Need help with my computers Random Reboots

[D_The_Third]

Just got a new power supply, Mb , gfx card and a cpu.


Amd 64 3200
GA-KEN51GMF-9 (its by gigabyte nforce 430 i think)
EVGA Geforce 6800Gs
2 - 256 266DDR / 1 - 512 333DDR
Thermaltake TR2-430W
( +5 +3.3 +12 -5 -12 +5VSB)
( 30A 20A 18A 0.5A .08A 2A)

Sometimes when playing movies and once while playing half life2 but mostly when I play AOE 3. The sound stutters for 2 seconds then reboots.

Okay First I thought it was my cpu overheating redid the seating and temp stays at 25 idle and 37 while playing CS DoD and other fps. Even have all my fans turned on my cpu with the case open so the hot air can get out.

Still crashes, Im thinking its the ram so I ran memtest crashed took out one 256 ram ran all night.
So I think its fixed play cs, loaded some old games I had to run at medium graphics before my upgrade all Good.
Played AOE3 which always made it do this ran good played online for a few games then on the third one. THe sound stuttered but this time it lasted 6 to 8 seconds then rebooted.

Any ideas what it could be? It reboots like that on AOE3 all the time when I had 3 sticks almost every 15 to 30 minutes. With two It did it just that once after 1 and half to two hours of playing. It only crashed once on DoD with 3 sticks but I was playing that for some hours.

Im thinking its my ram so im gonna get a 1 gig DDR400 but before I do I wanna make sure its that cause if its not I wont spend 100 somethin for a faster gig.

Any advice or personal experience would be appreciated.

 

[vanhaesendonck]

I think it's a bug in the motherboard!

I have the same MB ( GA-K8N51GMF-9 ) and I have the same problem. The only solution I found was to put the memory on 133 mhz instaed of 200 mhz. The more you reduce memory speed the less it seems to happen.

I tried exchanging the RAM and the graphic card but it doesn't seems to fix anything.

When I play a game such as BF2 the computer will sometimes crash with an hardware error after the sound suttering for 2 seconds!

I hope gigabyte, Nvidia (or somebody) comes up with a better solution.

NOTE:

I found a similar topic on AMDs forums. It seems the motherboard is the most likely culprit! I sent an E-mail to gigabyte, we'll see.

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=65249&st=0&p=603461&#entry603461

 

[D_The_Third]

How do I lower the ram?
Easy Tune5 wont let me change it just see it.

 

[purelithium]

You'll have to actually go into the bios to change it.

 

[baracuda73]

Is there and updated BIOS available? It may cure the problem.

 

[baracuda73]

The reboots are actually BSOD's so to find out the actual error right-click on my computer, click on properties, click advanded tab, click start up and recovery setting, then uncheck automatic restart under the system failure section. This will show you your BSOD and the error associated with it then either post it here for help or of course google it and see what comes up.

 

[vanhaesendonck]

Hello,

I have tried to remove the automatic restart some time ago already but it seems to still reboot.

From the KB article I recieve from microsoft after the reboot it seems the last thing the OS recieved from the processor was a special signal meaning that the hardware became too instable for the processor to continue normal operation, and that this indicate a hardware problem in either CPU, ram, Video or MB. Since I tried to switch the video and ram with other component without success only the MB and CPU remains. Since other owners of the MB have the same problem I think it's the culprit.

For now I have put the ram frequency on 133 Mhz in the BIOS (266 Mhz ddr) and the machine has been stable for 3 days now (no crash since I changed).

NOTE for D_the_third: the entries to change the ram timing and frequency are hidden on this board. Here is what you need to do.

- When starting the machine push on del to enter the BIOS.
- When in the BIOS, push CTRL-F1 to enter expert mode (if you don't do that you can't access memory timings)!
- New entries will appear. go to frequency and voltage controls.
- On the memory entry, change it from auto to manual.
- You can now manually change the memory frquency and timings. Be careful to only use frequency and timings your card is rated for (lowering frequency and increasing latency values are normaly not a problem).

It's a shame to have PC3200 and to have to use it at PC2100 frequency but if it's stable it's probably better. It seems a new Bios was released a few days ago. If I continue to have problems I will try to update (if the machine works stable with the lower memory frequency I'll first wait for feedback on forums to be sure it doesn't break anything).

 

[D_The_Third]

Ya I downloaded the new bios F3.
Gonna uncheck the windows thing, and ill lower it to 133.

Now I know why they gave the MB away with cpus.

 

[vanhaesendonck]

Following the advice of the gigabyte engineer I also installed BIOS F3.

With the new F3 BIOS the problem is changed, not fixed. I explain myself. Now instead of the computer automaticaly rebooting when I use games or 3Dmark 2001 the actual application crashes instead.

I think it is the same problem because it happens at the same frequency as the reboots happened before. I don't think it is related to the application itself because it happened in 2 different programs so far (3dmark2001 and vampires bloodlines).

Again it seems to happen more frequently when I put my memory on it's rated speed (200 mhz) that when I lower the memory speed to 133 mhz.

In the event log all I see is that there was an application fault, the name of the executable and a memory offset.

Do you encounter similar problems? If yes, has anybody an idea how to fix this? I think it's really a motherboard setting, but maybe there is some setting in the bios that can be set to prevent this to happen.

Thanks

 

[apache_lives]

2 - 256 266DDR / 1 - 512 333DDR

ram issue? the standard is atleast 2x512mb DDR400 running at 400

have you tried removing all sticks except the one 512mb DDR333 and see how that goes?

 

[edwardkow]

My Rig is doing the same thing but i got a different motherboard

I have a AMD 3500+
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe MB
Corsair 3200 DDR 400 XMS 2-2-2-5 Latency Ram
Asus X800XT PE Video card
2X Raptor 36G in raid 0
SoundBlaster X-Fi extrememusic
Power suply is a 480W Antec true power
Case in an Antec mid tower with 5 120mm fans

all is at stock speed and i got random reboot or game crash...i tried lower my game graphics and it seems to help a little but sometimes it crash when i surf the web so i dont think its the video card...i can run 10 times 3Dmark06 in a row and it will be fine then play 1 mission of call of duty 2 and it will crash...im really confuse...any idea?

 

[D_The_Third]

I tried the one stick but the crashes are so random its hard to tell. Since setting my ram to manual I can play offline with no problems but online sometimes it wont reboot and somtimes it will.

Im sure we all have something in common.
Are rams are different.
How about CPUs, mines a amd 64 3200(weak i know)?
Does everyone else use onboard sound?
Did everyone use the optimal bios setting?

 

[apache_lives]

iv had stability issues on "optimal" bios setting for some boards - try setting everything manually instead of auto (ram ratio, voltage, etc) if you know what to set em to.

 

[mdd1963]

"Did everyone use the optimal bios setting?"

I'd first restore factory defaults, use "Auto SPD" for mem..; it should read mem and use safe timings. If your fastest stick is PC2700, it will/should use 166 as the speed....

Did I read earlier you are mixing RAM sizes/speeds?

Try a single stick in the approved slot for single stick ops...

 

[apache_lives]

SPD - try em manual aswell and force the speeds of 333 (or whatever the lowest speed stick) and slack timings (3-4-4-8)

 

[vanhaesendonck]

D, personally I think I will give up on this mobo and get the MSI one instead. I have now read a lot of reviews (about 90) on newegg and it seems plenty of peoples (between 20 and 30) are having similar issues. Oh and several people reported the mobo completely beaking down after 1 or 2 weeks or so.

What I personaly think is that gigabyte released a whole batch of this mobo with defect condensers or something and that they are unable to work at the required frequencies. Of course I don't think gigabyte will ever admit this.

What I find strange is that when I underclock the RAM or the Hypertreading bus I get somewhat better stability than when running at normal speed, which make me worry that some components on the mobo are not able to perform at the level they are specified for. I don't think the PSU is an issue as I replaced the one that came with my case by an overspecced one and I still have the issue.

Also I don't think the issue can easily be solved by a BIOS upgrade, otherwise being given the number of complaint they would have fixed it already.

Somebody also suggested that the board is abnormaly fragile and that bending it a bit when installing the CPU (which I didn't do as I installed it outside the case on the flat mat provided) or tightening some of the screws that maintains the board in the case could cause this issue, but I seiously doubt this.

Personaly after one month looking for the solution to this I am fed up! This mobo has the following issues: It doesn't POST after you changed any components on it so you need to plug / unplug the power until it works (if it works as for some it stopped completely, not for me though), it randomly reboots the computer on harware errors and it crashes games and 3Dmark! That's a bit too many problems for me to try to solve.

Of course I don't think I'll buy gigabyte again any time soon, and next time I'll look at supports forums before I buy anything.

 

[apache_lives]

that sounds like a dieing board, and that sounds like the msi boards iv owned, i will never touch them again dam crap.

 

[D_The_Third]

Did u get the new board? is it better now?
Its either buy a new board or a new stick of ram. So any ideas on a cheap good mobo with pci-e? Im not a rich man , thats why i only got a 3200

So maybe a board around 50 to 100 . Kinda pissed that I paid 250 for the cpu and board so im out 60 to 70 dollars.

 

[apache_lives]

Got any other machines to test the stick of ram?

Iv gone through so many MSI boards - including one gettin replaced so times the company got sick of me and switched it with an ASUS board they were gettin rid of.

I havnt seen many sticks of ram go down - maybe 3 in 100 where as boards - atleast 50% within 3 years.

 

[coriace689]

I had the same problem with a Ga-7vax mobo from gigabyte and it was driving me crazy!
After a while the mobo died and i found out that two capacitors had leaked and a third one was about to burst open.
Gigabyte like some other mobo makers won't admit it but they bought a batch of cheap capacitors , check this link : http://www.overclockers.com/tips00140/

They replaced the mobo for 50 boxs and it is working fine since then.
Check your motherboard to see if some capacitors have an inflated top.
check this link too!
http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=leaking+capacitors&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D37c5039211041614%26clickedItemRank%3D3%26userQuery%3Dleaking%2Bcapacitors%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.pcstats.com%252Farticleview.cfm%253FarticleID%253D195%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DNSCPResultsT%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcstats.com%2Farticleview.cfm%253FarticleID%253D195

 

[vanhaesendonck]

I recieved the new mobo frIday. I installed it that evening and I didn't have any crash since, despite a lot of gaming during the week end.

For now the msi mobo (K8NGM2-FID) seems very stable. I paid around 100€ for it and I think it will be money well spent.