Vista - Major Troubles: Power Supply or Corrupt Install??

On Mar 12, 5:29 pm, Tyrenta <dougre...@xxxxxx> wrote:1) Any power supply even 30 years ago could have all voltage outputs
shorted together and power supply still must not be harmed. This
being a load larger than everything in the computer combined. Intel
specs even define how large this shorting wire must be - and no
damage. Nothing in a computer should damage its power supply. And a
properly designed power supply must never damage any other computer
part.

2) An undersized power supply (causing low output voltages) will only
make Windows appear defective. Windows should not be corrupted by an
undersized (overloaded) supply. However if peripherals were not
working properly, then Windows might not see them; might not load
correct drivers for those peripherals. Did this happen? Answers are
obtained from Device Manager and the system (event) logs.

One correction from a previous posts. Provided low voltage numbers
do not take into account how voltages are measured. Minimum voltages
for a power supply must be measured when everything is being accessed
(multitasked) simultaneously. IOW display complex graphics (ie a
movie), while playing the sound card, while defragging a hard drive,
while accessing a data on a floppy, while downloading from the
internet, while reading from a CD, while ... all simultaneously. Now
measure power supply voltages. Those numbers must exceed 3.23, 4.87,
and 11.7 volts DC on any one of orange, red, purple, and yellow power
supply wires. If not, then the power supply is either undersized or
defective.

On Mar 14, 6:25 pm, w_tom <w_t...@xxxxxx> wrote:thanks all -- I checked the voltages from BIOS and everything seems
fine now, the caveat being I unplugged the 3 new RAID drives to see if
that solved my current windows problems. it did not, so now it seems
my voltages are OK with the new drives unplugged, but I still have the
following issues:

can no longer shut down (hangs)
can't access Drive Manager from control panel (hangs)
can't always launch IE (hangs trying to connect, or doesn't launch at
all; is in processes though and other sw does get an internet
connection i.e. Skype)
can't launch the nVidia contol panel (hourglass then no window; but
can see it start in processes)
random reboots every 10-20min (i'm currently letting it sit in BIO to
see if it reboots there)
=> basically seems to have trouble with any system / explorer
functions as other software seems OK

Voltage Rail Minimum Maximum
3.3VDC 3.14V 3.47V *3.4*
5.0VDC 4.75V 5.25V *5.12*
12.0VDC 11.40V 12.60V *12.75*
5.0VSB 4.75V 5.25V (Stand By)
*vcore voltage 1.35*

I tried the repair from DVD but it found no errors. I also tried a
system restore with no change.

two things to note also -- the nVivia control panel issue was my
original issue, and the device manager was recognzing the new hardware
with no errors. given that there are three new drives and the dm saw
them I don't think it is a bad hardware issue per se.

any ideas how I should proceed? Is there another way to reinstall/
repair vista so to spreak without having to do a full reinstall of all
my software -- I'd really like to avoid this....I appreciate all your
help.

On Mar 14, 7:15 pm, Tyrenta <dougre...@xxxxxx> wrote:one other thought -- is there a log file or similar that would tell
me if anything is not running properly in windows?

BIOS cannot measure accurate voltage. It is a monitor. Its purpose
is to detect change; therefore not calibrated. BIOS is not sufficient
until calibrated by the same required tool - a 3.5 digit multimeter.

Voltage measurements are mostly useless if every system component is
not included AND accessed. IOW change no hardware; disconnect
nothing. Power supply must have a maximum load when measured.
Execute (multitask) to everything (or as much as possible) to measure
voltages. Do nothing else yet since everything (as those symptoms
demonstrate) tell us nothing useful without first establishing the
power supply 'system' as 'definitively good'. Objective is to, step
by step, move each component or sub-system from 'unknown' to either
'definitively good' or 'definitively bad'. Power system is still
unknown. An 'unknown' power system means everything else remains
unknown.

Note the word 'system'. Supply is only one component of a 'system'
that must be 'definitively good' before anything else can be
diagnosed.

No reason exists to suspect Vista (yet) because most everything
(hardware and software) is 'unknown'. Break a problem down into
parts. Then move each part from 'unknown' to 'definitively
something'. With a complex problem, then simplify it. Avoid Windows
completely - first establish hardware integrity.

Ignore those other Control Panels, etc. that are not yet relevant.
Essential at this point was information from Device Manager and from
system (event) log. Neither will be 'complicated' by Windows (but
require Windows to read that stored information). Both are also
essential information.

Planning for the next step: Hardware that can crash Windows is a
shorter list of sound card, video processor, CPU, memory, power
supply, and some motherboard functions. Disk drives and many other
computer parts are not on that list. These hardware require
diagnostics (without Windows) to verify integrity - move it from
'unknown'. If your computer is not from a responsible manufacturer,
then a full system comprehensive hardware diagnostic does not exist.
So hardware diagnostics are obtained, one by one, from component
manufacturers or from third parties. For example, video processor
diagnostic is from nVidia. Memory diagnostic is from a third party -
memtst86. A useful diagnostic executes without the complications of
Windows - to break a problem down into parts. Start collecting
relevant hardware diagnostics.

On Mar 14, 6:15 pm, Tyrenta <dougre...@xxxxxx> wrote: