-the-less, if it continues to have problems, I will RMA it. Anywho...

I came home to find my PC throwing a fit and refusing to stay on for more than 5 minutes, this slowly grew out until about 15-20, and it hasn't seemed to do anything for the past 40 minutes or so, since I haven't been really doing anything on it since the last time it restarted. I suppose it's time to suck it up, open the wallet, and just fix the damn thing already.

Was shooting for around $500, came out to about $520 so far, so I guess we're good. Parts as to follow, open for suggestions.

Antec 1200 ATX Case
XFX nVidia GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition Core 216
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD (Windows Drive)
Sony Optiarc 24X DVD-RW Drive (Need two of these. Up in the air about what to buy, this seemed like the best 24x Newegg had.)

Anyway, this would finish up all the upgrades I had planned for it, with a little more "umph" to make up for the time passed.

Any suggestions, please post... it's what I'm here for. ^_^

baumaxx1 · Post by **baumaxx1** » 06 Jun 2009, 07:59

Seems fine for the money... what PSU are you getting though?

Also... is steam restore an absolute pig or what? It only runs on half a core on my i7, takes forever, then crashes. Creates 3 gb files which are empty and need to be filled by download anyway. I'll have to start copying stuff over via network.

Carcrazy · Post by **Carcrazy** » 08 Jun 2009, 22:53

Those Cat6 cables come in handy, my man. =P

Anywho, I'm still using this Zalman 600watt. The GTX260 calls for a 500watt, so unless it really gives me issues I'll, more than likely, stick with the Zalman.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 09 Jun 2009, 06:58

So the LAN port is completely dead. I don't know what happened to it, but it doesn't seem to be affecting anything else. The back USB's came back online after I discovered a mis-set jumper and work flawlessly now. The computer's been on for three days straight with no side effects (other than no internet access).

So, now to fix the internet access. This particular PC will eventually be converted to a wireless desktop when we move to our new house in a few months. Any suggestions on what I should be looking for in a wireless card that could stand the test of the next three or four years?

Carcrazy · Post by **Carcrazy** » 09 Jun 2009, 20:15

Unless you're going to be transferring files via the wireless network, any Wireless-G adapter should work for you. I prefer external USB receivers, but you can go internal if you want.

I've always used Linksys receivers, but like I said, pretty much any should work for you, and with WIreless-N moving in, G should be dropping in prices.

baumaxx1 · Post by **baumaxx1** » 11 Jun 2009, 10:04

What sort of optimisations can I make to vista, because my less than 2 week old PC is aking as long as my old one to start up now... XP is worse. Had rives aren't very full and it takes 4 minutes before u can use the system. 2 days before it would be instant. What optimisations can I make? Oh, and I have adobe CS 4 master collection on there now, so would there be any programs there screwing with startup?

Stereo · Post by **Stereo** » 11 Jun 2009, 23:52

uninstall the Bonjour service.

baumaxx1 · Post by **baumaxx1** » 12 Jun 2009, 02:42

>_> What's that?

And I probably don't have it considering I have a Creative Zen, not an ipod.

Stereo · Post by **Stereo** » 12 Jun 2009, 03:16

It's installed with Photoshop.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 12 Jun 2009, 04:13

Turn off unnecessary services in Services.msc

All my Vista installations had most services set to Auto upon initial install. I've turned off unnecessary ones and set non-essential ones to Manual Start. This speeds up the boot time quite a bit.

Also since you mention you have CS4 Master Collection, run scandisk and defrag. That installation uses up a TON of space on the hard drive and can cause heavy fragmentation. Additionally, find a way to defragment the page file in Vista (I haven't been able to).

baumaxx1 · Post by **baumaxx1** » 12 Jun 2009, 10:55

really? lol? It's a fresh install and I've already managed to screw it as much as a 5 year old system? And you can't defrag the page file? What should I assign for that? It's assigned 13gb, but I think that's excessive, esp with 6GB of RAM.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 13 Jun 2009, 06:41

I have my page file set to 2GB, which is the amount of RAM I have. I think if you have in excess of 2GB of physical RAM, you really don't need to have more than a 1 or 2GB page file. But in the end it'll depend on what you do. If you run programs that frequently use up the 16GB, then you might need a larger page file.

I think I found the culprit for your slowness though. Windows defaults to a small page file. You probably set the size yourself, meaning the disk head jumped around trying to find free sectors to reserve. Unless you have a SSD, you'll definitely feel the impact of this fragmentation.

Unfortunately, the page file usually can't be defragmented due to it being used by Windows. I used to use PageDefrag on XP, but it doesn't seem to work on Vista. I haven't found an alternative, but you're welcome to search.

baumaxx1 · Post by **baumaxx1** » 13 Jun 2009, 09:17

Ok... I don't have the Bonjour service.

The drive is barely full, it's a new PC and it wasn't fragmented to start with. Should do one soon though after I transfer stuff I need to the new one.

This page file was default, it shouldn't be fragmented... well it's system managed anyway.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 14 Jun 2009, 03:44

I've never used system managed, but since it modifies the size of the page file as needed, I would assume that would lead to a fragmented page file as the hard drive started to fill up. But it's wierd that it's occurring on a barely full hard drive.

Like I said, take a look at startup processes. Another good idea would be to download and install Spybot S&D and use it's startup manager. It provides more information than any other startup manager I've seen. Plus it also features a bonus spyware scanner.

baumaxx1 · Post by **baumaxx1** » 14 Jun 2009, 15:48

Hmm... I might set a manual page file on my non system drive. But yeah, I think the issue's fragmentation. Setting some adobe services to manual start didn't really help. SO might have to clean it after I copy what I need over, install what I need. Ridiculous considering it's new!

Some programs must've been an absolute pig to install (steam backup, adobe... office)

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 14 Jun 2009, 23:39

Don't just look at Adobe services. Look at Microsoft services as well, Vista is notorius for turning even unnecessary services on at startup.

baumaxx1 · Post by **baumaxx1** » 19 Jun 2009, 03:10

Start up's nice and quick now.

But, new issue. This one's pretty bad actually. My TV tuner. All was well, I watched the drifting on it on One HD last night... I booted the PC up this morning and it said that it found the TV tuner as new hardware and was installing the drivers. Didn't find any drivers which was odd... Then I went and manually selected them from a list. Didn't work... PVR and Media centre couldn't pick up the card. Then went to uninstall drivers, but on re-install I got an odd error in setup saying no compatible device found! These are the same drivers I used the first time. So I did a system restore. It was still stuffed. So.... I booted into XP... if it's a Vista error, it should be ok in XP. Unfortunately it wasn't. It was also buggered.

So.... is it time to shop around for a new TV card? This one's about 3 years old and I just flogged it from my old rig. It's a DTV 1000T... they still make them I think.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 20 Jun 2009, 01:32

Might be. Usually when I have hardware issues such as this, I try one of two things: booting from Linux and seeing if the hardware works, or trying it in a different computer.

What you could do is go into Device Manager and check Show Hidden Devices under the View menu. Uninstall any devices related to the TV tuner. Also uninstall any related software. After a shutdown, physically remove the card and boot the PC. Let it cycle through at least two reboots before plugging the tuner in again.

baumaxx1 · Post by **baumaxx1** » 20 Jun 2009, 03:04

Hmm, yeah, I don't have Linux.... but I booted in XP. My 2 OSs are independent from each other, so if it's stuffed in one and the other.... it's not a software issue. I'll have to try it in the old rig the week after after I get exams out of the way, lol.

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