Simple question to a confusing problem.

[ChrisLudwig]

If a computer runs perfectly for a few hours then freezes up, what besides heat would you expect as the culprit? Every time you run the system off a cold boot the process repeats itself. A warm boot makes the freeze sooner.

I would very much appreciate any ideas.


- I got a board too: http://www.impactsites2000.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

 

[khha4113]

I'd suspect Power supply or RAM.

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[Crashman]

I've had RAM that quit when it got warm.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[Guest]

ram would be my first bet, then irq conflicts, then driver conflicts, then heat, then power supply

ignore everything i say

 

[lhgpoobaa]

if you are overclocking like me i would say voltage not high enough.
if not well...

1. ram running too high/hot. try it at a lower speed OR increase the CAS latency from 2 to 3.
2. power supply not providing enough juice and/or voltage spikes/dips.

use asus probe or motherboard monitor to keep an eye on them.

P.S. what is your processor, mobo, PSU, type quality & speed of RAM, overclocking state, and other attached peripherals?

"i love the smell of Overclocking in the morning!" Says my Hamster.

 

[ChrisLudwig]

It’s a T-bird 1.2Ghz, not over clocked…yet. Just trying to stabilize it right now.
The RAM is old, no name PC100 RAM I had on my PII-450. (ran fine for 2 years)
IRQ conflict could be a problem, a RADEON 64MB DDR, Promise ATA100 card, SIIG Ultra SCSI card and NIC are all on 11, but win2k states that there is no problem. Motherboard is a Tyan Trinity.
Power supply is an AMD approved 400W and an AT 400W. The ATX is powering the MB and boot drives and the AT has the drives: 6 –80GB Maxtor HDDs, 1 Panasonic DVD RAM (SCSI), and 1 TDK 16X CDR, 1 SCSI JAZ.

I’ve been through 3 Motherboards (2 Tyan 1 Abit)
2 CPUs
Used a single 400W PS before the duals (the original PS was replaced) Both on 700VA UPS.
OS has been reloaded several times.

One interesting fact is that all of the components replaced were used in other systems which ran fine.

I’ve posted other questions about this system, but have tried to keep it simple in this post to narrow down my problem. I know this PC is a freak, but I see no reason why it shouldn’t work.

I think the RAM is next to go.


- I got a board too: http://www.impactsites2000.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

 

[Lowlypawn]

U need to list your system, mobo, cpu + heat sink, bios version, OS, Memory, Video card, Power supply etc.

That will help people diagnose your problem better.


Thx & Cya


<font color=green>I may go to <font color=red>hell</font color=red> but at least I won't get lonely</font color=green>

 

[ChrisLudwig]

BIOS is TYAN S2390 TRINITY KT V1.07a
OS is Win2k, heatsink is the golden orb, which I understand sucks, but because of the 4 large case fans the CPU temp is less that 90DF.

- I got a board too: http://www.impactsites2000.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

 

[Guest]

before you go crazy try swapping the ram woth some high quality stuff....just because it worked with your PII 450 (was it a 440bx chipset? - they run on anything!) doesnt mean todays chipsets will stand for low quality ram thaat spews out errors every five seconds. thats what i would test first. however, a little history of the problem would be helpful as well.......

ignore everything i say

 

[funkdog]

Just to put my input in, you didn't list what you were doing. Were you doing the same thing for 2 hours then locked up, or did you try and do something else that caused the lockup?? Just curious, it may have been an application that locked it up.

<b>"These are my thoughts, your mileage may vary."

 

[ChrisLudwig]

Doesn’t matter what I’m doing with the system.
It seems to be time sensitive. I do all types of graphic design including 3D modeling, rendering, video editing and more on the system with out a single problem, then after a few hours it locks up. Other times it’s doing nothing at all and locks up after a few hours. It really seems like a heat problem but the CPU is at a reasonable temperature. You guys could be right about the RAM though. I have 1GB worth of this crap RAM, that and the video card (RADEON 64MB) are the only things that have never been swapped out.
I’m also a little concerned over the two power supplies.
Has any one else ever tried dual PS?



- I got a board too: http://www.impactsites2000.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

 

[funkdog]

What kind of hardware are you running? 400W should be plenty enough not to have to worry about a dual PSU setup. My gut tells me it's not the RAM though, I mean if it runs for 2 hours then locks, your board apparently has no problems with the ram, of course I'm not an expert, just a hack.

Like the other guy said, maybe your cpu voltage, try upping that about .5v, I had to do that to stop my overclocked machine from freezing on me, would be fine until I opened up media player and started playing mp3's then it would freeze. I upped voltage to 1.75 and no problems since.

<b>"These are my thoughts, your mileage may vary."

 

[Ncogneto]

yikes, don't you mean .05 volts? Carefull, typo's like that can be very dangerous!!!

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

 

[funkdog]

exactly, sorry for the typo, I'm up late. But yes I pushed it up .05 volts and my problems were solved. This guy might try that before destroying his PC.

<b>"These are my thoughts, your mileage may vary."

 

[lhgpoobaa]

IMHO i think that the old pc100 ram is just a bit touchy in your new system.

when i upgraded from my p2-300 to my 1200C i initially planned to use my old ram, but decided to get some decent stuff.
never regretted that decision.


"i love the smell of Overclocking in the morning!" Says my Hamster.

 

[ChrisLudwig]

Thanks for the help guys; I think the situation may be solved.
This may be good information for others here too…

My external SCSI Jaz drive wasn’t working right (overheating and having problems reading the disk), so I turned it off before a boot up of the system. I was just going to backup a few things before I replaced the RAM, but some friends came over and I forgot about it.

When I came back to the system it was still running! It’s still up today.
The problem seems to have been caused by the Jaz.

I have noticed other problems with removable media in Windows 2000 including parallel port tape drives, USB zip drives, and now the Jaz!


- I got a board too: http://www.impactsites2000.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

it's the ram!

My sig is better then your's!

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

I got it! i bet you have your RAM overclocked to 133mhz! because the new boards have the 133mhz fsb and the chip nowadays are 266mhz and perhaps the motherboard just set it at 133mhz FSB.. check for jumpers or in the BIOS and change the FSB setting to 100 instead of 133!!!

My sig is better then your's!

 

[Owl]

1 new 256mb Micron PC133 at about $ 32.00 US.
will do it................................

Intel inside
Moron outside