Which of my components are failing?

[theflyingrat]

Please, if you've had a similar problem, let me know if I'm headed in the right direction here.

I just put a new system together last night. 1.4 GHz Athlon, DFI AK76-SN mobo, Vantec CCK-6035D heat sink, some PC2100, etc., etc. It all seemed to work fine (after I'd formatted both hard drives) until WinME finished installing.

After that, random blue screens, black screens, driver failures, etc. began to permeate the system. Every 3 and a half minutes or so, it would crash.

I'm looking to pinpoint what's wrong here - my first guess is a bad memory module, due to the wide variety of problems and random nature of when they happen. Does this sound right to anyone else?

[Placid]

You can test the memory with a program here:
http://www.teresaudio.com/memtest86/

[theflyingrat]

I'd try it, but I honestly don't think it would run long enough to download the test and run it successfully. Thanks for the suggestion, though, I'll keep it in mind. Sure to be useful some time!

[Oni]

Format and install Windows 2000. Its 1000% better than ME will EVER be. :)

[Placid]

Try booting in safe mode and see if it still crashes.

[thefly]

What are your cpu temps? Maybe you're running too hot.

Try running with minimal set up.

no soundcard. one stick of ram. Ect ect. See if it will run stable with out all the extra cards. If it does, add back parts, one by one and see what happens.

But, check your temps. Could be a heat problem.

your core must remain under 55c while under load. A lot of people will even argue 50c under load.

Good luck.

[train22]

check your bios settings too, make sure the heatsink is properly monted, temps, underclock and lower the voltage a lot, if that helps coolin'z your problem.:cool:

[theflyingrat]

Temps after crunching away at full bore are barely 40C - I know this isn't too hot; my Athlon 800 was usually 4 degrees hotter (due to lesser heat sink) and never any problems like this. Temperature is not an issue.

I had this same build of Windows ME on the aforementioned CPU, and it was (surprisingly enough), totally trouble-free. I'm using it for now because ME will sooner show signs of instability when overclocked. 2000 is eventually going on, but I'd discover instability all too late.

Thanks for suggestions, though, guys...I sincerely appreciate them.

[oc jason]

take out everyting xcept i ram stick, and the video card. Add 1 card till it gets unstable again, then you may be able to find out that way. Did u do a clean install, usually a new chip overclocks on a clean OS a little better.

[jgaud]

I thinks Ive had the same problem and it all traced back to one or more of the L1 bridges not being closed correctly.

[oc jason]

Also ME might be the culprit

[theflyingrat]

Well, here's what I've done so far.
1)exchanged the memory. New memory (some generic stuff) did the same thing.
2)removed network (FA311) and Sound (Ensoniq 128) cards. still no results
3)replaced hard drive cables. No results.
4)kicked the wall. No help.
5)Threatened the Athlon I was going to buy a P4. It was not impressed.
6)Installed 2000 instead of ME. Errored out before it finished.

Here's where it gets interesting.

7)Clocked the CPU down by FSB. Was running at 1050 (100/200FSB, effectively reducing the memory to PC1600). Ran fine. No errors or anything. Still need to try this with the other cards in, but I'm extremely short on spare time. Installed first half of Office 2000 fine.
8)Boosted multiplier to max on board (12.5), and FSB up to 107 or 108...either way, it was supposed to be running the CPU's stock 1400 or so. Just one "failed to initialize .dll" error finishing installing Office. This, however, could be an Office thing - you know MS products. CPU runs 93F idle and 104F full-bore.

Things I rule out thus far:
Sound card
NIC
Hard Drives
Possibly Motherboard

Possible culprits:
the Athlon itself - anyone have trouble running a 1.4 at stock speed/voltage?
the memory - beginning to think it's remarked PC1600 being sold as PC2100. I have some Crucial 2100 coming this weekend, so this may answer that question.
Possibly motherboard

From everything I've read, the DFI AK76 is a bulletproof board - decent layout, 10 huge 3300uf caps, etc. What I want to know is exactly how warm is an AMD 761 northbridge supposed to run? I Thermal-epoxied the Northbridge HSF on, and it seems to work well, but it does indeed get warm (though nothing like the CPU). Anybody ever have any AMD 761 troubles?

[SickBoy]

Originally posted by Oni
Format and install Windows 2000. Its 1000% better than ME will EVER be. :)

Yeah, but even WinME isn't supposed to BSOD like that... there's gotta be a reason for it.

I'd say swap ram modules.... also check that your hsf is properly seated and that you're not running in to heat related crashes.

SickBoy

[theflyingrat]

Well, I replaced the generic RAM module with a Crucial PC2100. The machine works fine, and I'm posting on it right now. Last night (before doing my full reinstall), I had it running 1500, and I'm hoping for more.

Lesson learned: stay away from cheap DDR!!!!!