[Phate]

ok, so i just upgraded an off-the-shelf Dell Dimension 4600 with these upgrades:

2gb Patriot Signature Ram
FSP 400W PSU
speakers
mouse.

after about 3 days of fine use, my sister tried to run sims 2... pretty labor intensive... and then turned it off.

i turned it ON, and tried to load windows. since the case is open on the floor, i heard that about every 15 seconds, there would be a distinct "ka ka ka ka" sound, then a short stop, then it would repeat 2-5 more times.

when i turned off the computer and felt the heatsinks on ram/cpu, cpu was fine but ram was hot, HDD was hot too, but i dont know how to take that out. so i cooled the ram off, waited till the HDD was cool. so EVERYTHING is completely cooled now..

i turned it on, before windows even started same problem.

any idea what this could be?

right now im on another computer (laptop) so PLEASE RESPOND..

i dont want any corruption

also, during the time when it was on with this problem, the keyboard was glitching in many ways.

thanks in advance,
Phate

[Hefemeister]

have you put the old componets in to see if the prob goes away? if the prob goes away start putting upgrades back in one at a time to see which is the culpret.

[Brtnboarder495]

Dell's are notorious for poor air flow, maybe you just need more fans or room inside the case. But really, check those memory temperatures before investing in after market cooling.

[Phate]

well... kind of hard to un-install the upgrades...

i threw away the old PSU... and gave the ram to a friend

anyways, the ram temp was high once, the other time it was fine... right now the tower is on its side with the top off... i would THINK it would get decent air flow... but should i take a 2-3 ft diameter house fan and put it in a place to blow into the case?

i also have a 120mm case fan (masscool, ball fan, very nice) but it doesnt fit in anywhere, should i just put it somewhere to blow in and plug it in or something?

im not sure this is an issue of overheating... since even after cooling the ram off to almost cold, the problem still occured. im gonna go try it again, be right back on the results.

[Hefemeister]

doh. Try to get the ram back most likely that is the prob. speakers and mouse really should not be a prob but psu and ram could be. Next time one upgrade at a time and keep the old until you know the new works. sorry bud

[Phate]

what would be wrong with the ram?

since it worked for 3 days of solid running without a hitch...

[Phate]

i hope it isnt the ram...

its been runnin fine... no problems at all... till my sis broke it!!!!

SHE WILL PAY!!!

lol... but seriously... is it the ram? it sounds like the ram is the thing making the sound, also, what would that be? would that be overheating??

[Hefemeister]

probably not sis fault sorry. you can still make her pay. have you run memtest on the memory yet? if not google it and run it to see if the mem is good.

[Phate]

i cant really use the computer... its virtually inoperable... but ill try... google memtest?

ok... also, would taking 1 of the 2 1gb sticks out change anything?

ive been reading another similar thread on another forum, and some guy was saying to up the voltage on the ram or something, becuase its not running fast or something?

also, heres link to thread: http://www.devhardware.com/forums/me...ing-69469.html

[Phate]

did memtest on 1 stick, got near 350% no errors.

doing both memsticks overnight, but that 1 was really hot. will the BIOS shut down the comp if they get too hot?