CPU or YET another a7n8x deluxe problem

[Stormfury]

This problem has just accured about 3 days ago. Whenever I put any kind of stress on the system, it crashes. While on the Internet it doesn't usually shutoff, but it will sometimes. At first I thought it was a virus, searched and no viruses were found. Then I thought maybe it's my memory, I put in my 2700 Crucial stick in and I got the same problem. I know it is not my video card because the problem started before I put in my 9700pro yesterday. So I got desperate, thought it was a driver issue and I formated my hard drive. So I try and reinstall win xp but when I get to the window were it says press ENTER to continue my computer shuts off every time I try. So I've come to the conclusion its either my 1800 XP or my a7n8x deluxe. I doubt it is my cpu, though there is that chance. Anyone have any ideas??I'm about to RMA the motherboard pretty soon. Here are my specs:

1800+ T-Bred XP
Volcano 7+
A7N8X Deluxe
1002 Bios
Pc-3500 XMS 512mb
ATI 9700 Pro
Quantum Fireball Hard Drive
430Watt Truepower Powersupply

Thanks for your help

 

[Teq]

Try clearing your BIOS, per the instructions in the board's user manual ... it's usually a jumper on the motherboard... and then reconfiguring the BIOS settings.



<b>(</b>It ain't better if it don't work.<b>)</b>

 

[Victory]

I've just had a similiar issue with a new rig I'm building for a friend. His stats are:

MSI K7N2G-L
Athlon XP 2100+ Retail T-bred B
60GB Deskstar
48x24x48 Lite On CD-R/W
56K Creative Modem
Sony Floppy
Kingston DDR333 Cas 2.5
Atop Case

I got it all installed, started running WinXP service Pack1
disk and it would get to the point of loading of the drivers than BAM reset. Sometimes it would just freeze, but mainly reset. Anyhow it would only happen when windows was actually getting near to the point of running(everything had copied over and was finalizing settings). Anyhow naturally I tried everything(ram, BIOS, you name it). Wouldn't take. So all I was left with was the CPU.
I installed it into my A7N8X Deluxe and lo and behold, it would either reset or freeze at the XP home screen.

In most cases, I'd blame this on ram, PSU or video, but it's the CPU. I'm RMA'ing it tomorrow to newegg.
I just hope the next one I get is also a Tbred B!!



Save heating costs on your home, overclock your PC!!!

 

[Bahumut]

You said you changed your memory. You didn't say what settings you were running it at. If you run memory at settings too aggressive for the memory, this exact thing will happen to any system.

If you can, try your cpu on a functioning board. Same thing with your memory. Update your bios if possible. Early bios revisions tend to be buggy.

Pain is the realization of your own weakness.

 

[Stormfury]

Right now I'm not messing with any of the settings. I let the settings run on auto. Nothing is set to aggressive in the bios. I have the 1002 beta bios, might have to try the new bios 1002 A. I thought I had solved the problem but I was wrong. I was able to load xp again, load all the drivers, and I got into neverwinter played for about 20 minutes then it shut off, turned it back on searched for something and it shut off again, and it shut off one more time after that. I'm running memtest right now to see if anything happens. Most likely it will just crash. *sigh*

 

[lhgpoobaa]

What brand and wattage PSU are you running?

<i>"Revenues were less than robust"</i> - QWEST
<i>"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly"</i> - WORLDCOM
<i>"Certian financial adjustments may be required"</i> - AOL+TW.

 

[Stormfury]

Antec 430W TruePower

 

[lhgpoobaa]

hmmm well.
Some things you can do to rule out variables.

A. Test your ram with memtest86. its possible you are having compatibility problmes with your board.
B. run motherboard monitor 5. Monitor the voltages of your system, particularly when you go from idle to full load. Big drops on the 5v line indicate that the PSU is having trouble.
C. Inspect the mobo itself for any damage. In particular, look at the capacitors, make sure none show signs of leaking. (bubbles, pushed up tops, oozing fluid etc)

see how ya go with that.

<i>"Revenues were less than robust"</i> - QWEST
<i>"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly"</i> - WORLDCOM
<i>"Certian financial adjustments may be required"</i> - AOL+TW.

 

[Stormfury]

I've taken a look at the board and saw nothing wrong with it. Memtest has been running for 45 minutes without any errors. Can you point me to a good motherboard monitor 5 link?? Seems like every site I go to the file is corrupt. Does this sound like a motherboard problem or cpu??

 

[lhgpoobaa]

I get MBM from <A HREF="http://mbm.livewiredev.com" target="_new">http://mbm.livewiredev.com</A>

As to what is cauzing your problem its hard to tell. Just cauz their is no visible damage to the board doesnt mean its not bad. Sometimes dud's just happen.

And what CPU cooler are you using? Just the stock one? does it feel excessivly hot or cold when running your system?


<i>"Revenues were less than robust"</i> - QWEST
<i>"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly"</i> - WORLDCOM
<i>"Certian financial adjustments may be required"</i> - AOL+TW.

 

[Stormfury]

Thanks I'll download mb5 from there once memtest is done. I'm using the volcano 7+ and it keeps my temps at 32-35C and it was 40C after my system crashed once. Would a corrupt BIOS cause these kinds of problems???

 

[lhgpoobaa]

im more inclinedto think that bios corruption would cauze problems all over the place, not just under load.

<i>"Revenues were less than robust"</i> - QWEST
<i>"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly"</i> - WORLDCOM
<i>"Certian financial adjustments may be required"</i> - AOL+TW.

 

[KWPLunchbox]

The symptoms sound like a faulty power supply. Those exact symptoms showed themselves in my roommate's system. It would boot most of the time but under any heavy load, it would shut off or freeze. As time went on over a couple days, it became less tolerant and eventually even watching video clips would crash it. He bought a new power supply and all problems were solved. Do you have another one to test your system with?

<font color=purple>AMD XP 2200+, A7N8X Deluxe, 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS DDR, Geforce3 Ti-500, Audigy Platinum, TDK 48x CDRW, Lite-On 16x DVD, XP Pro SP1, and more neon than a ghetto sled </font color=purple>

 

[Stormfury]

Well GOD DAMNIT!!!!!THIS IS DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!!!!! I remember reading something about fastwrite and people disabling it so I disable it and I was able to play neverwinter for about 6 hours. Next day got on and guess what???IT SHUT OFF. It does sound like a power supply problem but how can I tell??? I thought the True Power 430W were suppose to be excellent. I'll try to get my dad to contact antec tomorrow to see if I can RMA it. Another strange thing that happened was while I was surfing the net the voltages started to go crazy. Its happened maybe 4 times total within a month.

 

[RCPilot]

Well here's a<A HREF="http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=1" target="_new"> link</A> that might answer your questions about BIOS (Fast Writes & everything about BIOS). Best BIOS descriptions I've seen on the web.

The Antec 430 should be more than enough. I'm running one right now & have never had a better PSU. It must be something not set right in BIOS.

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!

 

[Stormfury]

I'm thinking about flashing to the new 1002A bios. Will this possibly fix something in the bios??If its not the bios then would this be a windows xp problem??I'm tempted to give the person that figures this out a cash reward.

 

[LtBlue14]

try a friend's cpu if you can
same with the psu
if not, rma them both
i've got a true power 430 and have no problems, but a faulty unit isn't impossible, just like anything
just replace em both

--------------
I LOVE DANGER DEN WATERCOOLING, they went out of their way to both personalize my kit and change my order when i needed to, i had to change my sig to give them props

 

[Stormfury]

Ahhh man your post just reminded me of the possible problem. When my dad was putting on the goop that came with the volcano 7 he got a little on the cpu. Then he went to wipe it off with a rag, but forgot that there was some still on the rag, and got even MORE on the cpu. Just a guess but maybe the cpu is damaged a bit and that is why any kind of stress shuts my computer off. Can someone tell me if this is possible???

 

[davemar14]

Hi,
Most likely the thermal paste would not cause that type of problem. If you had your computer on for 6 hours, and was playing a game, the CPU would have burned up by then. Also, your CPU temperatures look fine. I would have to agree that you have a faulty power supply. I have an Antec 1080 AMG case with a TruePower 430 Watt with no problems, its rock solid. But hey, you can get a bad one.

 

[Stormfury]

Thats the same type of case I have.

 

[Stormfury]

My bios temps reach up to 160F when I boot up for the first time. This sounds a little hot for a t-bred, gonna got some artic silver 3 on monday. I'm thinking that the shim might be messing up the connection between the cpu and hsf. The shim seems to want to flip up, possibly making it so the hsf isn't hitting the core right. If it's a heat problem, why does it shut off when I search for a file in win xp???

 

[LtBlue14]

160F in the bios??? (that's 71C if you're used to that scale!!!)
that's way too hot, you really need to reseat that heatsink, i think we've found your problem
also, put the thermal paste on VERY THINLY, like, really really thin
the shim might be screwing you up too somehow

--------------
I LOVE DANGER DEN WATERCOOLING, they went out of their way to both personalize my kit and change my order when i needed to, i had to change my sig to give them props

 

[Stormfury]

lol ya its up there. At first I thought it was a bios prob but then when I flashed to the next one it was still high. Asus probe must be messed up extremelly.

 

[LtBlue14]

oh dude there's no question that asus probe (aka anal probe) is severely messed up. i have, however, had success with one version
i'll post it in a few minutes when i find a link
EDIT: the version i had was 2.18.07
they now have 2.19.05 available, i haven't tried it but i would assume they are improving the program, because they're no doubt aware of its bad reputation
try it and see if you get better results
you can dl it <A HREF="http://www.asus.com/support/download/selectftp.aspx?l1_id=1&l2_id=11&l3_id=0&m_id=1&f_name=probe21905.zip" target="_new">here</A>
--------------
I LOVE DANGER DEN WATERCOOLING, they went out of their way to both personalize my kit and change my order when i needed to, i had to change my sig to give them props<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by LtBlue14 on 03/06/03 10:34 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Stormfury]

I'll try downloading it. I restarted my computer after leaving it on for a few hours and the bios temp said 174-176F area. Is it safe to run this thing right now?