- Jun 30, 2004
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Some many months ago, I posted a thread seeking insight about a glitch that was really annoying me with my mildly overclocked Q6600 and 680i motherboard. Please -- "don't start in on me" about the 680i. Everything else about this system was ship-shape, the over-clock otherwise rock stable.
I was running an AverMedia 780 Combo TV-Tuner-Capture PCI-E (I think it's x1). I'd often leave the VISTA MEdia Center running 24/7. Earlier, with seeming random intervals between 2 days a 2 weeks, a long marathon of TV watching (or just "active TV") would cause the machine to freeze.
Sometimes, the PCI Creative Labs X-Fi card would "burp" a continuous cycle of audio as part of this freezing.
What I hadn't reported then in my posts here: I had hooked up a second HDMI 1080p monitor to the single Geforce 8800GTS graphics card, and configured Media Center to run on this second monitor while my regular desktop appeared on the regular monitor. With MC "maximized," the desktop only becomes inaccessible to my mouse -- which returns to operability when "Restoring" the MC to a window.
The stable OC settings I had "re-certified" every six months or so with a PRIME-95/IBT "shakedown." As the motherboard aged, I had to make some minor -- very mild-- adjustments to the VCORE, but nothing much . . . Even so, I'd set the CPU-VTT, 1.2HT and NB voltages carefully to levels that only assured stress-testing success under regular "windows" conditions. Those settings had been made before adding the second "TV" monitor. This second monitor is connected via a 25" HDMI cable, while the other one uses an analog VGA connection to my KVM. If I wanted to watch TV "full-screen" and do desktop computing at the same time, I could switch the KVM to another computer and the 1080p monitor would continue its full-screen TV presentation with no hitch at all.
Does it seem plausible that I should've re-adjusted the VTT and North Bridge voltages when I connected the second monitor to my 8800GTS card?
This freezing problem has increased in frequency during the last couple weeks -- avoided only by re-starting the computer at least once daily.
Some of you had previously criticized the AverMedia card, saying they "ran hot," I should get a different card or TV-tuner-capture solution, etc.
I've bumped up the VTT, 1.2HT and NB voltages by a single notch, and their earlier settings had been bare minimum to make the system stable under regular stress-testing. SO little or no risk so far for damage from the voltage adjustments.
Given the seeming random nature of the freeze problem I can only guess at the moment that indeed one of these voltages -- possibly but not exclusively the North Bridge -- has contributed to making things more stable for the double-monitor setup. I can only be sure if the problem disappears completely.
BUT . . . DOES IT SEEM PLAUSIBLE THAT I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK HERE? WOULD IT SEEM PLAUSIBLE THAT ADDING THE SECOND MONITOR AFTER THE FINAL OVERCLOCK/OVER-VOLTAGE SETTINGS WOULD HAVE TIPPED THE BALANCE AND CAUSED THIS?
I can only say "Thank God" for the stability of my 3Ware RAID5 setup, and the safety features built in to the hard disks.
There had been forum threads elsewhere with people having similar problems with MC, but I don't think their causes were my causes. Also -- VISTA MC seems to have a memory leak . . . resolved by restarting or "memory optimization" utility after closing the MC software.
I was running an AverMedia 780 Combo TV-Tuner-Capture PCI-E (I think it's x1). I'd often leave the VISTA MEdia Center running 24/7. Earlier, with seeming random intervals between 2 days a 2 weeks, a long marathon of TV watching (or just "active TV") would cause the machine to freeze.
Sometimes, the PCI Creative Labs X-Fi card would "burp" a continuous cycle of audio as part of this freezing.
What I hadn't reported then in my posts here: I had hooked up a second HDMI 1080p monitor to the single Geforce 8800GTS graphics card, and configured Media Center to run on this second monitor while my regular desktop appeared on the regular monitor. With MC "maximized," the desktop only becomes inaccessible to my mouse -- which returns to operability when "Restoring" the MC to a window.
The stable OC settings I had "re-certified" every six months or so with a PRIME-95/IBT "shakedown." As the motherboard aged, I had to make some minor -- very mild-- adjustments to the VCORE, but nothing much . . . Even so, I'd set the CPU-VTT, 1.2HT and NB voltages carefully to levels that only assured stress-testing success under regular "windows" conditions. Those settings had been made before adding the second "TV" monitor. This second monitor is connected via a 25" HDMI cable, while the other one uses an analog VGA connection to my KVM. If I wanted to watch TV "full-screen" and do desktop computing at the same time, I could switch the KVM to another computer and the 1080p monitor would continue its full-screen TV presentation with no hitch at all.
Does it seem plausible that I should've re-adjusted the VTT and North Bridge voltages when I connected the second monitor to my 8800GTS card?
This freezing problem has increased in frequency during the last couple weeks -- avoided only by re-starting the computer at least once daily.
Some of you had previously criticized the AverMedia card, saying they "ran hot," I should get a different card or TV-tuner-capture solution, etc.
I've bumped up the VTT, 1.2HT and NB voltages by a single notch, and their earlier settings had been bare minimum to make the system stable under regular stress-testing. SO little or no risk so far for damage from the voltage adjustments.
Given the seeming random nature of the freeze problem I can only guess at the moment that indeed one of these voltages -- possibly but not exclusively the North Bridge -- has contributed to making things more stable for the double-monitor setup. I can only be sure if the problem disappears completely.
BUT . . . DOES IT SEEM PLAUSIBLE THAT I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK HERE? WOULD IT SEEM PLAUSIBLE THAT ADDING THE SECOND MONITOR AFTER THE FINAL OVERCLOCK/OVER-VOLTAGE SETTINGS WOULD HAVE TIPPED THE BALANCE AND CAUSED THIS?
I can only say "Thank God" for the stability of my 3Ware RAID5 setup, and the safety features built in to the hard disks.
There had been forum threads elsewhere with people having similar problems with MC, but I don't think their causes were my causes. Also -- VISTA MC seems to have a memory leak . . . resolved by restarting or "memory optimization" utility after closing the MC software.
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