System Instability

[CptDoom]

I could tell u what fan thats on the heatsink but its spinning too fast to check =] It has worked entirely well and spins at the usual rpm (4000 - 5000)

My bios states all the temps on reboot (at the bottom) and its no more than 55 degrees on every reboot after the arctic silvcer application (also states the fan rpm) tho theres a fan somewhere that isnt registering rpm, whther this is my case fan (which is off as the sides have been removed) or maybe whether its the northbridge fan im not sure to be honest.

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~ninjap/smartfan.JPG is how it looks when idle.

Ill try the Prime 95 test now

BTW i appreciate all the suggestions a lot, im at my wits end here

 

[CptDoom]

Lol.

I had smartfan running, pressed Prime 95 in startup and watched the cpu raise to 51% in aprroximately .5 seconds it rebooted

 

[Mr.Monkey]

If the cpu temp is only 6-7 degs above normal when it crashes, it most likely isn't cpu heat being the problem (still could be, but is less likely imo. Although if it is at 55C at reboot, some 10 secs after the reset, the cpu temp could have cooled by 10C in that period, as it isn't under any load..... Hmm. Still unlikely to be cpu imho).

So we are left with few options:
-shouldn't be memory as you've tried both sticks independently
-shouldn't be cpu temp (we think)
-not gfx card related
-unlikely to be power supply as no load is being placed on gfx card (usually the biggest power hog on the system, esp geforces)

So that leaves us with:
-Bios of your MB. Check you have the latest. (be careful, bios flashing can ruin your pc).
-Make sure the northbridge (thnx Will) fan is running ok
-Try removing all your pc components, other than the essentials (ie gfx card) then build up, testing it with each component you add. This means a full p95 test, and a game (some may not work without soundcard, so just do the p95 for that. If it suddenly fails you have found a faulty component.
-Could be software. Try reinstalling windows

Other than that, if it's not cpu overheating, I'm at a loss. I can't think of any conflicts that would cause it to crash only under heavy load (assuming it doesn't crash when you load word processors etc)...
Let see what you get out of the above, it may be longwinded, but it's less expensive than a new pc.

 

[Will]

To give you an idea about temperatures, my very toasty XP 2000+ runs at about 69C under load. I've never had any problems. I'll get worried if it gets to 85C.

 

[Mr.Monkey]

Yea, my 2200+ XP ran at 75 under load, and never had any problems. (that was untill tonight, when I misplaced the heatsink and toasted the entire chip. Smelt bad too)
My amd 1200 runs happily at 35C under load.

So I'm guessing a 1800 will infact be a 1.4 processor. Still 55C shouldn't be a resetting issue.

Can you slow your memory speed in your bios? I have an EpoX 8k3a and I have memory settings. My comp is stable on fast, but not fastest or turbo.
On normal p95 runs forever.

Try em, and good luck.

 

[CptDoom]

i cant actually decrease the fsb of my pc annoyingly enough, only raise it

i am going to do this.

1 : Reinstall Windows

2 : Install components independently if that doesnt work

3 : Cry like a little baby if that fails

Again, the help is appreciated

 

[CptDoom]

I think i have the culprit.

I ripped the TNT 2 Riva out of my motherboard on my celeron gateway and installed that, prime 95 managed 49 calculations before i turned it off, i have played a game over Prime 95, Age Of Mythology - Shadow Magic and not a single crash, unfortunately i cant be on the internet without the graphics card being in my gateway as it has no agp slot for my ti 4400 to go in.

This leaves me a little concerned, I spent £250 on the ti when it first came out and im unsure about what i can do to rectify this problem as i dont really have the means at the moment to buy another top spec grfx card, not even really to afford a 4200 to tide me over.

I was wondering, is there any way of fixing my ti 4400? I searched Creative for a grfx card heat checker and came up with zero. I really hope that i can maybe fix the ti someway or another for zero cash .

(oh and ive also put the ti in after the TNT 2 and crashes after about 5 calculations under Prime95)

Regards

 

[CptDoom]

I have also tried to underclock my ti card with the coolbits registry hack by 50 mhz or whatever the speed is measured in on both scales.

Still just completely resets

 

[CptDoom]

UPDATE!

Well i put arctic silver on my ti as a last resort and guess what..

Does bugger all. Other than a few starnge artefacts on the screen durin game loadings there is absolutely nothing i seem to be able to do to get my system running properly in any way shape or form. Before i retire this system, anything i may have overlooked chaps?

 

[Mr.Monkey]

Leave the fsb for the moment, but in your bios you should be able to lower the memory timings.

In "Advanced chipset Features"--->"DRAM Clock/Drive timings"

The chose "System performance"=Normal

Then try it. Increases the latency on your memory, so you shouldn't get p95 halting as much. p95 HALTING is not a real problem, but if it crashes your computer, it is. Big difference.


The artifacts on games are likely because you've not put the heatsink back on properly.

But if p95 is causing the computer to reset, it is not your gfx card in balance of probabilites.

 

[CptDoom]

It has nerver halted, just plain reset

Ive took a case fan off and removed the ti fan and plonked it right on top blowing air onto the car with no success as the chip is bloody hot to the touch still, just about bearable but not cooled.

Gonna try sucking air next,

The Prime95 tests only crash with my ti in there so im utterly confused still

 

[Mr.Monkey]

95 doesn't put any load on your gfx card.
Just your cpu.

nvidia cards get hot, it's what they do.

I'm off for the next 4 days, so I won't be able to post again. But if you want to keep on trying, I'll suggest all I can.

But we need to know exactly what you have done so far.

And I mean put it in very basic language. You know what you mean, but so far a couple of your posts have left me confused about what you have actually done.
Like you last post. Does your gfx card have a heatsink? Or just a fan? If overheating is the prob then the size of the fan and heatsink is important.

Anyway, goodluck, and see u soon.

 

[CptDoom]

Mr Monkey

Thanks mate, i have sorted the problem. Just bought this...

Coolermaster Aero 7+ (Socket A) (HS-006-CM),
MSI GeForce FX 5600U-VTD 128MB (GX-011-MS),
Crucial 512MB DDR PC2700 CAS2.5 (MY-008-CR),
Abit NF7 v2.0 nForce2 (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-035-AB),
AMD Athlon "Thoroughbred" XP 2600+ 333FSB (Socket A) CPU - OEM (CP-030-AM)

This thread will hopefully continue as i am still very curious how the hell this is happening to what was a decent setup (bar the odd crash). If i dont sort it there will be some components for sale tho i dont think im going to manage that in here

Ive been meaning to upgrade but a little financial boost (amongst the debt) has just popped up.

I will get my old 2nd pc running hopefully at some point just in order to sell it so keep ur eyes peeled please

The 2nd Abit board i ordered will go in my current pc just to check if the mobo is indeed useless

 

[Mr.Monkey]

Well, thats the certain way to fix it.

Buy a new computer. pld.

 

[CptDoom]

Well after all that ive took all the bits from my old pc (ti card, hdd, audigy and a few other bits and whcked them on my newnew pc whic is a p4 2.8c on a neo2 PE MSI board and i havent had a single crash from the new setup.

I belive it was the agp voltage causing all my problems as this was the only thing that i couldnt change on my motherboard. Saying that it could also have been my ram as i have 2x256 3200 twinmos in this setup but after all the mem and stress tests with a different 32 MB Riva card worked fine this is all i can assume.

Anyways, sold the xp1800 bits to a friend and hes since put a 4200 in it and its working like a treat.

Damn PC's

 

[bobster]

I had a very similar problem up till about a year ago. My setup was:

AMD XP1700 cpu,
Abit KR7 motherboard
512mb DDR RAM
Hercules GeForce2
SoundBlaster Live Player 1024

Well.... after trying different memory combo's, buying a new Enermax PSU, audigy soundcard, Creative Geforce 4ti some new case fans and a selection of fancy CPU coolers it was still giving me BSOD's!!! Needless to say i was a bit pissed off.

Anyway, to cut a long story short i bought a P4 2.4 ghz and Asus P4G8X mobo chucked it in the same case with my existing memory, soundcard, video card and PSU (im even running the same version of XP, just re-installed it over the old version) and i haven't had one crash since!!!

I think vofflujarnid might be onto something but i definately won't be purchasing another AMD system in a hurry.

 

[vofflujarnid]

I once had AMD K7 Athlon 750MHz and ViA chipset and I was having this famous 'infinite loop" error. I sometimes had desktop dropdown or sudden restarts. I tried everything possible, re-assembled my entire computer, changed memory, messed with BIOS settings, changed power supply, etc. Then I got tired of it and bought myself P4 with Intel chipset. Haven't regretted it once and I haven't had one crash/sudden restart.

I don't know whether this 'infinite loop" still effects AMD + ViA chipsets or if it was fixed in some ViA 4in1 drivers.