--- Computer Issues ---

[bluestreak101]

Hey All,

I'm in major need of some help before i rip my head off in frustration!

I recently built a my self a reasonably powerful computer (at least by my standards) Spec as follows:

Motherboard: ASUS A8V Deluxe WiFi
CPU: AMD Athlon 3200+ Venice Core 2.0Ghz (not overclocked!)
Graphics: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128M
RAM: Corsair XMS 1Gb (2x512 in dual channel DDR400 mode)(CMX512-3200C2PRO)
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 485W
SCSI: Compaq 29160 U160 SCSI Controller (Adaptec)
Hard Drives: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 80Gb, Seagate Barracuda 120Gb, Fujitsu U320 10K 68Pin 36.7Gb
CD/DVD: NEC 4550 Dual Layer DVD-RW

Now for the problem! Just using the computer generally, running windows, surfing the net, playing music, the computer behaves brilliantly. but when i start to do something a little more stressful the computer it starts to behave erratically.

If I'm using Limewire, and playing music, whilst surfing the net, the computer will just reset itself, without warning! and it does it always in the same situation, whilst doing the same things. Now the computer should be able to handle all these tasks with out messing up as i feel these are relatively simple tasks.

I recently bought Doom III to play (because I'm board of HL2 now) and I can play sometimes for a reasonable amount of time quite happily, and then it will have an episode of rebooting every 5-10 mins, then settle down again for a while. Now if i were doing the same thing everytime and it was at regular intervals i would be able to figure this out, but because its so random and unprecedented I'm unsure where to even start looking.

I have updated the motherboard BIOS version to a later one (at least what it was about 2/3 months ago) and i have updated the SCSI BIOS. checked all connections several times inside the computer, cleaned it a number of times, and even tried doing these things whilst having no more than the program I'm using open at the same time (I mean closing everything except the obvious system tasks).

I have even been through the BIOS settings a million times to see if there's something I've missed, and nothing has changed!

So Please could some one give me ideas to anything else that might be an issue, maybe you know of an incompatibility issue with some of my hardware, any help is appreciated, but please, don't go on about how much better your system is, I'm not interested, my PC runs everything quite smoothly (except this out standing problem obviously).

 

[synthetic_fenix]

First off, What does PCProbe say your 12volt rails and 5volt rails are running at? also you can easily check this under the bios. Another thing to check could be running memtest86+ on your system to make sure your memory isnt bad, I have seen DOA corsair, its rare but I have seen it. Next maybe go thru and make sure everything is seated properly.

 

[bluestreak101]

Using SpeedFan 4.28 the Voltages are as follows (ill just include all of them incase they're needed later on):

Vcore: 1.41V
+12V: 11.64V (±0.03V)
3.3V: 3.23V
Vcc: 5.06V (± 0.02V)
Vin2: 0.00V (not sure what this one is...)
5Vsb: 5.01V
Vbat: 0.00V (not sure what this one is...)

Now the ± is what its varying by withing the space of about 10 mins ATM

I actaully have a program Called MemTest which i incidently downloaded just after my original post. It says to run for 20 mins+ and I plan to run it over night to see if it picks up anything. (BTW I'm in New Zealand so over night will be from a couple of hours from now)

 

[synthetic_fenix]

Well I work midnights so my work schedule it probably around your normal being awake schedule. if that Memtest program runs from within windows I dunno how well that will work. the one you want is http://www.memtest86.com/ they have an ISO download to where you can boot off the cd. I runs under linux natively to do its tests.

Your 3.3 volt rail kinda has me a little concerned that its not closer to 3.3volts then what it is. 3.23 seems kinda low but I'm not 100% sure on that.

 

[coin]

I don't like the look of either the 3.3v or the 12v rails, were these values taken idle or under load. If at idle then it looks like your PSU is underpowered and as soon as you ask it to work it undervolts and your PC reboots. The other thing to check is temps

 

[bluestreak101]

All the Values were taken at the time of posting, so I would only been using IE and the SpeedFan window.

I used this PSU back in the UK for a while with a different set of hardware:

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Same Hard Disks and DVD-RW
Radeon 9500 Pro

I've just tried to burn a Bootable CD (not had to do it very often so a bit rusty) and about to see it works.

 

[bluestreak101]

I have run that MemTest86+ and it didnt show any errors, I'm not sure how long to run it for as it seems to just keep going, so im going to start it in a min and leave it until I wake up to see how it gets on.

 

[Lunar_Lamp]

It could be a problem with overheating - but yes Memtest you are best to leave overnight. For full instructions look HERE. It might be an idea to use a program like Everest to check out your temps whilst your pc is running - it's not necessarily the best program, just the first one that came to my mind.

 

[redduc900]

Try changing the following BIOS options to these settings...

Search for MDA Resources = Disabled
AGP 3.0 Calibration = Disabled
AGP = 8x
AGP Voltage = 1.5
DBI output for AGP trans = Enabled (You may also want to try Disabled, w/ the AGP set to 4x instead of 8x) --> Make sure not to use the Disabled setting w/ AGP set to 8x.
AGP/PCI FREQUENCY [66.66/33.33]

 

[bluestreak101]

Memtest was run last night, and I checked it this morning and it got to 5500% coverage with 0 Errors, which was expected with this RAM really.

I did two tests last night, one was with all settings as usual:

AGP to 8x running Limewire, Winamp, IE and Outlook 2003 all open, and within 5 mins, the computer hard booted, no bluescreen or warning, monitor went off, followed a few seconds later by the music, then the computer reset, and booted normally.

The next was to run the computer with AGP 4x, running the same software simultaneously. Was doing it for about 30 mins and the computer was fine, running them all again and going to keep them going to see if was being an arse.

Incidently I have just had the ATI card back from ATI and was a replacement for another 9800 Pro which was faulty, chances of having two faulty cards from ATI I would have thought to be fairly slim!

I have also just received a note from OcUK (where I bought the hardware) telling me that I should set the BIOS back to factory defaults to see if that does anything so I'm going to try that first, then try Lunar_Lamp's suggestions.

I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that it might just be an incompatibilty issue between the A8V and 9800 Pro. I didnt think about it before but the problems started afer I installed the 9800 Pro, as I was using an FX5200 as a back up, and had no issues with it at all.

 

[Benvanz]

Sounds like temps to me

 

[bluestreak101]

Nope definitely not temps, not one of my temps is above 40 when it happens sometimes, and theres no correlation between temps and crashes at all.

I think the problem has been identified now, it seems there are a few others that have had the same problem that I have been experiencing, and they have all had the same A8V Motherboard with a Radeon 9800 Pro, so I think it may just be an incompatibility issue between these two items.

I think the conclusion now is that the ASUS A8V is Incompatible with ATI Radeons.

I'm now considering changing my GFX for a NVidia, or changing the motherboard for another make with same specs.

 

[MyPCAlexi]

in a Suse live cd memtest is already on the cd, and gives you the option to test while its booting up. plus having a linux live cd is a nice thing to have.