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ChrisDTC
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Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:43 pm

Ive got a computer I think might be underpowered at full load. Windows 7 will lock up, but if you wait a min or two and it will start responding again, but then it will just lock back up. It took me 10 mins today to get the task manager open to try to close stuff but its so unusable pretty much your only option to hold the power button and shut it off. Once Windows is back up there is nothing in the event log besides the unexpected shutdown.

The PC is an E6400 on an Intel branded 965 board with 4x1GB DDR2 RAM, an 8800GT and 4 hard drives in a 2 raid arrays. This is the PSU it has http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6817103937

Normally it runs GPU FAH and today I was rendering files in CS3 when it started locking up.
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potatochobit
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:55 pm

have you rendered files before?
that is a really weak processor to be rendering videos.

does FAH still work?
try running 3dmark.
if those work then its not ur PSU.
 
TheEmrys
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:24 pm

You'll usually hear some screeching from the PSU if it is underpowered. I'd look at heat as the usual suspect in non-software/OS/driver related lockups. Are you using CUDA-assist on your GPU?
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ChrisDTC
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:26 pm

Its not video files Im working with. I was working with InDesign merging InDesign files, merging and splitting PDFs, ect. And yes I had never done this kind of work with this machine before. When it was working it was working with them pretty quickly. Does CS3 have CUDA assist, I didn't think it did?

I dont know if FAH keeps working; when Windows locks up its impossible to do anything so I dont know if FAH is still working.
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potatochobit
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:45 pm

you have restarted your computer and it still locks up just going to the desktop?
or are you trying to open indesign again?
 
ChrisDTC
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:50 pm

potatochobit wrote:
you have restarted your computer and it still locks up just going to the desktop?
or are you trying to open indesign again?

Yes Ive had to restart it several times. Sitting at desktop is fine, even with fah running. It locks up after 5 or 10 mins of Adobe
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potatochobit
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:00 pm

I assume you understand what the problem is now.
uninstall the program and your computer should be fine.
 
w00tstock
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:10 pm

Yeah sounds like a serious case of Adobeisapiceofcrud, you should disinfect your pc of it now.
 
Mentawl
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:37 pm

Personally, I can't see it being a PSU issue, 500w is way more than that PC should ever draw, and it's a reasonably good quality PSU. A vague possibility could be that you have a bad RAM stick, and only when inDesign is running does Windows really start hitting the RAM. Try running Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/download.html) for a few hours, or ideally overnight.

I'd look into perhaps disabling CUDA support in CS3, see if it could be causing the issue? Make sure you're running the latest CS3 patch as well - or if you are, try downgrading to the original release.
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Shining Arcanine
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:50 pm

ChrisDTC wrote:
Ive got a computer I think might be underpowered at full load. Windows 7 will lock up, but if you wait a min or two and it will start responding again, but then it will just lock back up. It took me 10 mins today to get the task manager open to try to close stuff but its so unusable pretty much your only option to hold the power button and shut it off. Once Windows is back up there is nothing in the event log besides the unexpected shutdown.

The PC is an E6400 on an Intel branded 965 board with 4x1GB DDR2 RAM, an 8800GT and 4 hard drives in a 2 raid arrays. This is the PSU it has http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6817103937

Normally it runs GPU FAH and today I was rendering files in CS3 when it started locking up.


I would not call what you are experiencing symptoms of your hardware being underpowered. Instead I would call it symptoms of faulty hardware. One of the components in your PC is probably going bad. Try running memtest.

If it makes you feel any better, I have a Dell Dimension V350 next to me right now and it has:

350MHz Intel Pentium II Processor
384MB of 133MHz SDRAM
Intel 440BX chipset
Samsung SM-352B Combo Drive
Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM PATA Caviar Drive
Western Digital 200GB 7200RPM PATA Caviar Drive
Promise Ultra133 TX2 Controller
ADMtek NC100 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 NIC
ATI 3D Rage Pro integrated graphics card
Yamaha YMF-724 integrated sound card

When functioning properly, your hardware should be able to run circles around it.
Disclaimer: I over-analyze everything, so try not to be offended if I over-analyze something you wrote.
 
ChrisDTC
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:46 pm

Wouldn't ya know, turns out it was a bad stick of RAM.
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wibeasley
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:41 pm

ChrisDTC wrote:
Wouldn't ya know, turns out it was a bad stick of RAM.
I'm curious when/if was the last time something like Memtest was run? I'm trying to get a feel for how frequently RAM goes bad after running successfully in an undisturbed computer for years.
 
ChrisDTC
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:01 pm

wibeasley wrote:
ChrisDTC wrote:
Wouldn't ya know, turns out it was a bad stick of RAM.
I'm curious when/if was the last time something like Memtest was run? I'm trying to get a feel for how frequently RAM goes bad after running successfully in an undisturbed computer for years.

Probably never. I bought the RAM back in June 08
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StuG
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Re: Symptoms of an underpowered PC?

Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:29 am

Weird it randomly failed like that

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