Athlon XP passed Prime95 test but still unstable?

[clicknext]

I have a barton 2500+ overclocked to 2.2Ghz with Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe. Power supply is Antec True430. The RAM is running at its default rated speed. I've tested this system for about 12 hours straight using Prime95, and it was fine. But sometimes, during normal use like web surfing or whatever (not very intensive stuff like games), the system reboots by itself. It's just an instant reboot without any warning, and afterwards it just starts up again and keeps running. Temp after reboot is ~50 degrees, slightly higher than idle on this system, and much lower than load, which is around 57.

Can anyone guess at what's wrong?

 

[Sonic587]

Have you run memtest86?

 

[KDKPSJ]

Yes, what about memtest? Sometimes, memory itself is defect one and doesn't want to work well at its rated spec. Like one I had before. They were rated 2.5-4-4-7 at DDR500 dual-channel mode. But the system was unstable even at FSB400 1:1 (2.8C). So, I ran memtest, and one of them failed and reported error every cycle at DDR400. So, I found out one of them had problem from the beginning, and RMAed them. New pair I got passed 100 cycles of memtest and never caused problem.

 

[WobbleWobble]

When did you test the system with Prime95? Was that recently or in the winter time? Overclocked systems may become less stable in the summer room temps increases.

 

[clicknext]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
When did you test the system with Prime95? Was that recently or in the winter time? Overclocked systems may become less stable in the summer room temps increases.

This week because I just got this system. At first, it was running fine and never crashed but today and yesterday, it's crashed 3 times (the only times its crashed). I actually notice the temps lower now. Load is only 55 or 56. Maybe the arctic silver 2 is settling down?

Anyway, I ran a few cycles with memtest86 and there were no errors. Is a few cycles enough or is it absolutely necessary to go a hundred cycles like you did? It also isn't because of the overclocked settings because I returned everything to normal, FSB333, AthlonXP 2500+, and it crashed once almost immediately afterwards, but now is stable. Sigh...

 

[Shimmishim]

hi,

what you need to do is to run all tests on memtest, not just the default one w/o any options.

turn cache on for all tests
and run all tests even the extended ones and run at least 10 loops of each test

 

[ponyo]

Shimmishim, what bios version are you running on your NF7-S?

 

[WobbleWobble]

One standard pass should be able to pick up errors if there are any. But if it's an obscure error it may take a few passes to detect. A hundred cycles shouldn't be necessary, but I like to leave it running overnight so why not?

Check your rails underload to make sure you don't have a defective power supply. It could be a software glitch, but I doubt it.

 

[clicknext]

How do you tell if there was an error if you leave it on overnight? I noticed that the test automatically starts from the bootup floppy. If the computer crashes and restarts, wouldn't it just start again?

 

[WobbleWobble]

I'm not 100% sure, but I thought it tells you how long it's been running for?

 

[clicknext]

ah, thanks

 

[Killrose]

Try a different wall out-let, our don't use a power strip for the line that feeds the comp PSU directly. And if you are going to use Memtest, use only one stick of ram at a time if you have multiple sticks.