Lockups and Blue Screens, Restarts

[yankee427]

Whenever I do something that take a lot of CPU strength like games or anything else, my computer locks up, get the blue screens of death, or the computer just automatically restarts with the blue screen and then the restart. It especially happens in games. Every game I play it happens in and I can only play games for about 5 minutes and then the computer does one of those things. It is very annoying, and I think it has to do with the CPU. Any suggestions on how I can do something about this without having to buy a whole new CPU and mobo.

BTW: I have an amd XP 2000+ with epox 8kha+ mobo, 256 MB ddr ram, geforce 4 MX video card

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

There's a billion scenarios here. What game you running? What OS? Is it overclocked? Installed all the patches and drivers? Good cooling? Your problem is not the CPU or Mobo. Most likely a cooling or driver issue with your OS/game.

 

[Duvie]

Are you ocing or tweaking any component of your system??? Vid card?? Memroy timings???

You gave such a wide range of poswsibilities when you sya it locks up, restarts and BSOD...I mean that is a lot of symptoms for many things...

Restarts can mean power supply is dropping...it can mean excessive heat with the athln (watch the temps...) Also get mbm5.1.9.1 or newer program and watch the voltages as you run some apps....

Lock ups can be heat related as well...BSOD usually have more to do with driver issues and ram issues and less with heat or power...

But you say they all happen so first off you need to list all components and whether or not you are tweaking thjing...list temps at idle and load and voltages at idle and load...

 

[yankee427]

I have windows XP and I should have the latest drivers and no conflicts with anything. I doubt its a memory issue because I tested the memory in my other computer with pretty much the same specs and it works fine. I have not overclocked and I dont think its a cooling issue because my PC runs at 45-50C. It does this with every game and I cant pinpoint which one it is: computer locks up, get the blue screens of death, or the computer just automatically restarts with the blue screen and then the restart, because it doesnt do the same one every time and it changes. I mainly get the lockups. Any ideas, I know this is very vague but have any ideas. Anything will help at this point.

My idle temp is about 45C and 53c about at load.

 

[Lizardman]

You need to do 2 things.

Up your Vcore to 1.75V

Up your Vram to 2.7V

If this doesnt work that I dont know what do for you over the net.

 

[yankee427]

Lizardman, I upped the vcore to 1.75 and the vram to 2.7. I'll tell you if this changes anything.

 

[yankee427]

Well upping those 2 things didnt work. Now it mainly locks up in every game I play. Any other suggestions on what I could do to fix it, any suggestion would help at this point.

 

[Duvie]

2 things that come to mind are video card or power supply.....

Video card can be overheating!!!

or

Power Supply just sucks and is dropping its rails....You need to download or use a monitoring program that will show you voltages for vcore, +3.3v, +5v , and watch them closely for spiking or severe drops when computer gets loaded with a task...

 

[Goose77]

this might also be bad memory.. bsod is a good sight of either memory issues or overclocked pci bus

get mem checked out.. when my mem last 3 banks it started doing similar things

 

[Duvie]

He stated he tested memory in another system...I agree run memtest86 on the memory in your system and see if it passes....If you have multiple sticks on ly use one and test it as well...

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

run the bare minimum (1stick ram,cpu,vidcard, hd) and see if it happens
slowly add components until it happens again

 

[yankee427]

Another thing I should add is that each time after I restart from the lockup it says the system has recovered from a serious error.
Also, I have never been able to up the fsb to 133 and I have to keep it at 100 so my cpu only runs at 1.2 ghz when it should run at 1.67 ghz. Whenever I try to up it to 133 the computer wont boot and nothing comes up on the monitor. Would this be a problem with my motherboard or cpu? Is there any way I would be able to get it to 133 because I have never been able to do it. This might have somethnig to do with the games locking up all the time too.

 

[FriedRiceBob]

ok, now that's definitely sounding like ram, seeing as you can't bootup at 133.
try dropping the ram timings in the bios to normal or slow if you have it.
what speed is the DDR rated at, and is it generic, or a decent brand?
is it possible for you to try some good ram on a temp. basis to see if it fixes your problem?
also, can you give us the stats from the sticker on the side of the power-supply? that might put some questions to rest.

edit: one last thing, could you try disabling cache and other cpu-related settings to see if it is indeed a flaky chip?

hope im help.
Fried

 

[yankee427]

Originally posted by: FriedRiceBob
ok, now that's definitely sounding like ram, seeing as you can't bootup at 133.
try dropping the ram timings in the bios to normal or slow if you have it.
what speed is the DDR rated at, and is it generic, or a decent brand?
is it possible for you to try some good ram on a temp. basis to see if it fixes your problem?
also, can you give us the stats from the sticker on the side of the power-supply? that might put some questions to rest.

edit: one last thing, could you try disabling cache and other cpu-related settings to see if it is indeed a flaky chip?

hope im help.
Fried

Here is the info I have:

DDR ram is rated at PC2100 256MB crucial ram. more info: CL=2.5, unbuffered, 2.5V, 32meg X 64(dont know if this info matters much)
Power Supply Stats:
Brand: Sparkle Power Int'l LTD
AC Input: 115/230V, 10/5A,60/50hZ
Max Output Power: 400W
Fuse Rating: 10A, 250V, +3.3V & +5V = 235W max

Also, I disabled cache and the computer ran incredibly slow and took like a half hour to boot. Is this normal with cache disable for it to take this long. I tried to drop ram timings to slow and it didnt seem to change much. Hope this narrows down the problem and gives some info so someone can have some info. Thanks.

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: yankee427

Originally posted by: FriedRiceBob
ok, now that's definitely sounding like ram, seeing as you can't bootup at 133.
try dropping the ram timings in the bios to normal or slow if you have it.
what speed is the DDR rated at, and is it generic, or a decent brand?
is it possible for you to try some good ram on a temp. basis to see if it fixes your problem?
also, can you give us the stats from the sticker on the side of the power-supply? that might put some questions to rest.

edit: one last thing, could you try disabling cache and other cpu-related settings to see if it is indeed a flaky chip?

hope im help.
Fried

Here is the info I have:

DDR ram is rated at PC2100 256MB crucial ram. more info: CL=2.5, unbuffered, 2.5V, 32meg X 64(dont know if this info matters much)
Power Supply Stats:
Brand: Sparkle Power Int'l LTD
AC Input: 115/230V, 10/5A,60/50hZ
Max Output Power: 400W
Fuse Rating: 10A, 250V, +3.3V & +5V = 235W max

Also, I disabled cache and the computer ran incredibly slow and took like a half hour to boot. Is this normal with cache disable for it to take this long. I tried to drop ram timings to slow and it didnt seem to change much. Hope this narrows down the problem and gives some info so someone can have some info. Thanks.

It's normal for the pc to boot that slowly once the cache is disabled. Cache should not be the CPU's problem.

 

[ReiAyanami]

prolly the power supply, sparkles arent known for being all that good, everything else u got is brand name

 

[yankee427]

Finally, I think I fixed the problem. I swapped my ram with my other computer and now all games seem to work without lockups or anything else. I'll post if I get a lockup.

 

[ScrewFace]

That's great, yankee427. I'm glad you were able to solve your problem on your own. This is how I learned, also: by trial and error. Congrats.