Pentium D / MSI Diamond Problems

[Cathy]

Hi, I hope you can help. I just built a new PC with the following components:

Intel Pentium D 830
MSI P4N Diamond Mobo
MSI 500w power supply
2 sticks 512MB DDR2 Crucial Ballistix RAM
EVGA 6600GT Video Card
120GB SATA HD
Standard Floppy and DVD drives
Windows XP Pro

My mobo started acting up on me a few months ago, the northbridge heatsink fan stopped, so I got it RMAed after a lot of hassle from MSI. When I finally got my new MOBO I noticed random system freezes (which I then started remembering I had problems with on the old mobo, but thought it was related to a software glitch or the fan), I replaced the Pentium D with a Pentium 4 CPU that a friend had and the Freezes stopped, so I felt confident that my problem was the chip. I got a replacement chip from Intel (who were much better to work with than MSI) the next day, unfortunatly Im still experienceing the freezing problems. ARGH. I have updated the bios on my mobo and have all the latest drivers for my video card and mobo. The software that monitors the temp is telling me that my system is cool enough. I have done 2 clean XP Pro installs. Am I missing something? Please help.

 

[sPlAtOiD]

Hi There Have you tried different settings in your BIOS? Have you tried to set your BIOS to default? I know this is a stretch but i'm just running some Ideas By you. I buy only MSI boards they are great Quality but there service does suck for sure. Also is the Pentium D chip that much faster than the Pentium 4 chip.I really dont know much about Pentium cause I use AMD.If its not why not just switch to a pentium 4 chip and call it good.

 

[Cathy]

I benchmarked the D vs the Pentium 4 and it was slower, I dont see any performance difference to be honest. I guess its the last time I try and buy the latest stuff out there. As far as the bios settings, I have tweaked them over and over with no luck. Thank you for the reply, I guess my next step will be trying a different video card unless anyone else has suggestions...

 

[Cathy]

Well, for any of you that are interested. I replaced the Pentium D with a Pentium 4 and it hasnt locked up once, I'm not saying the P4N Diamond is not compatible with Pentium D, but something in the mix wasn't liked. Hope this helped someone, because I just about pulled my hair out trying to figure it out....