Athlon XP voltage nightmare - but is it safe?

[Pink0]

Can you die from a nightmare? I hope not...

My system has been working just fine and dandy for a long time. Lately, though I've noticed explorer crashing and re-launching and the system hard locking when using a lot of hardware such as burning, using TV tuner, and listening to music. Games have also just recently started to crash.
I ran the prime 95 tortue test and it fails the test each time at 30 minutes. This is when it's set to write the results to the disk. I set the write results time to 10 minutes and sure enough it fails after 10 minutes. Hmmmm..... So, on a clean boot the Vcore on my athlon XP is 1.71. It should be 1.75. Interesting. I set the FSB to 100 and ram to KCLK-33 so it's running at 1100/200. It passes the torture test overnight. Alright....so I clock it all back up to normal and instead of auto set the vcore to 1.75 manually. On boot it's still only 1.71 and during prime torture test it goes lower. I boot into bios and set it to 1.775. Now the torutre test just passed 30 minutes (3 writes) without failing. However, on boot my actual vcore (in bios too) is only 1.74. I have to set it at 1.775 just to get 1.74. Under prime 95 it goes all the way down to 1.71 but still passes the test. We'll see if it lasts the night. I have to set it to 1.8 just to get an actual 1.75 on boot. Is it safe for me to be forcing it to its actual voltage by using 1.8? Is that really such a good idea? Will it shorten the life of the processor? I guess they're not much to replace. They're at "free with donation to foodbank" prices anyway. Why did I only start having this problem lately and not for the last 8 months?
Specs as follows:
Enermax 400Watt PS
MSI K7Tpro2-RU
Athlon XP 1700+ ARI0A
512 MB PC2100 (2x256)
Visiontek (RIP) GeForce 2 Ti200
Audigy Platinum
ATI Tv Wonder VE
Linksys 10/100 nic
LG CDRW 12x8x32
panasonic floppy
cold cathode
1 80mm smartfan on heatsink
1 80mm smartfan on rear of chassis

 

[Pink0]

Well, despite buying a (at the time) top of the line motherboard with a top of the line (via-pos) chipset I guess I'll just have to chalk it up to this crappy amd platform. I wish they'd provide their chipset and, in turn, motherboard makers with the same kind of guidelines that intel does. such a long string of problems I've had with this garbage. I'm done with it. My P4 system that danielle is using has been running for one week less than this one and has not had a single problem. This one has had dozens. Why would a system run fine for months and then explorer suddenly start crashing and relaunching only to be fixed by more voltage? "Uh, yeah, well your processor didn't need more voltage yesterday....or the day before...but it does now. Yeah, that's okay though. You can constantly fix things all the time. it's fun!" I'm tired of this garbage. My next system will be intel. You hear that AMD?

 

[dszd0g]

I would guess that it's your mobo, not your CPU. But that's just a guess. Did you just do a BIOS update, sometimes BIOS updates can modify voltages?

I will agree, I have less problems with my Intel systems than with my AMD.

 

[Mem]

Is it safe for me to be forcing it to its actual voltage by using 1.8?

My XP 1700+ is at 1.78V default voltage (in Bios) not overclocked on my Epox board for a year now,1.80v should be fine so I wouldn`t worry about using that voltage.

 

[Pink0]

I would guess that it's your mobo, not your CPU. But that's just a guess. Did you just do a BIOS update, sometimes BIOS updates can modify voltages?

I will agree, I have less problems with my Intel systems than with my AMD.

No. There has not been a bios update available for this board since june when it was flashed. There have been no programs added or drivers changed in at least 3 months since that's the time I finally got all this via/creative and via/nvidia inifite loop bullsh!t straigtened out. Thanks for your input!

 

[Pink0]

My XP 1700+ is at 1.78V default voltage (in Bios) not overclocked on my Epox board for a year now,1.80v should be fine so I`ll would not worry about using that voltage.

Yes, it's supposed to be 1.75 for this processor. I guess your Epox does a little more than is necessary which is good I guess. Good to know that 1.8 should be safe. Thanks!

 

[DainB]

I have the same problem. Set the jumpers manually to 1.75 but Sandra and the BIOS screen still displayed 1.81 as my voltage. Running an AXP 1800 on an Asus A7N266-C. My freezing/rebooting problems don't appear to be voltage related but it still bugs me.

 

[Pink0]

here's the solution

 

[metroplex]

Its the Enermax PS.

Antec and Enermax make absolute garbage, I've heard plenty of horror stories about them - check your +5V and +12V voltages.

I swapped out my faulty Enermax 650 for a CompUSA 500W and its working GREAT.

See if you can borrow a friend's PSU and try it out.

 

[Pink0]

Its the Enermax PS.

Antec and Enermax make absolute garbage, I've heard plenty of horror stories about them - check your +5V and +12V voltages.

That's complete FUD. These power supplies are excellent. I've used this power supply with a 1.6a that I was running at 2.13 and it was absolutely flawless. I regret selling it to jason. The 12v and 5.5 lines are right where they should be with almost no jitter whatsoever.

 

[Mem]

Antec and Enermax make absolute garbage, I've heard plenty of horror stories about them - check your +5V and +12V voltages.

I swapped out my faulty Enermax 650 for a CompUSA 500W and its working GREAT.

You did say the Enermax was faulty, quality PSUs are brands from Enermax,Sparkle,Antec,Enhance etc ,but remember any brand or even hardware can become faulty.
Btw using two Enermax PSUs in both my PCs,the +5 and +12v rails are just fine,rock stable .

 

[Pink0]

OMFG! It's certainly lasting longer than before but now it failed the stress test after 2 hours instead of ten minutes each time. So more voltage helps but doesn't cure. I guess I'll give it 1.825 or 1.85 or whatever the next step is and see what I get. Wish me luck. If you know something I don't (which is likely) please clue me in!

 

[CraigRT]

that voltage is completely fine. as long as there is good cooling, do not worry about a bit of extra juice. i ran my XP1800+ at 1.9V to get it stable at 2000+. notta problem.

 

[CraigRT]

Antec and Enermax make absolute garbage, I've heard plenty of horror stories about them - check your +5V and +12V voltages.

That is complete, utter, and total, horse sh!t.... Enermax is overrated, but they are not absolute garbage... Antec makes great power supplies, for a relatively low cost. so i suppose you think those $15 PSU's out of a big skid-load of crap are better? come on man..

 

[CraigRT]

My next system will be intel. You hear that AMD?

that's the dumbest claim ever.. anything can happen to an "AMD" or an "INTEL" rig... my "Intel" rig at work happens to be a total piece of crap with apparent high quality parts.. I MUCH prefer my Athlon 900 and KT133 setup over my PIII1000EB and i815 setup.. it's far less quirky.

your problems have not a single damn thing to do with AMD.. i can't believe you think AMD is your problem... SILLY.

enough making new posts for all of this.... i'm outta here..

 

[Pink0]

Quote

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My next system will be intel. You hear that AMD?
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that's the dumbest claim ever..

Tell you what, my Intel systems have been completely rock solid through and through with narry a problem and all my AMD systems have been loaded down with constant problems. I'm a disappointed consumer. I have every right to be since their platform has let me down time and again....and again and it's not for you tell me that it's dumb to be disappointed by their repeatedly faulty products and platforms for which they provide the rules and guidelines.

 

[Pink0]

To elaborate these are the PCs that I've had in the last few years most of which I still have.

Duron 600 w/gigabyte board. Nothing but problems

Pentium 3 733/133 - ASUS board. No problems

Powermac G4 - 400. Some problems all related to OS9 not the hardware

Thunderbird athlon 1ghz w/ av7133. Several problems

Athlon XP 1700+ ECSK7S5a - Had so many problems sold it and used the money to buy:

Pentium 4 northwood 1.6a running at 2.13ghz on ASUS 645DX board. - never any problems

Athlon XP 1700 + MSI board. - For the first 2 months that I owned it incurable via/creative problems and via/nvidia inifinite loop problems. current problems.

So, if you're a consumer and see this consistent trend with things that you bought you wouldn't swear off AMD? Just watch me.

 

[Drewpy]

The only trend i see there is with your motherboard selection.

for your AMD mobos you've selected Gigabyte, ECS, and MSI. Nothing against these companies most of them make fine products, but if you are looking for stability, most people would say that you would be better off with and Asus board. Which coincidentally you've used on your Intel systems. As for the problems with your a7v133, that was back when VIA was producing questionable quality. Things change.

Go with a quality motherboard, and you won't have as many problems... You've done it with your Intel systems...

 

[Pink0]

not all of my AMD systems used non-asus boards. The Tbird had an ASUS board which was reputed to be of excellent quality. I don't think you can blame it on the board brand. If so then are you going to say the only way to consistently get a good amd system is to use ASUS boards? Umm....except the one that I used...it was an exception...lol! Right. Anyway, I ripped the athlon xp out of it and put my old Tbird 1000 (266fsb) and it's working like a charm. It's lasted 4.5 hours so far in the torture test. Since the processor is the only thing that changed it must be the problem. I guess it just decided a few days ago that it wanted to start being defective. I'll call AMD today and get set to send it to them for replacement.
So, if the processor went bad are you going to blame that on me not using an ASUS board too? LOL! Can't wait to replace this POS.

 

[Pink0]

your problems have not a single damn thing to do with AMD.. i can't believe you think AMD is your problem... SILLY.

So the defective processor isn't an AMD problem? Let's take a look here. It fails sisoft at default voltage with the first write at 10 minutes. As I increase the voltage the processor will last longer and longer in the test but when the board's voltage is maxed right to the top it still fails it just lasts longer. So I replace the processor with one that runs at the 266fsb too with all other settings the same and the problem magically goes away. that must be a power supply problem...lol right.

that was back when VIA was producing questionable quality. Things change.

As evidenced by my great success with the 266a board, right? You know, the infinite loop and creative/via problems that took months to finally get patched with a 4in1. Yeah, that's progress alright...damn if I knew how to do the rolling eyes emoticon I would. Going with Intel from now on. Couldn't be happier that VIA doesn't have a bus license for the P4.

 

[ssanches]

Originally posted by: Mem

Is it safe for me to be forcing it to its actual voltage by using 1.8?

My XP 1700+ is at 1.78V default voltage (in Bios) not overclocked on my Epox board for a year now,1.80v should be fine so I wouldn`t worry about using that voltage.

Mem, Your Vcore would be 1.7750 (adjustable in .025V increments as most boards do). However your bios must be rounding it off... I get the same 1.78V in the bios on my Gigabyte mobo, but it's actually 1.7750