Out of the blue - crashes
I've got a computer that has been running reliably for 8 months. Suddonly, yesterday it did a spontaneous reboot, and won't stop doing it. To make matters worse, when it reboots it requires me to hold the Insert key to get it to post properly. At that time I have to go into the bios and reset the cpu settings to match the cpu, save and reboot again.
Other symptoms:
-It gave me a BSOD while running AVG antivirus (page fault? I don't remember)
-It's not Windows related because it froze sometime last night, and I had booted into linux. It ran without a hitch for a couple hours before I went to sleep-I decided to keep it on overnight to see what would happen. Woke up to a blank screen.
-CPU/case temps are normal when it happens (45 degrees cpu/33 degrees case).
-All fans are running, including northbridge, CPU and vid card.
-I haven't cleared the CMOS yet. I have a feeling that this could be a bit more serious.
-This mobo replaced a Soyo Dragon+ that had bad capacitors and slightly similar symptoms (spontaneous reboots). The Abit caps are all in good shape.
Specs:
-Abit NF7-S 2.0
-2x256mb ram - generic stuff, and they don't match (I know, I know), one is 2100 other is 2700.
-AthlonXP 1600
-480W power supply - not generic
-GeForce 4400
-80GB maxtor
-20GB seagate
-Samsung DVD/CDRW
-Pioneer DVD-R
My first guess is the RAM going bad somehow. I'm at a disadvantage because my case (Antec P160) does not have a speaker, so I can't hear the beep codes.
Any help is appreciated. I use this computer for work as well as play, so I'm a bit pissed. Go figure, I just ordered an Athlon XP3200 on Saturday.
Other symptoms:
-It gave me a BSOD while running AVG antivirus (page fault? I don't remember)
-It's not Windows related because it froze sometime last night, and I had booted into linux. It ran without a hitch for a couple hours before I went to sleep-I decided to keep it on overnight to see what would happen. Woke up to a blank screen.
-CPU/case temps are normal when it happens (45 degrees cpu/33 degrees case).
-All fans are running, including northbridge, CPU and vid card.
-I haven't cleared the CMOS yet. I have a feeling that this could be a bit more serious.
-This mobo replaced a Soyo Dragon+ that had bad capacitors and slightly similar symptoms (spontaneous reboots). The Abit caps are all in good shape.
Specs:
-Abit NF7-S 2.0
-2x256mb ram - generic stuff, and they don't match (I know, I know), one is 2100 other is 2700.
-AthlonXP 1600
-480W power supply - not generic
-GeForce 4400
-80GB maxtor
-20GB seagate
-Samsung DVD/CDRW
-Pioneer DVD-R
My first guess is the RAM going bad somehow. I'm at a disadvantage because my case (Antec P160) does not have a speaker, so I can't hear the beep codes.
Any help is appreciated. I use this computer for work as well as play, so I'm a bit pissed. Go figure, I just ordered an Athlon XP3200 on Saturday.
0
Comments
Seems to be hard ware based since both Linux and Windows are effected.
Case was pretty clean, so I don't think it's dust, but I'll take your suggestion and give it a shot.
I'll get back to you, thx for the suggestions.
Downloaded memtest (thx!). Encountered 8 errors in test 1, so I decided to reboot. It froze.
So I cleared the CMMOS, and now it's running smooth as silk! somehow some of the timings must have changed, as if by magic! Thanks for the suggestions guys.
UPDATE: CMMOS wasn't the problem. Still having same issues. memtest showed no errors. I changed the default latency for the ram from 2 to 2.5 - maybe 2 was a bit too aggressive, and I doubt that crap ram I have is CAS2 anyway (I've never touched the setting in the past).
We'll see. Thanks again for the thoughts.