MB, GFX, PSU? Who Knows?

[Rabs]

Hello there,

I'm having a few probs with my nice new(!) system. First of all the system

Chaintech 7KJD Motherboard (AMD 761 NB + Via 8231 SB)
AMD T/Bird 1333mhz (Not overclocked) 266FSB (Thermosonic Thermoengine HSF 7000rpm)
2 x 256MB Crucial Cas 2.5 DDR Ram
Elsa Gladiac 920 64MB Geforce 3
Domex 3194 SCSI connected to Sanyo 16x10x40 Burnproof CDRW, Plextor 40x CDRom
Chaintech PCI RAID card (Highpoint 370 Chipset) connected to 2 x IBM 75GXP 30GB
El Cheapo Realtek 8139 Chipset Network Card
Pioneer 16x DVD IDE (On Via IDE)
On board 6 Channel CMI 8738 Sound
All in an IWill Full Tower case with 300W Powersupply (3x case fans, 1 in 2 out)
AMD Miniport Drivers and Via 4.32 (without AGP driver) installed

The problems are as follows:

In Windows ME, I can start a game say Project IGI and the game will last about 5 minutes before locking up. Sometimes a black screen appearing with green lines at the top (Anyone know what causes this btw, I've seen it before elsewhere).

In windows 2000 (SP2 etc) I've had a error in DPC Routine and error in osntkrnl.exe (or something like that).

After all the above, I used to have an ABit KT7-RAID in the same case with all the same hardware apart from GF2 GTS, SB Live!, 256MB Cas 3 PC133. I occasionally got a black screen with green lines at the top too.

I have a hunch its the power supply either being faulty or not giving out enough juice. Anybody any ideas?

 

[sTRO]

I can't say I know the solutions to your problems, but i've encountered very similar probs with WinMe and 98SE... Actually it was my 98SE locking up games and other things... mostly games and movies. When I installed winME it worked fine... until I got my AMD 1.4(266), which won't accept any OS installation... which is where I get the black screen w/ green lines on attempts to install it... Win2k PRO and Win98SE have different malfunctions on the sys. :\


<font color=orange>Everything I install is based on Plug n' Pray architecture</font color=orange>

 

[phsstpok]

For me, the black screen with a green line problem went away when I upgraded my cheapo 300watt PSU to an Enermax unit. However, <A HREF="http://www.geforcefaq.com" target="_new">http://www.geforcefaq.com</A> has several suggestions for addressing that particular problem. Use your browser's find function to locate the info.

 

[Rabs]

Sorry for not replying sooner.

Thanks for the suggestions. My CPU is reported to be running around 40-41 Degrees while idle. When I forst boot my comp, I can play all these 3d games perfect for a while, but crashes are occuring in Command And Conquer too which doesn't particularly use the 3d funtions of the graphics card ruling that out.

I think the cpu must be getting too hot, the PSU is only a few centimeters from the CPU and fan, so I'm thinking of going the enermax route with its dual fans to get rid of internal heat.

What annoys me is that I have an Iwill full tower case with a 9cm case fan sucking air in at the front and 2 x 9cm fans blowing air out of the back of the case. I thought the Thermoengine HSF/Delta would have done the job CPU wise too (rated at 1.5ghz). I'm going to try running with the side of the case off for now until I get the new PSU. I'll let you know how I get on.

BTW whats the best HSF out there atm apart from the cryo/freezing solutions?

Is the asaka Silver mountain any good?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Rabs on 08/01/01 08:31 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[CALV]

Wahts your ambient temp 40c seems a high idle temp with your setup, did you use thermal coumpund on the heatsink? also did you use one of those stupid shims that stop the heatsink making good contact?


Next time you wave - use all your fingers

 

[Rabs]

Yep its one of those stupid shims, I'll get some Arctic Silver compound later on this week.

I know having a shim raises temp a little but for it to be unstable at stock CPU speed it just puzzles me.

 

[CALV]

yeah does seem odd, if it were me, I'd remove the shim, apply some sort of heat transfer compound and try again, ok, those shims help reduce likelyhood of cpu damage by cracking/crushing, but they have also been known to prevent the heatsink making good enough contact with the cpu core.


Next time you wave - use all your fingers

 

[Rabs]

Thanks for your time, I'll try removing the shim and applying some compound as soon as I can and report back.

Thanks again

 

[phsstpok]

If you get a copy of Motherboard Monitor (sorry no link offhand) you can track your CPU temperatures. Clicking the High/Low option you will see what your max temperature is for your CPU. However, if you are idling at 40 degrees, and you are not overclocking, I suspect you don't have a problem in that area.

You did not mention your ambient temperature but I have a suggestion. You said you have 3 case fans, one blowing in and two out. The PSU also blows air out. I recommend you switch one case fan so that you have two blowing in and one blowing out to combine with the PSU blowing out. This balances the intake and exhaust making for more efficient exchanging of air.

However, a fast way to check for heat problems is simple. Open the case and use a room fan to blow air in. If your computer is now stable then you definitely had a heat problem.

 

[phsstpok]

Sorry, I forgot about your two questions. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to either of them. I don't have a high end system yet (I have a Duron) so I have not yet run into severe cooling problems. I do know that I do not want any 7000 RPM fans. (A loud "whoosh" is bad enough, please no hair dryers or jet engines).

I would suspect any of the name-brand, all copper heatsinks would be fine. When I get to needing one I will probably look to adapting a high CFM 80mm or 92mm fan. Loud, but you get the whoosh not the whine.

 

[Rabs]

I've had the side of my tower of for about 6 hours now, played a few games and everything seems to be fine.

A few months ago I thought my 1Ghz rated HSF was big, the current crop of HSF's 1.5G rated just take the ****. Especially as my Thermoengine (All bl**dy £25 of it!) can't take the heat.

Looks like I'll have to drill some holes in my case and get a nice big side mounted fan as well as PSU if I want to leave my case closed, *joy* not...

Thanks for the help ppz.

 

[phsstpok]

Cool! Seems like it was heat. Now try reversing one of the case fans to balance intake and exhaust. Close it up and test again.

By the way, my Enermax PSU (with the double fans) lowered my CPU temps by 3 degrees, a side benefit to the stable power.

 

[Rabs]

* Update *

After leaving my case off for a few days now, I'm still getting some crashes.

After rearranging cards and IRQ's, I seem to have found out a few things about my PCI cards and IRQ's.

First of all:

Highpoint 370A Chipset RAID (Wether PCI or onboard) needs its own IRQ (not shared) to operate at max potential and stability.

My Domex 9134UP SCSI card (Included with my Mirai 16x SCSI CDRW) is very fussy about what devices it shares its IRQ's with. When sharing with USB I get lockups when I try wo write CD's, whe sharing with onboard sound (CMI 8738 - 6 Channel)everythings fine.

Now that this little prob is sorted, I won't need a new HSF although I still stick with my comments about overrated HSF's out there.

I swore it wasn't a CPU heat problem as the idle temp is about 39C, ambient (guess) 42C, Load 44C (after restarting and going into BIOS quick - MB Monitor doesn't fully support Via 8231 Southbridge yet).

I thought it was my GF3 overheating, but there have been no reported probs after scouring search engines and Forums. I'm going to use a PCI card cooler anyway just to be sure.

Thanks to all the people that replied with suggestions.

 

[killall]

try a new power supply... should solve the problem

if in doubt blame microsoft...

 

[Rabs]

I'll be getting a new Enermax 350W Dual-Fan PSU just to make sure

Thanks for the post...

 

[phsstpok]

Hi Rabs. Thanks for the update. I'm glad you are making progress.

Come to think of it, I haven't heard of a single heat related problem with GF3's. (Now, an overclocked Geforce256 is another story. These things run HOT!).

I don't know anything about your configuration, not your mobo, SCSI CD-RW, PCI Raid controllers so I can only suggest a few general things. (Sorry if they are duplicates. I didn't re-read the thread).

1. Make sure all DMA capable drives (HD, CD-ROM, etc) have DMA enabled.

2. If your motherboard allows it, try increasing I/O voltage for stability. Try 3.5 or 3.6 volts (as measured by your hardware which may different from the BIOS or motherboard setting).

3. If you are still suspicious of your PSU get an Enermax 430 watt unit and forget about power problems forever.