Weirdest pc problem I've ever had

So I thought this issue had something to do with me using Windows RC, but apparently not as I still get the same problem now that I've got the full version of win 7 installed.

I'm using the ATI HD4850x2.

When I turn my computer on, the fans on the graphics card come on full blast, I have to wait a minute or two, as if something is being charged or like the engine is being heated up and the I have to restart my computer for it to start properly. When I turn it on, the fans come on full blast, no display, no nothing except all the fans on max on the graphics card. If I restart when the computer hasn't 'warmed up' enough it'll make it partway to loading windows and then BSOD and restart and will carry on restarting until the computer feels like it's toasty enough.

What the hell kind of problem is that? It's boggling my mind, have I got a faulty graphics card?

Sounds like a faulty GFX card. Make sure your PSU can handle the load, or that the heatsink / fan on your card hasn't come away from the chips.

I don't think it'd be an overheating problem, because when I play games, some games crash immediately, like Brothers in Arms, whereas other games like Crysis and Left 4 Dead will play for quite awhile before crashing. And I always increase the fan speed on my computer when playing.

mac-gaming lol

This happened to me sometimes on XP on an older motherboard. Unfortunately I just can't remember how I solved it. Suggestions:

(1) Remove and replace CMOS battery, then load default BIOS settings when the computer starts

(2) Run chkdsk: http://www.ehow.com/how_4967757_run-chk ... vista.html

(3) Faulty/lacklustre power supply. £40 to replace with one which doesn't suck.

Also check temperatures with Speedfan and post them here. Doesn't matter whether you doubt it's overheating, facts or it didn't happen.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

(4) Clean the computer.

(5) Check all connections. Unplug and replug.

(6) Run Windows Memory Diagnostic: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/windo ... ows/?p=786

You could try running the computer with nothing but required parts and usb mouse to try and isolate failed peripheral hardware or their drivers.

$$ was the computer running ok before the RC so Vista or XP? has it started happening ever since you moved to 7?

If it keeps rebooting at the beginning and then starts when it wants to sounds like the hard disk, try like GG says do a Chkdsk

Also if you can ever get to Windows Go to Run > Eventvwr > System check if there any disk errors there.

If it keeps restarting sounds like hard drive might be corrupted but then again it could be lots of things.

I'm going to try these things out.

Before the win7 install, it was doing the same thing. I took a quick look at the event viewer, wow, never looked at it before and it's full of errors with something called ATIKDMAG. I checked the time for those logs and they match up for when I've been playing a game and it's frozen up the whole computer.

ATI graphics problem. Windows 7 just doesn't seem to be supported properly especially older chipsets. I have an X1800XT and fixed it by NOT using ATI's current driver downloads, removing all Catalyst stuff and uninstalling the card in device manager, and allowing Windows to load the default driver which comes included with Win7 unlike before. I also switched my wireless card drivers to Ralink's which could have been related.

I have the same GPU and mobo, and my Win7 install went totally smooth. Something's faulty.

So I got rid of ONE ram stick.

Everything works perfectly now. No more priming the engine to get the computer started, and a wireless card that has never worked in the computer before started working once that ramstick was gone.

I also found out that for some reason crossfire was enabled in ATI control panel and once disabled, I didn't get any more crashes at all.

The computer is now working perfectly.

One ram stick can cause all this trouble.....it baffles me.

What combination of RAM modules are/were you using?

Have you tried putting the RAM back seeing as maybe it was just the crossfire setting that was the problem?

When I added RAM to my PC (at the same time as a new graphics card, my mistake) it caused me no end of trouble that all appeared to be to do with my Graphics card. Eventually I took the RAM out, all fine. Tried loads of combinations of RAM but it would just not work with maxed out RAM. I had to go back to 1.5Gb rather than 2, then it worked fine. By that time I'd tried a new power supply, etc.

Some motherboards are extremely finicky about RAM combinations, some will allow only very specific combinations and specifications and some of those combinations will bare little relation to other motherboards. Really, you have to check the manual.

I did put the ramstick back in and I get the same problems. Graphics card still crashes with that ramstick in whether crossfire enabled or not.

I'm using two Corsair CM2X2048 something something sticks. Each one is 2GB. They came as a pair, I don't know if the ramstick is dodgy because when I swap it out for the other one, the computer still runs fine. It's only when I try to go for both sticks in together with total of 4GB ram that it all goes pear shaped.

I'd like to use 4GB ram, but I don't really know why it messes up so much with that one extra ramstick.

Paired RAM should work well. Download CPU-Z and check if your modules are running dual channel and at their full speed:

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

If you can't get the computer to boot with both RAM sticks, just try moving them. To my disbelief, for some reason my MSI motherboard runs in dual channel with each stick in the alternate colour slots, NOT the same colour slots like my Asus mobo.

Weirdest pc problem I've ever had

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