New build, some random instability

M

Moosh

Gawd
Joined
Dec 10, 2000
Messages
802
Hello all. I built a new box and I am having some minor instability. Once in a while when I resume from standby, the screen is blank and nothing I do gets the system working. I have to restart the machine with the reset button. I've noticed once or twice during a reboot from a failed standby restore that my machine hangs while detecting hard drives. These hard drives are from my last box so I don't think there is anything wrong with them. Finally today during a game of Warcraft 3, my computer just reboot on its own. I was overclocking initially to 3.2 GHz at stock voltage, but I returned it to stock clock speed to see if any of hte problems go away. Today when the machine rebooted, it was with stock clock speed so I am guessing the problems are not overclocking related. Any thoughts? My Killowatt meter shows my power usage is around 120 watts idle and 190 watts when I'm playing a game, so my Antec 380W power supply should be enough right? Any other ideas?


Specs:

  • GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Black Edition Processor Model ADO5000DSWOF - Retail
  • Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail
  • Antec earthwatts EA380 ATX12V v2.0 380W Power Supply - Retail
  • COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
  • COOLER MASTER RR-CCH-L9U1-GP 92mm Hyper TX2 CPU Cooler - Retail

I used a BFG 7900GS from my old box in this system. This card worked fine for many months in that box so I don't think it is the problem.
 
Did you do a fresh reinstall when you moved your hard drives over to the new PC?

That power supply should be fine.

Download Memtest+ V.170, unzip it, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP install CD. Let Memtest+ run for at least three hours on each stick of RAM separately. If you start seeing errors, than your RAM is bad.
 
Danny Bui said:
Did you do a fresh reinstall when you moved your hard drives over to the new PC?

That power supply should be fine.

Download Memtest+ V.170, unzip it, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP install CD. Let Memtest+ run for at least three hours on each stick of RAM separately. If you start seeing errors, than your RAM is bad.
Click to expand...

Yes I did a format and fresh reinstall of Windows XP Pro when I moved the hard drives over. I ran Memtest+ for 4 hours on both sticks simultaneously (did not have time to do it separately), there were 0 errors. Do you still think I should test each stick individually? Any other ideas? Thanks
 
Moosh said:
Yes I did a format and fresh reinstall of Windows XP Pro when I moved the hard drives over. I ran Memtest+ for 4 hours on both sticks simultaneously (did not have time to do it separately), there were 0 errors. Do you still think I should test each stick individually? Any other ideas? Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, just to be thorough. Also, download, burn to a CD and run Drive Fitness Test to see if there's any problems with the drive itself. Also download Western Digitals's Data Lifeguard tools to make sure that the drive is in working order:
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=30
 
I will run the hard drive tests tonight.

I am starting to think that the problem has to do with an incompatibility between my motherboard and my Crucial Ballistix ram. The ram uses an unusually high 2.2V. I've noticed that if I try to force it to use a standard 1.8V, the computer gives me these long beeping sounds, which the manual says is due to memory error.

Tonight I got home after class and turned on my computer and it gave me those same beeps. I restarted and I got into Windows. What do you think?
 
BTW, the voltage was set at the 2.2V required by the Crucial Ballistix memory when I had the beep after I came home from class and turned it on.
 
I've turned off the EPP (Enhanced Performance Profile) for the memory. The memory is now running at the standard JEDEC timings, ie - CAS 5. I then set the DDR voltage to the "NORMAL" setting which gave it a voltage of 1.9V. So far the computer feels more stable. I guess the memory might be the problem after all.

Now the question is, what should I do about it. If I RMA the memory, I am not so sure another pair of memory sticks will give me better luck with the EPP and 2.2V. I am definitely turned off from the overclocked memory coming out of the factory. I looked at DDR 1066 memory and I think the lowest voltage I saw was 2.1V. Has anyone seen DDR 1066 that uses less voltage?
 
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