Stability Gone to Sh*t

Lmandrake · Post by **Lmandrake** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 9:27 pm

Here is my system:

Shuttle AK35GTR, XP 2000+, one stick 256 Crucial PC2100 one stick 256 Kingston PC2100, very conservatively rated 300w PS from old Compaq server, two 40 gb HDs, generic CD, lite on burner, visiontek ti4200.

Cooling with water.

Been running this rig at 1800 for about a year - 12.5 x 144 at 1.8 volts. Temps never exceed 44 C. My system started to crash running FAH, so I notched it back to 142, kept crashing, redid the heatsink paste, kept crashing. Notched back to 140 FSB, kept crashing.

Got fed up, set everything at default voltage etc. Ran it this way for a while. Folds to slow. Tried again today at 140 FSB, 1.8 volts, RAM volts at 2.7. CRASH-O-RAMA.

Power supply seems good. 5v line stays pretty steady at 4.89 volts under load or at idle. All other voltages within spec.

This rig was rock solid for a year. No it won't OC for sh*t.

What would you suggest for trying to figure out what the problem is? Could all those nervous nellies who said OC'ing kills your CPU be right?

PreDatoR · Post by **PreDatoR** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 9:47 pm

Could be the CPU i'd put my money on that motherboard though. Had 2 of them one new one refurbed. Both were a POS. Could never get them stable for nothing between 140-150 fsb no matter what i tried. So i ditched that and went with the Epox 8K3A+

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 8:55 am

what he said. I had one die on me just swapping out a fan/hs !!

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 11:51 am

i have one of those mobos somewhere in the basement - i whacked out on me a while back - it was always fussy so i never have taken the time to figure out if it is truly dead or not - try another cpu see if that works - those baords never wanted to go over 142 for me anyway - if it's the board get an 8rda+ or similar -

BaD_HeX · Post by **BaD_HeX** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 2:11 am

Crashing how...

Idle resets? Heavy load resets? Stop errors? Lockups?

Things you might want to try... test your sticks of ram http://www.goldmemory.cz/ .. run with 256 one stick at a time and see if you still have any errors... Hopping the FSB up can impact things like ram, even network cards on certain mobos.

Stop errors can be caused by tons of things... I was getting some at the last PCA lan because a 120v switch was too close to my sound card (not kidding). I doubt it's your cpu as AMDs like to die HARD. They won't just sorta stop working.. they will melt or just no longer function.

Is your AMD unlocked? Bad connections between the L1s can wreak havoc on anything from the CPU itself to your sticks of ram. Try taking all cards out except for video and see if you are still having the stability issues. If not, one card back in at a time until you get a bad combo... even then try them in different slots as you can pinpoint bad slots, connections, etc...

Try different power supplies.. Peltiers (if you've ever had one on that psu) and other devices that pull alot of power can cause your psu to begin to fail. Watch core voltages in motherboard manager for changes as sometimes mobos can't hold a voltage at the current FSB which will cause stability issues, resets, lockups.

Run some air over everythings in the case that you have some bits of metal, etc which can cause odd connections to be made on the mobo. Also unmount the mobo to make sure nothing conductive is touching. Buffer your mobo mounting screws/brackets with some paper or rubber washers... Sometimes big headed screws can make connections on poorly designed boards.

mmmm.. that's off the top of my head

Absolut Talent · Post by **Absolut Talent** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 12:37 pm

scan for virus and spyware