Potential RMA; Question about RMA.

Post by **Stavros** » 13 Feb 2006, 19:19

Ok. I've ruled out software as the problem that plagued my computer. I've come be believe that since my Retail Windoze XP Home still freezes up that my problems have to be hardware.

Tomorrow I'm going to change IDE cables to see if I have a faulty cable. If that doesn't work I have a few potential parts:

-Motherboard
-PSU
-Hard Drive (It's OEM, so I'll be forced to buy another one)
-CPU

Those four have to be one of my potential problem. My suspicion is that it's either my HDD or my Motherboard. I doubt that it's the PSU because I bought one of the highly regarded PSUs that is said to be rock solid...this one.

Enough of the prelims. Down to the core. My question: Can I still do an RMA eventhough I don't have (or can't find) the retail box?[/url]

Post by **bad_brain** » 14 Feb 2006, 03:54

yeah, should be possible without any problems, you´re not engaged to keep the packaging, all you need is the bill....

Post by **Stavros** » 14 Feb 2006, 07:21

Ok, well, one detail I forgot. My warranty for the parts has expired (from the retailer), but my warranty from the parts manufacturer is still in effect. What about that?

Post by **bad_brain** » 14 Feb 2006, 13:44

hm, if there is an extra manufacturer´s guarantee card and it´s not stamped/registered you may get some problems. but well, you can still grab the phone then, call the manufacturer´s place of business for your country and simply be nice...tell them that all your HDDs (and some other parts if they build some) are from their company and that you really enjoy working with their technology, and of course that you´ll surely buy your next stuff too from them....blahblah.....but you have a little problem and hope that they can be so kind and help you....
the chance is high that it works, especially the hardware market is a real hard one and so no serious company can risk to loose a good customer...

Post by **Stavros** » 14 Feb 2006, 19:36

Related to this, most of the BSODs that I looked into (or the ones I could find laying around my computer and bothered to look up) were STOP codes indicating errors in the NTFS filesystem. That leads me to think the HDD mignt be borked. Your thoughts?

Post by **Stavros** » 14 Feb 2006, 23:07

Update: To re-evaluate my HDD, I'm running the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. So if it's bad sectors, I'll be sure.

One thing I've notices is that I can run programs like solitare most of the time and it won't freeze up, but when I run a third party program it'll freeze up. I don't think this means I have a bad copy because all the software is downloaded from the same source every time.

I ran Adaware once and it ran fine without freezing up. Then immediately after running Adaware I ran AVG and it froze up somewhere after scanning 1500 files (this took between 5 and 10 minutes, but I would guess around 8 minutes ). Oddly enough I'm running the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and it hasn't frozen up. I still have approximately 50 minutes left, so I'll report back with my results.

Update 2 (February,15 2006; 12:20 a.m. US Cental Standard Time):
Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD2500KS-00MJB0
Serial Number: -Not posting-
Firmware Number: 200.C1130
Drive Type: SATA
Capacity: 250GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 00:13:26, February 15,2006

I am thoroughly baffled.

Post by **Stavros** » 16 Feb 2006, 09:11

So given the data that the HDD isn't the problem and the RAM isn't the problem, I'd narrowed the possibilities down to the PSU, CPU and motherboard. I think it's CPU, but I've said that I've been certain what the problems were and it wasn't the case.

So, I want to test my PSU. What do I need to test it? Is there a way to test Motherboard and CPU?

Post by **bad_brain** » 16 Feb 2006, 10:07

hm, it´s hard to really "test" them, but I recommend to run different benchmarks to see how the system reacts, the best program for this is imo Sandra:
http://www.sisoftware.net/?dir=dload&lo ... angx=en&a=

it also displays a lot of useful system info, maybe you even get an error message which may help.

Post by **Stavros** » 24 Feb 2006, 09:33

I'm going to download Sandra when I get home. What benchmarks do you suggest I run?

Post by **bad_brain** » 24 Feb 2006, 10:45

ummm...has been a while since I´ve used it, maybe you should do all to get as much information as possible...in the system info you also get some tips about how to optimize the system and possible misconfiguration, maybe you can find some errors too there. my Sandra-version is a pretty old one, I´m sure there are some new options now, just check them all out, Sandra is pretty extensive...