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Gurus, riddle me this: SETI stability

S

SuperPickle

Golden Member
I've been crunchin' SETI with CAD for about a year. In the past few months, stability on my machine,or lack thereof has forced me to pull out. Using SETI driver, my machine would completely freeze after 10-15 minutes of crunching. I figured it was an OS problem so I reformatted and did a fresh install. Winamp3 would also lock my machine, but reverting to Winamp2.xx relieved that problem. Not all proggies bork my box as I can play UT2k3 or other games for hours, mp3 crunching or Divx encoding of DVDs is no problem--just SETI=bad.

Box specs:
Abit KG-7 RAID
XP1900+ (non T-bred)
512 Crucial PC2100
Gainward G3ti450 GS
Yamamamaha POS sound
Linksys NIC
all SCSI drives
Cooled by high-quality H2O
Everything is running back at stock speeds for now with conservative memory timings.

I thought it might be the PSU so I replaced that and MBM5 says all the voltages are holding steady--before and after. The PSU still isn't the monster that I want, but it seems to be holding steady.

I know it's time for an upgrade, but I'd like to address this problem now as this will become a secondary cruncher after the new goodies arrive. Any suggestions?
 
Do you have 2 x 256 or 1 x512 of ram?

I started to have the same problem 5 monthjs ago with crucial pc2100.

I changed it to kingston pc2700 and never had the lock up since. 🙂

the Crucial ran fine for 7 months 24/7 crunching Seti @ 152 fsb. then it started

I suggest to try another stick of ram if you can!


Paf
 
2x256
Though RAM prices are falling, it'd suck to replace the sticks again. I had a POS PSU blow some months ago taking 2x256 reg ECC and a CPU with it. Fortunately, it was just a spare Durabong at the time (sacraficial lamb). After replacing the RAM (non-ECC), it ran fine 24/7 for 3-4mo until this recent insubordinate uprising.

Running just i386-winnt-cmdline.exe now without Driver. So far so good and will report back later today.

ps I forgot to mention I'm running Win2k SP3
 
Is there any way your heatsink might have gotten moved at all?
I've experienced the instability thing like you after months of total stability and found my HSF had gotten bumped and a reseating with new AS3 brought the stability back.
 
Update:
just running the SETI command line proggie also locked up my box. It went along fine for almost 2hrs but then took an unceremonious dump. I downloaded a new copy and a new WU but still had no luck. This makes me think it's a hardware issue.

I don't think it's the HS (waterblock actually) because it's locked down pretty tight with 4 screws. My temps--MBM5 thermistor-read--rarely top 35º at load and that's only when it's hot as death in the room. The RAM and chipset are also well cooled with a Panaflo 120 blowing right on them from the side panel.

The DIMMs still could be the problem, I guess and so could the mobo itself. It has been crunching almost nonstop since August2001 so perhaps it just may need to be mothballed. I'll swap the DIMMs and such, and let you guys know what happens.
 
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