Fatal computer problem.

[Pocalypse]

I realise this may not be the best forum to find an answer to my problem, but It's somewhat dual-boxing related and there seem to be lots of knowledgable people around here so figured I'd give it a try.

I've been running 5 clients on my machine, dinged 70 with them just yesterday (yay!). They've been running problem free for the most part, I get slowdows in shattrath (I play on mal'ganis, a very high pop server). And once or twice my clients would get completely frozen and I'd have to alt F4 out of them, restart my computer and then everything would be fine. This happened at most twice since I started multiboxing (both times when I was in the scryer bank on all 5 characters).

So I dinged 70, and headed to the isle of quel'danas to get some more gold for my flying mounts, when the frozen things happen again. I think OK, restart the computer, log back in and everything is fine and dandy. At this point I figure I'd go completely low settings on my clones, and change their anti-aliasing from 24bit 1x multisample to 16bit 1x multisample, just to do what I can, I was never sure what that settings did (I don't know if this might have caused the error, maybe someone can tell me). It was ok, restarted the clients, logged in fine and walked around for about 2 minutes.

I then get a blue screen with the following error message: MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION
at the bottom: STOP: 0x0000009c

I realise by googling this means an unrecoverable hardware error.

Since then I haven't been able to boot up my computer at all. I can hear the fans running when I press the power buttons, but no beeps, and nothing displays on my monitors.

My computer specs are as follows:

Alienware Area-51™ 7500

Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP 32 bit
Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce™ 4 SLI Motherboard
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz 4MB Cache 1066MHz FSB
Memory: 4GB DDR2 PC-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 x 1024MB (yes I know windows xp 32bit can only use 3gb)
Video Card: 1024MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7950 GX2
System Drive: RAID 0 - 1.5 TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM with 32MB Cache (2 x 750GB)
Storage Drive: 500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 7,200 RPM w/16MB Cache

I run 2 19" monitors at 1280x1024 each.

I have 5 wow folders, 1 on main drive, 4 clones on secondary drive. I routinely run 5xWoW as well as firefox and itunes.

The computer is about 2 years old now.

My graphics drivers were up to date.

I've tried the following:

- Remove all 4 sticks of ram and try each on its own. No effect.
- Disconnect all hard drives. No effect.
- Reset CMOS (I think, this was with tech support on the phone). No effect.
- Remove graphics card. My mobo doesnt have onboard, but even so, no beeps and fans don't change speed at all. No effect.
- Checked all cables and wiring.

It's still under warranty, and alienware is saying to send it back to them, and unless I find another solution online that's what I'm gonna do. But I'd like to avoid that if at all possible, especially since they might have to format my drives ;( . Googling hasn't yielded any good results.

Has this happened to anyone before? Does anyone have any suggestions? I can use all the help I can get.

Also, as I said I know this isn't really a computer forum. Could anyone suggest another forum that this would fit in? I don't really browse any tech support forums.

Thanks, and sorry for the long read .

[Oatboat]

the great thing about a bad situation like this is.... WARRANTY! Get new free parts when you can .. i mean hey.. you 're paying for it.

But yeah on the downside if you talked to tech support and walked through all the basics that you have... its almost worth it just to let them fix/replace. The only other thing i can think of is reseating the processor... but some people arent comfortable with that. Obviously its either processor or memory related as i think the 0x0000009c error is a cpu error.

sorry about your troubles...

[Farleito]

Machine checks are a bitch. They are generally caused by memory problems (ECC/Parity) or bus errors. Be happy that the system does not boot up anymore. If you would have sent the system in as it was, when it was semi-working... they would have sat it on a bench and run some crappy burn-in software for a few days to come back and find it still running. They would proceed to send it back to you and charge you for a no-fault-found diagnostics fee.

Running 5 instances of WoW hammers the shit out of your resources. The problem could have been a result of an inefficient cooling system. With all that hardware, you better have a kick-ass cooling system. Over the years, your fans slow down or even stop. Running 5 instances of WoW generates a LOT of heat. The GPU/CPU/Memory/Bridges are working at 100%. It is very possible that your hardware eventually failed from the extreme temps(melted... transistors arc'd...etc). The systems should handle this, but again, over time the cooling system loses its effectiveness.

In any case, something is going to need to be replaced. You can try (for piece of mind..cause it won't fix anything) removing all of your memory and power the system on. It's been a while, so I don't know the specific audible pattern of no memory, but you should hear it. If not, then it's something else.

Good luck!

[Pocalypse]

Thanks for the replies.

Reseating the processor is not something I'm willing to do on my own. I have never touched it, and I think it'll be too easy to do something wrong.

The computer has some kind of liquid cooling system, whether that means its still working properly I don't know. I thought it might be overheating, but the fans have been working fine last I checked.
I tried running some temperature programs over the past few weeks, but couldn't figure the sensors out to see what, if anything, was overheating.

I tried removing all the memory, no beeps or anything like that.

I guess this means its a motherboard or CPU problem. Which means my only choice is sending it over to them.
Now I just need to find a different computer to set up my drives in so I can offload all the important data.

Very happy I got that extra 3 year warranty now.

On a side note, I was talking to a friend a couple of days ago about maybe getting a new computer soon, I think my computer heard me and decided to leave me before I could leave it. Tempermental things aren't they?

[entoptic]

Hey I am an IT guy so try these steps.

1. unplug the computer from the wall and wait. Wait like 5 mins. you have to let the charge built up on the board die down. Plug the power back in and try it again.

2. unplug all power to Hard drives, optical drives, everything.... Turn it on and listen for beeps. Let me know what happens.

If you get beeps then plug in your video card and try again to see if the beeps also give a bios error. If they do then you are on to something.

Did you notice any smells or temps of your computer? I know those alienware computers are top knotch but they get the /fail when it comes to negative air flow.

[entoptic]

Oh yea. When you press the power button on the computer do the fans wind up and then die? Or does nothing happen at all?

[Pocalypse]

When I press the power button the fans power up and stay on until I manually turn the computer off again. They also don't change speeds like fans usually do after the first second or two.

I'm trying the unplug from power now.

I certainly never smelled anything funny. I had a feeling the computer was very hot just from running all those things at once, and fans running at full speed all the time, but I never got any figures for it, so I don't know if anything was actually at a dangerous temperature.

Thanks for the help.

[Pocalypse]

Disconnected power cable and all other external cables. Waited 10 minutes then booted up. No change, no beeps.

Disconnected all internal power cables, hard drives, cd drive and graphics card. No change, no beeps.

[entoptic]

do you have another vid card? I am worried as no bios posts. It is def a hardware issue, what it is for sure I can not tell you but I would exercise a warranty and make sure they replace whatever is broken. Don't have them send you back a pc without replacing the hardware.

I would also tell them that you are not shipping your hard drives out to them as they contain personal company data. They should be ok with that answer.

Check with another video card and see what is up. I had this issue occur several times on my old board and I just let the computer sit. Turned it back on while chanting a prayer and it worked.

Let me ask around here and see what other IT people think.

[entoptic]

ok well some other agree with me in that your Mobo is Nogo. it's busted mang.

This is where you say

Word to your motherboard!