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System Freezing at Stock Clock Speed!!

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neovalentine

Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
I built up a system awhile ago and have had this problem ever since. But I've been trying to fix it. What I have is a

Socket 478 P4 2.4 GHZ 800mhz FSB
Abit IS7 MB
1 Gig Ram
Asus Geforce 5200FX
350W Powersupply.
Zalman CPU fan.
Generic Case...

Anyways when running at 2.4 GHZ the system will freeze up everytime. The screen will stay on but the whole system stops responding. Mouse is dead can't use Keyboard. Have to reset the PC. If I underclock (shutters) it to 2.2 GHZ it runs fine all day and night for days on end.

Does anyone have any thoughts to what's going on?

Please help the newbie.

Ron
 
I agree with pip, also see if anything is shorting. Sometimes I will drop a screw and it gets wedged under the motherboard and shorts it. My HDD also will be the cause. If I use one of the screw holes it shorts and the system locks up on POST.

If you can get to the BIOS, could you also tell us your voltage rails as well?
 
System Temprature runs around 39C to 44C Depending on what I'm doing. I've reinstalled the fan 3 times. Last time I followed instruction provided bythe arctic silver site. What should the voltage rails be at? I'm pretty new to this stuff so you'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge.

ron
 
You have to do some process of elimination. First, reset the BIOS defaults.

Check temps and voltages in the BIOS and then in windows. If temps are under 60 degrees idle, and voltages are +-5% then proceed.

Next, do a memtest. (google memtest86) Let it loop ALL TESTS for at least 5 passes. Usually a memtest will pick up an error right away if something major is wrong, but in cases of sporadic freezing/reboots it might be harder to pin down.

If you can get into windows, run super pi, 32M. (google Superpi 1.1). This actually is better than memtest from what ive seen, but will only test a portion of the ram.

Then do prime95 until it fails or an hour passes. Do a smalll FFT torture test.(google prime 95).

To test your hard drive, download the tool from the manufacturer and do an extended test on the hard drive.

This is a good routine to test your hardware.
Some other important tips:

1) You should unplug an unecessary devices (CD-ROMs, modems, sound cards). Start off with the core components needed to boot and nothing more. If your error does not reproduce itself, start plugging them in 1 at a time. It usually helps to have suche devices disabled/unplugged during error testing to help avoid the improbable but sometimes present situation of having more than one source of an error.

2) Software can be an issue as well. Reinstalling Windows and making sure you have ALL the proper drivers installed could save you a lot of time and trouble. It doesn't always have to be a hardware issue. (Check installation media for scratches as well!).

3) Start->Run msconfig
Disable all startup items. You don't NEED a single one of them. One of them could be the error.

4) Check to make sure you don't have any spyware. Microsoft Anti spyware, Adaware and Spybot are great tools to use.

5) Finally, please take note of any error messages upon reboot. The Event Log is also a good source of information.

I think you probably won't get past the memtest... So lets go and see. Good luck.
 
Last edited:
neovalentine said:
System Temprature runs around 39C to 44C Depending on what I'm doing. I've reinstalled the fan 3 times. Last time I followed instruction provided bythe arctic silver site. What should the voltage rails be at? I'm pretty new to this stuff so you'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge.

ron

Your temps are better than fine, they are very good. Don't bother with resetting the fan anymore.

Voltage typically should be

12v should be 11.4 - 12.6
5v should be 5.25 - 4.75
3v should be 2.85 - 3.15

That's +-5%. Really though, they should be a bit closer than that. I like the 12v between 11.7 and 12.3. 3v should be 2.9 to 3.1.
 
I've been reading about one called Vcore? Something like 1.4-1.6? Can someone explain this one. The more I read just seems like the CPU voltage and if this is low will cause lots of lockups.
 
Vcore should be set to auto, unless you can provide more information about what core your 2.4 runs at.

2.4 Vcore is probably around 1.525v for the common northwood 2.4C;

I'd just leave that alone and on auto, the motherboard will get that right as long as it support that revision of the processor (which it should).
 
Thanks for all your help. Being as I'm at work I can't test much here but I will when I get home. One my my co-workers is suggesting my 350W power supply isn't good enough. Is there any truth to that?
 
Depends on the brand.. A name brand power supply could handle that load easily.. If its not a name brand, maybe not.

Even if it is a name brand, it could be crapping out on you.

The fact that the power supply is labelled 350w, doesn't actually tell us much of anything.

The voltages from within the BIOS (or with a multimeter) will do fine for telling how the shape of hte power supply is.. at least for the most part. On certain occassions though, the power supply can undergo a sharp dip in voltage not visible on a normal multimeter or in the voltage monitoring software. The only practical way to avoid this is testing a new power supply.

The best route to go though would be to test all possibilities before having to shell out cash and replace parts in your machine...
 
i had the same happening on me for awhile (freezes and reboots a few times a day) and it appeared that my northbridge was overheating. Seems i silenced the fan down too much, and the AS5 had started to crumble, too.
 
So yours was heat related? According to NickNomo my temps are fine. I just wanna run at 2.4 like it's supposed to....

Ron
 
well the north bridge is something different than the cpu.

However, that temp on yours should be normal if the Northbridge fan (right next to the CPU, but smaller than the other heatsink/fan) is spinning normally.

Sjaak probably didn't like the noise, so I'm betting he undervolted it, which caused it to get too hot.
 
Oh ya that little fan is spinning just fine. Noise isn't an issue to me. My fishtank in my room and tv and mp3's drown out anything i'd hear anyways. Plus my mom yelling at me constatly to walk the dog helps. :)

Ron
 
Ok, once you get home to that computer if you could check out the voltages for us that would be great, and also if you could tell us what your memory is. For an 800MHz FSB quad pumped CPU, that would mean your memory, if running synchronous (1:1 with the fsb) would be at 200MHz, or in other words, PC-3200 or better ram. If you have PC-2700, or even worse, 2100, the fact that your CPU may just be overclocking the ram could be the problem.
 
Is this what you wanted to see?

IMGP1301.JPG


IMGP1302.JPG


The Ram is PC2700. 1 Gig.

I have to run it in 2220 to make the PC work for more than 40 seconds. I just ran it at 2.4 with a huge box fan blowing on the CPU. The Temp was around 34.5C to 35.6 C and it still locked up.

Ron
 
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