P4C800 crashes mysteriously

[dmcmahon]

I built a system based on the P4C800 some weeks ago. The system runs fine most of the time, but once in a while it will crash for no apparent reason. The crash itself is strange as well. Until today, I had never actually seen it - I would come back to my system to find the ide activity light on (solid) and the system frozen. Today I experienced the crash live for the first time. I was in a game, and I saw the ide light come on (solid). The game was still running and I was able to perform some actions in the game for about 10 seconds before the whole system just froze up. Strange, eh?

The system is a P4C800, 2.8 GHz CPU with 800 MHz FSB, 2 sticks of 512M each Corsair DDR400 ram, twin WD 200G hard drives on IDE 1, a Zip750 + DVD+RW drive on IDE 2. OS is XP Pro.

All components are running within spec., no overclocking. Memory diagnostics seem to show the memory is fine. BIOS upgraded to the latest one available from the Asus web site.

So, has anyone seen a problem similar to this one? Is it, perhaps, a well-known problem with this board? Could I have a defective mobo?

 

[markgun]

what video card & PSU are you using?

<b>Qui habet aures audiendi audiat</b>

 

[dmcmahon]

ATI Radeon 9000 All-in-Wonder. The power supply was built into my Antec Performance II case, I believe it's 350W.

 

[dmcmahon]

Still trolling to see if anyone's seen this problem.

 

[Flinx]

Well if your PSU wasn't Antec I'd say check that.
Any chance you can borrow a higher wattage PSU to test?
Erratic behavior is often the fault of poor power (or so I read somewhere here).

Things you can check:
1) latest bios
2) latest drivers
3) memory test: <A HREF="http://www.memtest86.com/" target="_new">memtest86</A>
4) cpu/mobo temperatures in the bios (lots of problems with summer heat but you have good case). How hot is the ambient air in the computer room?


The loving are the daring!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Flinx on 08/05/03 12:15 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[dmcmahon]

The behaviour is technically erratic, but not overly-so. The machine may run for hours or even days before this problem rears it's head. And a quick reboot makes everything well again. Those symptoms seem to rule out a temperature problem, as the components have clearly reached their stable operating temperatures well before failure occurs, and the restart clears the problem immediately even though they've had no time to cool down, eh?

But in answer to the checklist, yes the CPU and mobo temps are well within expected values, and well below the maximums, as measured by the Asus probe utility. I do have the latest BIOS and all the latest drivers. memtest86 is what I ran to verify that the memory seemed OK - I let it run for several hours and nothing turned up. The power supply is a possibility, though it really seems unlikely. Unfortunately swapping it out looks like a major pain in the arse, even if I could get another one.

I can't help thinking the solid IDE light is a clue, as well as the slow-motion nature of the failure; I guess if there were power and/or memory problems I'd expect all sorts of randomness in the failure mode and for the failure to be more immediately catastrophic, but the crash behaviour seems very consistent and, for a crash, strangely slow. Perhaps I wasn't clear on the one failure I actually observed. I was in an on-line game, connected via my LAN to the internet, and after the IDE light came on solid, I was able, for about 5 seconds, to continue some in-game actions that were definitely acknowledged on the server end.

 

[pat]

I just remembered that, when I first build my other computer about 2 years ago, I ran into somthing similar about 2 weeks after building it. I dont remember for the IDE light, but my system just froze and I had to reboot. I try reinstalling windows 98 which seems to fix the problem, but only for 2 days. I thought that I my have screwed with drivers installation, because I was testing some drivers for my video card. Decide to reinstall again, but the install just froze almost at the end.It has never done that b4. Try to reinstall again, but the computer just keep freezing at random time during the install.

I had 2 memory sticks in my computer so I removed one and started the install, but my computer crash instantly. Put the other one in, went thru the install, and my computer ran stable from this time.

I would remove one stick of memory and try it. if it crash, then try the other. maybe both of them will run good separate, but not together. You see, when u leave you computer on for sometime, XP start to optimize your HD according to your usage to spped it up. then it star to use more memory..and more until it find the weak spot and crash.


That explain too why my system was stable after a fresh install...not much bacground task needing memory.

Hope that help

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[pIII_Man]

well if memtest passes then the memory is out of the question...it is a much more stressful test of your memory than any installation will ever be...

I have a hunch it is the powersupply...which i don't think is a pain in the ass to uninstall...remove the atx power connector...floppy and all molex connectors...undo 4 screws and you are done...

If i put my k6 in a Ferrari it would be faster than your your pentium 4 or Athlon XP :tongue:

 

[JP5]

Can you ctrl-alt-del to see if there is a process accessing the hard drive and locking up. Maybe something in your taskbar is locking up.

 

[dmcmahon]

No, the system is totally wedge, control-alt-del doesn't do anything, in fact the keyboard and mouse are totally unresponsive.

Even more interesting, when this happens I can trigger a reboot using the reset switch, and the system will go past the POST and show me the BIOS screen, then it will freeze up again at the point where it would normally show me the IDE devices. To reboot it I actually need to do a full soft power off and then power on (using the contact switch on the front, not the power cut-off switch on the back of the PSU).

 

[pat]

Dont assume your memory is good because it pass memtest. Give it a try with only one stick. My system too would sometime pass memtest in the first time it start doing this.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[vargasjhu]

JP5 makes a great point, there's a lot of spyware out there that I've found can lock up a system when it's using enough resources. If you don't have ad-aware I'd download that or check your taskbar for processes that look abnormal.

 

[dmcmahon]

I'll consider that but remember that this is a dual-channel mobo so (a) it's using both chips about equally now and (b) removing a chip will make a fundamental change in the operating mode of the chipset.

 

[pIII_Man]

if you remove 1 dimm you will be running single channel...it is worth a try to see if you can get it stable...

If i put my k6 in a Ferrari it would be faster than your your pentium 4 or Athlon XP :tongue:

 

[siranthony]

Well it could be almost anything. Could be a problem with a PCI card. I have had trouble with sound cards before. I would try taking everything out except the vid card and see if it happens again. If it doesnt't. Put one thing back in at a time until the probem happens again. Also could be the PSU. Do you have the latest drivers? You could try relaxing the memory timings. Just a matter of trouble shooting.

 

[pat]

The change will be handled by the BIOS, and you will run in single channel, as piiiman said. your memory is corsair 3200 but not the twinx, which are certified dual channel. both of your simm are maybe good, but just cannot work together.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[JMark]

Since nobody has mentioned this yet...have you tried replacing the drive cables?

 

[dmcmahon]

Re. not the TwinX, yes indeed they are not, but then again, I was told by several posters on this site not to use the TwinX with this board.

I understand that the BIOS will automatically switch to single-channel. My point in mentioning this is is that it makes two changes, not one. Suppose I remove a stick of memory and the problem goes away. Now I won't know if the problem was due to a bad stick, or due to the switch from dual to single channel.

 

[pat]

But that will narrow your search to the memory instead of the whole system. I use twinx in my system and I dont have any problem. so remove one stick, test it. it works? ok. try the other one .if it works, then maybe it is just that you need twinx with your board. if not, then replace the bad one with a new one.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!