Quake3World

Hello,

Recently I have some annyoing issues with my system. Since I have installed a Razer Copperhead mouse my PC has restarted one time and twice the PC switched itself off without any warning. This happened during Quake 3/Quake Live. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with the mouse, but i thought I would post it anyway.

I switched off automatic restarts 2 weeks ago but while loading Quake Live my PC switched off still, without a blue screen or whatever (this happened one time). After the pc auto switches off I cant seem to boot it again, so I just switch the power on and off, after that it works fine. These issues only happened during gaming, it never happened while playing Fallout 3 (although I have only put 12 hours into it).

Since a week I also have the problem that when I want to boot my pc it goes on, but I don't get anything to display on my monitor and also the usual 'beep' sound I get during startup won't come. I also noticed that the H.D.D light doesn't flash. It just freezes and nothing seems to happen. When i restart my pc or switch off the power and switch it on again it gives me either a message that overclocking failed or that windows wasn't closed right and if I want to boot up in safe mode. I do get to see windows loading on the monitor and it seems my monitor works fine. I still get to see a analog/digital sign on the left on my screen.

It seems to me it's a hardware problem but I don't know what it could be, my first guess would be power supply?!

I already did full virus and spyware scans. I also used CCleaner to remove junk etc. I also did a Hijack This scan but nothing out of the ordinary comes up in the log. It seems to me it's a hardware problem. My CPU runs between 21 - 27 degrees celcius, even after the restarts/switch off.

My pc has the following specifications:

3200 Intel P4 2mb cache cpu (not oc'ed)
Asus P5GD1 Pro motherboard
Nvidia Geforce 6800GT PCI 256mb
1024 MB ram (2 x 512 DC400)
2 SATA harddisks (80 gig and 200 gig)
Gigabyte Rocket-Pro Cooler
Mtek V5 casing

My monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 730BF 17 inch

These are the most important specs, I use MS Windows XP Pro.

I hope someone can help me figure out what this could be. I will send off my PC soon to someone who will be able to pinpoint the problem, but maybe I can figure out the problem in the meanwhile.

your system may be overheating.
look into that , you seem to know what your doing.

does this happen with a standard mouse?
upgrade video card drivers.

it could be the PSU .. you need this investigate this more

it could very easily be the mouse.

i've have this kind of thing happen on my work machine with a flaky usb port now and again. if i plug or unplugged a usb device the wrong way, it might randomly just turn off. it could be that that particular mouse is defective, or that the whole line has bad wiring. the mouse has other firmware issues, so don't feel bad about blaming it. have you tried updating the mouse firmware?

find a reproducable test case, and then repeat it, with and without the mouse.

still, it's worth it to check the psu fan. also, check that the heatsink is seated on the cpu fine. make sure all the fans are actually working and not clogged by dust or cat hair (you can tell how clean my house is...)

I recently tried to upgrade the mouse with the latest firmware. As soon as I restarted the mouse it would not work, I could not move my cursor. I plugged in my standard Logitech laser mouse and downgraded the firmware to the one that was on the cd that came with the package, I got it back to work again.

I must say that I am not impressed by Razer, at all, the value you get for the money payed seems out of order to put it mildly.

I will think things over tomorrow, what steps I am going to take to figure out some more.

My house is free of pet hair and my pc has been recently cleaned of dust, will keep that option open anyways. I might switch mouse for a while and search google for more troubles with the Razer Copperhead, see if I can find anything useful. It would actually surprise me how much influence my mouse has on my system if it turns out to be the problem.

[DQ]Killalot wrote:I recently tried to upgrade the mouse with the latest firmware. As soon as I restarted the mouse it would not work, I could not move my cursor. I plugged in my standard Logitech laser mouse and downgraded the firmware to the one that was on the cd that came with the package, I got it back to work again.

You know you have to unplug those and plug them back in after reboots, right?

See the thread I linked above, it's a known bug with that mouse.

And yeah, Razer's QC has always been crappy. I still have a Mark I boomslang that worked for around a week or two.

Steps I took thusfar:

Deinstalled Razer Copperhead mouse and all the software used with it, using old mouse: problem still persists. I installed the Razer back again this evening, since it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Upgraded video card drivers.

Problem still persists.

I still can't figure out why I got no screen when I do a cold boot. Sometimes when restarting my system from windows it won't display anything on my monitor when loading windows again. My feeling still says PSU.

I do get a screen after I use the button at the back of my pc near the PSU (off/on) and booting again.

loose hardware
dirt on cpu fan , loose cpu fan
overheating inside case
psu failure or not enough psu wattage

NM..