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Headscratcher System instabilty (ap errors)

K

kablammo1961

n00b
Joined
Jan 17, 2005
Messages
38
Okay bought this stuff used..new but guy couldnt get it to work he said, so picked it up for Cheep...Got a prescott (Intel 3.0E) stock fan/HS I think, ECS mobo 848-PA, Centon (best buy I think) PC2700 512Mb Ram, and an ATI 9800 Pro 128 Video (AGP), and Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 200GB Hard Drive (Ultra ATA100 compat on IDE). PSU is an MGE Vigor 400w with blue LED fans. (was new in box), regular generic case.
- Alrighty, First original problem was after setting BIOS, wouldn't get past Verifying DMI settings...., just sat there forever. I then tricked BIOS to boot to XP cdrom, formatted the HDD and that was okay finally.
- The FDD was NOT working, changed out FDD and cable, works fine now.
- Everything seems to be fine, but when I really work the system out, (EQ2 Direct 9.0c reqd), it fails with an application error...send report to Microsoft kinda deal. Sometimes it also just reboots itself completely.
- I downloaded Hitachi's DFT disk tester, it passes error free repeatedly.
- I reflashed the BIOS, updated all drivers to latest versions. Board is a Rev 2.0, saved the BIOS and reflashed with latest I could find which appears to be 1.0f .
- Downloaded Memtest...it fails repeatedly...occasionally single addresses but sometimes it chains up 8 in a row or even 16 in a row where it doesnt specify a value, but said it could be either of two actual address locations.
- Downloaded a "boot from floppy" memtester (docmemtest or something) and ran it all last night..no errors at all? Maybe stupid crap tester. Other Windows native Memtester fails, best settings from cold at about 1000% tested, then get a slew (series of 8 or 16) errors.
- Tried changing Mem voltage, 2.6 is sweet spot with least (but still consistent) error rate.
- Tried modifying SPD mem settings manually. any setting other than Auto made it worse.
- Nothing overclocked....Hyperthreading enabled or disabled, tried most conservative and optimized BIOS settings too...problem same. Took Video freq from SYNC to 66/33 setting no difference. :confused:
- Game also dies when I run Hitman 2 (which only needs Dx 8.0) at max settings (app error window thingie again.)
- Dies very occasionally with just Internet Explorer or Random_Application01 with the same error.
- DOES seem to be temp dependent as well. When started cold, runs longer than when hot. Max from cold is about 3 minutes, when hot less than 20 seconds. Running around 50c low load, up to 56c when run hard.
:confused: I know I need to replace something, would like (naturally) to fix the broken thing first. Plan on getting 1G of better (but hopefully not real expensive) memory, never OC so...
- wouldnt mind replacing the Mobo for something real reliable, I NEVER over clock anymore so I was thinking Intel bd, or locally avail something else if anyone has Pressie exp., I Like AMD's just fine, just got a deal on this one (some deal)
- If I gotta replace the CPU, I wanna get a new Mobo too, so a good "bang for the buck" about125-150 combo suggestion would be appreciated.
My solution is to start replacing stuff slowly, prolly Memory first if no better suggestions, then maybe Mobo/CPU at same time.
Anyway, thought I would submit this to the gurus before I start throwing a bunch of money at it...
 
Well I don't have any ideas on what it is that's giving you the run-around here, but you could have a look in Event Viewer (start/run/eventvwr) and see if it lists any consistent reason for the failures. If it mentions the same thing a few times, perhaps Google it and see if it comes up anywhere, or maybe post it back on here.

From the sounds of it you know your way round a PC anyway, so perhaps you'll pick up a few clues.
 
Cool I'll try the event viewer, perhaps I'll get some clues. Just trying to figure a way to determine which component is bad, or more likely at least is tough sometimes. Yeah, I been doing Big mainframe type 'puters for a living in one way or another for some 20 years, but I'll tell ya, these personal PC's are not only faster than most older mainframes, they are a completely different ball-game too. But you prolly know that already...hehe.
I was going to upgrade the memory anyway, 1Gb is really needed for EQ2, bt if I have to do the CPU, I'd rather live with the RAM I got and do that and a good Mobo instead. I guess you can't always know the right thing til afterwards, hehe.
I am afraid the technical illiterate I bought it from inadvertantly ran it without a heatsink or something else stupid. The Mobo was mounted directly to the backplane, no standoffs. That scared the bejesus out of me, but I heard from somebody else they do it all the time and it don't hurt nuthin. Go figure. And the heatsink feels a little wobbly. I may have to detach and inspect that too...I just didnt want to disturb the thermal grease. I'll bring some home just in case.
If one of you techie wizards has a hunch about which is more likely, I'd sure like to hear it.
 
I downloaded and ran Prime95. When I ran torture test...the first option very little RAM tested, mostly working the CPU and cache, it ran for over 10 minutes with no errors. Eventually shut itself down as I had CPU protective temp in BIOS pretty low at 65c.
When I ran the 3rd option, lots of RAM tested, fails everytime, sometimes in less than a minute. YEEHA.
Thats what I wanted to see. So now I feel pretty comfortable just leaving it off til I can buy some new memory. Tooo sweet.
Thanks guys.
 
Memory seems to be OK.

Make sure you plug firmly the aux power connector (4 pin), if possible try with another power supply just to discard a faulty one.

Good Luck

OldMX
 
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