Random Restart

[zision]

I've finally unlocked my Duron 750 and got it up to 950 last night. Still posts at 1GHz, but windows errors. I even formatted and reinstalled. I've got it down to 933 because it runs on less voltage and a few degrees cooler. I've had it fully loaded with the distributed.net client for the past 18 hours, and was just sitting here listening to an MP3 and the MP3 quit playing and a few seconds later it restarted. I never had this problem at the default clock speed, what are the possibilities? heat? PSU? motherboard?

Duron 750 @ 933
ABIT KT7A-RAID
Alpha PAL6035
256MB Crucial CAS2
GF2 32MB
IBM 75GXP 45GB
SB Live
Antec 300W PSU
Linksys NIC
Win2K SP2 and newest VIA drivers.

[asmodean]

Heat is one possibility, altough that Alpha should be efficient enough. What voltage are you using? That would give the necessary information to calculate the amount of heat it outputs with Radiate.
What were the temps?

[zision]

I just got a quick BSOD in Win2K and it restarted. I was running 7.0 X 133 at 1.775v. MBM temp was 52'C. Case temp was only about 27'C. I have a Fong Kai mid tower with a 80mm intake in the front, a 120mm low noise intake in the bottom of the case, a 80mm high output fan in the back with a duct over the fan on the heatsink. It does seem to be pretty warm, but it's over 80'F in my room right now. 3 systems running with the door shut all day will do that. I've got it running at 800 with default voltage right now and I'm going to see what it does.

[zision]

Any ideas for better cooling? I don't really want to spend any money on a new heatsink, as I'm planning on replacing this with a Tbird pretty soon anyway. Doubt I'll overclock it, 1.2GHz should make me pretty happy. I'm definitely trashing this case though, the motherboard tray is not removeable and the top of the motherboard is right against a support for the PSU. I have to completely remove the motherboard to take my heatsink off. Probably go with an addtronics. What about PSU though? I've heard people saying that most 300W PSUs aren't enough anymore, although I can't really believe that. I hate to put down $80 on a 400W PSU. Would my current heatsink and PSU be enough to support a 1.2 or 1.3GHz Tbird? Any ideas for a better heatsink without paying a ton of money? the delta fan is out of the question :)

[!-=sky=-!]

i thnk the random reboot is due to lack of vcore voltage
same thing happen to me
my duron can BOOT at 1100 but window error
i already maxed out the 1.888 volt so if i need to raise more i will need to do a mobo mod

[zision]

I'm back at 933 now at 1.80. I'm going to run this overnight and see if it's still stable when I wake up.

[asmodean]

That Alpha isn't going to cut it with a 1.2g or higher tbirds, I think.
Thermosonic ThermalEngine is ~$40 here in Finland, it seems to be the top performer at the moment.
Also, skimping on the PSU will get you nothing but trouble. Enermax 351W PSU might be good enough.

Hmm, just checked, you have Antecs 300W PSU. I read somewhere that it supplies more power for the 12v and 5v lines than some 500W PSUs.

[zision]

Anandtech had a PSU shootout a while back, and the Antec was the only PSU to run 100% solid out of the dozen or so he tested. He didn't have any Enermax PSUs or any really over 300W in there though.

I've been looking at the ThermalEngine and it's looking tempting. I'm still somewhat low on cash for a little while, and a new PSU may have to wait.

Ran at 933 1.80v for 9 hours while I slept full load and is still running. It did that at 1.775v though, and still crashed when I started doing other things with it.

[oc jason]

Id up the voltage as to not starve it- also you need to lower the room ambient temp-so all temps will drop that should make you stable round the gig mark- but yes the alpha is effiecnt but if the room temp is high then it has to work tooooo hard

[zision]

Room temp isn't really the problem with hitting a gig though, even at about 70-72'F it still won't do it. This room has really poor ventilation, but I'm actually moving in a couple weeks, so hopefully the new place will keep cooler. I'm really tempted to get the ThermalEngine, but how much cooler will it keep the CPU than this Alpha?

MBM temps are 24'C, 27'C, and 53'C for the CPU right now.

[Megahurtz]

The Thermo-Engine only reaches into the upper tiers of cooling when use with the Delta fan. You might want to look at some variant of the Tai-Sol CGK7600092. This will provide you with perhaps the best overall value in a heatsink, without resorting to the screaming Black Delta.

The PP303X is a great PSU. It supplies a potential 160Watts to the combined 3.3 + 5V rails. I have one running a T-bird @1440Mhz. 1.91V core..no instabilities that can be traced to the PSU.

Your temps. under load are fairly high, as to whether or not this is the cause of your system instability, I don't know.

Random reboots under a heavy load are usually indicative of a PSU issue. I would experiment and really load the PSU to see if I could replicate the condition.

You seemed to know the range of possible culprits in your first post. All of these are possibilities. It is also possible, but less likely that you have a RAM issue.

I don't think that I would apply additional voltage to the processor without first getting my cooling solution in order.

Cheers,

T

[zision]

1.80 volts for near 24 hours now at load and no restarts, but then again it only restarted when I was using it, and I've been at work and asleep most of those hours. I really do need to open a window, I've been running all 3 of my systems with distributed.net the past two days shut in here. I did 1,600 work units in 24 hours though :) Case temp is still about 27'C.