4800+ x2 s939 shutdown problems

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pistyll

n00b
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
38
Hi All,

my problem i run 2 rigs both s939 one for surfing and playing games built out of spare bits which runs great for a s939 athlon 64 3500+ but my main rig is still causing me headaches. Basically the problem is random shutdowns I have replaced everything that I can think of to the extent that the only thing original from its first incarnation is the case!!

The specs at the moment are as follows :-

Athlon 64 4800+ x2 s939
Asus A8nsli mobo
200 gig maxtor sata
2 gig g-skill hz pc4400
saphire radeon x1950pro (256)
Generic XSPS water cooling
XP pro sp2

Changed to asus board because i was told they are super stable and I had problems with my dfi rs482 overvolting

Still get random shutdowns but not as often now I have not installed dual core optimiser as i have heard bad press about this "fix" as causing more problems than it cures, and in any case I just want it to run stable 24-7 the optimiser will only help with 3d games i believe
The rig has had a fresh install of XP pro yet it still behaves like a stroppy teenager for no reason whatsoever which is exactly what teenagers do!!! lol
I have read a helluva lot of forums including amd's own and this problem appears all the time with s939 and no one really knows the cause or how to cure it it appears to be hit and miss if you can cure it
I really do need some words of wisdom with this one now as I am completley baffled along with hundreds of others the 4800+ should really fly but it aint stable please help if at all possible.

Many Thanks

Ian Jones



4800+ s939 Dual core Toledo
Asus A8N-SLi Mobo
Radeon X1950pro
Generic XSPC120 Water Cooling
Silverstone Zeus 650w psu
2x1gig pc4000 G-Skill "HZ" Ram
200Gig maxtor Sata
Windows XP Pro SP2
 
Hi,


My psu is in my signature it is a Silverstone Zeus 650w with quad 12v rails,
I have searched many many forums but no one seems to have an answer to this problem and I am not alone there are hundreds of posts in the amd forum alone about the exact same problem that I have.
 
Interesting... I've built countless s939 systems and have never encountered a chroic shutdown problem like this... When do the shutdowns occur? Does is happen even when the PC is idle or only when under load?
 
Hi,
Thanks for the reply,
The shutdowns can happen at any time you can be surfing the web, playing a game or just sitting on the desktop it really does not care when it shuts down you just know that it will at sometime shutdown.
 
You didn't seem to indicate whether or not you went over the basic troubleshooting steps.

Updated mobo bios?
Updated all drivers?
Installed the AMD X2 patch things? (saw you noted that you did not, you should)

Um.... Does the machine boot up right after it shuts down?

How's the case airflow? Have you made sure it's clear and all is good?

Is everything grounded okay? Maybe try reseating your cards and even make sure the mobo is secure.

Stuff like that. If you've done it sorry but you didn't mention.
 
Hi,
Well yes as a last resort i will be forced to use dual core optimiser but so many people reckon it screws their system up i am very very reluctant to try it but I may be forced to in the end rolling eyes!!

Cpu drivers are current

Maybe i will go to task manager and manually set affinity to 1 core rather than let dc optimiser mess up at least i can system restore if it all goes tits up whereas I am led to believe that if you have dc optimser installed it will system restore ok but leave itself in!!!

I really think that it could be windows related but i will find out soon ubuntu is downloaded!!!

All basic stuff completed

updated mobo bios
All drivers updated however i am trying to get system stable with a min of peripherals at the moment

Yes machine boots up as soon as it shuts down

Case airflow is good I have 2x80mm inlet front of case,
1x80mm window fan
and of course watercooled cpu with 120mm rad
temps in bios are good 34-36 deg for cpu all rails are fine on psu

I have rebuilt from scratch several times with different combinations of mobo's ram graphics cards mobo's etc so I believe everything is seated fine and there does not appear to be any shorts however the way it shuts down does suggest maybe a short of some description, but i have been very careful with reseating and rebuilding and i believe everything is as it should be
 
I am not sure if it was asked but are you running overclocked?

I had a problem that was close to yours where it would just shut down when I was not using the computer and running 2 F@H on my dual core, It all turned out to be a failing harddrive for me. Once I had replaced the hard drive it stopped shutting its self down. Have you ran any tests to check your memory or hard drive to make sure that they are not the problem?
 
Hi,
Thanks for the reply,
No I am not running overclocked I need to get a stable pc at default settings before I consider any overclock at all

My hard drive has been tested and found to be aok
My memory is replacement rma pc4000 direct from g-skill and again that has been tested and has no problems at all it is a baffling situation and one trhat I am fast growing tired of I have replaced everything mobo ram fresh install of xp pro hard drive dual core for a 4200+ and it still does the same, I am thinking it is windows related as it only happens when in windows never in bios temps are 34-36 so that aint the issue, does anyone out there know of a microsoft hotfix for this I feel sure there must be one somewhere but i cant find it!!!
 
have u tryed reformating ?

also, the dual core optimizer does wonders for me on my s939 4400 + literally gives me an extra 15-20 frames in games.
 
Hi,
Yes i have tried re-formatting, zero counted my hard drive and fresh install of windows xp pro sp2 so everything IS fresh This problem is at the moment intermittent as I am using the problem pc at the moment to post this reply, but it is still damned annoying because I know it WILL shut down it's just a question of when!!! I have just downloaded dual core optimiser and i may as a last resort have to use it but i am rather reluctant after reading so many posts that reckon it made things 120% WORSE than before!!! I just dont know where to turn next all my components have been swaaped out for alternatives and I have nothing else left to replace now it is basically a new system again!!!
 
Hey try disabling the SCREENSAVER and set the power options to ALWAYs ON for everything and see if it still does it. It almost sounds like its trying to hybernate when it not suppose too and fn up. You can also try disabling DEP which is know to randomly shut down your pc while gaming with a X2. If its a nforce 3 or 4 chipset try rolling back or reinstalling the Nforce Board drivers. If XP was updated from SP1 to SP2 it coulda mesed with your drivers too. Im just guessing on the last one but id be trying everything i could on that thing ,dang i hope something works for ya . Let me know how it goes.
 
Are you running CoreTemp, by any chance?

V.95 of CoreTemp (and, in some cases, even V.94) causes many systems to crash.

If you are using this program to monitor your temperatures, I can almost guarantee this is the cause of your shutdowns.

Hope this helps!
 
Well... since you have replaced "everything" but the case.. I would reckon that it could be the case itself that is causing the problems....

To test this.. set up the system out of the case.. like on a wooden table or the like. If the problems go away, it is the case.

I have seen quite a few systems that would work perfectly out of the case, but as soon as you stuck them in the case... they would have issues, a few to the point of not even being able to load windows... and one wouldn't even post.

Switched the case, and all was fine. This was after I had done multiple checks to make sure that there wasn't anything at all in the case causing a short on the motherboard.

Sometimes really freaky problems like this happen.
 
Turn off, auto reboot on system failure if you are using windows xp, as it may be a blue screen error you are getting and its automatically rebooting and you are not getting to see the error code thus you are not getting any clues asto why its shutting down.

goto control panel, then system icon then in their click on advanced, then at the bottom you will see startup and recovery, click on settings for that part and then untick Automatically Restart, make sure its unticked and hopefully next time when your system reboots or shutsdown it will display a blue screen error instead of rebooting automatically thus maybe and I say maybe giving you some sort of clue asto what the problem is.

Also make sure your cpu volts/vcore is about 1.310 as ASUS boards overvolt, 1.3125 on my rigs, both are asus boards and x2's end up at about 1.34 volts, so if you have set your vcore at 1.35 volts in the bios which is the correct vcore setting for those cpu's ( the cpu's are rated at between 1.3 and 1.35 volts, the older style were rated at 1.4 and 1.45 volts but their is only a handful of them, the majority of 4800s is 1.3v - 1.35v ) then every now and then it may go over the safe limit and shutdown your pc to save it from getting damaged due to the actual voltage being higher than what you set it at in the bios, that happened to me before I realised that both my asus boards were overvolting and I have read since then that asus boards are well known for overvolting a little. so if I was you I would set my cpu to be about 1.3125 volts or thereabouts and run your rig and see if it still continues to cut out, take your cpu vcore off of auto and set it to what or similar to what I have.

Also take the auto reboot thing off so that it will display a blue screen error code when it shutsdown.

Also what bios are you using for yur mobo ? I find that 1016 is the best so far, even tho their is higher ones, I find that 1016 works magic for me and cured problems that previous bios's didnt, also I dont get any shutdown problems like yours.

Check your event manager and see if its being caused by a program, also if you want since we have similar rigs, I can share all my bios settings incase it maybe a dodgy setting that you have, I have set my bios so that I only have whats needed turned on and I have disabled a shitload of stuff to free up irq's and also I have set a lot of things to manual as these boards have some weird ass settings that for me personally I would rather me control them rather than them controlling my rig.

You do know that these boards auto overclock your video card/s so maybe that could be a cause ? but anyway if you want to go over some settings and such then pm if you wish.

As long as you have the latest AMD cpu driver then you dont need any optomizer or MS DC hotfix, I have had X2s since they were in their first week of release in 2005 and back then they were a pain and I needed different programs so that I could set affinity so that programs would work instead of going into task manager all the time and setting affinity that way, but gradually things became more and more stable and at this time the only thing I need for my cpu is the newest driver, nothing else, now compared to 2 years ago I would be using the hotfix, the amd driver, procaff and task manager for affinity settings, but now none of them apart from the driver is needed, well for the last hmm let me think, for the last I would say 10-12 months I havent needed anything except the amd driver, so it has matured nicely compared to when they first came out.

If you have swapped the cpu into another rig and it does the same I would start thinking I had a fucked up cpu, or maybe your motherboard has went funky, as those mobos aint the greatest, they are decent and were good when they came out, but I went threw 3 of them til I found one that was uber stable and thats the one I am using now, the others would Bluescreen at the slightest thing and they were not classed as being bust or broken/damaged, the luck of the draw I presume.

As for coretemp, it crashes/locks up both my rigs with X2's in them, so that is a software fault as it is locking up when reading the sensor on the cpu, speedfan does the same to some folks and its something todo with the software reading the sensors and maybe something else is reading them at the same time and a lockup occurs, thats why I use just asus probe for all fans and temps and volts and rivatuner & coolbits for vid card temp, coolbits is used with old style CP opened with reg hak.
 
Hi,
thanks for the huge post scotsman, there is a lot of relevant info there, I to am using coretemp and have found that it can on certain occassions cause a shutdown which is as you say probably caused by something else reading the sensor at the same time,
Before i read your post i took my life in my hands and thought fu$% it and went the whole hog and installed everything i said i was not going to ie ms hotfix AND amd dc optimiser along with a shed load of microsoft updates that mentioned anything at all to do with amd dc cpu's i optimised my bios took out all the things i did not need to free up a shed load of irq's updated all drivers chipset cpu x1950pro ati catalyst 7.6 and fingers crossed it is holding up at the moment, we have been going now since 6pm so i am doing exceptionally well for a bloody change, having said that watch the bloody thing conk out on me whilst posting this reply!!!1 lol I also had an overvolting issue with a previous s939 board a dfi rs482 infinity used to overvolt like crazy but apparently it was well documented just a pity i only came across the documents after it ate a 4200+ for lunch!!! anyway thanks everyone for their replies and i will let you all know if it is holding together or if i have finally taken an axe to this monster of a machine!!!1 lol
 
Ok I am having that same problem. When I overclocked at first it would restart. Then I backed of the overclock to a previous stable overclock.
Now it just shuts down completely. Cooling is not the problem. Shutdowns are random. Load or no load. It does super PI with no problem.

txtmstrjoe Wrote---- Are you running CoreTemp, by any chance?
V.95 of CoreTemp (and, in some cases, even V.94) causes many systems to crash.
If you are using this program to monitor your temperatures, I can almost guarantee this is the cause of your shutdowns.
Click to expand...

I Was thinking back and this started just after I installed core temp a couple of weeks ago. I downloaded it last winter and it made my computer crash as soon as I started it.

I am going to uninstall it and go back to the higher overclock and see what happens.
 
Well my problem with shutdowns was caused by core temp. I haven't used it for two days now and no problems at all.

I sure am glad I ran across this thread or I probably would be replacing parts or reformatting by now. Plus I had just removed the IHS and I was worried that I had damaged something.

When my computer is unstable from overclocks either something wont work or it restarts.
Now back to overclocking...
 
Hi,

Thanks for the post, i too was using core temp v95 and removed it yesterday and gone back to using asus pcprobe, ok so it is not as pretty and i cant seem to find a way to put it in the taskbar (its pinned at the moment to top rhs of desktop) but my pc has suddenly stopped crashing!!! like yours my crashes were random load or no load it really did not care so fingers crossed i may have solved shutdown problems after replacing everything bar the bloody case to find it was a silly little temp monitor that was causing all the heartache now let me get on with some serious overclocking of these fx53 dual core puppies!!!! that is what i am led to believe is in the 4800+ athlon x2's

As a side point how did you remove your ihs?? last one i removed i nearly removed my bloody fingers as well with a blade scratched the pcb a little on an opteron 146 but it still worked and temps did drop off considerably, i was hoping once i am brave enough again to try to remove ihs on my second 4200+ x2 to see if i can improve temps. Did you have to shave retention bracket down to suit removal of ihs cos that would make freezer64 not fit correctly if you left it no?? or maybe i will just abandon ship and jump on the core2duo bandwagon they are by far and away an awesome cpu that amd has NO answer for at the moment and possibly the future, serves you right amd for sitting on your fat corporate asses when athlon64 was wupping prescot you should have known intel would not take it lying down, be interesting to see what shares are like at amd when they release their figures (losses) today!!!!
 
Good to hear it looks solved

I got a similar problem when I upgraded to my X2.
Random crashes, reboots, blue screens you name it.
I tried every bios on the Asus site, whit a complete clean install of XP everytime.
Sometimes it ran for days without a hickup, sometime multiple times a day.

So finaly I contacted Asus about it and 2 days later I got a nice reply
from a Chinese tech and he send me a new bios: version 1604, not 1016 like the latest on their site but a beta version I guess.
Flashed the mobo with it: rocksolid since
Want it?
 
If your bios has a PEG link mode like my A8N32-SLI then make sure you disable it, my computer would run most of the time just fine, i could stress the CPU and such, but randomly would reboot, or after 20mins of gaming it would cause lockups, found even if its in normal mode it was clocking my system higher than what i have it spec'ed at.

I disabled it and it has been good since.
 
pistyll n00bie-- Good that you got it fixed. I was getting ready to start changing parts too.

To remove the IHS you need a real thin razor blade and cut a little at a time. The cooler does fit a little loser but with the IHS on it was real tight. It is tight enough to work properly though.
I havent had any problems and it is at least 5 degrees c cooler than before.
I overclocked to 2500 MHZ from 2400 today and still no problems.

I will stick with AMD.
 
Hi Total chaos,

well i am running with bios 1805 at the moment and my board is an asus a8nsli deluxe so i guess your bios wont work in my motherboard unless your mobo is the exact same as mine but i guess it wont harm anything just to have your bios 1604 ready in case my machine does a runner on me again thanks a bunch mate my e-mail is ian.jones2001@tiscali.co.uk if this bios lets me run stable i will be very grateful indeed i was at the end of my tether and if it does not prove to be fixed and starts shutting down on me again then i may have to junk my system and jump on the core2duo bandwagon!!!

many thanks

Ian
 
Does it add any new stuff to the bios compared to what 1016 has got ?

Just to add dude, my a8n32 sli board runs much much much more stable than my a8n sli dlx, so if you keep having problems maybe a new board is all thats needed ?
 
Hi,
according to asus bios page A8N-SLI Deluxe BIOS 1805
Fixed Silicon 3114 RAID mode fail when using ASUS EN7950GX2 PCIE VGA Card.
that appears to be all that has changed since 1016 bios so i would imagine 1016 and 1805 are basically the same as said in a previous post fingers crossed it looks like it is behaving itself but if it becomes naughty again i will have to punish it and maybe the a8n32 is the way i will go!! i have had plenty of stability problems with dfi rs482 with dual core along with msi k8neo2 but the a8nsli deluxe is by far the most stable ot the s939 boards i have had to date just hope it behaves itself now i have been at this problem since april would you believe!!!!!
 
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