Hard Crashes....

[archibell]

Hello all,

I just built my first computer for myself. Here are the specs:

AMD 64 3500+
MSI Neo2 Platinum
1024MB CORSAIR XMS PC-3200
MSI nVida 5900XT
Antec True Blue 480w
Seagate 160G Sata
Nu-Tech DDW-082
Lian-Li PC-65
Windows 2000 Pro. SP4

So far I have been extremely pleased with the results. I have two issues and I thought you all might be able to help me out.

I am not OC'ing in any way (yet) until I get this resolved.

First issue: High temp readings. I know that almost everyone with the MSI Neo2 is getting these so I am not worried about it right now. The heat sink feels cool to the touch so I know I am not overheating the CPU.

Second and more bothersome issue: I am having a problem with hard crashes. Im working or playing away on the computer and for no apparent reason it decides it must reboot. I have no idea why it is doing this. I flashed the BIOS to the newest version available publicly from MSI (bios v. 1.30) and it has helped somewhat, but it still crashes more than it should or more than I like. As far as I know I have all of my other drivers and firmware up to date.

I am at the end of my newbie expertise and this just I would love to get the issue resolved.

Thanks in advance.





:|

 

[Balt]

Do you have two memory modules or only one?

I'd first try to eliminate the RAM as a possibility. Try running with only one of the modules installed. If it continues to crash, try running w/ only the other memory module.

If you are using only one module, try running Memtest.

Edit: If you suspect it may be the ram, Corsair has an excellent support forum

 

[archibell]

I am using 2x512 sticks. I was going to try the single stick to see if it could be bad memory, I just haven't had the time recently. If that doesnt show/help/improve anything, I will try the memtest.

I just hope that I didn't get a bad mobo...I have read some reviews of it that mention the same symptoms.

 

[archibell]

Ok, I got the Memtest 86+. Now should I run the test on both sticks? or should I test each stick individually?

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: archibell
Ok, I got the Memtest 86+. Now should I run the test on both sticks? or should I test each stick individually?

I'd run it on both first (saves time if it's not the problem). If you get errors test each individually.

 

[archibell]

Ok, I ran (or I should say I am running) Memtest 86. It has made over 44 passes with no fails, so I am beggining to think that it isn't the memory. How long does the program run?!?!?

Is there a similar program for the video card? That is who my suspicion is falling upon.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: archibell
Ok, I ran (or I should say I am running) Memtest 86. It has made over 44 passes with no fails, so I am beggining to think that it isn't the memory. How long does the program run?!?!?

Is there a similar program for the video card? That is who my suspicion is falling upon.

Memtest86 will run in continuous loop. Most peeps suggest 12-24hrs of run time to be sure ram is OK.

If your ram turns out OK, I suggest you get Mother Board Monitor 5 (another free diag proggie) and install it. On it's main screen, somewhere at lower left hand side of options, is an option called "sys or admin log" (or something very similar), use it.

It will report on your systems conditions (various voltage readings from your psu etc and temperatures). You select to have it keep this record in a text.doc. Choose it to record at intervals of one second. Chose to keep 100 or 200 logs (you can tell it how much to store in the text doc).

When your system crashes, reboot and go in and look at the text.doc. If your voltages are flucuating too much and causing crashes, it'll show up here. Likewise with tempertaures.

If your not sure about how to read the report (it is easy though), just post it here and we'll look it over for you.

Fern

 

[Fern]

You seem to feel your vid card is at fault. Thereofre, you might wanna remove (use Driver Cleaner or Driver Detonator, more free proggies for the d/l) and reinstall.

I made a mistake with my vid card driver and it caused rebooting. Here was what I did wrong-after using the driver disk the card came with, I went to update to newer drivers. During the update, a window popped up warning that I was about to overwrite a newer file, and suggested I should keep the new file. So I did, big mistake, it caused a "driver mix" that crahed my pc.

So, print out the nVidia driver install instruction and follow them closely.

Also, check the cards temp by touching it carefully.

Could also test the card in another system.

 

[archibell]

I couldn't run the Mother Board Monitor due to the fact that it doesnt have the config settings yet for my mobo.

I did use the driver cleaner and reinstalled the nVidia drivers so maybe that will help.

Also after running the driver cleaner and I restarted it said it found new hardware that I didn't expect...a PCI device. I don't even have a PCI device on my computer. Is it looking for the PCI driver?

 

[Balt]

Originally posted by: archibell
I couldn't run the Mother Board Monitor due to the fact that it doesnt have the config settings yet for my mobo.

I did use the driver cleaner and reinstalled the nVidia drivers so maybe that will help.

Also after running the driver cleaner and I restarted it said it found new hardware that I didn't expect...a PCI device. I don't even have a PCI device on my computer. Is it looking for the PCI driver?

It could be talking about the drivers for the PCI controller/bus/whatever. I'm not sure if it's related to your problem, but installing the latest version of your motherboard's drivers should take care of that.

 

[archibell]

It could be talking about the drivers for the PCI controller/bus/whatever. I'm not sure if it's related to your problem, but installing the latest version of your motherboard's drivers should take care of that.

I don't know. I have the latest drivers installed so I don't think that is it. I just disabled it until I can figure out my other problems.

After I reinstalled the nVidia drivers using the Clean Driver ute, it seemed to help. I would say that I am only getting about a quarter of the reboots I used to have.

I was thinking of using the same utility and performing a clean install of the nForce platform drivers to see if it would help.

Im also going to recheck all the connections to see if any of them are loose.

I just want to say thanks for all the help. I may beat this computer into submission yet.

Sidebar - I was perusing other forums and I read that there may be issues with the SATA socket #1 . So I may switch to another Sata socket (#'s 3 or 4) to see if this helps. Anyone know if this is just an issue when using a raid config?