posted
Okay, so here's the thing. I installed a new motherboard, because I had a new video card, and the old one didn't have an AGP slot. So now I have a decent motherboard, 384 MB of RAM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, 40 GB IDE drive, 80 GB IDE drive, 9 GB scsi drive. Radeon 9600 LE video card, AverMedia TV capture card, and an unknown brand SCSI controller. P4 Celeron 2.0 GHz.
I had some trouble with things at first, had to format a hard drive and reinstall windows on the other one, but all that's good now, things will actually boot and all. BUT, when playing games, specifically Uru, Rise of Nations, and Freelancer, the system is unstable. Sometimes the games exit randomly, sometimes they shut the entire system down and display a blue screen with no text. Occasionally, the entire system will give me a BSOD, sometimes with some sort of memory paging error. This is XP Home, SP2. All this still occurs with a boot loading minimal services and processes, and with the tuner card and SCSI equipment disconnected.
I've run a diagnostic with Sandra. It claims a few things are wrong. First, it says my mainboard is too hot, supposedly at over 50 C. Second, it says my memory bus speed exceeds the memory's rated speed. It's PC2100, and the board is designed for that, so I'm not sure what the problem there is. Third, it claims my power supply is running at 65 C, which might explain the overheated mainboard. Fourth, it says that my 5V line is at 4.8V, and my 12V line is at 10.8V. Several hours of repeated diagnostics by memtest86 came up with no errors.
At this point, I'm thinking that replacing the power supply would be my best bet. Any input would be appreciated.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Really? The mainboard is showing 50 C and not the CPU? Thats pretty crazy. What is the actual CPU running at then?
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Huh. Okay, just ran a slightly different diagnostic. It still says WARNING, mainboard temperature is too high (above 50 C). But the actual sensor says the mainboard is at 31 C. CPU's at 22.5 C. Power supply's still at 65 C. Though I'm not sure how much I trust this program/my sensors at this point.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
What model is your motherboard? Power supply?
And why in blazes are you running with a Celeron 2.0 to play games? WHYWHYWHYWHYWHY????
On an unrelated note, my P4 3.0 roxxors your boxxors.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Motherboard: Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon2 V1.0 Power supply: Tigerpro TP-350
The computer was once a Gateway. Cheapest desktop we could find at the time. First we tripled the RAM. Then took the whole thing out of the mini-ATX case and into an old AT case. Then added a new hard drive twice as big as the first, and a TV capture card. Then added a DVD-ROM drive. Then put it in a real ATX case and added a PCI video card for dual monitors. Then added a salvaged SCSI card and 9GB drive. Then replaced the motherboard with one that had an AGP slot, allowing the use of the Radeon 9600. So the reason that we only have a 2.0 GHz Celeron: it's the only part we haven't upgraded yet.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
So where did the power supply come from? Did it come with the Gateway or did it come from the case?
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Its a pity that we already know what "roxxors your boxxors," DXDiag boy.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
Thank you, Mucus. I appreciate all the praise I can get.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Do you have an ammeter to test your power supply with? Sounds like the 12V rail isn't cutting it under load, a problem common to almost all el-cheapo PSUs.
One other thing, though. From what I can gather about that Soyo board, it's actually designed for DDR333/DDR400 memory, which would clock your PC2100 sticks at least 33MHz above their rated maximum. Dial the FSB down first and see what that does for stability.
(Also, I wouldn't trust temperature sensors as far as I can throw my 20 kilogram CRT.)
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Hm. The RAM is in question, now. Some places in my manual reference PC2100 and say it's the only thing that'll work with a 400 MHz FSB. Other places say only 2700 and 3200 will work. SOYO's product description site says it'll work with DDR400/333/266, but recommends PC4000/PC3700. So... WTF!?
For now, I'm just gonna buy the power supply. I KNOW that needs replacing and will still work when I'm done. If I buy PC3200, one reference in the book claims it won't work with my CPU.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
It was an ep of Red vs. Blue, I found it amusing, it became a running joke between me and the other EECE student.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Okay. Except, it was already a running joke among everyone on the Internet about three years ago. And holy crap did it ever get old.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Turns out there's a difference between ATX and ATX12V. I need the latter, and ordered the former. Yay for knowing someone with an AMD chip that wanted one of those anyway.
So I've got three more I'm contemplating. Opinions would be great.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
CleverPower and Athena both ring suspiciously few bells with me (as in: none whatsoever), but ThermalTake PSUs have, in general, a solid reputation for quality, and are never a bad buy for any PC.
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
