Soft / Nonfatal Crash

[NushowTech]

Hi TechForums!

Right now I'm working with a PC that's being a HUGE pain... here are the hardware specs:

CPU AMD|A64 X2 5000+ 2.6G AM2
CPU Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS7500
VGA EVGA 9600GSO 384MB PCIE 2.0 16X BUS
MB ASUS M3N78-EMH HDMI AM2 GF8200
MEM 1Gx2|OCZ Dual Channel Kit (P/N:OCZ2N10662GK)
HDD WD 80GB IDE
OPTICAL TOSHIBA GENERIC DVD-R/RW DRIVE

And software:

Windows XP SP3
Motherboard Chipset + Audio Drivers
ASUS's utilities
EVGA Stock (in-box) drivers
Spybot S&D

That's all that there is currently loaded into and on the PC

I haven't even attempted to overclock the thing as windows won't run stable for more than about 3-10 minutes (it is that much of an open variable). On a hunch that it may be heat causing the problem, I popped open the BIOS to find that my CPU was running at FORTY TWO degrees C. Either the Heatsink isn't on right, or it isn't absorbing the heat that the chip is putting off.

What I find odd is that the crashes and soft-lockups only happen AFTER I've installed EVGA's drivers.

Anyone have any idea what's going on or what I'm missing?

NushowTech

 

[[t..o..m]]

42C isn't that bad, but for a zalman cooler it probably should be cooler so check that it is seated right, and then double check again.

Jump on another computer and download the latest drivers for your video card as the one's that come out of the box are usually quite old. Reinstall and see if it crashes like usuall

If all else fails roll back to service pack 2

 

[NushowTech]

The Zalman that I'm running is the "Ultra-Quiet" version... so I'm thinking that the 2250RPM speed has something to do with the CPU temperature.

As for SP2 and the crashes... it doesn't start crashing until after I have installed EVGA's drivers. On this install I will stay with the default SP (1.1a OEM) and install everything before "upgrading" to SP3.

If this install attempt doesn't go well then I will let the forum know. Wish me luck.

Well, this install did not work at all...

After freshly installing OEM WindowsXP (SP1.1a) I installed the video driver directly from EVGA's website... this caused the video controller to default to 4 bit color and 800x600 resolution (this became unchangeable).

Will attempt again with a Fresh SP3 and see if the results duplicate themselves.

Alright, Installed XP and the first thing that I did was update to SP2 as offered by Microsoft. The next thing that I did was install the video card drivers directly from the EVGA website. At first, everything was working just fine until the screen just went black and died.

Immediately after, I got a soft lockup on the graphics.

The CPU temperature at crash was different in both instances... for the black screen of doom it was recorded at 44C, and the Soft-Crash was 41C. This leads me to believe that heat is not an issue (at least not from the core) in the crashes but is somehow related to the video card and its drivers.

Does anyone know if the BIOS for the motherboard is out of date/revision? I haven't tried to update the BIOS on the board yet and it may be causing the problem. Using a 550W power supply, overclocked the FSB to x16 multiplier, but that is not the reason that the PC is crashing as when reset to BIOS defaults the crashes still happen.

I'm going to sleep for the night, any ideas or feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

Check with your manufacturer to see if you BIOS is out of date. My first suggestion would be to update to SP3 since that is out. Also do not use Beta Drivers.

On a side note. Please do not multipost. Edit your previous response and add info. Thank you.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[NushowTech]

After checking with ASUS I have determined that the BIOS was indeed out of date and will reflash the motherboard to correct this problem.

What bothers me though is that on this 550W power supply the 12V wire is running at 11.42 V. I think that this may be what is causing the soft lockups and crashes... especially as the installation of the video card drivers initializes all of the chips on the card and makes it draw its full amount of power from the supply.

Will update post as build continues.


Sorry for that by the way Mak