# Please help with locating hardware problem

## knedle

Hi!

Starting yesterday something bad happened with my box, computer hangs randomly, compiz closes by itself and sometimes when I watch video, I see ugly vertical stripes (and then computer hangs). Since I tried booting from Ubuntu Live CD and then experienced similar problems (well it never hung, but for example Firefox closed few times by itself), I'm pretty sure it has to be hardware problem.

To check it it's memory, I've left memtest running for few hours, but when I got back memtest passed few iterations without any errors and then it hung just as my gentoo system.

I guess that leaves my with just motherboard, or cpu being damaged, but how can I tell what is broken, does anybody has any idea? It would be easiest to get another cpu, or another motherboard, but unfortunately I don't know anyone who would like to lend me his hardware.

My cpu is Core 2 Quad Q6600, and my motherboard is Foxcon with Intel G45 chip.

----------

## cach0rr0

if i were to hazard a guess, sounds like the video memory  is dodgy

wait for some other folks to comment, but if indeed that's the case, $30-$40 should get you a decent video card that's good enough for watching video (my nvidia 8400GS is pretty low-end, and handles bluray without issue). Not really acceptable for gaming, but good enough for video. Cheaper than getting a new motherboard. 

I'm sure there are some non-hardware things that can cause those symptoms, but from what you describe given that nothing has changed, it seems unlikely

----------

## d2_racing

If it's the video card, maybe disable compiz to see if it's better.

Also, which video driver are you using ?

----------

## knedle

Since I've got mainboard with Intel G45, my video card is integrated with chipset (well, I needed microATX board and all microATX boards have integrated graphics, it turned out that it's enough for me, so I never bought anything better).

```
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
```

```

*  x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel

      Latest version available: 2.11.0

      Latest version installed: 2.11.0

      Size of files: 851 kB

      Homepage:      http://xorg.freedesktop.org/

      Description:   X.Org driver for Intel cards

      License:       MIT

```

So if it's graphic card, then it must be something with north bridge on my board. That seem reasonable, as all problems started after few days with extremely high temperature (about 37*C in room, CPU stress temperature was about 90*C), and NB on my board has passive cooling.

Guess I'll have to send this board to shop where I bought it, and use my Atom board instead. This is going to be hard.  :Wink: 

----------

## bobspencer123

 *knedle wrote:*   

> Since I've got mainboard with Intel G45, my video card is integrated with chipset (well, I needed microATX board and all microATX boards have integrated graphics, it turned out that it's enough for me, so I never bought anything better).
> 
> ```
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
> ```
> ...

 

yeah the symptoms sound like a heat issue to me.

----------

## d2_racing

Can you try with an another video card, because Compiz can eat a lot of ressources and your current video card is not very good for 3D stuff.

Heat can be pretty the cause of your problem.

Did you try without any 3D effect ?

----------

## depontius

Is lm_sensors installed?

Does your northbridge have a thermal sensor on it?

Newer versions of lm_sensors have the "sensord" USE flag. which builds a sensor daemon.  It will periodically log readings to you can go back and check later.

----------

