PCA Forums

I am having some problems here...
my setup

MSI K7N2 Delta-L
512 megs of Elixir 3200
AMD 2600+
80 gig Maxtor 7200RPM
Saphire ATI 8500le 128

my problem...
I OCd the rig from 2.08 ghz to 2.225... just by moving the FSB I little higher, something I did before....
I shoulda learned my lesson from the FIRST time I did it... I had problems with the PC restarting itself after I OCd it.. and it's happening again...

this time, at first I couldn't even load up windows, it would start posting the Win XP load screen, then it would go to scandisk, scan my HDD and find some files were damaged and truncate them.. then, after scandisk was done it would seem like it was going to load when BAM, reboot...
now I can get into windows and do some stuff on the internet, and some desktop apps, but as soon as I start up UT2K4 demo I can only play for like 3 min before I have my comp reboot on me... it SOUNDS like a heat issue, but the CPU NEVER breaks 40 C....(as well it HAS rebooted while I was on the desktop and doing something non graphicaly intense)

this all happened the first time as well...but I took it back (it was 4 days after I bought the parts) and had the techs take a look at it...they said there was nothing wrong and it never rebooted or locked on them... I took it home and never had a problem with it, until now when I OC'd again... damn it...(this is like 6 months later)

my only thoughts are that I have corrupted some windows data and I need to reinstall...it seemed to do the trick last time... maybe it's all the EXACT same as the first time it happend... anybody have any ideas?? LMK what ya think, thanks!

A friend of mine has that same mobo and has had nothing but problems with it. He also gave up on the idea of over clocking it as when he did things went really badly for him. His system is now having problem with the boot sector getting corrupted on reboots. Not sure if it is a mobo issue but who knows.

did you atleast turn your fsb back down to default?

I know that when I overclock a little to high, I get messages saying "files are corrupt". So i turn the fsb back down and it works again

If thats still not the case....check your ram. Could be a flaky stick

haha yes I turned my FSB back to stock that was the first thing I did, and it seems that it now reboots no matter what I try..
I am going to format and reinstall WinXP pro and se eif anything changes after that... here's hopin


Dad
Hmmmm.... that kinda sounds like what is up with my PC except it's giving me errors in system files when it runs scan disk, doesn't ALWAYS give the errors, but at first it did
maybe these boards are just crap... although I heard they were suposed to be great for OCing... I haven't seen that yet...
I'll let you all know if a fresh install is a good cure

then I shall never OC this mobo again...
140 mhz is NOT that big a deal....especially with all the troubles it causes

*EDIT*
well I started installing win98 just to see how that would go and it kept locking up near the end... 18% left and it would start searching out hardware to set up... so after it did the 2 times I said Hmmm... maybe I'll take out all my add in cards except the video...
soooo out came an old 56K modem, SBlive! Value and the SMC nic

voila it loaded itself just fine (I also cleared the CMOS the last time too) so now I will slap in XP and see what shakes loose from there!

*2nd EDIT*
Well Win98 went in great, then I upgraded my win98 to WinXP pro and near the end I got this error
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
in a BSOD... checked it up and some people are suggesting that it could be my RAM...
I took my RAM out and stuck it in another slot... seems to be doing the trick... I am going to install the CAT 4.2s and see how well they perform and if my PC doesn't reboot on me while playing UT2K4 demo, then I think I may have it solved

*3rdEDIT*
I stayed up until 3:30 am reformating and reinstalling Windows and other things
I was in and out of windows reinstalling MANY things and didn't have a problem, I ran 3Dmark2001se about 8 seperate times and had no problems
I loaded up the UT2k4 demo and 40 seconds into the game my PC rebooted itself...
exactly what was happening to it before... I am begining to think it is my ram and that the problem isn't until higher up in the RAM storage and when I play something demanding like that then it kicks in and reboots me.... any ideas??
thanks

*4thEDIT*
I was just about to go into my bios and start changing my settings when I rememberd that when this first happened I was doing it with halo, so I was looking for tweaks to make it stop rebooting and I came across this http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=1509
and I did it and Halo didn't seem to reboot as much... so I did it again to my machine and it seems as though it's working... I tested ONCE so I have to say seems...
any ideas??

I still think it couldve been a bad PSU or bad ram. When I system reboots when in a game or 3d app....those tend to be the culprits

And not just try the same ram in a new slot, Try a whole new stick of ram you KNOW works. Even try running one of those dos based memory test programs

run memtest, check for leaky caps, try a different PSU
sounds like one of the three

I have always been thinking it was my RAM, from the first day I had problems with it.
when I first noticed problems (about 5 months ago) I noticed the RAM looked like it had been cut by a box cutter. It had 2 deep gouges running the length of the DDR pins... right through nearly all of them on one side. When I took my stuff back to the store they said it should run fine but if I wanted to have it fixed on warranty they'd have to ship it back and it'd be 6-8 weeks till I got it back... not wanting to be RAMless I said..ugh I'll keep it...and since that day it has been alright, with the exception of my comp restarting once and awhile while playing Halo...
finally I took it back today conviced it was the RAM after trying a friends 512 PC2700 (as well I ran memtest and it only made it to a maximum of 101% before my PC rebooted or hung up) I had a 512meg stick of 400 mhz Elixir RAM and the tech said my K7N2 board (or alot of Nforce chipsets) were picky on RAM... and he said that Hynix (I think that's the one) seemed to work best and after seeing the gouges and me telling him my story he simply said... "well! I guess I should get you a new stick of RAM!" and off he went just like that, a new stick of 512 for me and I left

I just got back from watching a movie with the GF, and before I went I turned on memtest... when I got back after the 2 hours, memtest had nearly 1600 cycles and 2300% in passes completed with NO errors happy am I, I can finally put this demon to rest

thanks to all of you with your suggestions and help. I really appreciate it. I hope someday I can be as much help as they people here are to me
thanks again!