Topic: Windoze crashes
started by: BlackFlag
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 09 2002,12:19
symptoms: windoze locks up occasionaly. Can still move the mouse around, but everything is frozen. Usually occurs while typing text into a box (like im doing now or writing emails.) The text i was typing will be all messed up, as if 2 lines got overlaped.system specs-
Motherboard: Asus A7V133
CPU: AMD Athalon 1000
RAM: 256MB pc133
Sound card: SBPCI128
Video: Guillemot Maxi Gamer Cougar agp 4x
Other:
Sony CRX140E CDR drive
Western digital Caviar 20 gig HD slave on ATA100
Western digital Caviar 40 gig HD master on ATA100
Realtek chipset based NIC
140W power supply (im guessing this is the problem, but would like a 2nd opinion.)
Posted by Neophyre on Feb. 09 2002,12:23
140W power supply running that?didn't know it was possible?
Posted by RadioActive on Feb. 09 2002,15:01
i would also say the problem is in the power supply.normally for that kind of configuration people get a 250W psu.
the symptoms look very strange for a lack of power though.
Posted by fatalbert on Feb. 09 2002,19:31
almost the same thing happened to me once.I was using my laptop, writing an e-mail, but I have two hd's for it, one with Linux, and the other with XP.
so I was using the XP hard-drive to write the e-mail...
I left for quite a while, and when I came back, the screen was off, and I had forgotten what I was doing previously, so I just assumed the laptop was off, and I wanted to switch to the Linux hard-drive, so I just swapped, and when I opened it up, it still had the XP desktop and everything (RAM) and I could move the mouse and everything, and the text was overlapping, and mothing worked...after a while it just blue-screened...
so I was just thinking it may be something with the hard-drive
maybe that would help
maybe not
Posted by Dysorderia on Feb. 09 2002,21:31
| Quote (BlackFlag @ 09 Feb. 2002,04:19) |
| symptoms: windoze locks up occasionaly. Can still move the mouse around, but everything is frozen. Usually occurs while typing text into a box (like im doing now or writing emails.) The text i was typing will be all messed up, as if 2 lines got overlaped. system specs- Motherboard: Asus A7V133 CPU: AMD Athalon 1000 RAM: 256MB pc133 Sound card: SBPCI128 Video: Guillemot Maxi Gamer Cougar agp 4x Other: Sony CRX140E CDR drive Western digital Caviar 20 gig HD slave on ATA100 Western digital Caviar 40 gig HD master on ATA100 Realtek chipset based NIC 140W power supply (im guessing this is the problem, but would like a 2nd opinion.) |
most likely to be the power supply.
Posted by Dark Knight Bob on Feb. 10 2002,01:35
"i canna do it cap'n i dooon't have da poooower!"i concour its the PSU.
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 10 2002,05:57
thanks for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc opinions guys.AMD recomends 300-450W psu for an athalon 1gig.... im surprised this box will post with 140W.
Yet another thing to buy when uncle sam gives me my damn money back.
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 10 2002,08:59
think upping the vcore by .5 might help as a temporary solution?
Posted by fatalbert on Feb. 10 2002,18:11
I wouldn't go with just a temporary solution if I were you...
Posted by ASCIIMan on Feb. 10 2002,21:38
Upping the vcore will probably bust0r your ps even fastar.
Posted by Carnivore on Feb. 10 2002,23:36
Wow is that an AT or ATX case?
Posted by Dark Knight Bob on Feb. 11 2002,01:23
if its reached its power limit already uping the voltage will just drain the current causing an even more unstable power supply.
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 20 2002,15:49
Think underclocking and lowering vcore might increase system stability any? im just looking for a temp solution to last a few days till my next paycheck.
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 20 2002,15:54
wait a sec........... just looked at the power supply again.has 2 different wattages listed on it.
in one place it says total: 140W
in another it says (250W max)
hm............
Posted by ASCIIMan on Feb. 20 2002,16:04
still need a new ps... athlons tend to run stably on at least a 300w ps, 250 if it's a really good one.
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 21 2002,19:02
I doubt this one is good.Its made by Deer, wich i found out is a leftover parts repackager/reseller.
Getting a 400W tommorow. If this doesn't make things stable, then i have no clue what the problem could be.
Could be wierd problems with the PPPOE protocol causing problems with win98se, but i already downloaded the patch from microsoft.com that's supposed to fix that. besides, same thing happened with winME.... so....?
Posted by Carnivore on Feb. 21 2002,19:15
I didnt read all the posts but you could either add more RAM or take the RAM thats in there out and wait a few minutes. Put it back in to refresh it. The power supply should work too. Also you might want to think about trying a different CPU fan....
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 21 2002,20:10
taking out the ram, waiting a few minutes, and putting it back in should have the same effect as a cold boot right? anyway, i took all the ram out and put it back in again, played musical chiars with it, etc, while testing the ram yesterday. no change.I dunno, but i think the fan should be fine. cpu is running at about 54-58c normal operation (depending on room temp), and goes up to 64c after a few hours of full load. A little higher then i'd like (and im gonna eventually get a new HSF combo...), but well within specs right?
Posted by ASCIIMan on Feb. 23 2002,02:29
I'd be very worried if your cpu temp gets above 60, because the actual temp is likely much (10-30C) higher than this. This could be part of your lockup problems, although your ps is probably also a factor.
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 23 2002,12:38
new 400W ps is in, no crashes. New ps also solved some strange boot up problems with cdr drive (sometimes wouldn't init properly when turning on the comp.)gonna invest in a better heatsink/fan eventually.
Posted by RadioActive on Feb. 23 2002,16:35
some overheating problems might have been cause by your fan spinning at only half of the speed it's supposed to due to the lack of power. lack of power can be very dangerous thing, because hardly any of the hardware will function properly if it doesn't get enough juice.
Posted by erc on Mar. 03 2002,20:22
If it only happens in IE when you're typing in text boxes, and things often lock up, It could be that your auto-complete has accumulated too much crap to sort through. This happened to be the case at work. cleaning out the auto-complete and turning it off in IE fixed it for me.
Posted by damien_s_lucifer on Mar. 03 2002,22:41
You also might try flushing your cache (Tools -> Internet Options... -> Delete Files). I've seen weird things happen when the cache gets full.btw, first thing I do when I see a Deer PS is replace it
Posted by BlackFlag on Mar. 03 2002,23:01
ok, the 400W ps is in, more stability, but random crashes like the ones i mentioned still happening. Usually happens after 6-12 hours uptime, wich makes me think maybe its badly set memory settings....... i dunno. ideas?btw, not always crashing while typing in a text box. some crashes occur when the computer comes out of hibernation/low power mode. Over all, far less crashes after installing the 400w ps, but still some instability.
Posted by Necromancer on Mar. 03 2002,23:26
thats just windows it wouldnt last anylonger even if there wasnt anythign wrong with it esp[ecially if its M.E.
Posted by BlackFlag on Mar. 04 2002,00:53
currently running 98SE, wich crashes far less than ME.Jesus H........... i think i need a new OS.
Posted by Carnivore on Mar. 04 2002,02:33
| Quote (BlackFlag @ 03 Mar. 2002,16:53) |
| currently running 98SE, wich crashes far less than ME. Jesus H........... i think i need a new OS. |
I suggest a clean install of Windows 2000 with SP2...
Posted by Spydir on Mar. 04 2002,06:35
/me starts changing "slackware slackware slackware"...
Posted by psychopharmacologist on Mar. 13 2002,06:28
Hey, I have the exact same problem, everyonce in a while everything will freeze except for the mouse.Happens almost everytime I use IE or when i'm moving around a lot of windows in explorer.
But when I'm working with a single application it's usualy fine.
And I just got a new 300W PS and the same thing happens.
It happened with my old K6 550 and still happens with my new Athlon 1ghz.
I've changed out most of the system over some time and it still happens.
Maybe 300W isn't enough?
Maybe its just me?
Posted by BlackFlag on Mar. 15 2002,13:11
300W isn't enough for a 1g athalon.BTW, I think some/most of these crashes might be video card related. I'm going to try underclocking gpu a little.
If that doesn't work, im going to reinstall the original drivers that came with the card, DetonatorXP and its alledged compatability be damned.
Posted by Necromancer on Mar. 15 2002,15:41
i have a 300W for my 1ghz athlon if its still being unstable checkwhtehr its an amd approved psu
Posted by BlackFlag on Mar. 16 2002,19:02
update on video card:underclocking it didn't increase stability.
using different drivers didn't increase stability.
I think it might be a heat issue. Why for the love of god did none of the TNT2 cards come with a heatsink AND fan instead of just a 3rd rate small heatsink that's too warped to be effective?
Got two PCI slot blowers installed now, one under the AGP slot, and one under my NIC. Vid card should be ALOT cooler now, and overall case airflow seems improved greatly.
CPU temp is now 50c (after about 30 min full load and an additional 30 min normal use)...... was about 58c on average. I think it might be partialy because its cool outside, and i have the window open. room is usually a few degrees hotter than this, but i think the extra fans are helping.
Posted by Necromancer on Mar. 16 2002,23:15
you shouldnt really need a fan on your tnt2...then again you shouldnt really have a tnt2 in a computer thats running at 1ghz unless you want outlook express to run just that little bit faster 
Posted by psychopharmacologist on Mar. 16 2002,23:17
How do I check whether its an AMD approved PS?
Posted by BlackFlag on Mar. 21 2002,15:16
| Quote |
| you shouldnt really need a fan on your tnt2 |
have you ever touched the back of the card opposite where the HS is? christ, im surprised the things doesn't melt on hot days.
Gonna either get a Raedon all-in-wonder, or a GeForce3 w/tv in/out tomorrow.
ANYWAY...............
Only one system crash/lockup/freeze since installing the 2 pci slot blowers 6 days ago. DAMN that's good!
One other thing i did to stabilize system preformace:
removed ConservitaveSwapFileUsage=1 from the win.ini
this setting makes stuff load faster, but fucks with games mercilessly i've found....... especialy microcrap games. i REALLY fucking hate the fact that all the FASA games are being published/developed/whatever by microcrap now.
Posted by BlackFlag on Mar. 21 2002,15:31
| Quote |
| How do I check whether its an AMD approved PS? |
< Official AMD recomended PSUs >