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Over a year of system problems


Calbrenar

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I will post when I get hoome with the specific settings and stats. For now A7N8X Deluxe (Will post PCB and Bios when I get home) TwinX 1024MB 3200LLPT (2x512) Radeon 9700 All in Wonder Pro Athlon XP 3200+ 400 FSB (Barton) For the longest time I had a problem with instability and after rma'ing my board I'd get it where I'd change a bios setting and the system would crash. I finally fixed that by using BY SPD as my memory setting and specifying timings off a website i found for the TwinX. I wasn't sure which ones to use off the memory guide because it didn't actually specify which number was which just said x-x-x-x. The problem I'm having right now is horrendous stability. I got BF1942 installed and got into game and was getting small errors and then the system crashed. I tried reinstalling XP SP1 and actually had it crash during the setup. The system runs cool even running CPU burn for 10 minutes. (42C Stable) The only thing I can possibly think might be the problem is the Asus PC probe is reporting the +12V as running at 13.168 or something like that. Does this mean my power supply is faulty? I was looking at some nice Antec PSU's but I want to make sure before i pick one up. At one point I ran a cheap PSU tester from CompUSA on it and it showed all green. That was before I saw the 13.168. I will run it again when I get home and also post again with all the specific settings and vallues (1600 or so EST) I'm just hoping for a quick answer from someone on whether I can lay the blame on the voltage. I've replaced pretty much everything on this system since I got it and still having problems. Different HDD different processor. Had Crucial and went to Corsair. Tried different graphics cards. Even the MB was replaced 3 times. The only thing that is still there is the PSU. Any comments?
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Maybe you're not holding your mouth just right...lol Seriously though, I've seen a crappy, cheap PSU be the problem in many, many systems. It's a very overlooked culprit in a lot of instances too. The case I purchased months back came with a no-name 350watt PSU...Codegen, I think. Anyway, I kept using it thinking all was going to be fine, and it was, for a while. 2 weeks ago I upgraded to a FX5900 from a Ti4200 128mb 8x. 3/4 through a benchtest the whole thing shut down like the power went out. (Well, it actually did....lol) I tested the PSU and nobody was home. Anyway, I bought an Antec 350watt SmartPower and I love it. The Antec feels twice as heavy/solid and it's also much quieter and also has 2 fans. It's funny that they both produce the same power yet one feels twice as solid. It's surprising that the Codegen lasted at all. I'm rambling...sorry. Anyhow, i wouldn't be surprised if your PSU was the culprit. You could buy one locally.....I know, I now, it would be more expensive, BUT if you discovered it WASN"T the PSU you could always just take it right back and get a refund. I HAD to buy mine locally because I use it for business and couldn't wait for an order. I paid 15 bucks more, which isn't too much of a difference. Go swap it out. It's easy, not too expensive, and you will notice somewhat immediately if things are fixed. Good luck!
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Bought an Antec true power. Voltage stable still having issues. I tried changing my settings to what Ram Guy suggested in another thread and i'll let you know how they work. Bios is 1007 CPU external Freq is 200Mhz Multiplier is 11.0x memory by spd bus is 200 (400) SDRAM Active PRecharge Delay 5 SDRAM Ras to CAS delay 3 SDRAM RAS Precharge Delay 2 SDRAM CAS Latency 2T DDR Ref Voltage 2.7V Vcore 1.66 +3.3 3.2 +5 4.86 +12 11.96 Last reboot the system rebooted pretty quickly. Gonna try installing some games and see how they run. Processor is an Athlon XP 3200+ 400mhz Barton. One thing i noticed though when I ran memtest86 is that it didn't show an l2 cache which i believe the barton has?
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Installed bf1942. Got partway into game and it crashed totally. Monitor went orange and turned off (orange light not screen orange) CTRL alt del did nothing totally froze with just some music. Turned system off and rebooted. Sytem loaded and then after opening IE right away to go download the patch for bf1942 the mouse froze. Sytem is totally frozen. I even swapped hard drives multiple fresh installs. I ran mem test for 2 passes and no errors but that was at 6-2-2-T. At that setting tho it took forever to reboot. At the current settings (above) that is fixed but stability is still crap. I'm out of ideas. Every single piece of this computer has been swapped or changed out at one point or another from the processor to the hdd to the cdrom to the motherboard to the power supply. Only the memory and the case are the same.
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[quote name='Calbrenar']Installed bf1942. Got partway into game and it crashed totally. Monitor went orange and turned off (orange light not screen orange) CTRL alt del did nothing totally froze with just some music. Turned system off and rebooted. Sytem loaded and then after opening IE right away to go download the patch for bf1942 the mouse froze. Sytem is totally frozen. I even swapped hard drives multiple fresh installs. I ran mem test for 2 passes and no errors but that was at 6-2-2-T. At that setting tho it took forever to reboot. At the current settings (above) that is fixed but stability is still crap. I'm out of ideas. Every single piece of this computer has been swapped or changed out at one point or another from the processor to the hdd to the cdrom to the motherboard to the power supply. Only the memory and the case are the same.[/QUOTE] Have you tried with 2.5-3-3-6? or some other looser memory timings?? your motherboard might not like the tight timings of the LL modules...
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Changed timings to Active Precharge Delay 6 Ras to cas delay 3 ras precharge delay 3 cas latency 2.5T Booted into windows. Ran windows update. Got thru download and 15% of install and system crashed completely no response. I'm so sick of this computer ;x For all the time and effort I spent on it to "save money" I could have overpaid for an alienware machine and had a system that worked ;x
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Well, the initial culprit was definitely your PSU. They don't all have to be cheap ones to be bad, though. I had an Enermax 350WT that fried one board and almost took out another before I caught it. It's possible though that the MoBo may have been damaged from the old PSU, and that's why you're still getting crashes even after replacing it with a new one. You may have several parts that are now bad because of this. 13+ volts on the 12v line is just way too much and affects a lot of components. As for the CompUSA PSU tester, if you're referring to the one I think you are it only checks to see if the PSU powers up, not if the PSU is bad.
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Well it looks like the problem was the ram. The PSU may have contributed to it but the ram is definately screwy. Couldn't get the system to run for more then 5 min or so with the ram in dual channel mode. However with the ram in single channel (either 1 stick or 2 sticks but in 2 closest slots) it actually runs for 15-20 min w/o crashing in BF etc. Eventually it crashes there as well. I believe it is the ram because it is the only thing left in the system that I haven't changed. I will try RMAing and seeing if that helps.
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  • Corsair Employee
It would be really hard to get 2 bad modules or even have 2 fail at the same time. I would try testing the modules on another system one at a time with [url]www.memtest86.org[/url] to make sure one is failing. But both Antec and Ennermax are from what I have seen, have not been as stable on the 12 volt rail compared to other PSU's; and up to 13.3 volts would still be with in spec or the MB would be able to compensate, however the Antec non true power 350Watt PSU was a great unit.
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I've had 4 total motherboards so I seriously doubt the mobo itself is bad. The only thing consistent across all 4 boards is the ram. I memtested it in dual channel mode and received no errors. However once again I did the following test. 1 stick of memory in single channel (black) socket. played for hours no problems. 1 stick in black and 1 in blue next to it (single channel still) Crashes in under 10 minutes. 1 stick in each blue (dual) crashes in 4 min or so. Now correct me if I'm wrong but that does kind of seem like the memory is causing it since the only thing that changed in the two tests is the memory. It is possible that only one of the sticks is screwy but supposedly they are a matched pair tested to run in dual mode so if I rma one I have to rma the other and get another matched pair right? As for the Antec not being stable I don't know anything about that. Every review I've read on the net says they are the best power supply makers. The voltage itself is rock solid now that I have it in on every line including +12v
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  • Corsair Employee
No! Not If understand you correctly! If the modules will run in single channel mode 1 or 2 modules with out problems but not in dual channel mode that would suggest MB or CPU or possibly a PSU problem. However, if you have a bad or failing module it should fail when installed one at a time. You might try the [URL=http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp]Microfoft Memory Test[/URL] one module at a time and see if that shows any errors. In addition, let us try to make sure it is a module problem. If you do find one failing, let us get the module or modules replaced. Please follow the link in my signature!
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-sighs- So All four motherboards have been bad. Both power supplies and both cpu's. I find it hard to believe that That many bad parts would happen in a row and the ram has been fine the entire time. I'll try doing some more tests. Maybe the stick of ram I have in now is the good one and the other one will crash in single channel w/ one stick. I will swap them when I get a chance.
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Ok I see what you are saying. The only issue with that is every board I sent back to Asus they tested with the same memory and setup etc and never had any problems with it. So if the board was actually damaged it still would have been damaged in their shop. If it wasn't damaged then when they put their new powersupply in its the same as when I put my new one in.
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