comp freezing

[Day24]

during startup (just after the power goes on) press del (usually) until you enter the bios. In there there should be a setting somewhere to disable the onboard vga. You will have to look for it. Either that, or try looking through the manual to your motherboard.... it should tell you what to do. In fact, the manual might actually tell you what the exact problem is you are having. Also, have you tried googling the name of your motherboard and a description of your problem, to see what comes up? like [name and type of motherboard] and external video card results in crash.,.... or something like that? might be loads of people with the same problem....

 

[roy69]

On bootup press the delete key. There will be an option for advanced configuration or somthing like that within your bios. Set the onboard gfx to off. I do not think this will solve your problem however.

 

[Day24]

by the way, I've just read that some people have had some trouble with the motherboard concerning overheating of the chipset and even the onboard VGA while it was NOT being used. Both problems seemed to be solved when they installed a small fan over some sort of heatsink present on the chipset.

I doubt that would solve your problem though, as you don't seem to have these problems when you only use the onboard graphics....

manual to your motherboard:
Biostar USA
then select your motherboard model, and download the manual. Maybe it can tell you more.

ok, in the bios there's the advanced chipset features.
on the 8th line in that screen it says "onboard GPU". It will probably say something like [On] or [Auto]. You will want to change it to [Off] or [Disabled]. Hit F10, then escape and reboot.
Make sure the other card is in the computer.

To undo this change, if it doesn't work, you will need to repeat the process and return the setting to what it was.

ok, last but not least, before it seems that I'm spamming this topic, I think I have found a better place for you to ask your questions. Or, at least, I think these guys are better equiped at answering your questions..... Though I don't know how active they are, maybe there's some answers on there.... you can try this board: The New Rebels Haven Forum!!: Biostar 64 Bit S754/S939 Motherboards

 

[scissormetimbers]

ok, in the bios there's the advanced chipset features.
on the 8th line in that screen it says "onboard GPU". It will probably say something like [On] or [Auto]. You will want to change it to [Off] or [Disabled]. Hit F10, then escape and reboot.
Make sure the other card is in the computer.

To undo this change, if it doesn't work, you will need to repeat the process and return the setting to what it was.

ok ill try this as soon as possible

 

[Day24]

On the board I just mentioned, the people there say that disabling it isn't even needed though, if it is set at auto. I'm getting the feeling that running your computer with the graphics card might simply heat it up too much, which causes it to crash. But that's me just guessing. Still sucks though.

If at all possible, I would still recommend asking a friend to borrow their graphics card for a few hours, and trying it in your system. (and giving them yours to try out, just to see if they work - you can then eliminate it as a problem)

 

[scissormetimbers]

ok so i tried disabling it but there were two options, one was [auto] and the other was [always enable] or something like that. there was no disable option... ill try using my friends video card but i dont know how soon thats gonna be.

 

[Day24]

ok, well, make sure it is NOT on always enable......

 

[Fumz]

ok so i tried disabling it but there were two options, one was [auto] and the other was [always enable] or something like that. there was no disable option... ill try using my friends video card but i dont know how soon thats gonna be.

I thought you already tried this when we talked about it on page 2?

... I found this bit interesting: OnBoard GPU Auto, Always Enable
AnandTech: FIRST LOOK: NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Performance

Is there no "off" option? Maybe, if this has "always" happened to you and you've always run with a video card, then that's the problem?

... yes there is an option to turn the onboard video on and off if thats what you're asking.

 

[scissormetimbers]

I thought you already tried this when we talked about it on page 2?

oops sorry i was talking about when i turned it on in msconfig, not the bios menu.

 

[scissormetimbers]

ok so i found something out just now, i think the onboard GPU might be overheating. im not sure what this black chip in the lower right corner is, but whatever it is i felt it and it was quite hot to my finger. i think this is the onboard video because it says nVidia on it. mabye this is the problem?

 

[Day24]

that's the one I was talking about.
Well, you can try putting a fan on it and see whether that solves your problem.....
But it's all guesswork right now, to be honest.

 

[Fumz]

ok so i found something out just now, i think the onboard GPU might be overheating. im not sure what this black chip in the lower right corner is, but whatever it is i felt it and it was quite hot to my finger. i think this is the onboard video because it says nVidia on it. mabye this is the problem?

Fingers are not very good at accurately reading temperature... it's a moisture/evaporation thing.

As to the chip in question, I can't believe it doesn't have some sort of heatsink on it; there's a heatsink on it in the pic here: AnandTech: FIRST LOOK: NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Performance

That may be your problem, or at least one of them? If you have a room fan, then take the side panel off and point it directly at that chip. You're going to need to cool it to test the heat theory out.

 

[scissormetimbers]

Fingers are not very good at accurately reading temperature... it's a moisture/evaporation thing.

As to the chip in question, I can't believe it doesn't have some sort of heatsink on it; there's a heatsink on it in the pic here: AnandTech: FIRST LOOK: NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Performance

That may be your problem, or at least one of them? If you have a room fan, then take the side panel off and point it directly at that chip. You're going to need to cool it to test the heat theory out.

ill try

 

[Fumz]

If cooling it with a fan works, you're going to have to either jerry-rig a case fan to keep air flowing over it, or find a heatsink.

Not sure if this is going to work for you, but I had a couple DFI 939 pin boards and replaced the chipset fans on them with an Evercool VC-RE. It's a small copper VGA heatsink/fan that also just happens to fit perfectly over the chipset. It was also a lot quieter than the original chipset fan.

Just looking at the pics in the Anand's link, the onboard gpu looks like it's the same size as the chipset. Despite the fact that the makers of our boards are different, in all likelyhood, the size of the nforce chipset is the same... least it was the same for an nforce 3 and nforce 4?

That might be an option for you? They're only a few bucks: Newegg.com - EVERCOOL EC-VC-RE Ball All In One Vga Cooler Kit - VGA Cooling

 

[scissormetimbers]

ok so i ran the fan like u told me to, and im literally running every program i have and it isnt freezing. ill check out the link.

EDIT: well it froze just now. but the thing is, i touched it again and it was still pretty hot.

 

[Fumz]

Let's try and narrow this down some? Instead of running all your programs, try running only those programs which do not put a load on the gpu. If you can get by without freezing, then we're probably in the right direction? This is of course assuming in the past running non-graphically intense programs also caused freezing?

 

[scissormetimbers]

ok so heres the deal: im willing to get a heatsink but i need to know what im putting it on and how. i discovered a new object that retained quite a bit of heat and im wondering if its this one thats the onboard card. i read the mobo manual and this is what it said:

red circle: GeForce 6100
yellow circle: nForce 410

which one is the onboard video card?

and both of them are getting really hot, should i cool both of them down?

 

[scissormetimbers]

well i see slots for a heatsink so mabye i can just get one and pop it in. one question, with a heatsink, are the little metal prongs meant to soak up the heat from the chip below?

 

[Fumz]

6100 is the northbridge, 410 is the southbridge; together they're the chipset. 6100 is where the integrated video is.

Either way, they both should have a heatsink, but again, fingers are not good gauges.

The red circle is the northbridge, and it may very well be that it always needed active cooling? That would certainly explain your freezing. The yellow circle needs at least a heatsink... according to the pics of the board in the Anand's link.

How you're going to manage to stap a small fan to the northbridge I don't know? It's small profile is going to make that difficult. Cooling the southbridge should be very easy as the VC-RE has two plastic push-pins that fit into the two holes on either side of the chip.

Consider though that this may not be the problem? If the board was bought new then it was shipped without a heatsink, maybe because it didn't need it, and you just got a bad board? It happens. It may be cheaper, and easier, to just ditch the board and move on with another?

***edit***

The entire piece of metal "soaks up" the heat. The prongs are there to dissipate that heat.

 

[scissormetimbers]

hmmm ok well if i do get a new board, wouldnt it be complicated to install?