Constant crashing

[silverbullet555]

About 2 years ago I built and Athlon 1000mhz system. Ever since I built it it has been crash prone. not the first system I built, but definitely the biggest pain. I have swapped out every component except for the CPU and monitor. Even swwapped out power supplies, ran the systen as barebones, etc.

When it crashes, the monitor clicks off and then comes back with vertical multicolored lines. Initially thought it was video card so that is one of first things that I changed. I ran Prime95 on it all day today while I was at work and it ran fine. Kept Prime running to add some stress and it crashed while I was accesing a drive on my other computer (newly formed networ). Crashed several more times including while trying to look at minidump file from 2 weeks ago. It is not generating a minidump file when it crashes so I don't know where else to lool.

When I first built the system I overclocked it, but have since reset it to default settings.

Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to throw a lot of money at it, but I would like to get it to be reliable.

 

[HermDogg]

Are your current crashes vertical multicolored lines?

 

[silverbullet555]

YEP!

 

[HermDogg]

That does sound like a video card issue. Make sure you nuke all previous drivers and install the latest ones. Are they totally random crashes or when doing something specific?

 

[silverbullet555]

Seems to be random. Computer is used a lot for surfing so it does it a lot then, but since the relative time surfing is much higher it is hard to say that it is more likely to occure while on the web. Once it happens it seems to be more likely to happen again.

I was kind of wondering if it was actually a CPU problem or monitor problem as thsoe are the only two items that are consistant during this whole thing. I just hate throwing money at it without having a thought on what is causing it.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: silverbullet555
Seems to be random. Computer is used a lot for surfing so it does it a lot then, but since the relative time surfing is much higher it is hard to say that it is more likely to occure while on the web. Once it happens it seems to be more likely to happen again.

I was kind of wondering if it was actually a CPU problem or monitor problem as thsoe are the only two items that are consistant during this whole thing. I just hate throwing money at it without having a thought on what is causing it.

Are there crash files for when this happens in c:\windows\minidump?

 

[silverbullet555]

No minidump files. I was hoping there would be because they might lead me to something.

 

[andre1000]

what kind of video card?

turn off hardware accelleration just for fun. Also disable video caching in the bios.
first suggestion is probably not going to help. 2nd one might.

Do you have Via 4in1 drivers for your motherboard? They can be tempermental with some
video cards. Might have to use OLDER drivers.

Same with the video card. Older drivers might work better.

My experience with a matrox card had the same effect. Between the newest Via 4in1 and thelatest
Matrox drivers I had constant crash and vertical lines.

found many posts on the problem and solved it by going back 2 years and installing those drivers.

it's been perfect for 6months now.

 

[silverbullet555]

What version via driver are you running?

Moving these drivers to older ones is my last try. If it still does not work, I'll take what I want and use the rest for target practice.

 

[silverbullet555]

Originally posted by: andre1000
what kind of video card?

I have used two different video cards with the same results. One is an ELSA gladiac with 64mb of DDR ram and the other is an MSI Starforce Pro. Both of these cards are GeForce 2 GTS cards. I have also tried two motherboards. An Asus A7V133-c and an MSI K7T Pro 2-a. Always with the same result. When I get home tonight I will uninstall the 4 in 1 drivers and install the original 4 in 1 drivers that came with the card when it was purchased.

I am running XP Professional and the crashes have happened anytime from clean install on forward and it also crashed when running Windows 98, and 98 SE. I'm sure that when I first built the computer that I downloaded the latest 4 in 1 drivers that I could find so I am sure that I should be able to go back a little.

Should I do the video card first, the 4 in 1 first or at the same time. If I can get it stable, then I'll spend the 50-60 and get a Palomino core XP 2100, but if I cannot get it to stabilize I'll just build a new one or buy a new one.

 

[mechBgon]

What other cards do you have in this computer, such as PCI audio cards, TV-tuner cards, etc? Which motherboard are you using now?

 

[silverbullet555]

Right now I have the ASUS a7V133-c motherboard. There is a Adaptec SCSI controller card for one of the CD rom drives. I have tried taking it out and the system is still prone to crashes. The only other card is a Soundblaster live sound card. I can't remember if it is the X-gamer card or the other one that was released at the same time. There are three sticks of RAM. All PC133. One Mushkin 512K stick and two Mushkin 128MB sticks. I have tried different configurations and it still crashes. It crashes at a fresh install in addition to after days of running. Once it crashes during the day it seems to be more prone to crashing from that point forward. I regularly use Adaware and Spybot as well as a registry cleaning tool (can't remember the name) Anti Virus software installed and updated. Latest drivers that I can find. No Dump files as I don't get the BSOD. When it crashes, the screen clicks off like it does when changing settings and then it comes back with either multicolored vertical lines or the screen with artifacts on it (most often the vertical lines). I must restart the computer at that point to get it back.

 

[mechBgon]

Suggestions:

1) don't use registry-cleaning tools

2) take that SoundBlaster Live out of your old-school VIA-based system

3) try just the 512MB memory module by itself

4) realize that your motherboard is getting into its 70's or 80's, in motherboard years. It ain't a young buck anymore... might be about time for a new board sometime?

 

[silverbullet555]

mechBgon,

couple of questions for you. you mentioned taking out the sound card. Were they a problem for the Via based chipsets? You also mentioned not to use registry cleaners. Can youexpand on the reasons why?

I don't doubt what you are saying. I just like to know the reasoning behind it so I have more knowledge.

I am about on my last straw with this computer. I picked up an XP2800 and ECS mobo on one of the fry's deals, but it would never post, so it went back to the store. If the right deal comes along, I will most likely get a new mobo, processor and memory and transfer everything over. Ebay may become my friend with the spare partsI have lying around these days.

 

[mechBgon]

The VIA southbridges from that era are infamous for a problem with Creative's sound cards, or vice versa depending upon whom you ask It's something that both of your systems have in common, at any rate, and extremely simple to test for. Take it out, use computer, see what happens.

Registry cleaners: I may have a warped view of a lot of things since no one posts threads here about how "I used a registry cleaner and NOTHING BAD HAPPENED!!!", but it's another thing that both of your systems have in common and I've personally been doing great without them, so why mess with success? You tell me, what are you hoping to gain by doing that.

Frys/ECS bundle deals are another consistent troublemaker around here, do a search for threads containing both words and I think you'll see that. For whatever reasons. Consider buying yourself a nice Shuttle AN35N Ultra or Abit NF7-S at Newegg.com and a good-quality 350W+ power supply from Enermax, Antec, PC Power & Cooling, Fortron, or another recognized, proven, non-junky maker. I'd stick with Enermax, Fortron or Antec for good quality at a good price. That's my suggestion, anyway... anyone else?

 

[oldman420]

the fact that you had a crash when you were accessing a disk on the network followed by strange video issues leads me to beleive there is a conflict on the pci or agp busthis also fits in with mecs thaughts it could indeed be that sb card i hate em and have had 2 of em fry just running normal.
go into bios and make sure the agp bus is set at 66 mhz and there are no device conflicts. also sometimes a bios flash will help as they do work the bugs out of firmware that way.
good luck

(quote)
Consider buying yourself a nice Shuttle AN35N Ultra or Abit NF7-S at Newegg.com and a good-quality 350W+ power supply from Enermax, Antec, PC Power & Cooling, Fortron, or another recognized, proven, non-junky maker. I'd stick with Enermax, Fortron or Antec for good quality at a good price. That's my suggestion
i agree
jerome

 

[silverbullet555]

Oldman420,

Thanks for the tips. If I cannot get the stability figured out I will jump on the next good deal on a good mobo/processor that comes around. I took out the sound card and swapped the homemade rounded IDE cables for new ones that I had lying around. I know it is rare for rounded cables to cause problems, but that is the other constant between the different configurations that I have tried. Trying the last few things and then it goes bye bye.

power supply is a new Antex 380W that I bought last year thinking the power supply might be causing the problem. Didn't fix it, but I have a nice power supply.

 

[silverbullet555]

Here is something that is interesting. I formatted the drive and have been working on re-installing some programs. Got connected to my network and was able to transfer about 2.5 GB of data between computers with no problem. Installed Norton Anti Virus and updated the virus defs. Then, I went to install XP Service Pack One and it crashed. So I uninstalled Norton and so far so good. Is anyone familiar with Norton Anti Virus conflicts that could have been contributing to this. I have also taken out my soundcard, but that was before I installed NAV.

 

[silverbullet555]

Update:

Been running Prime95 for the past 6 hours and still no crash. Maybe I found the problem with NAV. Maybe it will crash some more. Only time will tell.

 

[silverbullet555]

Didn't solve th crashing problem. It seems to be pretty stable in Prime 95, but when running 3dmark it crashes very quickly. I'll check the Bios when i get home. What is the best way to look for device conflicts?

I have tried running the computer with nothing, but the basics and it is still crash prone. Did the Via KT133 chipsets have issues with Nvidia Geforce GPUs or this just coincidence that it will crash with both mobos and both video cards?

 

[silverbullet555]

Oldman 420,

I am running the latest BIOS release 1009 for the motherboard. When you mentioned reflashing, do they sometimes make small changes to the bios without giving it a new number. If so, it might be good to reflash and see what happens. It really can't get worse.

 

[silverbullet555]

I put in a Radion 9200 and the problem went away. Ran 3dMark for over 24 hours with no problems while running prime95 at the same time. It appears there was some sort of conflict with those geforce video cards. Go figure.