Brand New NP8662 barely working.

Okay, I'm just gonna say, I'm quite pissed about this. I just got my NP8662 last week, and it was working fine, temps were great, performance was great, was running Crysis on high at mid 30 fps.
Now.. I can hardly complete simple tasks, I cant even begin to run Crysis, let alone Call of Duty 4 (which I was getting 90fps in).
I have NO idea what happend! But NOTHING works now.

P9700, 4GB RAM, 260M, Seagate 7200RPM 320GB HDD.
When I got it, I did a super clean reformat, latest drivers, vista tweaks all that jazz. Everything was working fine, and I'm SUPER picky about keeping my computer running perfectly. So I'm hoping someone can help me out with this.

I have no idea what happened, the only things I did between it working, and not working, are install Ntools... install bioshock... and overclock my GPU to a safe 600/900/1500 for about 10 minutes.
My CPU usage is constantly around 40%, although its all over the place, up to 100% sometimes during idle. I have minimal processess running and avast was installed before I even connected to the internet.
One thing I have noticed is that my HDD runs a little hotter than normal recently, idles at 54C..

Thinking of reformatting now, which is bull, because I just did that, and have done NOTHING harmful to this thing.
I dont THINK its a hardware problem, but what programs can I use to make sure that my GPU/CPU and HDD are working properly?

ntools - as in the add on so you can overclock from nvidia control panel

 

you could use something like orthos to stress test the cpu & ram, gputool to test the gpu and the HDD most likely has some form of SMART, so there are a number of things that can read that, like SIW.

I thought NTools was a linux thing, or am I just out of touch?

 

OCing it may have caused the problem.
if youve done all the tweaks does that mean you turned of your restore points.
if so reformat, if not turn it back to the day before it started playing silly buggers.

OEM's state that if it turns out to be due to overclocking then they may not cover it by warranty.

good luck

 

What program can I use to check that my GPU is working correctly. I dont think thats the problem tho, I overclocked it to a very safe level, and didn't even play a game or do anything stressful while it was overclocked (was just figuring out how to do it)

And heres the thing, I DID do a system restore... and It worked fine last night.. but now when I turned it on this morning... nuthin, works like crap. The only thing that happened between the system restore last night and this morning, is a single windows update (security update for NET framework)

EDIT - When I did do that system restore, I was playin Crysis fine, and that was after overclocking.. so I dont think its due to damage to my GPU

 

I do remember a vista bug that causes the CPU to be used heavily for no apparent reason. I expereienced it once on my G1S, and simply reformatted to get rid of it.

 

i was just going to ask if any new updates had been downloaded.
ive had 2 major problems after differet updates.
can you get the serial number of the NET Framework one and ill check if it loaded fine on mine.

 

What was your hdd temp before it started idling at 54?

 

Overclocking (what is the "safe" level for overclocking? You're always risking it when you're doing what's not meant to be) may have caused this problem. You're not picky about it being perfectly fine while you're messing around with it.

In any case, as a last resort (should be done soon if nothing else works), reformat and see if it acts the same. If it does, then it would be the hardware issue. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it is. You can try to contact the tech support of the vendor.

Good luck.

 

"Nothing works..."

Can you be more specific? What happens when you try to play a game?

Also did you raise the GPU voltage to 1.05v? If not, you may need to lower the clocks.

What have you been downloading?

Did you install the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility, and Intel Storage Matrix Manager?

 

i would be very surprised if clocking to those clocks for 10 mins nuked his card

i would do a windows re-install

 

as long as he knew what he was doing.

imo you spend a lot of dosh on a new computer thats running fast and great and then risk everythin by ocing it when its not meant to be oc'd.

 

Hey, download this:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

And it will show you the process that is using a lot of CPU... Sort the processes by CPU usage...

 

I had this issue with Intel Turbo memory and I had to upgrade my drivers off of Intel website, Process Explorer will help you find the problem

 

Yes, I knew what I was doing. And i only loaded the alternate clock rates for about 10 minutes, I'm defnitly not thinking thats the problem. I didn't change voltages at all.

But, what program would I use to test my GPU to see if it is having any problems? And what programs would be best for checking HDD and CPU to make sure their working well.

I spent the better part of the day reformatting, things seem to be working decently now, I'm installing some games as we speak to check things out.
Could anyone answer my initial question, what software can I use to make sure my hardware is working correctly?

 

CPU: Orthos / OCCT / wPrime (1024M test)
RAM: MemTest86+
HDD: HDTune
GPU: OCCT / FurMark / Video Memory Stress Test / ATI Tool / MemTestG80 (for Nvidia 8800 and up) / PassMark programs (Burn-In Test / Performance Test)

 

Sorry, I wasn't terribly specific. What doesn't work, is general performance (programs take longer to open, crazy typing lag, and about -50% fps in games.

No, GPU voltage was not change, I simply up'd the clocks by the SLIGHTEST amount, for 10 minutes, I really dont think thats the problem.

As to what I've been downloading... nothing. Except windows updates....
Yes all of those are installed.
I really dont expect anyone to actually figure out what was wrong.. that'd be very hard over the internets. I just wanna know what programs I can use to check my Hardware (as mentioned above)

EDIT - Thank you very much Gophn, thats what I was looking for!!!!

I am noticing one thing here.. after the reformat... my memory usage is pretty much... constantly at 35%.. just when I'm browsing the web... is that typical wit vista? I'm an XP guy up until a week ago.

 

You should use furmark to test your GPU, I have found nothing else stresses it as much as that program.

 

Hmm.. Since you're an XP guy and not familiar with Vista, maybe Vista is doing all the pre-caching crap it does from time to time to make your computer work "faster". That what it sounds like with high idle temp on the HD, High CPU usage, etc and you're not really doing anything. IF anything, I'd leave your computer on overnight.. let it do what it has to do and check it the following day. No reboots, etc. just let it finish. If it still runs like crap, then meh, I guess I'm wrong =P

 

have you ran and antivirus yet????

 

Umm... which version of windows have you got? I know it costs more, but as a vista enthusiast I MUST suggest to everyone that they should use Vista Ultimate and nothing else... Home premium is okay, but Ultimate is worth it... It's hard to describe, but there are simply less bugs. Like when making business/home premmy they messed up the software by removing the ultimate's features.

Home basic should be burnt alive and never sold again in the entire universe and wiped from peoples' memories. That might help others thinking about vista.

Also have you overclocked the cpu? There is some point when overclocking a cpu can cause it to reset and actually be underclocked, at which point it runs obviously very very slow. Nobody ever notices an underclock as a problem, but I've seen it happen.

Also you might want to check the BIOS or one of your hardware checkers and see if your cpu is getting enough voltage. My desktop one day for no reason just began to run SLOWWWWW. When I was looking in the BIOS by mistake, it appeared the card became undervolted and also it was set to "run in compatibility mode" which means the BIOS apparently thought my hardware stank and only ran it like half speed to "help" my computer. I set it to default and that took care of the rest of the problems

 

That's about the same as mine. Vista consumes something like 1.5G of RAM just to run itself. Considering the aforementioned, they should pay us to use the software and not charge us.

Did you reinstall everything? ... sounds like it.