Help with a computer glitch please ...

Couple of quick thoughts - use CoreTemp to check temps on the system - too much thermal paste, cpu throttling etc ?, PSU is modern so that should be OK - personally I build with Corsair PSUs, bad hard disk, MBR ? or bad RAM. Cheers

And Sandra report would help :D

As above this is either a heat issue or a power supply issue. I'd suggest loading the little monitoring application that is supplied in the motherboard bundle from ASUS, ASUS PC Probe II and watch your temperatures. You may need to add case fans. Server case aren't the best design for efficient heat dissipation. If temps are normal then check your power supply and really the only way I know how to is get a known stable one and test. I'm not sure why you are using a Raptor drive as they are really intended for 24/7 work, as they are 10k RPM drives they are HUGELY noisy and get very hot which may be contributing to your heat problem if it turns out to be heat. Not likely going to be MBR ? as this is boot time and tells hardware where O/S etc resides. I use Samsung drives, they are the quietest on the market. Can't even hear them and passive CPU cooler with slow and quiet Scythe case fans. Temps around 39c idle and 48c under load.

Okay, I went and downloaded Sandra from SiSoftware, installed it on my DAW and ... I really hate to sound so dumb here ... what do I do with the info that comes up after I run the program, I know there must be a way to put that on a disc and transfer that to here for all to see but I am not sure how to do it ... But I am off to try and will be back soon ... thanks for the info so far ... speak at you soon

Can't help with the Sandra report(but you might check the "help us help you" thread). A few other things to check; are you running SP3 with your XP load?(I would). Have you updated the PACE drivers? You might try moving all your plugins(or at least the 3rd party plugins) to a separate folder for testing. Which version of the Waves bundle? is it WUP'd(updated) for use with PT8? You could use a USB pen drive for moving the Sandra report(and for installing updates you download on another computer). You should also scan updates downloaded on another machine as they can pick up some crap along the way. I have MalwareByte's, SpyBot and AVG that I install/update and run every few weeks(then uninstall them afterwards). Also have CCleaner for cleaning/tuning the Registry(which solved a boot problem I had).

Well, I can't run Sandra all the way through to create a report... However I did install the ASUS Probe II and found that my MB runs at 47* C and the processor tops out at 93* C about half way through the MultiMedia test and that is all the further it gets ... So I am going to guess here but it seems my problem may be heat realted then ... ?

Actually, I have used the 'help us help you' thread and it is very good ... when I couldn't find the right answer there, I came here and you all have already been a great help ... I am using an IcyDock 3 drive bay for my drives and I changed out the little noisy fan in the box with a Vantec and installed two other Vantecs in the rear of the case ... for the extra cooling power. I am using the stock CPU cooler though I think the real coupe de gras here is maybe the video card ... it is air cooled, hence the 'Silent' at the end of the model number ... I was warned in reviews that it may run hot but I thought the extra fans would take care of that ... maybe not ... maybe another video card or another fan and a larger CPU cooler to boot might just do the trick ... because it will run all day on no or little load but only lasts a a few minutes when I make it really work, it seems ... Comments? And thanks for your help ... ctg

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