- Joined
- Jan 21, 2005
Hey guys *waves*,
A recommendation from Prime95's STRESS.txt and wonderful first impressions make me think you might be able to help, so here's my story...
A couple of days ago a guy I know formed a folding team and I wanted to join. The f@h console froze my "otherwise stable" machine a couple of times and, after doing some reading, I ran Prime95 to check for instabilities.
It crashes after a couple of minutes at default clocks (133) with every working memory timing . So I ran memtest. To my surprise it ran okay for several hours at the Probe setting.
Some additional info about my system *points down at sig*:
- running XP Pro SP2 with all updates
- the mobo (bought second hand from ebay a couple of weeks ago) looked brand new - according to the previous owner he used it only a couple of times; the only things I can change are FSB and memory timings; the monitoring doesn't work and I know how to set up MBM - the only readings that make sense are CPU temp (~47-53C) and vcore (stable 1.60V) - all other voltages vary wildly; the vcore reported by the BIOS and CPU-Z is 1.632V - stable; the northbridge used to get pretty hot, so I put a small 40x40 fan on it - it should be ok now.
- the CPU (bought new a couple of weeks ago as well) is a T-Bred "B" 2600+ (16x133) and has been OCed only a couple of MHz, mainly to avoid the feeling that the machine is underclocked, which, as most of you probably know, is a thing the guys from ECS have the habit of doing...
- the PSU (bought new at the same time) is a 550W LC-Power and the voltages reported by MBM on my old mobo were very close to optimal and absolutely stable; the stable vcore on this one makes me think the problem is elsewhere
- the RAM (I've had it for a while)- 2 x 256 Hynix, SPD @ 133 2.5-3-3-6, tested with memtest @ 2-3-3-6
- the video card - a 9800 Pro, bought through ebay, supposedly manufactured by Hercules (has logos and markings on the typically colored PCB that support the theory...) - a week or two after I bought it I saw some memory-caused artifacts and looked at the card more closely - the thermal paste under the heatsink looked like it was applied by a half-trained monkey with it's left leg; the heatsink looked just like ATI's stock solution, but wasn't from aluminum(!?); the 350Mhz Samsung memory used to get so hot that I got scared and changed the heatsink and I run the card slightly underclocked now. I haven't noticed any artefacts since, but I don't really trust the card.
- the sound card (bought second hand through ebay - didn't want to use the onboard codec) - SB Live! ...
Well, that's pretty much it. Sorry for the novel and thanks in advance for your ideas!
P.S. flashing the latest BIOS version didn't help
A recommendation from Prime95's STRESS.txt and wonderful first impressions make me think you might be able to help, so here's my story...
A couple of days ago a guy I know formed a folding team and I wanted to join. The f@h console froze my "otherwise stable" machine a couple of times and, after doing some reading, I ran Prime95 to check for instabilities.
It crashes after a couple of minutes at default clocks (133) with every working memory timing . So I ran memtest. To my surprise it ran okay for several hours at the Probe setting.
Some additional info about my system *points down at sig*:
- running XP Pro SP2 with all updates
- the mobo (bought second hand from ebay a couple of weeks ago) looked brand new - according to the previous owner he used it only a couple of times; the only things I can change are FSB and memory timings; the monitoring doesn't work and I know how to set up MBM - the only readings that make sense are CPU temp (~47-53C) and vcore (stable 1.60V) - all other voltages vary wildly; the vcore reported by the BIOS and CPU-Z is 1.632V - stable; the northbridge used to get pretty hot, so I put a small 40x40 fan on it - it should be ok now.
- the CPU (bought new a couple of weeks ago as well) is a T-Bred "B" 2600+ (16x133) and has been OCed only a couple of MHz, mainly to avoid the feeling that the machine is underclocked, which, as most of you probably know, is a thing the guys from ECS have the habit of doing...
- the PSU (bought new at the same time) is a 550W LC-Power and the voltages reported by MBM on my old mobo were very close to optimal and absolutely stable; the stable vcore on this one makes me think the problem is elsewhere
- the RAM (I've had it for a while)- 2 x 256 Hynix, SPD @ 133 2.5-3-3-6, tested with memtest @ 2-3-3-6
- the video card - a 9800 Pro, bought through ebay, supposedly manufactured by Hercules (has logos and markings on the typically colored PCB that support the theory...) - a week or two after I bought it I saw some memory-caused artifacts and looked at the card more closely - the thermal paste under the heatsink looked like it was applied by a half-trained monkey with it's left leg; the heatsink looked just like ATI's stock solution, but wasn't from aluminum(!?); the 350Mhz Samsung memory used to get so hot that I got scared and changed the heatsink and I run the card slightly underclocked now. I haven't noticed any artefacts since, but I don't really trust the card.
- the sound card (bought second hand through ebay - didn't want to use the onboard codec) - SB Live! ...
Well, that's pretty much it. Sorry for the novel and thanks in advance for your ideas!
P.S. flashing the latest BIOS version didn't help
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