drakesteakn

i have been having some major problems with my computer lately. i have tried everything i can do but nothing has fixed it. here are my specs:

AMD A64 3500+ 2.2ghz Winchester Core
DFI NF4 SLI-DR lanparty
2gb(2x1gb) OCZ pc-4000 Gold Edition
eVGA NV-17 7800GT 470/1200
Enermax Liberty 620W PSU
2x Maxtor S-ATA 200GB DM10 8mb Cache
1 Maxtor 200GB IDE DM10 8MB Cache
1 Maxtor 160gb IDE DM10 8MB Cache
Lite-on 16x DVD Drive and a Lite-on 16x DVD Burner
Windows XP
Swiftech H120 WaterCooling Kit
No Overclocking!!!!!!

Now on to my problem with some detail. i have had some rebooting and lock ups as of late. sometimes when i reboot or cold start my PC when it would finish the checks and get ready to go into the windows boot screen it would restart from the beginning then go into windows. Or while i was in windows it would lock up and i would have to manualy restart the computer. This would happen every once in awhile. as of late it has gotten worse and i had to take out the CMOS battery to reset the settings just to get windows to even install. Once i got windows installed i was running automatic updates to upgrade to service 2 and i had a lock up. and now i cant even boot up into the windows cd or from the Maxtor MaxBlast HD utility.

Any Suggestions on how to fix this problem would be great? i tried switching out the memory, Vid Card,PSU, and hard drvies. nothing helped. i have a feeling its the Motherboard as when i firt got it there where some issues with it just to get it to install XP. It was Bios Settings as this mobo has a million.

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Asmoday

Weird, I'm using the very same Motherboard and CPU...Ive also have had some random reboots and BSOD's lately. Even at stock speed sometimes....Ive seriously been thinking of picking up the Asus A8N32 instead of the DFI...

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Tril

Probably not your problem but try to lower the AGP speed. My computer (it's a lot older than yours) crashes with my new video card if I use AGP 4x. I have to use AGP 2x or AGP 1x for the computer to be stable.

How are the temps of your cpu and video card?

Maybe a bad mobo. That's possible. The cpu should be goos enough for all the stuff you have in that computer.

drakesteakn

i have a PCI-E video card not AGP. well my temps are very low. 19C on my cpu and 43C on the video card. I guess when u have 3 120mm fans and 2 80mm fans in ur case it helps.

Asomday i might just have to look more into that Asus A8N32 Mobo. looks nice but they are out of stock everywhere i have looked. they are high priced too at $250

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The_Neon_Cowboy

What PSU's you guys running? whats the rateing on the rails?
thats where I'd start first if the cooling is fine...

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swimtech

Me too. You do have a nice PSU there though - but even the best can fail...

Try running a minimal hardware setup to reduce the load at startup a while - if OK, then you may have just found your problem.

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

drakesteakn

i unplugged 3 of the hard drives and that didnt make a diference. i might pull the other fans and see what happens.

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Tril

Did not notice the pci-e video card.

Is the watercooling kit installed and working properly?

Did you play with the RAM latency settings and set it too fast manually?

Maybe your cpu is running too hot and an option to shut down is selected in the bios. Probably not because it would shut down, not freeze. Go look in pc health status. There is an option to shutdown the cpu in case of overheating. It also shows the temp of three areas of the computer. Go look right after the computer locks or crash to see the temps at that time.

Maybe an option to automatically overclock is selected in the bios.

Maybe bad RAM. This is hard to test if you don't have other known to be working RAM to experiment with.

Your bios has an option to select the voltage for the RAM. You have to out a jumper in a specific position before using it. Maybe you are not using the correct voltage for your RAM. Look on the manufacturer recommendations on their website.

There are option for spread spectrum in the bios. Usually, activating those reduces emi generation but can lead to instabilities.

There is a cpu throttling option in the bios. You should set it to a reasonnable amount so that the cpu throttles if it becomes too hot.

The K8 Cool ‘n’ Quiet Control option in the bios makes the computer lower voltage and frequency when the cpu usage is low. If it's activated, maybe it leads to instability for you.

There are a lot of settings for the RAM and CPU. You should take a look at them.

Have you run a virus scanner recently?

Is your bios up to date?


I don't have any more ideas. Maybe it's simply faulty hardware but you are better experimenting with different solutions first.

Drakon

Sounds like bad ram to me. I had similiar problems with random restarts, hard crashes, bsod's, windows hanging while loading etc. The ram was iffy. Sometimes it would pass memtest, but then at others it would give a crap load of errors. Plus prime '95 wouldn't even run. So I ran memtest with both sticks, and got errors. Took out the stick in slot 2 and ran it again for at least 3 passes with the other stick in slot 1. No errors. Took that out and ran the other and got a crap load of errors on each pass.

Try looping test 8. RyderOCZ says it's the closest thing to prime '95 that'll really stress the memory. I think you press C 1 3 8 Enter Enter anytime while memtest is running. Loop if for 1 - 2 hrs and see. If memtest doesn't give any errors, then try the toture test in prime '95.

Forgot to mention that I was using the Neo2 Platinum at that time. Haven't had any problems with my DFI as yet

drakesteakn

well today i was trying to figure out what the problem was. i think i found it. i took on the bios logo and when i restarted the computer i saw at the bottom of the boot screen CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR. i bet thats not good at all. Any ideas?

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drakesteakn

Well i have finally gotten this computer to boot into the window cd. lets hope it will install. i have noticed that i am missing some things in my bios like the Memtest built into the bios. the setting is not there. very wierd.

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Necrosis

You and Asmoday may have corrupt bios chips.

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Drakon

Tried resetting the BIOS? Might want to update it too...

drakesteakn

u have no idea how many times i reset everything. i took the CMOS battery out of the mobo and left it out for awhile. i am finally typing in windows on this god forsaken computer. still not sure if this is a temp fix ir what. but i will be getting a new mobo no matter what.

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Drakon

Well have you tried running memtest and prime '95 like I suggested above?

drakesteakn

i ran prime 95, no errors. i will run it linger on the torture test. but i dont have a floppy drive installed. and the memtest setting is missing in my bios. so i will have to figure a way to run it from some other way.

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Drakon

You can burn the memtest iso on a blank cd and use that to run it

Just use Nero or whatever program to burn it

drakesteakn

i will have to do that then, i got to run some tests to try and narrow this down.

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drakesteakn

finished 7 loops of memtest with no errors. still not sure wtf id going on with this computer.

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Drakon

Try the toture test in prime '95. Choose the blend option

drakesteakn

yep, thats all i use is the blend, mixes is up good. all is well still. for how long i dont know.

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Drakon

Hmmm, I dunno. I would just let it run prime over nite and see if it gives any problems.

Necrosis

I've just thought of some thing. These boards are known to having hot running chipsets. As a matter of fact some times there can be poor contact /w the chipset fan. Have you applied any thermal paste to this to see if it helps?

What are your chipset temps?

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