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Help with main SETI cruncher?

M

Migroo

Diamond Member
I came back from holiday (vacation 😛) to find my machine had bluescreened whilst I was away.

I tried everything software wise and thought it must be a hardware problem, so I rebuilt the machine to eliminate the possibility of a contact problem somewhere. The problem is less evident (I think) - where the machine used to bluescreen as W2k logon screen was appearing I can now get into the OS.

The thing which gets me is that running the SETI client now causes the machine to bluescreen. I have run the machine for 48 hours without the seti client running (ie just my Seti Q and other small apps) without a problem. Every time I set the client to run, the machine will bluescreen within around 1.5 hours - occasionally more but by the time I get to the machine the next morning it has always bluescreened.

Thoughts:

This could be CPU load related, or memory related I think. Other occurances of bluescreens (although they are rare) are when I have a lot of operations going simultaniously - so could it be that intensive RAM access could trip a bluescreen?

Any ideas guys? I wouldnt mind being able to run Seti at say 50% CPU load to experiment, then upwards if that was successful.

CPU/mobo temps are not an issue I would imagine. Cheap CPU cooler, northbridge cooler and 2 x 80mm fans keep it alright (it has been running for about a year 24/7 with no problems apart from this, and it was fine throughout August where temps were highest.)

Help!!
 
Sounds like a RAM problem. Do you have an extra stick of RAM lying around or in another computer you can test?

Are you doing any sort of overclocking with this system? If so, I would back off the overclocking and see if the system runs more stable when it isn't OC'd.

Good luck. This sort of problem can be a real pain in the a$$. 🙁🙁
 
Thanks for the response EvilWobbles 🙂

Just to confirm that the system is not overclocked.

Sorry I should have posted spec:

Athlon XP 1500+
Gigabyte GA-7DXR (AMD 761 chipset)
512mb Crucial PC2700 DDR memory in 2 x 256 sticks
ATi Rage 128 Fury
Maxtor 10 GB drive
Intel NIC
etc

I have already tried it with just one RAM stick (didnt improve), now to try the other. After that I'll have to try populating other slots - the board has 3 slots.

Thanks
 
Don't know about your case but the last time I had that problem it turned out the MB was going out. didn't find that out until I replaced everything else.
Also had the same problem when an old HD started going bad also
 
i had this problem on a dell system i had, got a bsod after an hour or two, but would run for days without seti running.

It was standard software, so i knew it was a hardware problem. However, i swapped the mobo, ram, power supply, and both procs without being able to fix the problem. Eventually dell swapped out the whole system cause they were tired of talking to me. I pulled the hard drives, popped them in the new unit, and it works like a champ now.

I know this really doesn't help, since i don't know what was causing the problem. Only thing i could tell was that the heatsink looked like it had seen better days, so the initial problem may have been heat related, then shotgunning parts in produced a slew of other problems.

Good luck.
 
Thanks guys. As it stands the machine has been running over the weekend since last time I posed in this thread and is still functioning.

It still has RAM stick no 1 installed. I havent tried stick 2 yet (I am about to do so, using the same RAM slot). Stick 1 crashes the machine if I run SETI...

I'll keep updating this thread 🙂

Thanks all
 
Well RAM stick no 2 is installed. Machine has been up long enough to cause a BSOD normally, and its still working.

I have been trying to crash the thing with the ususal culprits, ie multiple IE windows etc, opening Outlook. Everything is working.

I am getting a strange 'laggy' error though. For those of you familiar with the Outlook / Seti problem, every program is as laggy! (Not sure if the cause is Seti, but thats slightly irrelevant anyway) Any ideas? 🙁
 
I'd also suspect the ATI Rage Fury. I just retired my old board. I was never able to run the card with full acceleration on, had to keep windows on the 2nd setting, most features off. I just put a GEforce 4 MX440 64Meg in, looks like I can finally run the Video wide open now.
 
Hmm... thanks Dave I'll give that a look.

I used to run the Fury at home for 2 years and never had a problem with it, but I'll add it to the list of things to swap out! Thanks 🙂
 
OK well the machine died again using RAM stick #1 in a different slot (this was running SETI).

Chances are that this is my culprit. I shall try running the machine without the problem stick overnight, and see if it is still alive tomorrow morning! 🙂

Many thanks for the help so far.
 
Try this program : Memtest86

I had a bad Corsair XMS2400 256MB stick a few months go bad, BSOD each morning.
After checking with this program, i found the right(wrong) stick, and RMA'ed it.

After 45 days, and much complaining, they shipped me a XMS3000 256MB stick as replacement 😀
 
Memtest 96 will find a piece of bad ram in seconds.

This deffinately sounds like a ram issue.
 
If I follow the thread correctly, you tested:
#1, slot 1, no problem
#2, slot 1, no crash...
#1, slot 2, BSOD

Since #1 worked with no problems in slot 1, it's not enough to know if it's the memory that is the problem...
But if you tries #2 in slot 2 and this gives BSOD, you've either got a faulty mainboard, or all memory is bad. If #2 works with no problems, #1 is bad.
 
I found it, thanks guys 🙂

It was stick number one 🙂 Machine crashed if stick no 1 was in any slot.

Thanks for all the help! I just hope Crucial are smooth with the RMA. This is the second stick of RAM I have had fail in this system!

 
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