System gone nuts

[AndrewT]

Not so happy about it and it's just weird.

Replaced my AMD system with this Intel (because after having the asus a7v133a mobo replaced the 6th time I had enough of it) and it was nice and peachy for a few months. But now it started to act up like my old setup, showing 228 Mb of ram instead of 512, when I do nothing but idle the CPU temperature shoot up to 42C, even 50C a few times already, and once a while it goes so high that safety kicks in and system shuts down (when I see it reboot I go in bios and it read 60C+). The latest now is double boot, I hit power to turn it on and while the windows welcome screen is on it reboot again making me have to use safe mode and reboot again to get into windows.

So far I don't like this a bit, didn't have a chance to use it much since I work crazy hours lately, so it was used for less than 3-4 weeks if I count all the time I was able to use it for anything.

At this moment I have the A/C blasting in this small room at the max and my CPU temp is at 40-41.5C, mobo at 30C (used to be 36-38 idle, 42-45 at load), while I'm freezing my a$$ in the 20C room wearing sweats looking like an idiot since it's around 30C outside the house. :lol:

Ripped the whole setup into pieces the other day and started it over , making sure everything is seated right and free of any dust, cleaned and put ArcticSilver under CPU again, turned on all my case fans (2x120 in, 3x80 1x90 out)... no change. Did format just in case there is something funny going on, did updated norton a.v. scan and nothing. I'm just puzzled, any ideas? I'm getting tired of computer problems.

p.s. I did not add anything to the system since I put it together the first day, did not install any new software.

<font color=red>Got a silent setup, now I can hear myself thinking.... great silence</font color=red>

 

[Scotty35]

Have a good look at your ram, sounds like the problem. Iam assuming you have 2 x 256mb installed?
If so try them each on their own and even swap them through the slots. A program called Memtest86 is the go to test each stick properly. What PSU do you have?

Good luck

<A HREF="http://www.koalanet.com/australian-slang.html" target="_new">Aussie slang</A>

 

[AndrewT]

Nevermind, did run memtest86 and it showed the right ammount of ram, then just to see I killed test and restarted (not reset) system. It showed the right ammount of ram, windows report the right ammount of ram too, boot the first time, see nothing wrong.

Suspect: 5300 Seagate 40 Gig drive (using it as storage and file transport)
Second suspect: The removable tray holding the Seagate.
Reason: Everything is fine and the only change to the system is the Seagate out.

I'll go try and see what happens when I install the Seagate with no removable tray, if it's all good then the tray god screwed, if not then drive is screwed.

Thanks for trying though, since I didn't look at the ram anymore thinking it's screwed, Memtest helped me out to take another look and start thinking. So you did help me after all. :lol:

<font color=red>Got a silent setup, now I can hear myself thinking.... great silence</font color=red><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by AndrewT on 07/02/02 11:34 AM.</EM></FONT></P>