Solved: PC often fails to start, horrible game performance

EDIT: Thanks to a link given below, I've managed to pinpoint the problem to my video card. I reseated it and now everything's silky smooth. Thanks guys!

Hello people.

I'm having a recurring problem with my PC, and now it's really starting to get on my nerves.

I'll describe the problem as well as I can:
At some point about a two and a half, maybe three menths ago, I noticed my PC would often fail to start. I'd press the power button and instead of seeing the screen display all the info it usually does, it displays nothing, and then, instead of hearing the regular beep from my PC, I hear a longer beep and the computer doesn't start.

Last time this happened I had to play around with my S-ATA cables (rub them all nice and dandy and slightly move them in their connections) and it'd eventually go away, and then when I actually replaced one of them, the computer went on just fine for well over a month.

Today I did a fresh install of Windows 7 (I used it before as well), and lo and behold - the problem returns! This really bothers me, but what bothers me even more is that whenever this happens, my games run like pure feces. I'm encountering an erratic framerate and an issue where the sound suddenly slows to a crawl and gets all distorted. Dead Space, Stranglehold, Tomb Raider Anniversary - all games that usually run without a single hitch now perform horribly.

The thing is - those two problems are intertwined. When one occurs, so does the other.

I have 3 HDDs. A 80GB, a 320GB and a 1TB. The newest one, the 1TB, I bought about a month ago after the problem occurred last. After buying this one I checked to see what might be causing the problem and I found that disconnecting the S-ATA cable connected to my DVD-WR solved the issue, so I replaced the cable and everything was running fine until now.

I've tried checking my HDDs for defects & as I said earlier, I replaced a S-ATA cable without which the computer seemed to boot all nicely. I tried disconnecting my DVD-RW as well, and I also tried leaving only the 1TB HDD connected. Nothing seemed to solve this.

My specs are as follows:

MB: Gigabyte P35-DS3L
CPU: C2 Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
GPU: Palit GeForce 8800GT 512MB
HDDs: WD 80GB, WD 320GB, WD 1TB.
RAM: 2x1GB OCZ DDR2 800MHz
OS: Win7 Ultimate 64-bit, fully updated

All my drivers are up-to-date.

My temps are fine as they were for the last two and a half years since I bought my PC.

So... Does anyone have a clue as to what might be causing this problem?

Thanks...

Well...Beeps are essentially your computer's way of telling you that either: it's ok or it's not. There's a number of beeps and they all mean different things.

So, did you get no beep at all or was there a long beep and then 1 - 3 small beeps after it? Well I forgot to add you got one long beep...was there any beeps after it?

Well...Beeps are essentially your computer's way of telling you that either: it's ok or it's not. There's a number of beeps and they all mean different things.

So, did you get no beep at all or was there a long beep and then 1 - 3 small beeps after it?

y0ur_grandma

im thinking this is a case of mobo faliure.. im not saying it is but it seems to me that your sata ports may be damaged

[QUOTE="y0ur_grandma"]

Well...Beeps are essentially your computer's way of telling you that either: it's ok or it's not. There's a number of beeps and they all mean different things.

So, did you get no beep at all or was there a long beep and then 1 - 3 small beeps after it?

NoAssKicker47

Hmm...

Well two beeps would mean a POST/CMOS error. Three long ones would mean a key board error. And then one long beep and a little one after it would mean a motherboard problem. This page will give you an idea of what's going on: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/nonworkingcomponent/ht/beepcodestb.htm

[QUOTE="NoAssKicker47"][QUOTE="y0ur_grandma"]

Well...Beeps are essentially your computer's way of telling you that either: it's ok or it's not. There's a number of beeps and they all mean different things.

So, did you get no beep at all or was there a long beep and then 1 - 3 small beeps after it?

y0ur_grandma

Hmm...

Well two beeps would mean a POST/CMOS error. Three long ones would mean a key board error. And then one long beep and a little one after it would mean a motherboard problem. This page will give you an idea of what's going on: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/nonworkingcomponent/ht/beepcodestb.htm

[QUOTE="y0ur_grandma"]

[QUOTE="NoAssKicker47"] One beep, about 2-3 times longer than the regular beep. Maybe it's really two or three beeps in a row.NoAssKicker47

Hmm...

Well two beeps would mean a POST/CMOS error. Three long ones would mean a key board error. And then one long beep and a little one after it would mean a motherboard problem. This page will give you an idea of what's going on: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/nonworkingcomponent/ht/beepcodestb.htm

I'm not sure if I can find a diagnoser but I'll keep looking...

Meanwhile, this info may help your problems:

http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/video/failFailure-c.html

For troubleshooting: http://www.playtool.com/pages/troubleshooting/intro.html

Diagnosing: http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/pc/hardware/graphics/diagnose.php

I haven't been getting any beeps but sometimes during startup, my computer would "hang" right at the BIO setup screen. Also, sometimes when I log on to Windows 7, it hangs right at that screen too. It happens occasionally, but it's gotten me all paranoid. Any advice? Thank you in advance. I've done defrag, registry clean and defrag, disk wipe, virus scan, CCleaner, etc.Elann2008

This is is a little more challenging as the problem could be anything...

Have you made sure that all the connectors are connected (like power cables, data cables)?

Like also it could be, a bad PSU or some corrupted/bad RAM. As I said, anything could be the culprit which is why it's harder to solve.

[QUOTE="Elann2008"]I haven't been getting any beeps but sometimes during startup, my computer would "hang" right at the BIO setup screen. Also, sometimes when I log on to Windows 7, it hangs right at that screen too. It happens occasionally, but it's gotten me all paranoid. Any advice? Thank you in advance. I've done defrag, registry clean and defrag, disk wipe, virus scan, CCleaner, etc.y0ur_grandma

This is is a little more challenging as the problem could be anything...

Have you made sure that all the connectors are connected (like power cables, data cables)?

Like also it could be, a bad PSU or some corrupted/bad RAM. As I said, anything could be the culprit which is why it's harder to solve.

Thank you for your reply. Is it worth mentioning that this just started happening since I started playing Crysis? I've been messing with it quite a bit. Recently, I've installed the Crysis Config mod. And before that, I was messing with the graphics/video settings. I've played about 2-3 hours worth of gameplay. Dam you Crysis! :P

My PC also crashes from normal, web surfing use. It just crashed like 3 minutes ago when I was using firefox, posting on GS.