could this be a motherboard issue?

[scruffy]

I've been encoutering some random freezes recently. Most bizarely, these started a few months ago, stopped for about a month and have now returned:

When it gets really bad, my pc will freeze almost totally, i can still move the mouse but none of my programs will respond and the curser will usually be stuck in hourglass mode. The clock also freezes. When I reboot, at its worst, my pc will lock up almost straight away when my firewall, antivirus etc is loading. This will happen lots of times, until one time it will load properly and be fine again

Other than that, it locks up in the same way a occasionally during the night when I'm not using it. It doesnt seem to be locking under load at all strangely. I ran a memory test and it constantly failed on a particular task. I changed and replaced memory and it still failed on the same test. Strangely after this it worked for about a month and then started not working again

My problem is that I'm unsure what the problem is, I suspect it is a motherboard issue but obviously I don't want to replace something unless I'm pretty sure that it's broken

My system is:

MSI KTT266 Pro2
Athlon XP 1600+
Creative GeForce 4
512 MB RAM
Alctel USB ADSL Modem
Running Zone Alarm and Kaspersky

Help would really be appreciated!

Scruffy

 

[Scout]

Well, before you replace the Motherboard, I'd flash the BIOS and update all the drivers, including the Via Hypernian chipset drivers. Random crashes can be caused by a lot of things, so bring everything up to speed and you can fix a lot of problems.

You can also relax settings in your BIOS to see if that stabilizes your system. For instance, loosen the memory timings some and see if that memory error goes away. Check your CPU temp to make sure it's not running too hot.


Scout
700 Mflops in SETI!

 

[deadkenny]

IMHO flashing the BIOS is the last thing you want to do on a system having stability problems. The only exception I would make is if the BIOS had a know fix for a specific problem that has been identified as being an issue (e.g. support of particular hardware - memory or video card etc.). First diagnose the problem. If the system 'freezes' while trying to flash, you'll likely end up having to replace the m/b.

That (upgrade) which does not destroy you(r system's stability), makes it stronger. Nietzche

 

[Crashman]

I suspect it's a motherboard issue to. I used to repair boards as a sideline business and was the first person to bring the capacitor problem to the attention of the media. All capacitors die sooner or later...and dead capacitors can cause unstable memory voltage.

It could be a heat issue, a power supply issue, or a few other things, but I have the feeling it's the motherboard. Look around for swollen or leaking capacitors as they have these visual symptoms probably 90% of the time they go bad.

If you find your motherboard damaged, send it to me!

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[scruffy]

Ack, ran it under load all night last night (torture test) and it crashed, so I guess I'm wrong there. It's not running any hotter than 55c so I presume it's not a heat issue (it has a big fan and an exhaust fan on the case?

This is very annoying! Was checking the voltages and they are as low as 3.18 on the 3.3 rail and 4.82 on the 5v rail. Could this be an issue?

 

[Scout]

I read the post as though it was having occasional lockups, but not so unstable you wouldn't want to try a flash. That board is an older model so he may be several BIOS revisons out of date. That's why I sugested the BIOS update.

Scout
700 Mflops in SETI!

 

[scruffy]

I took the risk and flashed the bios, gonna stress test it again tonight. Also changed the voltage from auto to 1.75 for the CPU which seems to have improved the reading in MM5 slightly. If this doesnt work I think I might just lower the FSB to 100 so at least I have a stable system that I can use for word processing and stuff

 

[Crashman]

Oh yes! I've seen a few systems disablize at or below 3.2v. It's not that common, but since I've seen it happen, I know it's possible.

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