Hi!

It took me a lot of courage to ask what surely must be the daftest question of the month, but I just had no luck with getting an answer that even my computer-semi-illterate brain can comprehend. If someone would nudge me in the right direction, I'll be ever so grateful.

I've recently downloaded PLE version of Vue from the e-on website, to see how would I get on with the software (before I commit myself to pestering friends and family to contribute  funds to my Vue 10 Infinite collection tin).

I loved it. For a week or so it rendered, and Vue chirped quite happily without a hiccup. Nothing too elaborate - just small 'preview' renders to screen, a ground plane with atmosphere and maybe a simple primitive and that's it. Then last week it rendered for 5 seconds - and then it just shut my desktop down dead. Just like that - it was like you unpluged the TV from the wall socket.                                                I've restarted the PC and checked the error log - there was nothing on it - not a sausage, - like nothing ever happened.

The complete shut down has been happening ever since, and I am at at total loss what the heck is going on.  I'm running a three and a half years old desktop PC, AMD Phenom x4, 4 GB RAM, Windows XP - hardly a state of the art set-up but it should still cope.  I've checked the CPU temperatures - there's no overheating issue, all the other programs work OK (DAZ, Hexagon, my old battered Carrara and Blender), there's not a single error message in the system's log. I've tried e-on foums - sadly, I can't seem to be able to post a new topic .

I really love the program,  but I am at my wit's end what to do.

Does anyone know what might be causing this problem?

Thanks in advance.

Run down all the usual culprets first...

1. are ALL your drivers up to date? (i.e. video especially)

2. is it a certain scene that is doing this or anything you do now?  If it's just one scene you're trying over and over again to render, that scene could be corrupted.  If it's more than just that one, then there's a bigger issue.

3. If all your drivers are up to date (or they weren't and you correct it and yet it STILL happens)... uninstall Vue, reinstall... sometimes lil gremlins creep in... ;)

The gurus in here should have more ideas and be better able to pinpoint what's going on...

Could possibly be your graphics card?  Just a thought

:sigh: Did the uninstalling thingy - still shuts down. There's no particular scene that does it , and no particular size of a render - the 800x600 powers off the pc just as same as the tieensy-weensy one of 300x200.

My graphics card info is in the attachement -  the card is the same age as my pc but the drivers are up to date. I've run the Cinebench 11.5, and there were no issues - it rendered fine.

There were no other rograms running during the Vue render.

I fell in love with Vue, but I dare not touching it gain before I find out what is happening - I continuous powering off can't be doing much good to my hard drive... :sigh:

Just a thought - have you recently updated that driver?  It could be the driver itself, and you may need to roll back to previous version...

It's rare for a video driver to shutdown a computer.  It's less rare for a video card to over-heat and cause a computer to just hang and cook.  I'm guessing you already set your Nvidia settings to their default.  You don't don't see a temperature rise with your video card while Vue is running (you shouldn't at least)?  You don't hear your video card's fan kick into high gear while running Vue do you (you shouldn't)?

Have you tried changing Vue's display to use hardware pipeline OpenGL instead of Shader 4?  Have you tried running Vue with just software OpenGL?  Any difference?  Or does the computer still shut off.  Any anti-virus pop-ups before the shutdown happens?  Does the computer just shut off?  Or does it say it's shutting down first?  It's not hibernating as far as you know?

You said Vue worked before.  You had some quality time to fall in love with it, it seems.  I'm guessing you updated a video driver recently or a system board driver.

It may be rare for a video driver to cause a complete shutdown of the computer, but it does happen - speaking from experience.  This computer was purchased this past june, arrived in July, and within a few weeks I was putting it through its paces with Vue.  Inevitably, the sculpting of terrains caused Vue to crash so hard my computer crashed as well (which caused all sorts of issues, including having to reboot numerous times to get my mouse working again).  After talking with the Wonderfully Wise Gurus here on the boards, it was suggested I update my video driver (something I had forgotten to do... blushes). It seems a bad driver CAN cause problems that seem totally unrelated...

It worked.  Even though I am now likely two or three "updates" behind, I refuse to update my driver... If it ain't broke, I am NOT fixing it!  Vue is running smoothly (knock on wood), and ever since I updated the driver - no sudden "crash of death" issues.  Not to say Vue doesn't crash now and then - that's typical of the program ;) - but I no longer end up with the entire computer shutting down at the same time!

Aisuru - if you updated (or your computer automatically did it) the driver, and Vue doesn't LIKE that driver, it CAN (although as Shawn stated, it's rare) cause your computer to shut itself down. 

IF you decide to try to roll back the driver to a previous version and it corrects the issue, please do everyone a favor?  Post that it got corrected in here - and then send the E-on techs a message letting them know that the NVidia ForceWare 285.58 / XP driver has potential "issues" with Vue and can force a hard shut-down of the computer.  This way they can add (or not, as they see fit) it to this list:

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_10_infinite/?page=15

 

I am crossing my fingers for you - that it's a simple issue like a driver and not a card going bad and/or overheatting...

Thank you guys, for all your help so far - it means a lot.

Right - I have SpeedFan and CoreTemp running all the time, and the idle CPU temperature has been around 39 C (individual cores temp about 35 C).  At full load it rises to about 59 - 65 C (individual cores 48 - 55 C)

and it stays there stable, without spiking. Graphics card temp fluctuates between 40-44 C.  All fans seem to be working fine.

Now what really befuddles me beyond words is that this has never happened before - I can run Luxrender for 4 hours on the trot, with Photoshop in the background, without any probs - the temperatures are stable, there are no crashes, no freezes.

I've even tried to render in Vue first thing in the morning as I switch the computer on, from cold, and it still powers off the PC, just like someone uplugged the poor thing from the mains. Even if it were an overheating issue, how likely it would be to have the temps rise from 'cool ' to 'instant death' within the first three seconds of a render?

There's no anti-virus pop up before the powering off, no error screen, no warning, no hibernation - it's instant and total OFF.

I haven't tinkered with the diplay settings in Vue - I had no idea one could do that (and I still have precious little clue how to do it). How do I change them?

I thought about Pioneer - but decided against it. I already have DAZ 4 and I wanted to be able to import my posed Daz stuff into Vue for rendering. I don't think Pioneer lets me do that...:sigh:

Deary me, it gets more complicated... The power-off started happening before the driver update.  When I installed PLE, Vue behaved itself, my PC behaved itself - everything was lovely for a week. Then the first shut-down happened. I thought - yep, I haven't updated the driver for the card (I was still poodling along with Open GL 2.1 ). Off I went, updated the Nvidia thingy, rubbed my hands with  warm and fuzzy feeling inside (seeing that it now supported Open GL 3.3 and Open CL) started Vue, played with a lovely sunset, kept the render size small and to 'preview', pressed render...  it rendered for a couple of secs - and then the computer went out like a light.

Didn't have system restore switched on - don't ask :sigh:. Too late now, I'm stuck with the latest driver. Everything seems to like it -  Daz likes it, Bryce likes it, even my old Carrara likes it, but Vue just don't wanna know...

The one program I was desperate to get up 'n' running...

But - after one of those shut-downs, I got an error message when starting Vue again, saying that the application terminated unexpectedly and that I should run Vue in compatibility mode asking me to "Click OK". I clicked - and it still shut down.

I feel like curling up under the duvet and  whimpering like  a three-year-old  who's just been told there's no Santa...

 

I always say no to the two questions Vue asks me when it's been restarted from a crash.  Safe makes Vue behave worse and lose track of your hardware when you eventually need to use it normally.

Do you have another video card to pop in to try?  What is its power requirement?  How many watts, etc is your power supply?  In the bottom right corner of Vue, you can have it tell you how much Video RAM it is using for your scene.  Does it get to a certain number before crashing?  Does Vue crash with just a default scene and a boring cube or sphere placed in front of the camera?  Or does it only crash if there are zillions of trees covering a mountain terrain?  Or does it only crash if the camera is facing towards the zillion trees, and works fine as long has you have the camera pointed up at space?

In other words, see if you can find out if the crash is caused by your video doing its OpenGL drawing (by the way, turn off background drawing in Vue and see if that stops the crashing), or is caused by loading textures across a bad memory location in your video RAM, or is caused by a weak power supply (hardly any Vue users complain about weak power supplies, even those using laptops).

By the way, do you ever see crash messages from Vue?  And you have to close the program?  Of does the computer shut off before Vue can report a fatality?

:embarrassed: Thank you all, guys, for taking time to help out this computer/software illiterate muppet (me). I feel like a pensioner blocking the traffic lights in the middle of a rush hour traffic, because she doesn't know how to change a tire... If we can get Vue to play with me again, I promise I shall start saving for Infinite proper - I'm a convert, and I don't think I can live without it again. Shawn, I shall implement your suggestions as soon as I can - right now I'm finishing some work on Adobe and I cannot risk yet another power-down - when I started Vue this morning, it didn't even want to open - just hung there for ever 'initializing application, please wait'. However, there are a few things I think I can answer straight away. My motherboard came with an integrated 256 mb memory Nvidia GeForce 7025. Haven't used since I plugged in the 9500 GS, it will be about 6 months now. If I'm reading the thing correctly, my power supply is 350W. Vue will poodle on quite happily without any problems - as long as I don't render anything. I can have terrains, objects, full scenes, pose, modify, do whatever I like - but no render. Now it shuts down the computer on a simple sea/atmo scene, within 2 seconds of starting the smallest, 300 x 200 render. It cuts the power to computer instantly - I don't get to see any error messages, the death is instant and without warning. Last night I fired the Vue from my second HD, the one that runs Windows 7. I've ticked the 'software only' display option , rendered the smallest sea/atmo pic 'preview' style - it went OK. I moved to the next size up and ticked the 'fixed pipeline' display option - the computer turned off. (The CPU temperature was hitting 59 C - 65 C now - OK, I know that it could be lower, but my battered Carrara/Daz chug along with multi-hour renders - and with Photoshop in the background - at the same temperatures without any issues.) The NVidia GPU I'm using is capable of Open GL 3.3 and Open CL - should that be enough for Vue?. However - and this might have some significance in pointing out what the heck is going on, at least to those who have more knowledge than I do - unlike the XP that doesn't even recall Vue crashed it so badly it switched the machine off, Windows 7 seems to be able to remember something went badly wrong. And this is what the Event Log says regarding the last night's crash: - one critical event (telling me that the source was kernel-power, event ID 41, task category (63), user SYSTEM, level critical, keywords (2), Windows - 'The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first - this error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed or lost power unexpectedly) - yep, that describes it pretty accurately. It died. - then there are some other errors listed as 'Vue stopped interacting with Windows and was closed (source Application Hang) - then several of 'Some processor performance power management have been disabled due to a known firmware problem - check with the computer manufacturer for updated firmware." (source Kernel-Processor-Power), event ID 6, task category (6) By now I probably don't have to say that I don't have the foggiest idea what the above actually means... Some nice folks over at cornucopia's forum suggested to look for 'hidden folders' and delete those, uninstall PLE and re-instal again, run memory test, clear out the renders stack, but my grasp of anything more complex than opening an email is rather shaky Not very confident there, I'm afraid. Until I sort this out, I'm left with my memories of how fabulous Vue can be - my last practice sunset before Vue decided it don't like me no more, cropped and blown up (PLE lets you save unmarked 800 x 600 renders for up to 30 days - I know - e-on is evil, I've got the bug now and I can do precious little about it at the moment :sigh:...)

In your video card settings, is there anoption to turn off GPU use by other programs like Vue if it is being used?  That reminds me...  In my Vue render settings, "Use GPU anti-aliasing" is disabled.  Is yours also?  If it's on, trying rendering with it off.

But your wattage is weak.  Mine is around 700 watts.  My video card needs its own power cord directly from the power supply to even get past the CMOS settings screen.

I think, Shawn, you might be onto something -at least I hope you are.

I'm going to put me CSI cap on - please, bear with me, this might be relevant.

I've inherited this desktop from  a friend who used to live with us - when she moved back abroad last year, I got her home-bulit PC she used to play WoW on. Didn't think much about it, I had my lappy to play around. Last November my laptop died, and after having two motherboards replaced in the meantime, the general concensus was that not even a miracle of biblical proportions can help anymore.

So - after the New Year I shuffled to my spare room and fired the desktop. It looked immaculate, clean, tidy, had big fans that made you shiver with cold, just the kind I needed after the overheating fiasco my laptop put me through.

Until recently I've been slowly adding stuff to it, my software, rescued files from the laptop (I've even managed to find in the loft an ancent copy of Carrara from  a 3D mag.) I tried it all on the machine, it worked - slow, but it worked, and the temperatures were reasonable - 33 C when idling in Firefox and low - mid sixites when under full load during multi-hour render. However , the on-board graphics card that came with the motherboard was beyond pathetic - when I ran Cinebench, the result was  beyond bad - it was of the "Are you kidding me?!" kind.

By now I had downloadeed Vue PLE - and fell hopelessly in love (imagine - all them nice things I had for Daz, with Vue light, Vue enviroment creation, Vue rendering capabilities :mistyeyed:) After doing a few test renders of different sizes with just a sea plane and an atmosphere (during which temps climbed instantly to mid-sixties), I've braved myself enough to play with some freebie scenes found here at Renderosity and sharecg. The PC started struggling, churned out two lovely cinemascope pics of a respectable size. And then the first shut down happened. Thinking that my graphics drivers need updating (the computer was not in use for quite some time), I've taken care of that. Didn't help - the card's performance was unchanged and the shutdowns continued. Thinking that my poxy graphics was to blame, I've put a lovely Nvidia I had still in its box, new and unopened, that was bought a while back for my old desktop (now deceased) and never installed. I've updated its drivers to the latest version and ran the Cinebench test - awesome. Played like a song. However, I noticed all of the temps were now about 5 - 6 C higher. Of course this muppet (me) got a bit concerned but I was too extatic about the improved graphics to pay due attention - Open GL 3.3, Open CL, CUDA thingy, its own fan - what could possibly go wrong?

Then I fired up Vue - and then the hell broke loose.

I have two hard drives, one with XP and one with Windows 7 - I tried Vue from both (naturally the installed PLE version  on each drive matched the requirements of the respective OS) -  there was no difference. Dead the moment you get to the moment you start rendering. In fact, the shutdowns must have affected the drive with Windows 7 - now it won't even start - it just hangs on welcome screen and goes nowhere.

I've checked the suggested options in Vue display options menu, I've clean uninstalled/reinstalled the program, cleared out the render stack, Appdata folder, unchecked the background drawing and anti-aliasing - no joy. Nothing worked.

Last night, out of sheer desperation, I took the GPU out and went back to the pathetic onboard graphics. Vue came out of its corner, whimpered a bit, but it rendered a simple sea/atmo 300x200 render. It was teeth-pulling slow, it struggled, it was worryingly hot (all four cores chugging at mid sixities almost continuously) but it didn't cut the power to the computer. At this stage I dare not see if it could cope with the proper-sized render - shutdowns can't be doing much good to the hard drives.

Shawn, you have mentioned my weak PSU . I had a think.

The integrated card used less power, it is borderline useless, computer ran cooler.

New GPU has its own fan, performed admirably otherwise but needed more juice, computer ran hotter and the moment Vue demanded all of the power - everything shut down.

My power supply - 350W.

Are we onto something here? :hopeful look in my eyes:

I have no idea if this will help unravel the Vue/my computer mystery, my technical knowledge doesn't extend past the changing of the light-bulb stage. I've tried a few other posh programs in the past - C4D, Max, Lightwave, and they all sent me running for the hills screaming the moment I saw their interface. Vue is more intuitive, friendlier, and it does awesome stuff - I'm desperate to have it working. I know iI have only a personal learning edition, but I cannot commit myself even to buy Frontier until I am sure it will work - if my old Phenom quad-core is not up to it, then I'll have to start saving for the new machine first before I get anywhere near Vue...

"Are we onto something here? :hopeful look in my eyes:"

I, personally, believe you are... Shawn may agree or have other ideas.  He's a guru, i'm just a lackey ;)

I know that when I bought this computer, I went with the "latest and greatest" NVidia card... the GeForce GTX 590.  THIS nessessitated me getting a much more powerful power supply than typically comes in this style computer - simply because it pulls soooo much power.  Even with the extra power, the fact that I have liquid cooled system with a few fans tossed in for good measure, when Vue renders - it sounds like a Cessna.  (Much better than my old system which sounded like a bunch of jet planes taking off!).

More power... a few more fans (most systems, you can add one or two more fans to the mess easily)... i think you'll be fine putting that card back in place!  Again, i'm no Guru... just speaking from my own experiences. =D

OK - new power supply it will be. I am going to ask the daftest of questions here again - what am I supposed to be looking for (wattege, brand, size of the fan) ? I have 3 year old Phenom x 4 (Agena) .

I've had a quick look around the computer case to see where can put more fans and there is one large available slot at the back. At the bottom front there's already a very large fan working all the time, judging by the distinct chill  on my feet.

Thank you all so much for your help and patience.

If it works, I shall not just buy Frontier - I shall steal, beg and borrow to buy Infinite...

Complete would probably do you, I would really go through the comparison chart to see if you really need Infinite in all honesty.

World of Warcraft is not a video card hog.  Do you remember the computer's original owner yelling whenever the computer would shut off?

The heating is normal.  As long as the fans are spinning, they're being cooled.  The video card will run hot even with a stronger power supply.  Some power supplies have a temperature sensor in them and can tell Windows "I'm over heating" or can even say "I'm dying now, going to shutoff for a bit".  This all depends on your system board having inputs for this and you have the software installed for it.  Otherwise, the power supply just cuts out without any warning to avoid burning your place down.

How many D: E: F: drives do you have?  How many C: drives?  They use power too.  Is there a modem card in there still?  Any old SCSI card for something you don't have plugged in anymore?  Some firewire card or USB card?  Video cards use quite a bit more power than those other cards put together.  So best to beef up the power supply.  Is the network built into the system board or is that an additional card?  Also turn off the built-in video on the system board (in the CMOS settings screen at boot up) if there is one.  It doesn't need to be using power if you don't have a second monitor plugged into it.  Unplug any USB hard drives you have connected that do not have their own AC adapters for power.

350 watt is cutting things rather close.

My system is very old.  It has an AGP video card in to.  Fallout 3 runs great on it without noise (fan noise).  So does Vue.  But 3D-Coat will cause my video card's fan to kick up some speed.  And so did a new game I just played called Dear Esther.  It had amazing real-time graphics for an old game engine.  My video card normally runs at 54C.  Dear Esther kicked it up to 63C after just taking a vew steps in the game.  Exiting the game would shut the fan down a bit when it reached 54C (takes about 8 seconds to do).

My system originally had a 250 watt.

Take your power supply with you to a computer shop so you can match it with a more powerful one.  The new one will need at least the same power cables you were using and the same number of them.  The same power plug hole on the back as your old one (and in the same location, top right, lower left, etc).  Some have power switch on the back which needs to be in the same location also.  Otherwise, you are like me and cutting holes in the back of your computer case so the new power supply can be plugged into the wall.  Also match the power supply fan/vents with the old one.  Bigger power supplies may have fans on the outside instead of inside their case.  Remember how much room you have around your old power supply so the new one will still fit in the computer case without hitting the back of your DVD drive or rub against your CPU fan/heatsink.

Your case won't need extra fans.  The fan with the new power supply will be enough cooling.  If you feel air (warm or cold) blowing against your hand when put behind your computer, it's doing its job.  Remember, computers like only one of four elementals -- Earth, wind, fire, water.  Computers hate dirt, hate liquids, hate heat, but love moving air.  If your computer is in a desk cabinet, take it out.  Heat and dirt collect in there.  But you know this probably.

Suggestions for when you go to get a new power supply - like Shawn said, take it with you!  But before you unhook all those cables - if you aren't terribly hardware savvy... make a diagram of where all those cables go!  Also, if you take pics BEFORE you unplug everything to take with you to the store (the pics that is), you can show the computer tech exactly what you're talking about as far as space, etc.  Measurements would definately help, but please make sure you use a non-static-y, non-magnetic measuring device (wood?? LOL) - just to be on the safe side!

If you're feeling air flow, as Shawn said, you probably don't need another fan yet.  Hold off on that until you find out internal temps while running a render.  At least you know you have a spot for one ;)  A "stronger" power supply, along with the video card you mentioned could cause your normal operating temps to go up some.  You may even start to feel warmer air blowing across your feet ;)

And, as Jon said, do a comparison of the features of Vue before you purchase.  are there things that are only in Infinite that you just cannot live without?  Or would Complete serve you better for now?  If Complete covers everything you need, you may only have to beg & borrow instead of steal to get Vue ;)

Looking forward to hearing the progress on your computer...

Guys, thank you soooo much - I'm overwhelmed with all the fantastic info and help you've given - allow me to give you a huge virtual hug (I think my pathetic power supply can handle it :)

Shawn, I'm not even hopeless when it comes to anything more complex than changing the light-bulb - I am beyond hopeless, so I'm afraid my best answer to some of the questions would be a confused, blank stare. But - there are few I think I can answer, so here it is:

I do have two 'C'drives (I mean, they are not both 'C' at the same time, but they both have OS on them), one D drive (my DVD reader/writer), and all my runtimes are on a portable 320GB drive plugged in the computer's USB port. I often charge my Iphone through the computer's USB, too , or have it run in my iTunes at full blast while I work.I don't think there's a modem card or anything like that in it, I'm not sure about SCSI or network thingy

Until I saw the light - literally - and started lusting after Vue, all my renders were done mostly n DAZ, and the computer seemed to cope with it.

As for the PSU shopping, I was suggested a few that are within my skinny budget (when buying online they seem to be  bit cheaper) and come with decent reviews, 80+ certifications and enough power to allow for the upgrades in the future. It hasn't occured to me to take my PSU to the shop (yup - I'm a muppet ), I'm dreading the experience of pulling the stuff apart.

:) As the contents of my piggy-bank are distinctly on a slim side, I think it will be Frontier first  - and then the lottery win, and then...:dreamy-eyed:

Oh, don't worry, Melikia - I'll be keeping you all posted with what happens next. And :fingers and toes crossed: I'll proudly post my first render in the galleries here when I get the things working - and it will be Vue.

Oh, yes. I saw the light ^_^.

 

YouTube has plenty of videos of people showing how to replace power supplies.  The reason I asked about the drives was just because each one uses power.  I just have one hard drive.  People call them C: drives where I'm from.  I forgot about iPods and iPhones.  :)  You are pushing your PS to its limit.

Aisuru - you can always just lug the entire ... omg, i havent had enough coffee yet... the entire... CPU unit to the computer store, get their opinion on type, etc... tell them you have to wait a little bit, and go home and order it online ;)

But i really DO recommend diagraming EVERYTHING.  I am nowhere near "tech-savvy" - I can pop in memory sticks, and anything that "just goes in a slot" - but when it comes to multiple wires coming out of a part like octopus tentacles... i get my trusty pencil & paper out!  I also write down things on scraps of paper (ok, bits I cut up just for this), and then tape them around wires on the part I'm replacing.  I had a power supply DIE one year, it had all the symptoms yours does - but it was doing the "power down" in Poser (I didn't have Vue - hadn't yet seen "the light" LOL).  After about 2 weeks of random shut downs, it died completely - on a government holiday (which shouldn't have mattered, but I was going through an agency for vocational training and they ended up purchasing my new power supply LOL).  When I picked up the part (two days later... stupid requesition forms... boy I was going through render withdrawals!) I ended up with something that looked like a metal box with a hole that had what appeared to be a fan in it, and a buncha wires coming out everywhere.

Looking inside my computer, I found a similar device... and went "oh crap."

Diagramed everything... and about 15 minutes after I finished the diagram (because I kept getting interrupted... not hard to do when at the time I was living in a house with 13 to 15 other people).... I had my new power supply installed.... crossed fingers, booted up.. and my computer was HAPPPPPPPPPPPY!.

It may not be that your power supply just isn't powerful enough anymore... it could just be in the first phases of completely biting the dust... Vue just happens to draw enough power that it showed it first.  Of course, it may NOT be dieing... it just may have so much attached to it it cannot give that video card the power it craves... ;)

You are, indeed, pushing your system to the max - even without that nice video card.  And don't be confused about DS rendering fine and the only one having the issue is Vue... As I said earlier - Vue will eat your resources up and beg for more.  DS, Poser, Bryce, etc - they don't seem to do this.

Can't wait to see the images when you can finally post them =D

OK, I also responded on the C3D site. If you will please look into your computer case and try to look all around on your motherboard, to locate the make and model, I will try to find the appropriate power supply for you. Just need to know the make of the motherboard, and if possible, the model of motherboard.

The make (the brand) of motherboard should be displayed rather boldly, somewhere on the motherboard itself. The model number is less important, but it would help me a lot.

Many thanks, forester  - will pop over to C3D, as well.

My motherboard is ASRock N68 -S and my current PSU sits at the back, in the top-left corner of the case (when you view the PC from the front).

Things one learns along the way, eh - only a couple of weeks ago before my Vue troubles I hardly knew anything about computers. By the time I'm done with sorting this out, I'll be practically able to rebuild the damn thing :-) .

 Wish we could start a fund and all donate for your Vue. If anyone can do this please sitemail me and i`m in.

:)

Count me in. I'll investigate how we might try to accomplish this.

If Aisuru has a paypal account, it is really simple to set up a paypal donation button.

Several suggestions with this: 1) set up a web page for this. 2) have a little "something" that people can get for their donation - a simple .vob, or a unique vue plant, materials, atmosphere, etc.  This "something" for the simple act of being generous can generate more donations (you'll get a handful of folks that won't download the stuff).  The paypal donation button setup can be linked with the items (on another secure webpage/site) so the person donating gets the link as soon as they donate.  Minimum donation paypal allows is $1.  You DO have to have the items in their location so your link is ready to go when you set up the donation button...

That said, I CAN say that Renderosity doesn't like people advertising for donations.  Its a very sticky thing with them - something I ran into when I was trying desperately to get funds to pay for the lawyer to get custody of my daughter back.  They DO allow linking in the gallery - but ONLY one link per image, per day - and don't go into a whole lotta detail, because then they consider it advertising for a vendor (unless you happen to BE a vendor here, then you're given free reign... LOL)...  Something like "donate to my Vue Collection Fund and get some great stuff, too!  >>Link<< "

Daz allows advertising for donations on their forums only - as long as you don't get "obnoxios" with it.

Other sites may or may not allow it, you would have to check with them.

frantically looking for an adequate emoticon that would convey my complete and utter speechlessness

I am utterly, completely bowled over by all the support, encouragement and help here at the forum.

Guys, I really couldn't ask for more than the help you're already given me -  I mean, just the fact I got so much advice (and a new PSU hopefully being installed by the end of the month) is already beyond my abiliites to adequately express my thanks to everyone who took the time to nudge this Vue duckling toward the right pond.

As soon as the power-supply gets fitted in, I'll do a test render in PLE and see if everything goes well, fingers and toes crossed (if not, then it's time to take my old boy of a PC to a radical - and gradual - reconstructive surgery).

Thanks I've been having the same problem with my computer I have a friends old laptop should ok but shuts down in the middle of renders as well as watching videos

Old computer died some time ago and cant aford a new a friend give this old dell laptop

Thanks for the help