New PC issues...seeking help

[sdbg21]

Ok, i just put together a new pentium 4 system. Here is the problem: At random times (internet browsing, running media player, etc) my computer will just freeze completely. Mouse and keyboard both become inoperable and the only thing to do is reset the pc. This is a brand new computer with the following specs:

Pentium 4 2.6C 800MHZ FSB
Asus P4PE-X Mainboard
512 MB pc3200 DDR400
Radeon 9200
80GB WesternDigital 7200RPM 8MB
Lite-On Optical Drives

I'm running winXP pro on this system. If anybody can help me troubleshoot this i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks and Happy Holidays.

 

[sdbg21]

By the way, the ram is some PNY "optima memory" i picked up from comp usa.

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums sdbg21 Are you familiar with adjusting the settings in the motherboard's BIOS menus? If so, go in there to the Advanced menu, then change the DDR Reference Voltage to 2.7 volts and see if that helps.

Also... what brand, model & wattage of power supply do you have there? If your Radeon has a receptacle for an auxiliary power cable, make sure it's plugged into the system's power supply, and make sure your motherboard's secondary power plug (four wires, black & yellow, with a 2 x 2 plug) is plugged in.

 

[sdbg21]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply! I am familar with the BIOS menu so i will try that right away. As for the radeon, I will have to double check that to see if it has a receptacle.

My power supply is 350W but I cant tell you the brand and model because i dont know. It came installed in the case I bought and unfortunately maxtop doesnt provide details about the preinstalled PS. I'll let you know what I find. Thanks again!!!!

 

[mechBgon]

Sure thing Sometimes cases come with a budget power supply that has trouble keeping its voltages on-target, so if you can't find anything else wrong, you might consider a "known brand" of power supply as a trouble-shooting step. Antecs give good results and are easy to find online or at CompUSA etc., so you might consider their SL350 or TruePower330 or higher. The TruePower series have extra-tight voltage regulation and some other goodies like Serial-ATA plugs.

If you're shopping online, Newegg has Enermax and Sparkle Power units that have earned good reputations too. Sparkle Power has some new Power Q models that are priced so low it's making me wonder what's up with that and I haven't heard anyone give a real-world report on those yet, but even if you go with their higher-priced ones that's still only $38-40 for a proven 350W unit.

Anyway, I hope it's simpler than that. Good luck with the voltage adjustment

 

[sdbg21]

Well, i went into Bios under advanced and all i found was USB 2.0 Reference Voltage. I tried under "Chip Settings" also under advanced but no access to DDR voltage settings there.

I will look into the power supplies at newegg. I guess at this point its safe to assume its either a memory problem or a power supply problem?? I need to try to find that DDR ref voltage so i'm gonna do some research on that.

let me know if you think i should do anything else.

thanks again

 

[mechBgon]

I was basing my BIOS-menu advice off the manual for the P4PE, which I already have downloaded, but maybe the P4PE-X is different. I'll download its manual and see what's what.

 

[mechBgon]

Holy non-existent menu settings, Batman! :Q It ain't there...

...or is it? Try setting SDRAM Configuration to User Defined, and even if this doesn't reveal a hidden voltage tweak, you could at least back down the memory timings to relaxed settings like 3-3-3-8 for the four settings that follow.

Hang in there, you'll narrow it down to one thing or the other eventually.

 

[sdbg21]

hmm....i think the settings are already sittin on the lazy-boy. But if i can relax them a little more until i get a more reliable power supply...SO BE IT! Thanks a lot for all your help and time.

If you are familar with radeon cards....this is my first one and i'm curious: under device manager for display adapters there are two devices listed: Radeon 9200 Series and RAdeon 9200 Series - Secondary. I'm also given the option to switch displays under display settings but i only have one monitor and one adapter I'm new to ATI (my other pc is nvidia ) thanks again

 

[mechBgon]

Glad to help, I know how it is when your PC is acting up I think the reason for the second listing of the Radeon 9200 is due to it being a dual-output card with a DVI and a CRT jack, and the secondary output behaves as if it were a PCI device in order to make Windows happy. That's my theory, maybe someone will confirm/deny

 

[sdbg21]

Ok so i went out and bought an antec 350w smartblue power supply. I was pleased after a full day of no freezes, but all of the sudden the computer is starting to freeze up again. It doesnt freeze nearly as often as before but of course i'd like it to never freeze. Could this be a ram problem or possibly a some driver issue? whats the best way to troubleshoot other than keep swapping components? thanks

 

[Twista]

try your nvidia card in that system.

 

[Bovinicus]

I'm surprised no one has offered the suggestion of possible heat-related issues. Make sure your case is flowing air well enough. That would explain why the new PSU helped, but didn't solve, your problem. The new PSU probably flows more air. Try running your case wide open for a couple of days. Take off both side panels, as well as the front bezel. I know my front bezel is extremely restrictive to the intake fan.

Also, try a temparature monitoring program like motherboard monitor. Just search for it on google. Tell us what your ambient/case temp is and your CPU core temp. Most likely your CPU temparature isn't the problem because the P4 would throttle the clockspeed lower anyway. However, if your case temparature is too high, then other components in the system can easily be affected.

 

[Slugbait]

I agree on heat as a likely culprit. In fact, check the GPU fan...I have a Ti200 that had a POS fan which failed after only a few months.

 

[sdbg21]

Ok, after the power supply upgrade, i've now fixed up some things in the case to let more air flow through. I used motherboard monitor to detect my temps, voltages, and fan speeds and here are my readings for temps:

Temp1: 20 C
Temp2: 27 C
Temp3: -1 C

I dont know which temp refers to what? Maybe somebody could help me out and let me know if these are good temps. Thanks a lot.