This is my system:

Athlon 950
ATI Rage
2 X 125 RAM Crucial
Maxtor 38 GB Hard drive.
AOpen K33 MoBo (W/VIA Sound)
System is in a upright server tower, with one large fan at the bottom, one in the middle and one at the top. Also, in the top 5" bay I have a large double fan gizmo that blows out all the hot air that rises to the top.

I've had this system for awhile and regardless whether I've had Win98, ME or XP Pro on it, it freezes ALL THE TIME. My computer will freeze all at random times. There are times when everything will work fine for 12 - 14 hours straight.... then freeze. Other times, it will freeze 3 to 4 times an hour. It's frozen right as it's booting up for the first time that day....

I always have the most up to date drivers. I've checked the temperature of each device and none are running hot. Someone gave me this program to check my RAM; it ran the test 4 times and found no problems. Someone has now suggested that it might be my CPU... he said that AMDs cause computer freezes often...

I've removed my sound card, my NIC card and my modem.... just to see it they might be the problem, but the freezing still occurs. I can't remove my Video card, so it's possible that it might be the problem... but this is the 2nd video card that I've had in this system and it froze with the last one also. (Can't remember off hand what it was.)

So what do you think? Are AMDs more prone to crashes? (It does have a large heatsink on it with a fan... isn't running hot.)

The processor itself does not cause system crashes, the chipset/devices combination will be more likely the source of your problem. You didn't talked of the BIOS version you were using, I suggest you to go to the Aopen website and look for an update and check the issues that it is correcting, maybe your motherboard has a problem with a device you have and a newer version of the BIOS correct the issue. If you nerver flashed a BIOS before, please take great care and follow the instructions to the letter, it can seriously damage your motherboard if you do it wrong.

An another thing you can try is to test your system with each of your memory DIMM alone to see if one module is not the problem, maybe you already done this.

Hope that helps.

It's better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick!

Unlike what trolls would have you believe, AMD processor are NOT more prone to crashes! However, I have a feeling your problem is that old junky grapics card, that ATI Rage Pro!

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

I would bet it's your motherboard. The AOpen K33 is based on the Via KT133 chipset, which had numerous known bugs in the southbridge, which handles all of your PCI devices. A BIOS update might resolve your issues. If that doesn't work, you may want to replace the motherboard entirely. If money is an issue, you can get an SiS735 based ECS K7S5A motherboard for around $80 with shipping. It supports both SDRAM and DDR SDRAM, so you would be able to re-use your existing memory until such time you wish to upgrade. It has onboard audio and LAN, and is a good performer. I would recommend upgrading your memory as well at some point when it's feasable. If money isn't an issue I would recommend one of the KT266A motherboards. You can read Tom's <A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q4/011126/index.html" target="_new">KT266A round-up</A> and make your decision based on that.

-= This is our wading pool.
Stop pissing in it. =-

Erm...your suggesting he gets rid of his board because it's buggy and then you suggest to him a ECS K75SA which is even more buggy!!!

The board is a pain in the butt leave it alone. Just face the fact that sometimes you get what you pay for and buy a mobo from someone like abit or epox motherboard. You might pay more but you'll save in the long run.

Your nice new PC might be faster then my 286, but my 286 makes a better door stop <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by apoc286 on 12/28/01 08:15 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Yes, I also do not recommend the ECS K7S5A. My new TBird 1333 on it seems to be pretty unstable compared to my Duron 700 on KT133. With the K7S5A, it has problems with the "sleep" function, crashes/freezes more often, and the CMOS has reset itself, for no reason, I think 3 times so far. It's been pretty annoying. Your CPU may be messed up or damaged. Try downloading a CPU test utility. What it does is just constantly repeats calculations and checks for errors. That may be a cause of some problems. Not sure where to find one, but I'm sure a google search or download.com search could turn up something.

"Trying is the first step towards failure."

ATI and most amd athlon Mother boards dont work well

since its a KT133 chipset, you might as well try getting the latest 4-in-1 drivers from VIA. Its here at www.viatech.com. How do you make the link clickable?Anybody?

It sounds like either a power problem or memory problem. Check to seee what your CPU vcore is reading during operation, what your 3.3v level really is, and if everything is normall, try backing off the memory timing as far as possible.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

re:"How do you make the link clickable?Anybody?"
____________________________________________

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq</A>

<font color=blue>Remember.... You get what you pay for. All advice here is free.</font color=blue>

Could you expand on the conflict between amd mobo's and ati
cards, I'm on the cheap putting together a system piece by piece and wanted an AMD to go with the Ati video card(a ve 64 ddr dual)that I've got.

No Stranger Here

There shouldnt be a problem with your card and any motherboard......the ONLY problem i know about with any ATI cards is the Rage 128 Chipset not beign able to function correctly on the ASUS A7A266 Motherboard with the Ali MAGIK1 Chipset....it conflicts when installing windows, it'll work (post etc.) but windows will freeze on bootup, they ahve however released updated drivers to fix this issue ASWELL as Asus put a newer Bios patch out to take care of that issue......other motherboards and/or chipsets with ATI video cards I cannot realyl speak for, BUT i have heard about problems with CERTAIN ATI Cards with Chaintech Motherbaords.....

-MeTaL RoCkEr

My <font color=red>Z28</font color=red> can take your <font color=blue>P4</font color=blue> off the line!

don't forget also Asus and gigabyte. Epox have there problems too.

top 4: abit, asus, gigabyte, epox.. maybe even in that order almost. However i love my gigabyte board. I have not had any sound or video problems. nothing that all of you complain about.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

My 2 cent worth. If you use more one usb port at the same time I get freezes on my Abit kt7 raid. The usb problem seems to be caused by the crappy via board.

Jeff

someone show me proof that AMD is the only device in your system and that when you system crashes that the amd chip MUST be the problem.

Where is your logic here?

There are a lot more parts in your system then just the amd chip. If it was the chip then your computer wouldn't work at all since it's the brains of the operation. Hence CPU! Central processing unit.

the reason why it's crashing is because somewhere in your computer a device is not working correctly. Either through software or hardware. More then likely it's software related problem. Simply do a clean sweep and start from scratch. and please learn to backup! store everything on one folder for easy backups. call it data.

good luck!


<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

What powersupply are you using? Check to make sure your leads are giving enough juice.

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=blue>Bless</font color=blue> <font color=red>America!</font color=red>

My first guess is your power supply if not your video card. Pick up a new power supply that is AMD approved, if not get one that is at least 300 Watt. Windows XP has a reporting feature that will tell you what caused the lock up if it can, let us know what that says...

It sounds like you have two sound cards in your system? If so, make sure that the motherboard one is disabled. Often there will be a jumper on board to disable it, if not check the bios. This may be an IRQ or memory conflict. Physicly remove all cards from the system and test each one seperatly.

It is possible that you have a defective CPU, but I've never heard of a CPU _causing_ random crashes.

Good luck! Random crashes suck, I just solved mine (Visiontek MX400 was at fault).

-Sandain

Had a similar problem with a new PC I built for my mother.

Update your BIOS, and all your drivers including your 4-in-1's. Also set everything in the BIOS to spec. or below settings for know so you can rule that out as the source of your crashes.

I AM Canadian