HELP!!! Where should my system voltages be?? System is currently crashing...

[SunnyD]

I'm trying to figure this out, whether it's a hardware issue, a software issue, a Power Supply issue or a temperature issue.

1st - motherboard, ABit NV7-133R, known to report temps a bit high.
2nd - Athlon TBird 1.4GHz not OC'd, a hot CPU that sucks down power
3rd - Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB, runs a bit faster at stock speeds on the memory (513MHz)
4th - Enermax 350watt PSU, good quality, but is the supply requirements there?

Okay, here's the symptom. Under load (and by load I mean 3D graphics), funny things start to happen after a bit. 1st, 3DMark I noticed particularly during the advanced pixel shader test some artifacts on the 2D load screen, and then I'd get funny pictures/stripes/blocks/lock up as soon as the 3D started running. Now, playing Dark Age of Camelot, I experienced a crash, with the videocard going out of sync (Monitor reported out of Sync Range - with the VSync signal at 240+Hz, I run at 85Hz).

I downclocked the video card to minimum coolbits allows - 220/460, and it's still crashing.

CPU temps - BIOS reported 68degC - this TBird is being cooled by an Alpha PAL8045 with a 40cfm fan on top of it. The TBird ran fine for the past year on an IWill KK266R without issues. I hesitate to think it's the CPU because it's a known fact that this particular ABit board reports temps high. The last BIOS update dropped the scale by 10 degrees, if that indicates how high they read.

Here's what the BIOS is reporting my voltages as:
+5v = 5.10v
+12v = 11.91v
-12v = -12.11v
-5v = -5.30v

So, my question is, what are the voltage specs I should be seeing? What does the problem appear to be? I've taken the side-panel off of my case to see if that helps things any, and I have another case-fan standing by to be installed if need be, but this is quite odd.

SunnyD

 

[SunnyD]

Wow, 6 hours and not even a suggestion? Great... I can tell this is gonna be helpful.

Anyway, it's not a cooling issue, because it still happens with the side panel off, CPU running at 1050MHz (100x10.5) and lots lots cooler. It's also not a hardware issue with the video card, as it locks up with a GeForce 2 in it. The line voltages are dead on, +/- 5% even under load. I haven't a clue what's going on, so I'm all the way down to the motherboard level. That's literally the only other component not tested currently.

SunnyD

 

[Zim Hosein]

SunnyD, what is the setting for your VCORE?

 

[SunnyD]

The CPU core voltage is a solid 1.76v.

One thing I found out this morning is that it's a general system instability now, not just 3D. It crashed while posting a PM. Other symptoms - you hit RESET or power down and back up, the system comes right back up.

This is an Athlon Thunderbird 1.4GHz CPU that's not overclocked, and has ran for the past year in an IWill KK266-R flawlessly. The core is in perfect condition, thanks in part to using an Alpha PAL8045 HSF.

The only other thing I can think of is that the memory - Samsung PC2700 Original Samsung modules - doesn't mix well with the nForce boards. I had an MSI K7N415 before this one and was having a HELL of a time just getting it to post.

SunnyD