Arcen Games

Other => Off Topic => : Draco18s August 22, 2016, 11:57:19 AM

: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s August 22, 2016, 11:57:19 AM
My new computer doesn't work.  At least, not for very long.  Longest up-time before bluescreen is about 12 hours.

Here's the list of errors I get when it crashes:
0xD1
0x0A
0x1F
0x1E
0xC4
0x01
0x4E
0x3B
0x50
0xFC
0x7E
0x24

0x24 finally points at something specific causing a problem.
"This indicates a problem occurred in ntfs.sys, the driver file that allows the system to read and write to NTFS drives."

FML
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Dominus Arbitrationis August 22, 2016, 12:27:06 PM
Have you tried turning it off and back on again? :P

More seriously, do you have any other hard drives that you can plug in and see if they work, or are you able to fix those drivers? If you have nothing important on the drive, it might be best to try reformatting it entirely as a last resort and see what that does.

Note: I disclaim any and all responsibility for this. I'm a software guy, not really a hardware guy, I tend to just monkey around with stuff until it works.

If that doesn't work, here's my parting words: Computers are hard, yo.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s August 22, 2016, 12:31:50 PM
More seriously, do you have any other hard drives that you can plug in and see if they work, or are you able to fix those drivers? If you have nothing important on the drive, it might be best to try reformatting it entirely as a last resort and see what that does.

I've reformatted and reinstalled windows fresh on the SSD already. I don't have enough room on another dri--
Hold on a mo, I think I do have an unused drive floating around...

If that doesn't work, here's my parting words: Computers are hard, yo.

Yus.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Pumpkin August 22, 2016, 12:47:25 PM
I tend to just monkey around with stuff until it works.
Isn't that the definition of the job of a computer scientist?
I might have been mistaken, then.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r August 22, 2016, 03:06:36 PM
My new computer doesn't work.  At least, not for very long.  Longest up-time before bluescreen is about 12 hours.

Here's the list of errors I get when it crashes:
0xD1
0x0A
0x1F
0x1E
0xC4
0x01
0x4E
0x3B
0x50
0xFC
0x7E
0x24

0x24 finally points at something specific causing a problem.
"This indicates a problem occurred in ntfs.sys, the driver file that allows the system to read and write to NTFS drives."

FML

Whenever I see posts like that, where there a dozen different bsod's.. it instantly reminds me that in 90% of all cases this is a ram issue. When ram is fux0rd the system will encounter memory corruption at random times, which causes corruption in random system kernel drivers. Ram fux0rd can happen from simple things (some mainboards REQUIRE ram in Slot 0 or they flat out won't work properly) and other times ram can arrive broken from the get go.

What the other 10% are you ask?
well....
Those are the times where you really wanna light the world on fire. CPU, Mainboard, Drivers, GPU... and everything else you can think off, it could be all broken at once...

TL;DR, this is why I don't buy PC parts piecemeal over the internet anymore ;P Especially with RAM it's always been a nightmare.

Btw, one thing that makes me curious is that with such an issue you managed to install windows to begin with ;p Usually setup will root out any broken RAM long before it even gets to boot, and if it had been the ntfs driver or your SSD you'd not have seen the setup even OPEN. So imo, clear indicator it's a ram issue. If it ain't the ram, it could be anything else though.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Toranth August 22, 2016, 03:41:29 PM
Whenever I see posts like that, where there a dozen different bsod's.. it instantly reminds me that in 90% of all cases this is a ram issue. When ram is fux0rd the system will encounter memory corruption at random times, which causes corruption in random system kernel drivers. Ram fux0rd can happen from simple things (some mainboards REQUIRE ram in Slot 0 or they flat out won't work properly) and other times ram can arrive broken from the get go.
Highlighting this: Especially in a new computer RAM is most likely, with CPU, cooling, and power issues filling out the most likely list.

If you can, run a tool like Prime95 to do a RAM checkout.  You can also try swapping out sticks one at a time and seeing if that helps things.
You can set an alarm for the CPU and GPU temperature monitors, and log the data if you have software that supports it.  This can help you find out if your thermal paste is uneven, too thin, etc.
If you have a bad power supply, I don't know of an easy way to detect it, unfortunately.  There are some tools, and your motherboard may have some built in, but you'll need to find the right tool for your hardware specifically.  All I can recommend as a quick help for power is to put your computer on a good clean power source - a high end, battery backup UPS/power strip, or something similar.
You can also do a visual inspection of your hardware, especially motherboard, looking for bad soldering, scratches, bad caps, loose connections, and the like.

Finally, if nothing appears to be bad, you can just start swapping out parts from other computers until you find something that makes it work.  This is easier to do if you can force the computer to crash quickly... being forced to wait 12 hours every time can make this a real PITA.

Other than that, good luck?  I've built my own computers for many years now, and it's been worth it 99% of the time... but that last 1% when something like this happens sucks and is really frustrating.  You have my every sympathy.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s August 22, 2016, 05:36:22 PM
Already tried known good-ram.
I've also tried a different video card and hard drive.
Also I didn't buy piecemeal. Portatech let's you purchase a machine in a piecemeal manner, but all the parts are guaranteed to work together, they build it, install windows, and have a 3 day burn in period to check for DOA parts.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r August 22, 2016, 07:15:03 PM
Already tried known good-ram.
I've also tried a different video card and hard drive.
Also I didn't buy piecemeal. Portatech let's you purchase a machine in a piecemeal manner, but all the parts are guaranteed to work together, they build it, install windows, and have a 3 day burn in period to check for DOA parts.

Well if it doesn't work on arrival I'd say your next action is to call them. Wouldn't be the first PC that "broke" during shipping.

But what I meant is that exactly what you are writing is why I don't buy hardware online anymore. You can't believe any such claims, ain't no "guaranteed to work" in custom pc building. And burn-in? That can mean a lot of things (probably a live-USB OS) which doesn't actually detect many issues nor is it a proof of anything concerning stability.

Would be curious to see some images of how it arrived at your place. You DID take pictures before unpacking it, right? ;)
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Misery August 23, 2016, 01:05:41 AM
Okay, I'm here to offer useful suggestions.

Step one:  Threaten it with something.

Step two:  If that didn't work, just hit it with a stick for 20 minutes.

Fixes everything, yep. 
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s August 23, 2016, 12:26:21 PM
But what I meant is that exactly what you are writing is why I don't buy hardware online anymore. You can't believe any such claims, ain't no "guaranteed to work" in custom pc building. And burn-in? That can mean a lot of things (probably a live-USB OS) which doesn't actually detect many issues nor is it a proof of anything concerning stability.

I'm RMAing it today/tomorrow. Already planned.
As for absolute guarantee, no, there isn't. But running the system for three days usually finds most problems.

And no, the box was not damaged in transit.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r August 23, 2016, 01:12:27 PM
But what I meant is that exactly what you are writing is why I don't buy hardware online anymore. You can't believe any such claims, ain't no "guaranteed to work" in custom pc building. And burn-in? That can mean a lot of things (probably a live-USB OS) which doesn't actually detect many issues nor is it a proof of anything concerning stability.

I'm RMAing it today/tomorrow. Already planned.
As for absolute guarantee, no, there isn't. But running the system for three days usually finds most problems.

And no, the box was not damaged in transit.

You misunderstood me, it's not about the box integrity itself, it's about how your rig was positioned in the box, what kind of protections and whether the cooler was properly dismounted before transit, and if not, in what direction the cooler was facing during transit. From what you say so far I have to assume you got it fully assembled via postal services.... 

Backplate mounted coolers HAVE to be detached before shipment through postal services is what the cooler manufacturers say ^^
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Mánagarmr August 23, 2016, 01:43:47 PM
I can join in on your universe torching today. Some fuckwit decided to vandalise my car :/
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s August 23, 2016, 02:19:56 PM
Backplate mounted coolers HAVE to be detached before shipment through postal services is what the cooler manufacturers say ^^

I don't know if this one has a backplate or not.  But yes, the fan was already installed and shipped that way, although there were several ties holding it to the case to keep it from being jolted free.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s September 10, 2016, 11:42:49 AM
An update on matters.

I returned the machine under warranty and the CPU and motherboard were replaced.
I got it back on Thursday, but wasn't going to set things up until today, because it's a lot of work and I'm lazy.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pyImjkhkdFFU3cQKUgxE1prNI3QibM0CHdCzZ41KWYLwiovmubdjFe-9q8tqBKxQc08TmZ4xaT09fLPWt3riElENbHw5YDsjBmWTM8_hEkcv59R6Kg3AYKw0VeDckm68WN_NWbfwkRL-KJilpzCaqqCnwO4THG3c0_2tB_SUtmYgXmNqZl1hwiE9744bVq33sVb1sTF-FPuDPeBnLvx8zEMSGIogsCZJZsqTYyRjfldvHXhieuTW6UVxoHFFmU2INS-mWbUK9ETqmhCQ28Z8vEQ5lX0vKCVP87oPwB6TcX7BDsl5OOcRHjpEQh1F1WSvdpnb8fQaRYn0sYq9fDFwNzX6byo2tWSmvzqs4NOi7W4KmdhBArRtv5lTwShEwTENguiB1EaykfAmEK0FnQywgFp3lffc5Ip1qfCo2ytyrPcOmeAwNsK52nAOpZuyY4d0VJPnUMXsLplYVe8LxLDRbtLFeKS0hgXg1ZF1BljUgJ4jt_WYk2xpHeSEQy86UemaMDZ2PjZh2gWcyRG63Pgu10v5GawqxJz7geYk6e6p9U3NckgIYHspTSf7Nb1neiEDKbr5QQGG3OqzM-lX2c4qPD_PDL-ZdCAA3GH5-EVEG0zykOjY=w994-h745-no)

Just look at that case damage, which clearly occurred before transit, not during, as the styrofoam sustained no damage.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r September 11, 2016, 03:38:57 PM
Yeah I think now is the time to get your money back.. nothing is gonna explain that damage, happened before shipment, and if you took photos of the case before shipment they've got no leg to stand on here.

You have a bag of pity from me for suffering such absurd nonsense though. I know how it feels....

Btw, with that damage, I would put up a betting pool that more than just mainboard/cpu is damaged this time. No way the GPU PciE pins survived that... although if you are feeling lucky, you should at least test it ;P
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s September 11, 2016, 07:48:52 PM
I have plugged it in and turned it on.
I popped the case open first and found that one of the fans on the stock cooler popped off (flimsy clips).  The side panel is a huge pony to put back on though.

The machine does run and nothing appears janked (booted into windows, had full resolution, keyboard and mouse worked, internet worked), but I did not try to stress-test it at all.  I am unsure how to go about doing this.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r September 12, 2016, 01:15:15 AM
I have plugged it in and turned it on.
I popped the case open first and found that one of the fans on the stock cooler popped off (flimsy clips).  The side panel is a huge pony to put back on though.

The machine does run and nothing appears janked (booted into windows, had full resolution, keyboard and mouse worked, internet worked), but I did not try to stress-test it at all.  I am unsure how to go about doing this.

Best way to stress test GPU/CPU would be 3dmark nowadays... it has a stress testing mode (not just a benchmark mode) but it costs money (on steam..)

And as for the case, well, no idea what to tell you there, depends on your mood I guess ;p I'd just want my money back at that point, but if all else is working properly....

: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s September 12, 2016, 11:29:00 AM
Mmm. Pretty much what I want at this point is an apology and a new case.  If the side panel wasn't so devilishly hard to reattach I'd probably even say to hell with a new case.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r September 12, 2016, 05:05:57 PM
Mmm. Pretty much what I want at this point is an apology and a new case.  If the side panel wasn't so devilishly hard to reattach I'd probably even say to hell with a new case.

can't hurt to ask ;) But new case also means you gonna have to do all that stuff yourself.. moving entire hardware to a new case is not the fun kind of weekend action ;) Although you could probably check for additional damage while at it. Potential cracks where the screws connect particularly. Or do you plan on sending it back a 2nd time? ;p

That said I am still baffled how that damage could even happen...

Reminds me of a story in a hardware shop where I was hanging around, boss wants to show me fancy new "deco" case and rips the front face, with plastic fasteners snapping off and breaking as first thing.... he literally held the entire front face with all the plastic pins broken in his hand and was quite stumped ^^ Turns out there was a plastic pin that locked it, and his trainee locked it for transport, as he was supposed to. ;P

Point being, stuff can happen, but a good shop will never renege from responsibility. Happy customers come back. But in your case, I'd probably not assume you ever become a happy customer at that place ;P
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s September 12, 2016, 09:55:04 PM
I called them this morning (after having issues with my cell reception, which I've been trying to report to Verizon for months).  There was no pushback from them, the woman straight up said "we'll send you a new case" once she knew who I was.  She wanted to know if I only needed one of the panels or the whole case, which would've been nice if I only needed one of the panels, but unfortunately the damage is on the main body.

But yeah, the process of moving all the bits over is going to be a "fun" weekend, but I'm fine doing it.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s September 13, 2016, 03:44:41 PM
Best way to stress test GPU/CPU would be 3dmark nowadays...

Ran the free version of 3D mark and it told me there was an error:
"Unable to connect to the web to display your results."

Seriously?  There's no way to view the results without connecting to the internet? hug.  (And yes, the machine is not internet enabled at the moment, it's kinda in the boonies of the house).
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r September 13, 2016, 06:18:59 PM
Heh, yeah.. that is a thing with 3D Mark nowadays ^^ It generates a web-page for your results on their cloud doohickey.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s September 23, 2016, 01:12:43 PM
So I got the replacement case Wednesday (made sure it was fine).  Being lazy I didn't get around to "moving the parts" until this morning.

I then got to the part where I'm attaching the new, bigger, beastlier CPU cooler.

The screws are too short.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/J3LQYPUNsRmojmC2Q38IaCbSxqfpwwxbolfaW2B_BRXtZEhioQ9k8Yj2kx63jkKwNkCVvvDZ6hiJ7e1wy7xFOTnvl8XNxqfhZlDFShWpxRQoLPxwu83_Z5CmUl9Ao4QDm7S-onqsIIIjxUx-Mg6Jf_X7f8DL7-bxCPRULRwBH8ms0MmcLw8O01YJFrFk8niw2xOQwILT6phig-h48BAqC6uHx3un-97Bw9Vm3YeMKAt1BMBx2Bn4vxyq6j_Nj3q2vwbV7Qe05aV4Nfya9xQO0V7CLBmaHryQNnMikpudnN9MQXht6WxOPKuwjLdnYZVaUCABkHWClgdkghyh_JcWWrZlUCPmSy3JR3Ff6YrKOutEZoywqp8anCZiss1yJMXJcL8zlhhk3hIPMXL4x9oLs6LJQy8xrLOItdYjb-F0Vjy7yUq2RbpvGkoTKWeFYMPR21-kmfvcUWeo94vlZzVDrpFwMzDWaRash4F9L8fG1pBVC0VAjLpfGww4cuXMuPTCPNu6GEuwpAQHEBXTlruHKkg8ceG5cxKyFNgJrYfslrVzC0d8GE0zHj9m7t-1ZuuauLiRL4BxP6voZXP-2s4UBhXXaS5dqRV2F9Cj60zxZoEUCIAy=w558-h744-no)

WHY!?

I called Zalman's tech support line and apparently this happened to a lot of people (the tech mentioned as such). The bracket was either manufactured wrong or doesn't fit all boards or...something.  They're going to ship me a different bracket, which I won't get until probably Wednesday.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r September 24, 2016, 01:44:46 PM
Well you know you have a golden moment interesting tech nightmare when it just keeps on giving and giving ;) Already a month and still no working computer.. baffling
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s September 24, 2016, 01:51:57 PM
Went to the hardware and bought some screws.  They're the same diameter, roughly, as the ones that came with the cooler, although both are smaller than the hole in the motherboard.  Should be OK though.

Didn't do any setup work yet today, only 3 pieces of hardware left (ram, case fan, hard drive) and then it's onto the !!Fun!! of setting up Windows.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s September 28, 2016, 11:09:01 PM
!!Fun!! continues.

I went out and bought a 4TB drive as I realized I could really use the space.  Spent the time migrating a ton of stuff from one drive to another, then user data from another drive back to the first one (this'll let me ditch two 500gb drives entirely).  Broke the "migrate user folder" action again (I've had it work the first time exactly once, so I was more than prepared to undo and retry).

This afternoon my user profile got corrupted (huff) and spent 2 hours doing a hard drive verification (no issues). Fine, delete the user account, recreate it, put all my user data over (moving files is fast, copying files is slow).  Bleh.  I swear it was Windows Update that broke it.  I was restarting and logging in just fine until I enabled Windows Update (even though it never installed anything because I set it to "let me chose").

Also discovered some problems in making Windows see my H drive as the default program files directory rather than C (I'd make it the D drive, but I don't feel like re-lettering drives right now), but I worked those out (basically: copy all C:\Program Files ... files over to H:\Program Files).  I'll skip this next time, not worth the effort; its annoying to say "no, D drive, not C" every time I install something, but this change only effects half half of all software anyway (and breaks some Windows built-in applications).

Had to uninstall and reinstall a handful of applications as a result, but it's fixed now.

As a side note, I discovered that Microsoft's own website doesn't function at 100% under IE8 (which is the default browser on Windows 7).  I actually had to download a few things in Firefox (IE 10 then informed me that it wasn't applicable to my system, wtf) which normally Microsoft's site will turn its nose up at and say "no no no, you must use Internet Explorer."
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s October 06, 2016, 09:44:01 AM
OM MY lovably GOD.

So, this isn't computery, but health insurance.

I went to get a prescription refilled.
My primary care physician wanted to see me before he'd refill it, so I made an appointment.
I showed up and was told that the office no longer takes my insurance (and hadn't since Jan 1, but I saw them on Feb 9...whatever)
They printed off what my insurance said my PCP was, Robert V.
I called the number listed and the receptionist on the other end of the line had never heard of this guy.

United Health Care has done nothing right since I signed up for health insurance last year.  They listed a doctor who hadn't been at the office he was listed at for three years.  They duplicated my account and tried to bill me twice for my premium payments.  They can't even bill me properly, originally failing to send paper bills after automatic payments failed (I did not get my December, January, or February bills until March) and I could never get back on automatic payments, their online form was blank and their phone system went "Success!" without actually being successful.

Ugh.
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: eRe4s3r October 25, 2016, 02:26:17 PM
So things turn out well? PC working? ;P
: Re: *Pours gasoline over the Universe and sets it on fire.*
: Draco18s October 25, 2016, 06:17:58 PM
So things turn out well? PC working? ;P

More or less.