I think my machine just broke...

[NaffNaffBobFace]

So was just flying over Daymar in a 300i with my GTX750 sounding like it was going to launch itself through the side of the PC, and suddenly the screen went blue with a "MEMORY MANAGEMENT" error stating it was going to reboot.

Okay, reboot.

"Disk read error. Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE to restart"

Restart and just goes back to the above, stuck in that loop.

Having looked online it's either: Bios Boot order has changed or Bios needs resetting to default, RAM failure, Hard Drive or SATA cable failure.

So i'm letting the machine cool down for a half hour and then will turn on again. My suspicion is the video card has nuked itself, or the hard drive with the OS on has died (the game is on a secondary hard drive).

I'd appreciate any comments as to what might have caused this out of the blue and if messing with the Bios is a waste of time - I'm not technical in any way shape or form however do okay with tutorial videos etc.:slight_smile:

 

[Sraika]

I actually had a very similar issue a few years back, turned out the power supply wasn't quite giving enough power. That's probably not what the issue with yours is, though, since that is fairly uncommon.

 

[Printimus]

A good practice that I have sometimes found helpful:

1. Turn your power supply switch to the off position.
2. Unplug the cable from the power supply (the plug that goes into the wall).
3. Press the power button on your PC (as if you were turning it on).
4. After waiting 30 seconds and pressing button multiple times, plug power cord back in and flip PSU switch back on and boot up.

This bleeds any residual power from the PSU and may "debug" whatever seems to be going on with your system. If that doesnt work, try reseating your RAM or GPU or other problem areas.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I actually had a very similar issue a few years back, turned out the power supply wasn't quite giving enough power. That's probably not what the issue with yours is, though, since that is fairly uncommon.

Thanks for the pointer - only thing I have done lately is add another two RAM sticks and an SSD... Might be it if everything went to 100%m it's only a 450w supply and if anything is giving out in that it could be bottling it...?

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

A good practice that I have sometimes found helpful:

1. Turn your power supply switch to the off position.
2. Unplug the cable from the power supply (the plug that goes into the wall).
3. Press the power button on your PC (as if you were turning it on).
4. After waiting 30 seconds and pressing button multiple times, plug power cord back in and flip PSU switch back on and boot up.

This bleeds any residual power from the PSU and may "debug" whatever seems to be going on with your system. If that doesnt work, try reseating your RAM or GPU or other problem areas.

Many thanks, I'll give that a go now... If I pull the GPU entirely would it go back to system graphics or would I have to change stuff over in the Bios?

 

[Printimus]

Many thanks, I'll give that a go now... If I pull the GPU entirely would it go back to system graphics or would I have to change stuff over in the Bios?

Depends on your mobo and setup. Its worth a shot if you think you fried your GPU.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Depends on your mobo and setup. Its worth a shot if you think you fried your GPU.

The turn off and unplug and hit the on button trick didn't do anything this time but thanks for the tip, much appreciated.

The only reason I think it's the GPU is because it's not listed anywhere in the Bios but then should it be? It still outputs video via that socket and its fan is still spinning (and sounding like it's going to fly off and impale itself in my face) so it might not be that at all...

Time to try re-seating everything, with the vibration from the fan it could have wobbled somthing :slight_smile:

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Okay, the plot thickens - before pulling all the bits out of the machine, i popped an Ubuntu boot-USB into the machine as I usually have everything on dual-boot (apart from this machine, ironically).

Again it went to Disk Read Error, so i CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart and then hit DEL for BIOS - as the USB was in it didn't go to BOIS right away - it did a little run down, and this time it said "SATA1 Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T. capable but command failed...

I think from this the SSD is crapping out.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Okay, the plot thickens - before pulling all the bits out of the machine, i popped an Ubuntu boot-USB into the machine as I usually have everything on dual-boot (apart from this machine, ironically).

Again it went to Disk Read Error, so i CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart and then hit DEL for BIOS - as the USB was in it didn't go to BOIS right away - it did a little run down, and this time it said "SATA1 Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T. capable but command failed...

I think from this the SSD is crapping out.

Okay, so a quick search online and I disabled S.M.A.R.T. monitoring on the OS SSD in Bios and it booted to desktop again. I think that drive is about to die but the system is back hoorah!

According to the internet one other option is to unplug its cables, plug them back in and turn S.M.A.R.T. back on again to see what it does, so I'll try that but otherwise it looks like it's down Crazy Bobs SSD Surplus for another cheap one.

 

[Printimus]

Hooray! Now get a backup HDD or SSD quick!

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Hooray! Now get a backup HDD or SSD quick!

I might try to make an ISO of the drive so I can keep the machines OS going but otherwise there is nothing on there but Scrap Mechanic and Star Citizen, nether of which games are finished. No other data on the Gaming machine, I have four other computers for other tasks :slight_smile:

 

[Bruce]

I tried to find decent ssd for a friend .. and unfortunately I figured out that all of them (including glorious samsungs) are still a lottery. With samsung pro (and some old intels) your chances of getting lemon are small, with everything else it is single or even double digit percentage unfortunately (

 

[Sirus7264]

Glad you were able to get back in it sounds like an overheating issue to much stress on the computer not enough ventilation. I had the same type of issue with an old laptop of mine years aback i was playing some stuff on extremely high graphics and it heated my laptop up to the point in which the computer overheated and shut itself down. the heat ended up roasting my HDD. So a couple things i would suggest yes get a new SDD or HDD(Maybe even a huge thumb drive. Backup all your important stuff or clone your entire computer.(Not a copy and paste an actual clone make sure you do it right so you dont have to reinstall everything.) Then also get some better cooling in the system(Put another Fan on the side of the case or on top. Drill it in whatever is necessary). Last but not least it may be a good idea to run a virus scan or just do a complete reinstall as you may have a nasty virus which is using all your resources to damage your hardware.

 

[Sirus7264]

Western Digital SSD 500gb for 88.99
http://theforklift.net/forum/hot-deals/western-digital-blue-500gb-ssd-$88-99-amazon/

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

All good tips there, it very well may have been heat as the GPU has never been as loud and we are in the middle of a heat wave so it's starting temp is already around double that of its usual. Might just take the side off the case and blow a desk fan in to it.