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Dell Vostro 220 E7400 fails Linpack

Rubycon

Rubycon

Madame President
I have a completely stock Dell Vostro 220 with an E7400. It will pass every stability test - OCCT, Prime95, Memtest, etc. On Linpack (LinX) it will FAIL after about 10-12 minutes consistently! The box seems Windows stable but was handed to me because it had a bad HDD which was replaced. What can cause this?

I have other identical systems that I'm going to try (Linpack) once they get freed up.
 
Did you clean installed windows? Could be PSU, MB, or CPU. Can you swap with another 45nm chip and retest? If no error with the 2nd chip, then the PSU and MB are good.

LinX is a big power HOG. A marginal PSU or power circuit on the MB could result in system instability. Those gumball machines do not provide good cooling to the board's electronics.
 
Install is clean as it's going to be - system had bad hdd and was re-imaged. I will try this on another PC just to see. Heat definitely is not a problem with these machines. I put 8GB and a 300GB Velociraptor in a Vostro 200 and it actually runs like a fairly decent computer! :laugh:
 
Have you booted to the Utility partition and run the Dell hardware diagnostics yet?

I spec out a lot of Dell for small business customers due to onsite warranty.

If there is a hardware problem...the minimally trained, barely English speaking monkeys on the tech line require a hardware failure code before they roll a tech out or ship me a new part. Any other response would be off-script for them. (This tech ineptitude isn't just limited to Dell these days)

If the HDD was bad, did you have Dell send you a new one? Only a factory Dell one would still have the utility partition on it.

HTH...
 
Yes it passed the diagnostics. That's what found the bad HDD which was swapped with another (from Dell also).

The box passes all tests BUT linpack. It gives an error about 10-12 minutes in.
 
Originally posted by: Rubycon
Yes it passed the diagnostics. That's what found the bad HDD which was swapped with another (from Dell also).

The box passes all tests BUT linpack. It gives an error about 10-12 minutes in.
Click to expand...

Could it be a problem with that particular Windows configuration? Maybe a clean install would fix the issue.
 
I don't get the big deal about being Linpack stable on a stock Dell Vostro 220. Maybe the factory power supply isn't up to par??
 
Sorry Ruby...I didn't see that in your first post.

I guess it could be that Dell is using a cheap mobo or RAM with these processors? While I would think that it should pass all the tests...maybe not?

Although it passes all but the Linpack test...so if it were me, I would just watch the performance of the system...there may be an iffy component that just hasn't started showing signs of a problem yet.

How old is the system?

 
Made in December 2008.

It's not too big a deal right now but systems should be able to run stuff without crashing! CPUs overclocked 50% or more can do it. Granted they are not running on super cheap motherboards, etc. These computers are definitely on the cheesy side that's for sure.
 
If the OS is clean, then we're down to the board's power module, PSU, or CPU. It's easy to test the CPU if you have another Intel board. PSU is also easy to swap.

The HPs at Costco come with DDR2 RAM rated at 6-6-6! These vendors are trying to save pennies on each component. Take the board outside of the case to facilitate testing. Perhaps a brass spacer is grounding the board.

LinX = current + heat. I'd focus the diagnostic on the power circuit. CPU should be okay at stock speed. Use CPUz to check the load voltage. If you see more than 70mV of drop from nominal, then the board's power section could be the problem. Typical Vdroop + Vdrop for these 45nm duallies is 40-50mV.
 
Unfortunately they are taking the system tomorrow so it's out of my hands. This one actually has a 65nm Pentium D CPU (Conroe based) not a Wolfdale. I have some of those too and have put the cpus in an X48 board and hit 4GHz with them! 😀
 
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