# [Fixed] power surge? lost all my devices



## Cyan (Feb 17, 2017)

wednesday, my computer was dead. I always keep it powered, so I noticed there were no more picture displayed.
The computer seemed to have rebooted as the keboard was reacting, but nothing was really booted.

I rebooted/reseted the PC, and there's no BIP at boot. no bip at all, but the fans are working.
I think there's no HDD activity either, but not sure.

I thought it could be the mother board, but again not sure. I'e read comments on different forums that it could be the power supply.
I have one, I can test.

Thrusday, having no computer, I thought I would watch netflix on my PS4 but again, no picture at all.
My TV was dead too ??? I can wach tv, but all my hdmi ports are not displaying any pictures.
I tried PS4, WiiU, another device which was connected at the tv, along with my computer (connected to hdmi to get dual screen!)


I thought all my hdmi ports was dead on my TV, I started even wondering if one didn't break the other.
maybe ths PC broke the TV, or the TV broke ALL the connected devices.


Friday (today) I brought my PS4 to my parent's home to test it on their TV.
Again, NO MORE VIDEO output from PS4 either .....

So, this week, I lost my computer (I don't know about my data)
I lost my TV?
I lost my PS4
I probably lost more (I don't know if my WiiU is dead, or if it's only the TV not displaying anything from hdml, or the tv hdmi port which are dead)

I think my TV did some surge to all connected deviced and broke all hdmi on each devices ... Is that possible?
My computer crashed, due to graphic card crash, and no bip or POST BIOS check at all .... nothing 
My PS4 hdmi is broken (is there a fuse?)

My wiiu wasn't connected at the same time, but there's no picture displayed either, I hope I didn't just fride (fryied? broken) it while testing on my TV......


I have no nothing 
I'm writting from my father's computer.
I don't know how often I'll come here but I wanted to let you all know I had that issue and can't be there anymore for some time.

If you have any suggestion for my PS4 (how do you activate rescue mode? is it possible hdmi is not enabled by default? how do I connect it not using hdmi ?)
If you have any suggestion for my TV (maybe firmware update... I have a Sony Bravia KDE 32ex5)
If you have any idea for my computer (bios issue, mother board issue, graphic card issue, RAM, etc...)

I'll try to look at the answers


edit: sorry for all typo, not used to his keyboard


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## Madridi (Feb 17, 2017)

Shit.. I was in shock reading this whole post. I can't imagine how you would feel losing all your stuff like that..

I don't know what I could do to help. I hope this can be resolved soon 

As for your devices, it sounds like it might be a power surge (though I've thankfully never seen one), so I'm not really sure what you can do about your devices


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## BigPanda (Feb 17, 2017)

For your computer, did you try to reset the 'Bios Settings' using either the button or the jumper ? Might also want to remove the RAM and try to boot without it see what is happening.

For the ps4, I sadly don't know but on PS3, I had an issue where the hdmi was not working as it was trying to use the Composite cable. Holding the power button for like 8 secondes until you heard a beep fixed the issue. No idea if you can try something similar with the ps4.


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## Jack Daniels (Feb 17, 2017)

Cyan said:


> wednesday, my computer was dead. I always keep it powered, so I noticed there were no more picture displayed.
> The computer seemed to have rebooted as the keboard was reacting, but nothing was really booted.
> 
> I rebooted/reseted the PC, and there's no BIP at boot. no bip at all, but the fans are working.
> ...


since HDMI is network alike connector, it can do as much damage as a RJ-45 can do. i don't know about ps4's since i have not used one for more then 5 minutes.
i'd open the systems, look for burn patterns... it depends on what's broken/burned if it's a simple repair...
for pc almost all parts are repairable... look in all connectors male and female for burns/corrosion and please tell what you see.
ps4 hdmi connector seems to get broken some times, no fuse, but damage is mostly the connector itself.


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## Deleted User (Feb 17, 2017)

Oh jeez, that is really hard. I've never had that happened. Have you tried other outlets or power strips?


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## ivoyko (Feb 17, 2017)

Probably this isnt usefull but you should demand light company. My computer broken more than a pair of times with power surges and i always fix it with my money but u lost a lot of devices and that its so unfair.


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## Jack Daniels (Feb 17, 2017)

ivoyko said:


> Probably this isnt usefull but you should demand light company.


could be a device caused it in that case energy company will not pay...


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## ivoyko (Feb 17, 2017)

I dont know his cause but when i have a power surge im not doing nothing special and bang power out some minutes and then power on again and crash!!


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## BlueFox gui (Feb 17, 2017)

It is not very recommended to leave all the devices connected toa, what you MUST do now is to contact the energy company, they are THANK YOU to buy new products for you, especially your pc, they will have to buy all the parts and Set up a new pc for you, the same way your old one was.
At least here in Brazil it works like this.


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## Jack Daniels (Feb 17, 2017)

i'm affraid in europe you'll need proof it's thier misstake, and show you disconnected all devices when not in use...
since all devices used the same tv/screen, it seems like it's one of the devices or the tv that caused it, and i'd think the broken ps4 connector is main suspect.


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## H1B1Esquire (Feb 17, 2017)

Believe it or not, it might be the fault of your electric provider. They once sent unlimited current to my house and everything plugged in a socket, burnt out. You can call the attorney general if your electric provider doesn't want to reimburse you. You'll have to have someone verify all of your lost devices.

But, if they did send an unlimited current through your home, you will get a fair reimbursement check.
----
Didn't know if 'learning' was a place in FR. Your English is good, so I was/am unsure if you live/d in the U.S.

If you're waiting for the heroes, they might be stuck on disc one.  Apologies, had to make a Cid joke.


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## Jack Daniels (Feb 17, 2017)

H1B1Esquire said:


> Believe it or not, it might be the fault of your electric provider. They once sent unlimited current to my house and everything plugged in a socket, burnt out. You can call the attorney general if your electric provider doesn't want to reimburse you. You'll have to have someone verify all of your lost devices.
> 
> But, if they did send an unlimited current through your home, you will get a fair reimbursement check.


there would've been more damaged devices


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## H1B1Esquire (Feb 17, 2017)

Jack Daniels said:


> there would've been more damaged devices





Cyan said:


> I probably lost more



Wasn't sure.


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## Cyan (Feb 17, 2017)

thank you for your replies.
I don't even know if it's a power surge, as my other devices are working (hoven, fridge, even the 3DS which was connected at that time)

I didn't try to reset the BIOS yet.
I wanted to start unpluging everything, to see if it boots up to POST without any card/RAM inserted.
I also want to test a new power supply. it has multiple lines, so maybe it can power the fans, but not the mother board? maybe the HDD but not the graphic card, etc.
maybe it can't even reach the POST bios check.


so I think I will 
1 unplung everything
2 test new power supply
3 reset bios (I wanted to avoid that)

for the TV, I've read keep power button pressed for 1 min, but it didn't help (though, it helped the user with the same symptom than me)
I can try factory reset
I can try firmware update (if any, I don't know how to do it)

For PS4, I tried to keep power button pressed at boot (like the PS3, but it didn't do anything)
It boots, but I don't know if it opens the main menu or a rescue menu, i guess blue light then white light. I tried messing with the controller to find (blindly) the shutdown option, but couldn't find it (or it doesn't work)
PSVR doesn't work (says "no hdmi")


I might have insurance for power surge, but I don't know how to prove it. To me, it doesn't look like a power surge, as my tv still work. Only the hdmi are broken.


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## fatsquirrel (Feb 17, 2017)

@Cyan

Dear mother of god. This is what I fear the most when it comes to my devices...
I bought several ''special'' adapters which claim to be anti surge but then again I dont really trust them much.
Im really sorry for all your fried stuff man 

Well the important stuff is alive right? Nintendo 4 life bro


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## Cyan (Feb 17, 2017)

ahh, and I forgot to tell that my PC and TV and console were all connected to power surge protection, onduleur (I don't remember the english word).
I have APC device


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## H1B1Esquire (Feb 17, 2017)

Cyan said:


> I might have insurance for power surge, but I don't know how to prove it.



Call your provider and ask them. They usually won't call you to tell you, but they should be able to see a spike in usage. You could also check what the warranty will cover on your devices.


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## Jack Daniels (Feb 17, 2017)

Cyan said:


> ahh, and I forgot to tell that my PC and TV and console were all connected to power surge protection, onduleur (I don't remember the english word).
> I have APC device


that makes it improbable to be the surge, good news: it makes it more likely your devices are repairable


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## x65943 (Feb 17, 2017)

I'm very sorry. This is horrible.

Best of luck, and I hope that things get better.


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## Cyan (Feb 17, 2017)

I hope I have my data (on pc, my HDD are recoverable, reusable and not dead)
If I have to buy new PC, TV or console, I can do it.
PS4 I have m savegames on PS+
It's really tiring to be stressed like that, thinking about all that happend and I might have lost.

I'm used to "hdd issue, fix thanks to RAID"
But all the devices at the same time, I'm speechless
too much badluck on me this week


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## fatsquirrel (Feb 17, 2017)

Cyan said:


> ahh, and I forgot to tell that my PC and TV and console were all connected to power surge protection, onduleur (I don't remember the english word).
> I have APC device


I am pulling everything out as we speak


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## H1B1Esquire (Feb 17, 2017)

Cyan said:


> ahh, and I forgot to tell that my PC and TV and console were all connected to power surge protection, onduleur (I don't remember the english word).
> I have APC device



If you bought your surge protector within the past five years, most companies offer reimbursement if their product fails and your devices burn out.


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## Jack Daniels (Feb 17, 2017)

i really doubt the whole system is  gone, maybe it's just your graphics card if it's caused by the hdmi i'm almost sure the rest is not damaged... consoles are different to me,i don't see when one part ends and another starts.


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## SpongeFreak52 (Feb 17, 2017)

H1B1Esquire said:


> If you bought your surge protector within the past five years, most companies offer reimbursement if their product fails and your devices burn out.



This. Normally there's a "covered up to $X" guarantee if you can prove you were using them at the time.

Were there _*multiple*_ surge protectors that failed? If so it sounds like your entire residence could do with some re-grounding.


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## Cyan (Feb 17, 2017)

A friend suggested to test the integrated graphic card (I have one on the mother board) instead of the card I have connected.
I'm not home, so I can only test tomorrow. I'm still at my parent's.


I didn't make any backup for almost a year


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## LukeHasAWii (Feb 17, 2017)

This is worrisome. I hope you figure out the issue. It sounds like a power surge in most of your case, but part of it is a little bit confusing, like how the surge protectors didn't protect the surge?
Best of luck, though!
Also, the good news is, if you're planning on getting a Nintendo switch, it wouldnt have been fried since it's not released yet, so I guess that's one positive thing
If all else fails...


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## Cyan (Feb 17, 2017)

I bought Horizon, that I will not be able to play ;__;
If my PS4 hdmi is broken, I don't know if sony can fix it, or if I'll have to buy a new console (PS4pro?) and a new TV (whoch doesn't break HDMI devices, I shouldn't connect anything else to my tv in fear of breaking new devices too, like the WiiU which wasn't connected but didn't work when I tried it)


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## FAST6191 (Feb 17, 2017)

On surge protectors then they do have a lifetime. Will probably not fail at the end but the protection they provide will go.

or the earlier video of his on the same topic

It is possible for power surges to take out decoder boards, or segments of them, while leaving other things intact. HDMI is not decoupled like ethernet as far as I am aware though. I usually see it for lightning or in US power setups. French and other European stuff tends to be done better (unlimited current isn't really and you should have about 3 layers at least that would stop most things there in a typical European power setup), however if you are living in an old house or village (you have mentioned things in the past but it was some years ago)...

It is well within reason for your hard drives to have died, however I rarely see it happen when something takes out a motherboard and graphics. Do however consider calling them dead or dying and then move everything to a new drive and then use them for scratch space or something in the future.

On the TV front then the vast majority of modern TVs use dual or more board setups so you can probably take the back off, find the decoder board number, pay the money for the same board from another TV and then just plug it all back together (hopefully no soldering involved). Being a popular brand you stand a decent chance of finding things -- just stuck a search in UK ebay and it came back with a lot, not having the particular board numbers though I can point you at anything useful.

PS4 wise then do the check for the bent pin but everything going at once does speak to other things.
Looking at http://gbatemp.net/threads/repair-a-ps4-with-broken-hdmiport.455522/ there appears to be a few surface mount caps, resistors and some ferrite beads that might have blown and saved it (I see it happen sometimes for laptops and other devices where 0K resistors almost act as fuses) but the connections are pretty direct.


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## LukeHasAWii (Feb 17, 2017)

Cyan said:


> I bought Horizon, that I will not be able to play ;__;
> If my PS4 hdmi is broken, I don't know if sony can fix it, or if I'll have to buy a new console (PS4pro?) and a new TV (whoch doesn't break HDMI devices, I shouldn't connect anything else to my tv in fear of breaking new devices too, like the WiiU which wasn't connected but didn't work when I tried it)


That's very dissapointing and odd, worst case scenario is you sell it on ebay as broken and buy the stuff again


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## Cyan (Feb 17, 2017)

thnk you Fast.
 I'm not very good with hardware. I don't mess, open, solder, with my devices. I'm not used to buy new parts and try them or fix broken things.
I don't have a power/volt tester to check if something works or not. I don't know how to check a hdmi port is working or broken.
I don't know who to contact to do it and help me. I'm usually used to only broken hdd, and easy fix with RAID.

I'll check the forum tomorrow. Thank you for all your messages and ideas.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 17, 2017)

Sorry to hear, Cyan. Hope you can recover most of your data at least...


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## FAST6191 (Feb 17, 2017)

Some of the connections in the TV boards are quite delicate but still mostly the sort of thing you can do as someone vaguely familiar with building things and plugging things together.

A voltage tester and scope and everything might well help if you are really bored and want to go through it. This is parts cannon repair though -- you find the part you want*, you plug it in, you hope it works, if it is not that you get another part it could be. It might well cost you 30 Euros for something that might ultimately have been a few cents of components that failed but most people don't complain too much when otherwise looking at the cost of a new TV. Try not to wear a wool top over a silk shirt and kill everything with static (also touch some earthed metal like those in a light switch before playing with the internals).

*in this case you have power, you have the display on, you have the display showing a useful image, you even have an actual decoded image from what is presumably the internal TV signal decoder, you don't have HDMI. You open the back of the screen, look at the board that has the HDMI on it (or the decoder board if the HDMI leads are simply connected via a simple board elsewhere), grab the part numbers for the board and find one of those on ebay or something. Every wire/cable that was plugged in in the first place needs to be plugged on the new board (technically it might not but unless you can argue otherwise everything wants to be plugged in).


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## Deleted member 377734 (Feb 18, 2017)

holy shit....im in shock just from reading this....you've got it really bad man, hope you find a way to fix it.


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

I brought back a tv to my home so I could test other devices.

My WiiU is fine.
My Internet TV box is fine too.
only the PS4 is dead (and likely the PC graphic card too, if it's related to hdmi)

my TV have 2 set of 2 hdmi plugs, PC+PS4 were together, internet tv box was alone. (wiiu and PS3 weren't connected)
both sets are dead, but only the connected device on set1 are dead.
Maybe it originated from the PC, the graphic card over surged the TV, which broke the PS4 and the TV hdmi card. (just assumption, I still don't kow about my pc graphic card or power supply)

I didn't open my computer yet, I'll probably test that today. (I fear it will be dead, and I'm fearing discovering it, but I'll do it today)
I hope it's "only" the graphic card, and that my hard drives are still good, though I think one (or more) is dead as I heard a bad grrrrrrrrrr noise coming from HDD bay when trying to power the PC. 
I disconnected them for further tests, but I think the worst is done.

All my data are on internal hdd (I dont have a NAS.. yet, I will try to setup one after that incident)


I'll probably buy a new TV that's the occasion to go 4k ! and a PS4 Pro (4k occasion I guess).
It wasn't planned, but it's a little forced now. I will still see how I can send the console to Sony for repair, in europe it's still in the 2 years of warranty
all my info an passwords are stored in the console, I guess I should change it before sending it.

all shops seems out of supply for PS4 Pro... need to wait March.


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

I openned it, replace the power supply, disconected the graphical card and all wires to usb/devices.
it's still not biping or displaying anything on screen when connected to the mother board's video output.

I'll try to clear CMOS. (I don't know where that option is on my mother board, maybe under the battery?)
model : Asus Z97-K

edit : ah, it's called clear RTC


if the MB is dead, how do I know the graphical card or any other devices are not dead too? I need to swapp the mother board first, and test again ?
I'll have to send the PC back to manufacturer .... or by the same mother board I guess.


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## Madridi (Feb 19, 2017)

Cyan said:


> I openned it, replace the power supply, disconected the graphical card and all wires to usb/devices.
> it's still not biping or displaying anything on screen when connected to the mother board's video output.
> 
> I'll try to clear CMOS. (I don't know where that option is on my mother board, maybe under the battery?)
> ...


Did you just replace the power supply? Or the graphics card also? Because I'm suspecting that's your issue (and hopefully not the entire motherboard is fried)


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

I removed the graphic card completely.
The mother board has an integrated graphic card too, so I connected the monitor to that output instead. I'll try without the monitor connected at all.

I replaced the power supply (24 pin and 8 pin connectors are the only connected elements to the mother board)

so to me the mother board is at fault.
I don't know about the graphic card as I can't test it alone on another computer (I don't have more)


the mother board has a nice "power surge prtection" written on it ... too bad it didn't protect.
or maybe it's just  faulty MB, not a power surge, but it fried 3 devices (maybe more, I can't test PSVR)
what's really strange about the PS4 is that PSVR was connected inbetween


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## The Catboy (Feb 19, 2017)

I had a power surge fuck up my TV once. Now everything is on surge proctors and anything not in use is left unplugged until I need it. I also unplug literally everything the second a storm happens.


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## BlueFox gui (Feb 19, 2017)

Crystal the Glaceon said:


> I had a power surge my TV once. Now everything is on surge proctors and anything not in use is left unplugged until I need it. I also unplug literally everything the second a storm happens.


All the people here have the habit of leaving the connected devices even when they do not use them?


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## Madridi (Feb 19, 2017)

Cyan said:


> I removed the graphic card completely.
> The mother board has an integrated graphic card too, so I connected the monitor to that output instead. I'll try without the monitor connected at all.
> 
> I replaced the power supply (24 pin and 8 pin connectors are the only connected elements to the mother board)
> ...


Then I would suggest clearing CMOS, but you already know that..
It would be a weird coincidence if it is a faulty MB given your other devices being down.

And yeah, I get it about PSVR. That is strange, and to me it seems like that mig be fried as well (the processor, not the head set, unless that was connected too..) but I hope not..


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

I used to unplug with a storm, but my computer is on 24h/24 so I didn't do it on the past years.
But there were no storm or rain this week.
I also have everything connected to APC power surge protectors, and onduleur (uninterupted power supply), even internet line pass through it.


I took some screenshot of my mother board, if you want to see, but I don't see anything interesting on it, no bad condensator or fired element.


avout PSVR, the headset wasn't connected, only the CPU splitter box.


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## Minox (Feb 19, 2017)

About two years I had something similar happen to me that ended up frying my monitor & GPU. Unlike you I did not have surge protection and there is no one to blame for it happening but me. 

What I believe happened is that during one night where I left the computer on we had a lightning strike somewhere close (not completely unbelievable due to the bad weather that night). Said lightning strike caused a surge that fried my monitor (22" 1680x1050) and fried the GPU (560Ti) that was connected to it. The rest of my computer however seemed just fine and I believe that was all due to my PSU offering sufficient protection against surges (this is why you don't get the cheapest PSU you can find btw). At first I only thought it was the monitor that died so given that it was an older monitor with a not too convenient resolution I ended up taking the plunge and got myself a new fancy 24" 144Hz monitor thinking that was the end of my problems.

However days later I started noticing graphical artifacts on my monitor which at first just were a little bit annoying, but ultimately ended up bluescreening the computer every time the Nvidia driver was loaded (Safe mode still worked fine except you could see lots of artifacts). Not having the money for another upgrade and the old GPU being out of warranty I ended up having to replace it with a still functional, but less than ideal GTS 250 which I then proceeded to use with my new monitor until the time I could again afford a decent GPU. Having had a much stronger GPU before this time period sucked and I barely did any gaming outside of games I knew I could run on semi-high settings without the much older GPU being a chokepoint.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this story, but I feel very sorry that something like this happened to you and that it happened to so many of your devices. I'm hoping that not all parts of your computer are gone and that it could be salvaged with some minor part replacements.


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## naddel81 (Feb 19, 2017)

@ cyan: when you have APC power protection check if the fuse broke. if it didnt then it wasn't the power surge.
if it did you still have a 100 000€ insurance on everything that was behind the thing.


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

all I hope is my HDD are fine so I can backup/rescue my data.
all other things are replaceable parts. costy, but replaceable.
Of course I could always re-get most of my data, but some of them were my own (development, pictures, logs, other personnal stuff that I would better recover)
My own fault for procrastinating instead of backup them up regularly...

How to I check the APC fuse?
I open the box and check inside?

The APC led seems to work fine (green)


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## Lucifer666 (Feb 19, 2017)

Oh man, I don't have advice to give, this just sucks.

Hope you get your way with the power company.


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## Clydefrosch (Feb 19, 2017)

usually, such a surge would come from the electricity net, not from one of your machines. have you tried calling your provider and asking for any kind of surges around whenever that happened?


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## Minox (Feb 19, 2017)

Cyan said:


> all I hope is my HDD are fine so I can backup/rescue my data.
> all other things are replaceable parts. costy, but replaceable.
> Of course I could always re-get most of my data, but some of them were my own (development, pictures, logs, other personnal stuff that I would better recover)
> My own fault for procrastinating instead of backup them up regularly...


What I would do is get a way to connect your HDDs through USB to another computer so that you can check if your data is fine and if it is back it up somewhere else as quickly as you can. Keeping them connected to what could be faulty parts isn't really recommended.


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

Calling is very very hard to me. I'm social phobic and have really issues calling unknown people.
I would even rather have my data lost


Is there USB HDD readers compatible with RAID?
 my hdd are in RAID1 (mirroring)


Also, about clear CMOS, is that the correct place? I suppose, even if it's not "right in front of it"


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## DarkGabbz (Feb 19, 2017)

Cyan said:


> Calling is very very hard to me. I'm social phobic and have really issues calling unknown people.
> I would even rather have my data lost
> 
> 
> ...


Yes its the correct jumper.


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

CMOS Cleared (with and without the battery).
Still not working. I didn't unplug the RAM yet, do you think it could be the RAM? the bios would bip if the ram was defective.

I will have to buy a new mother board (or send it back, but I bought the computer fully assembled by internet, I would probably have to send it back assembled too, that's very big and I didn't keep the box.)

I'll email the company I bought it from and explain what I did/tested.
I'll see if they ask to send the full pc or if they will send me a new MB only.

Their work is nice, all is well attached.
I don't know how the CPU is attached to the mother board, it seems hard to remove.


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## DarkGabbz (Feb 19, 2017)

Cyan said:


> CMOS Cleared (with and without the battery).
> Still not working. I didn't unplug the RAM yet, do you think it could be the RAM? the bios would bip if the ram was defective.
> 
> I will have to buy a new mother board (or send it back, but I bought the computer fully assembled by internet, I would probably have to send it back assembled too, that's very big and I didn't keep the box.)
> ...







The CPU is very easy to remove.


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

yeah, not the CPU, it seems it's the FAN on the CPU which is well attached to the mother board. there's a "X" like metalic bar on the other side.
I haven't test to removed it yet, maybe it's easy.


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## DinohScene (Feb 19, 2017)

Time to invest in some surge protectors after reading this.

Shiet Cyan, I feel sorry for the losses :c


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## naddel81 (Feb 19, 2017)

Cyan said:


> all I hope is my HDD are fine so I can backup/rescue my data.
> all other things are replaceable parts. costy, but replaceable.
> Of course I could always re-get most of my data, but some of them were my own (development, pictures, logs, other personnal stuff that I would better recover)
> My own fault for procrastinating instead of backup them up regularly...
> ...



you apc back-ups has a switch at the back side. if it came out then the fuse jumped out. you'd have to reset it. if the power LED is green and the switch cannot be pushed (=is already pushed in) then the surge did not come from outside the device. but it still should have protected all the connected devices, shouldn't it?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



DinohScene said:


> Time to invest in some surge protectors after reading this.
> 
> Shiet Cyan, I feel sorry for the losses :c


he says he has a power protection that did not work!


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## sarkwalvein (Feb 19, 2017)

The electric company is required to pay for this kind of thing. But it may take several months because fucking bureaucracy.
It is so in Argentina, and I believe it may be the same in France.
That is ofc if somebody makes the claim.


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## Cyan (Feb 19, 2017)

other devices are not really dead.
only the hdmi signal is dead.

The TV doesnt display any connected hdmi devices, but the TV itself still work (I can watch broadcasts, use the remote, etc.)
the PS4 it's the same, I can power it, synch the controller and move it (I can hear the sound effect of controller movement when plugging headphones to the controller) and I can put it to tandby or shutdown the console with the controller, but I can't see any picture.
I tried on 3 tvs.
I tried the recovery mode, but it didn't display anything.
it's like there's no video signal going through the PS4 (and no signal read on my TV)
That's why I thought only my graphic card was fried (the hdmi port) but it seems the bios/mother board is affected. I don't know about my graphic card then.



Edit :
A Friends says the mother board is maybe not dead, as I don't have to stay pressed on power button to shut it down.
I can press it shortly only.
not sure how reliable it is. He says it might be like the PS4, still working but something is wrong elsewere.


I removed the RAM, still no bip.
But I had to keep power pressed this time!
he sais that's normal without RAM.

HE also said if my keyboard works, then it means the CPU works, and mother board seems to work too.
"maybe" the buzzer is dead, and I don't hear any bip.
My monitor is maybe dead too ??

I tried to open a menu to change any monitor settings, but it doesn't work so maybe my monitor settings only work if there is a picture displayed.

I will go take a VGA cable at my parent's house and test VGA instead of DVI. and test VGA on another monitor, to check if my monitor is dead too.


Maybe my monitor is dead, and not my PC or mother board or graphic card.... Maybe my PC never bipped? (I thought it did but I rarely reboot it)
thought, the HDD made some strange noise so there's still something not normal happening there.


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## Jack Daniels (Feb 19, 2017)

@Cyan could it be the surge protection of your mainboard is the burn out model? in that case there's varistors that collapsed (might look like a capasitor), or a fuse blown somewhere (might look like a resistor). both cut the power when there's something wrong either with the supplied power, or with a short circuit.


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## Quantumcat (Feb 19, 2017)

A couple of weeks ago my parents' house was hit by lightning (mum described it as a flash of intense white light and someone clapping their hands hard right next to your ear). Surge protectors can't do anything about that sort of thing. Their computer and router were destroyed, also the electric dog fence around the property and the pump on the water tank. The home and contents insurance covered most of it though. I hope your insurance will cover your stuff too!

About the not wanting to call people, I understand that, when I was a kid/teenager I was really afraid of talking on the phone, because I'm partially deaf and was always afraid I wouldn't be able to understand the other person and it would be awkward or I'd accidentally say something wrong or embarrassing. So I always avoided the phone at all costs. But I'm not anymore, I think thanks to going on exchange for a year to a country where I hardly spoke a word of the language (which was super scary and traumatising) and then later living on campus at university. Unless you are diagnosed with an actual medical mental illness (in which case pills should be helping) you can eventually lose the fear by continually doing something just a little bit scary, until that thing isn't scary anymore, then doing a new thing that's a little bit scary (that used to be a lot scary), etc. Until so few things are scary you can do all the same things that other people can do without fear. If you don't ever venture into unknown territory then you'll never grow. You'll be afraid of the same things in 20 years that you're afraid of now. Anyway that's just some thoughts.


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## Daggot (Feb 19, 2017)

This is why I have almost everything in my house plugged into a high quality surge protectors that come with insurance. We have alot of outages and surges around here and nothing ever happens but if my shit breaks while using their device they'll pay for it. It happened to a TV once and I don't plan on being caught with my pants down again.


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## Quantumcat (Feb 19, 2017)

Daggot said:


> This is why I have almost everything in my house plugged into a high quality surge protectors that come with insurance. We have alot of outages and surges around here and nothing ever happens but if my shit breaks while using their device they'll pay for it. It happened to a TV once and I don't plan on being caught with my pants down again.


I don't think they'd cover lightning strikes, and they'd probably try to argue anything else isn't within the scope of what they are meant to protect from. You really need home and contents insurance.


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## Cyan (Feb 20, 2017)

I'm veryyyyy very unlucky
I was still testing things, I brought an old VGA monitor to test the VGA output of the mother board.
I connected it to the mother board.
I switched ON the power on the power bloc, and PAF the power bloc just died with a clacking sound (probably a condensator?)

So, now I'm wondering if my APC is working correctly...
Maybe it's sending too much power?
Or I'm very unlucky ?
it's starting to get me crazy

I could call the electricity company, but I have a the APC which should regulate the voltage, it shouldn't happen.


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## mgrev (Feb 20, 2017)

Never had a power surge, but this reminds me that i need to buy a surge protector.


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## Cyan (Feb 20, 2017)

I wish my surge protector would do its job.
Or it's not a surge issue, but bad luck, or vaudoo, or sorcery, or black magic, etc.


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## Razor83 (Feb 20, 2017)

Sounds like it might be the APC thats damaging stuff? I would stop using it for now until you know the cause.


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## Cyan (Feb 20, 2017)

yeah, I'm wonderinf if the APC is causing all those issues.
I don't know how to check, I don't have a voltmeter. (should I buy one?)
Or maybe call an electrician, or my house's owner and explain it's frying many devices


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## sarkwalvein (Feb 20, 2017)

I would tell the house owner to send their trusted electrician to take a look at the APC mess.


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## Cyan (Feb 20, 2017)

good idea, asking the ower to ask for an electrician.
I don't know if he will do, or if he will like the idea, but at least telling him about my issue, I'll see what he thinks about it.

Maybe he could tell me if the previous person had a similar issue.

edit:
I have many different opinion, and suggestions. I don't know what to do or who to listen.
either contact the PC seller to ask for the warranty (but it was bought from internet, in pre-build form so I would have to send it back entirely). Even if I don't send it fully, I still don't know what's not working. Mother board, or graphic card, or power supply.... or CPU or RAM ... I don't have other parts to test them all one by one myself.

So I think I'll bring the PC to a computer shop in my town and see if they can find the cause. I can't do it myself this time, and it's very hard to me to not understand what's wrong. I usually can fix things myself, and help every one else.

I thought about buying a new mother board, but if it's not the probleme, I might brick (fry) it too ...
I wanted to by a new TV And PS4 ... but if the issue is the electricity, I could fry them too.....
I don't want to risk frying new things.

Maybe it's my APC ...
I have a 700VA, I might buy a new one (1500VA). but it's expansive.


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## Madridi (Feb 21, 2017)

Cyan said:


> good idea, asking the ower to ask for an electrician.
> I don't know if he will do, or if he will like the idea, but at least telling him about my issue, I'll see what he thinks about it.
> 
> Maybe he could tell me if the previous person had a similar issue.
> ...


I think the safest way to approach this would be contacting an electrician to look at the house, and the APC. He also might have some insight on your non working devices. I'd also contact the PC seller and see what he has to say. Then just take it from there


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## Cyan (Feb 22, 2017)

I contacted my electricity company, they will check with the technical center and contact me back.
The woman said it's probably power surge seing many devices and even light bulb are dead for the past 10 days, if that's the case I can contact my assurance and see with them etc.

I also sent a mail to my PC seller today, I'll get an answer soon, I hope I can get it fixed and don't need to pay for it again ( 1300$ is too much... one time is enough)

I think I'll buy a new tv and PS4 
I might still send the PS4 back to sony, having it back would be a plus.


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## MichiS97 (Feb 22, 2017)

Is your house built on some sort of ancient burial ground?


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## naddel81 (Feb 22, 2017)

Cyan said:


> I contacted my electricity company, they will check with the technical center and contact me back.
> The woman said it's probably power surge seing many devices and even light bulb are dead for the past 10 days, if that's the case I can contact my assurance and see with them etc.
> 
> I also sent a mail to my PC seller today, I'll get an answer soon, I hope I can get it fixed and don't need to pay for it again ( 1300$ is too much... one time is enough)
> ...



the APC has a 100 000€ insurance!


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## Cyan (Feb 22, 2017)

yeah, if it's the APC, but if it's still working it's strange that it's a power surge.
I just think it's bad luck (too much bad luck), unless APC doesn't protect against too big power surge, but I think it should. (or else it would be HS too)

I will have to wait for my electricity company report anyway.


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## Jacklack3 (Feb 24, 2017)

jebus christ


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## Jayro (Feb 24, 2017)

If you're lucky, your consoles' power bricks took the brunt of the surge and THOSE need replaced. Worth a try, and cheaper too. Sorry about your losses though, Cyan.


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## Dothackjhe (Feb 24, 2017)

I find the premise of your story depressing. I'm a techie myself so I know the value of these devices, especially for a gamer.


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## Deleted member 408979 (Feb 24, 2017)

ok but IF all your devices are broken, best to either:

a) raid the parts
b)MICROWAVE THEM

Make sure theyre unusable. 

Sorry i cant help


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## Cyan (Feb 27, 2017)

I have some news.
Good news, as good as they can be.

I could diagnose my mother board by connecting a different monitor.
It works with the new monitor !!

So, at least, I know my mother board is fine (damn, I reset the BIOS, I'll have to configure it again. I don't remember all the values)
My RAM and processor are both correctly detected.
And .... the mother board does NOT bip at all at boot .... I guess the buzzer is dead, or deactivated?

So, I could find the issue :
My monitor is dead. Ahah, another dead hardware....

dead:
Monitor
TV
PS4
Video card
(maybe PSVR, but I don't think)

Working:
I hope my HDD ! that's not what is making some noise. it was the fan in the HDD bay.

waiting:
new tv 4k
PS4 Pro

I hope I can boot my OS again.
I could use the video card test (old nvidia 8800gs), but I'll wait for the new video card to be the same model to prevent Windows reactivation (really a bad thing u_u) and drivers issue.


I didn't thought my video card fried my dvi monitor too, I thought only the hdmi were affected.
frying video cards are really dangerous for all connected devices. even the one switched off, not in standby!


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## Jack Daniels (Feb 28, 2017)

@Cyan good news i see, and a bit bad news... but at least you now know where to start... windows reactivation shouldn't be that much a problem though, takes a few minutes tops...


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## Costello (Mar 1, 2017)

wow that is awful, terrible luck Cyan 
I hope you get things fixed soon. We'll be waiting for you on IRC!


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## Cyan (Mar 1, 2017)

Thank you all of you.

I got my new tv this evening. I'll unbox it and enjoy it.
I'll get my new PS4 saturday.

I contacted my reseller, and even if they don't want to let me use the warranty (not sure why, saying "you used it of 1.5 years so it's not a defect, 2 years warranty doesn't apply" ... then why make them 2 years long if it can't cover defects that long?)
They are least were kind to help me and answer my questions. They contacted the graphic card maker, sent them my serial number in hope the maker will accept a (free) replacement. the card is 220€ ! would be great if I get a free replacement.

until then, I now have an old graphic card and old monitor, it will be good enough, I spent too much money this month. No switch for me on release day!


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## Cyan (Mar 5, 2017)

I got my PC back online, using an old video card.
the hard drive are fine and have all my data.

I used the PC for 6 hours, and it crashed on blue screen while doing nothing special. (I wasn't using it, but maybe a program did in the background)
Maybe the RAM is the issue, I don't know.
I should check minidump? I don't know how do read it.

I looked in minidump folder, and I have one generated from the day my PC crashed (february 16) and one from now.
someone know how to read it?

edit:
found this one : 
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
I'll try.

first issue :
021617-25568-01.dmp	16/02/2017 09:08:23		0x00000116	fffffa80`0d8534e0	fffff880`0625eb78	ffffffff`c000009a	00000000`00000004	dxgkrnl.sys	dxgkrnl.sys+5d134					x64	ntoskrnl.exe+72a40					C:\Windows\Minidump\021617-25568-01.dmp	4	15	7601	792 280	16/02/2017 09:10:06	

dxgkrnl.sys	dxgkrnl.sys+5d134	fffff880`064f7000	fffff880`065ec000	0x000f5000	0x539e411c	16/06/2014 01:58:04						
dxgmms1.sys	dxgmms1.sys+37f3c	fffff880`01c5b000	fffff880`01ca1000	0x00046000	0x5164dc13	10/04/2013 04:27:15						
nvlddmkm.sys	nvlddmkm.sys+83ab78	fffff880`05a24000	fffff880`064f7000	0x00ad3000	0x55b0323a	23/07/2015 01:15:54						

seems related to Nvidia drivers.


today issue:
030617-20389-01.dmp	06/03/2017 00:31:33		0x00000124	00000000`00000000	fffffa80`09c5b028	00000000`bf800000	00000000`00000124	hal.dll	hal.dll+12a3b					x64	ntoskrnl.exe+72a40					C:\Windows\Minidump\030617-20389-01.dmp	4	15	7601	293 984	06/03/2017 00:32:51

ntoskrnl.exe	ntoskrnl.exe+18c9a3	fffff800`03064000	fffff800`0364c000	0x005e8000	0x5507a73c	17/03/2015 05:02:04	Microsoft® Windows® Operating System	NT Kernel & System	6.1.7601.18798 (win7sp1_gdr.150316-1654)	Microsoft Corporation	C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe	

hal.dll	hal.dll+12a3b	fffff800`0301b000	fffff800`03064000	0x00049000	0x4ce7c669	20/11/2010 14:00:25						


I don't know what hal.dll is or does.


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## Madridi (Mar 6, 2017)

That's some great news I suppose. Did you contact an electrician an your insurance? Surely you're not going to pay for all of these again?

About the minidumps. My guess would go to the bios reset, and now that you're using a different video card, things might need to be reconfigured again.


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## Cyan (Mar 6, 2017)

Yes, I thought it might be a bios issue (the thing is I never noted the previous values before reseting it)

I also changed my graphic card, but it's still a NVidia, so the drivers should be good. Maybe I should reinstall the driver to get a proper card detection ?


I searched what Hal.dll is, and it seems responsible of IRQ and HDMA (direct memory access), hardware manager (HDD).
I found it could be either an issue with the RAM, or a bad sector on HDD. I suspect it could be the BIOS with bad settings too, or the mother board bus which is also defective?

I'll search how to test my RAM.
I'll try a nvidia driver reinstall.
I'll try a chkdsk for my drives (will take a long time, if it crash while scanning, I won't know what's wrong)

I could try a Ghost reinstall of my previous backup (from july 2016), in case it's system/OS related, and not hardware.

I found an option in the BIOS named "Above 4G decoding"
with description "for 64bit compatible PCI devices", but with no explanation what it's doing.
I enabled it, because I'm on 64bit, but maybe I should disabled it ? It could be my issue, right?

It's only for PCI, so it won't affect my usable RAM (8GB).
it's only for on board memory, for example graphic card's RAM? I don't have more than 4GB GPU RAM. I can disable it, right?


I found a Asus help, saying it "should" be disabled, as graphic card MUST not use address above 4G.
I might go disabled it. no risk trying to restrict to 4G I guess.
https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1004170/
no idea what GRID or other acronyms are.


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## sarkwalvein (Mar 6, 2017)

Cyan said:


> I'll search how to test my RAM.


Install memtest86 in a usb flash drive. Let your PC boot from it, and leave it testing RAM for a couple of hours.


> I'll try a nvidia driver reinstall.


I will strongly suggest you doing so. I bet THIS is the problem.


> I'll try a chkdsk for my drives (will take a long time, if it crash while scanning, I won't know what's wrong)


Sure, but do that last because it will take a lot of time.


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## Jack Daniels (Mar 6, 2017)

@Cyan hal.dll i think is direct 3d related (hardware acceleration libary)


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## orangy57 (Mar 9, 2017)

If they have those wires with the three holes or whatever, try to replace those. I had a power surge, but only those wires on my monitor and computer stopped working. I must have been lucky as hell, but nothing else was burnt up.


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## Cyan (Apr 2, 2017)

When I thought everything was finally fixed, it backfired at me again 


So, I got PSVR back from sony (working)
I got graphic card from manufacturer as replacement. (it's said never used on the box, bu it had dust on the card. Not sure to which extend it's never used).


I decided to install the new card today.
But just before I do that, my computer decided to crash on blue screen again ! hal.dll (hardware Abstraction Layer)
I was doing some HDD actions (file moving, backup, etc.)

Since then, it crashed a lot of times, in randomness, sometime it's 2min after boot, sometime it's 30mins.
Most of the time it seems to be related to HDD access, but I cant be sure.

I decided to make a ghost of my OS (acronis), and I used a bootable disc. So I'm not using windows at all, and the computer rebooted while acronis was verifying the backup integrity.
It looks like the PC crashes, not windows....

even more reason to think it's a hardware issue.
reinstalling windows wouldn't help.

I thought "I have this issue since I'm using my old video card, GS8800, so I'll try to put my new GTX9600.
I did, had drivers issues not detected etc. (nvidia driver not providing proper files, can't extract their installer, pffff, wrong day really)
I finally managed to get old drivers, which BSOD while installing. again, random. Next reboot it properly installed the drivers.
I thought "good, now it's installed, it should work", but no, I still got few BSOD.

I tried booting into my session and not touching anything, but I guess background softwares are active (antivirus, etc.) and it crashed again 30 mins later.
I'm now trying to wait on the "insert password" screen. but if it's hardware issue, that will happen too.


I Hoped strongly that the hal.dll was a hardware issue because I used an old graphic card, but it's not 
I now suspect it's a HDD issue, but I tried chkdsk and it didn't find any errors. I didn't scan all the drives for sectors though, it was long so I stopped the check to do other things more important first.


so, if its hardware, I guess it could be :
Mother board : maybe the "power surge" affected it. It's not hot (25°c)
CPU : same, or maybe a cache problem? it's not hot (30°c)
RAM : I didn't test them yet
HDD : I will try to backup all the data, between multiple BSODs sessions, until they die ?

It's really annoying, and I'm starting to think I might just buy a new computer u_u



Strange thing : the HDD LED notification on the PC is blinking a lot, even on the "insert password" screen. which app is running in the brackground ?
Windows and network, probably, but why would my hdd be very active if nothing is using them nor accessing them from network?

I don't know what to do now.
Maybe check the RAM.
I should find a USB Fash drive I could use to test RAM.


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## kumikochan (Apr 2, 2017)

And where do you live. Don't you have surge protection


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## Cyan (Apr 2, 2017)

I do.
That's old news.
I'm now struggling with BSOD issue 
it's probably related to the surge (if it's a surge), because it first happened since that day.

Or maybe a bad contact with one of the hardware? maybe I affected something when opening the PC and touching all the components?
What is very strange is that I didn't get hal.dll bluescreen for more than a month !
I thought the issue was really related to the "Unlock 4G access" option on the bios. I disabled it and no more crash, I thought it was related.
Now I know it wasn't.

Yesterday I moved/copied a lot of files and the HDD didn't cause any crashes. why today?

Edit :
Oh, I have 3 HDDs :
- 2 HDD in raid, with my OS.
- 1 HDD sata
I could try disconnecting the non RAID one, see if it's an issue with that drive.
But seing it's random, it might not be conclusive.

Edit again :
Ahhhh, it just crashed while waiting on the "enter password" screen.

I'll now try waiting in the BIOS.
edit: No crash in bios for 1H

I might try unplugging the lone HDD, at least that's still something to test.
But I'll see tomorrow, I'm tired of today's issues.


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## Madridi (Apr 4, 2017)

Well I'm glad to see you got everything back to working order besides the bsod issues 

As for the bsod, it could be multiple things, but from experience, it's 90% goes back to one of these 2:
- CPU
- RAM

I assume you don't have any overclock atm and everything is at stock levels. So I would consider testing ram first with memtest. Make sure it's a thorough test. (I like to do my tests for 24h) .. If that goes well, try linx for both CPU and ram testing.

I'm also noticing that since some drivers and stuff are not detected, as annoying as it can be, if I were you I would backup my files, and start with a fresh setup (after ruling out the CPU and ram issues)

If it's none of the above, then that's beyond my expertise. So hopefully it works out


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## V0idst4r (Apr 6, 2017)

this is spookier than a creepy pasta


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## Cyan (Apr 6, 2017)

All the crashes appeared after 5 to 30 mins.

I tested my RAM for 5 hours (did 5 passes) and found 0 error.
I have 2 HDD in RAID1, and 1 HDD non raid.

I don't know Linx, it's a way to test the CPU ?


Now I have to test my HDDs, but it's a little more complicated as I have some RAID HDD.

When I boot the PC, I get up to windows' session login page. I don't type any password and just wait on that page.
The HDD is heavily used (maybe windows is still doing some defrag work ?)

I tried plugging the non RAID HDD alone in all sata port, and the PC didn't crash.
I tried plugging the RAID alone, and it crashes after 30 min.

My non RAID HDD also have a windows installed and had as much HDD activity on that session login page. but didn't crash.
I kept that page for 1 hour on each Sata connector.

when I boot the OS located on the RAID, it crashes.

To me it looks like either a HDD problem, or a RAID problem from the mother board's RAID controller.


I'm eager to do more test by connecting only one HDD of the RAID1, as seeing windows is doing a lot of activity on the HDD, if the files are moved around, the two HDD will not be mirror anymore and will want to rebuild when I connect both again.


I also tried booting into a UEFI autoboot disc (Acronis 2016), to make a backup of my OS on the RAID.
I could make the backup, but when it tested the integrity, it crashed again at 3/4 of the test, ruling out Windows error. it's also crashing when not in Windows.

I tried booting into Acronis without doing anything, but it's not crashing (ON for the last 2 hours). I guess it requires activity on the HDD to crash. Maybe a defective sector?
I Hoped it would crash without doing any backup work, so I could test one HDD at a time without affecting the HDD's data and not disrupting the RAID mirror.


Is there a way I could boot an OS which is NOT editing the drive when the HDD is connected?
Maybe a disc autoboot Linux? So I could backup my data ? it's working with RAID, right?
I never used linux, not sure how to use it. I'll move that option last.

On next test, I will connect the RAID on 2 other SATA on the mother board. I will also use different SATA cable/Power cable to rule out the hardware.

Next, if still crashing, I *think* I will buy 2 new HDD and make them RAID too. I'll try to restore my Acronis backup to it, to see if the problem is the RAID controller/BIOS itself or the HDD.

If it's the RAID controller, I might ask to exchange my mother board. I hope I could find the same model so I don't have to reinstall any drivers to windows.


I have a question : If it's the RAID controller, and I don't get a new mother board, if I break the 2HDD RAID1 in 2 Non-RAID HDD, will windows still be working ? I installed it with RAID drivers and I dont know if it will work with non raid system without a full reinstall..... I really want to avoid any reinstall.


Anoter option would be to go with a NAS.
I can connect my RAID1 setup in a synology NAS and it will be detected and mounted? or would the NAS ask me to format the drives to use them?


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## Astral_ (Apr 6, 2017)

Honestly if you had a surge which fried PS4+computer, I doubt the motherboard went through this unharmed. Crashing during BIOS is a bad omen. You should try and load the failsafe settings in BIOS. I'd replace the PSU as well... heck if it happened to me I'd replace everything before I lose my data !


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## Cyan (Apr 6, 2017)

the BIOS does not crash.
When I had my issue, I couldn't see anything nor hear any BIP (it seems my mother board doesn't BIP when doing the POST test !)
I thought the issue was the BIOS and I reset it, so maybe I didn't put the correct values back.

I never took any screenshot of the old values, so maybe I did something wrong ?
It's almost everything in default value, except the RAID which I enabled.

I'm also thinking the PSU could be faulty, I tried a different one, which fried ! (BAD Luck !) I really really think it was just bad  luck and not an issue with my Electricity company.

so, it still could be a PSU issue or CPU issue, but it's really strange that only the RAID HDD are crashing, it's not crashing when I'm using the non raid HDD. does it rules out the PSU/CPU out of the problem ?
I also don't think it was a power surge, To me it seems the graphic card had a glitch and fried other connected devices due to discharged electricity. but I still don't know where the issue originated (TV ? graphic card?)


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## Astral_ (Apr 6, 2017)

Just reread the whole thing... you replaced a 8800GTS with a 960GTX ? This is another level of power consumption, might be that the 2 extra HDDs puts the nail in the coffin.

What's the wattage of your PSU ?


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## Cyan (Apr 6, 2017)

I originally had a 960 for 2 years without issue.
I used my old 8800gts as temp replacement until I got the new replaced 960 back

it's a 450W, not much but it worked for 2 years until today. I never play games so It's kind of unnecessary high end card for just watching videos and dual screen. but I don't think 1 video card + 2 HDD is too much.

Ahh, and also, it blue screen'd with the 8800 too.
It crashed once right after I reset the BIOS and plugged the card. I enabled an option in the BIOS which I thought was the issue (enable 4G access....something) and I disabled it right after the first blue screen and didn't have more for 1 month. I thought that bios setting was the issue, until last week.

It started to crash again, right before I change the video card. So it's not related to the 960


The BIOS default setting seems to be set on "high end memory usage" and "auto over clock"
But I don't want to overclock at all. is there a possibility the issue is the default over clocking ?
I can take screens of all my BIOS settings if needed. there are few options which I don't know their use.


Anyway, thanks to everyone who is trying to help me 
I appreciate the fact users are helping me while I'm used to help them instead.




Spoiler: First edit



I found few tools, not sure if it's okay to test/run them :

this one works with RAID drives:
http://vm1.duckdns.org/Public/HardDiskValidator/HardDiskValidator.htm
it has a BootCD with WinPE and Mono.
I don't know these tools at all, but it might be a way to do it?

I didn't check the S.M.A.R.T. data of the HDDs
there's "HDD Health" which I found on a website.

I might try to restore the Acronis backup on a non-raid HDD and see how windows behave with Raid drivers on a non raid OS.






Spoiler: Edit sunday apr 9



I did few hdd tests:
- Another (non raid) HDD on all port : good
- Another (non raid) HDD + Another RAID : good, should rules out mother board and RAID controller.
- problematic RAID on another port, with different cables : fails, should confirm the issue is the drives and not the mother board or ports.
- Another (non raid) hdd + problematic RAID : the OS (windows) runs from the non raid drive. Seems not crashing.

On this last test, I stayed 1 hour and it didn't crash while it usually crash after 15min when the OS is running on the RAID one.
seeing it is still working, I launched HDD Validator (link just above) and it's now performing a simple "read" of all sectors.
I thought it analyzed each HDD of the RAID independently, but it found ony the raid volume not raid HDDs.
It's performing a cluster check of the raid volume. (I don't think it can do a per HDD sector check, as it's a multi HDD volume)

I don't know which information it will provide. If it can tell which HDD of the raid is bad or not.

Edit:
Result : no error found at all, no crash at all.
The cluster are fine (no cluster errors, and probably no sector errors either?)

So, I don't know what to test next.
I'll probably try to reinstall an image of my windows to a new HDD and see if Windows is the cause or not.





Spoiler: Edit April 12



I could test the HDD !

I found old previous spare HDD and decided to make them RAID1 too, just to see if the mother board had issues with any RAID or just my drives.
It turns out it's not ALL the raid, just my HDD which are bad.

I unplugged all my HDDs.
I created a new RAID1 from 2 old HDDs.
I tried to restore an image backup of my OS (using Acronis) but there weren't any partition or table so it couldn't do it.
I used Gparted booting CD to format the new RAID volume, which .... FAILED COMPLETELY. 

Really, GPARTED IS BAD. I don't understand why people are recommending this tool.

It couldn't create a partition (froze when creating the partition table)
After reboot, I could add partitions, but failed in creating them physically on the drive.
It said "there are missing space on the HDD, do you want to fix it?" and doing so just destroyed the RAID volume and made 2 non raid HDD unformatted.
Gparted has issues with RAID?

So, I finally booted a different Windows OS I had on another HDD and plugged the re-created RAID volume, and Windows could format a new partition in 2 seconds !
Really, not hard to format in windows.... Linux seems to try too hard to make something easy


I then restored an OLD acronis image of my OS (current OS failed to backup, hopefully I had an old one from July 2016)

It boots, and could stay on it for hours without any crashes.
So it rules out the mother board or RAID controller. the issue is really one of my RAID HDD, now I don't know which one !


next test : 
- Try and find which HDD is bad.
- Either : stop using RAID
OR
 buy a new HDD to rebuild randomly, hoping I kept the correct HDD to rebuild with.
I could always reformat the new one and rebuild using the second HDD as source if the first source is the problematic drive.
OR 
I keep the new test RAID as my main OS, and keep my failed raid as secondary partitions, and not access the first partition (which seems to be the one which have issues). Other partitions should work, except if the bad sector is shared among multiple plates.

- Try to restore my OS on a non RAID hdd. see if windows will still work as it was installed with RAID drivers.
But it should work, I could use windows on a non raid partition but still connect RAID hdd as secondary sata.

- I will try to break the RAID volume of the test drive to see if my data are still available and the drive can be used as non raid (it's a mirror with no parity, all the data is on each drive).





Spoiler: April 12, next



As next test, I tried to "break the RAID".
I did it, and the BIOS warned me all data would be lost.
I did it anyway, and surprisingly, the data were still there.

I booted with both drives connected, and windows started ! (from one drive)
Once in windows, I noticed I didn't have all the hdd recognized, only the one I booted from.

1min later, windows showed me a message "driver installed for SCSI...." etc.
I thought, it's ok, now the other drive should be detected.
I rebooted, and was greeted with the recovery menu because windows supposedly didn't shutdown correctly, while it did.
I chose "boot normaly" and got a blue screen right away.
So, having a broken RAID HDDs system is not a good idea.


Next step:
I kept only one drive, and restored my OS backup again, this time without any RAID.
windows worked ! (and still does)
I had a message for "installing new drivers" and "you need to reboot to use this !" (whatever "this" could be? I don't know).
I thought "it will break again, it detected I'm not on RAID system anymore and will crash to BScreen again?"
But no, it seems to work so far.

I'm copying my data from my non-RAID HDD to it, so I'll use it as main HDD and will plug my previous OS RAID HDD as slave.

I will leave the PC alone for few hours to be sure everything is stable again before reinstalling/recovering my programs, setting internet back, etc.



Conclusion :
The bluescreen seems to be caused by a bad HDD in my RAID.
The RAID system is supposed to help and save you from losing your data when 1 HDD is dying by hot-switching the bad one, and on my previous system it worked as intended.
This time (this mother board? windows 7?) it's not doing its job and telling me a HDD is dead and needs to be replaced, but instead just crash on blue screen ! (probably causing even more harms to the drives each time it hard resets and stop write access savagely)

I think I will stop using RAID for my OS.
I'll probably continue using RAID for my data, it "SHOULD" not crash on blue screen if the problematic partition is not the current running OS partition.
I'll buy myself a Synology NAS running a real hardware RAID 5 controller now for all my storage needs.
Maybe the bluescreen is not related to Raid but to bad sector and it would still happen on a non raid system, but I still need more tests.


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## Cyan (May 9, 2017)

Hello everyone,

I'm posting here to tell you I finally fixed my computer's issue.
all these blue screen crash every 15min was due to a bad BIOS setting !

I spent more than a month wondering how to fix it, I even swapped a lot of HDD, RAID, hardware, and tried different OS to narrow the issue to the bios 
I could have done it earlier....

When I reset the BIOS 2 months ago, it asked me which type of fan I have on my CPU, and based on my answer it decided to enable Overclocking with some random values.
It set the based clock to 102 instead of 100. Just a small difference made all the difference. There weren't any choice for "no overclock" at all, it was "XMP extra memory [default]" or "manual". I thought the "default" was really that and it managed overclock itself. it appears it wasn't the real default, and another real "default" exists when resetting the bios and not selecting the auto-setup based on hardware.


Now it's fixed, and I have a backup of all my data (lesson learned, for now).
I have a month of threads, gaming and scene news to catch up.
It's nice to be back.


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## Dionicio3 (May 9, 2017)

Cyan said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> I'm posting here to tell you I finally fixed my computer's issue.
> all these blue screen crash every 15min was due to a bad BIOS setting !
> ...


Nice man, welcome back


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## orangy57 (May 10, 2017)

Cyan said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> I'm posting here to tell you I finally fixed my computer's issue.
> all these blue screen crash every 15min was due to a bad BIOS setting !
> ...



nice job fixing the issue. My only confusion is that it took you a month to think to reset the BIOS?  It's usually like two physical pins yo connect and the BIOS resets itself for you, and you didn't think of ever trying that?

well the time's passed already now


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## Cyan (May 10, 2017)

Orangy57 said:


> nice job fixing the issue. My only confusion is that it took you a month to think to reset the BIOS?  It's usually like two physical pins yo connect and the BIOS resets itself for you, and you didn't think of ever trying that?
> 
> well the time's passed already now


That's the first thing I did, and what caused the issue in the first place.
I didn't thought to re-reset it and this time don't let it auto-setup the options.


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