O/C causing hard drive corruption?

[BuckNaked]

Just upgraded my system by replacing my Epox 8KHA+/1800+XP with a 8RDA+/2100+TBred 'B' running at 166x13= 2166... I did a fresh install of Windows XP Pro and ran Prime95 for several hours without any errors. The next day when I started my system, got the message that windows couldn't start, file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\system

I did another fresh install and everything appeared fine. Ran Prime95 again for several hours, no errors...

Well, when I booted up this morning, I got the same error. I rebooted and everything was running fine.

I figured that since this was a standard FSB speed, and nothing really out of spec on the PCI Bus, the only thing really being out of spec was the rating for the CPU vs. what its running at, and that the CPU seemed to be running fine, that I shouldn't have any problem. What gives?

System specs as follows:
TBred 'B' 2100+ running at 13x166 at 1.65v
Epox 8RDA+
Corsair PC3200CAS2 512MB (One stick)
Elsa Geforce 3
Tekram U3W Scsi Card
Atlas 10K 3 18G HD (boot drive)
Maxtor DiamondMAX +9 60G (storage)
Intel 10/100 NIC

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dave

 

[THUGSROOK]

unstable mem can do that too......

try memtest86

 

[HaVoC]

Hmm...I'm having overclock problems with the 8RDA+ as well, but it's not the same issue as you.

Anyway, it sounds like you have just reached the overclock limit of the CPU. HD corruption can occur even with in-spec PCI and memory busses if you push the CPU too hard. What's your temps for the CPU under full Prime95 load? Also, what is your processor stepping? Turns out that the T-Bred "B"s under 2100 rating (1800+, 1700+) are probably the "J" stepping which is known to not overclock much better than the "A" cores. Check Overclockers.com That being the case, I'd just back down on the overclock for the CPU...try one multiplier bin lower and run full torture tests. (Not just Prime95). Keep doing until you are 100% stable. I don't believe in raising the core voltage for these 0.13u CPUs, but you can try that if you want, as well.

As a side note, you will probably get better performance in most apps if you increase your memory / FSB speed to over 166 Mhz and lower the CPU multiplier one or two notches. I have crappy RAM it seems and don't have that luxury but you got some good stuff. Also make sure your RAM can run with "Aggressive" timings which should improve performance as well.

 

[BuckNaked]

Here is the processor stepping:

AXDA2100DUT3C
AIUHB 0248MPMW

Maybe I should backoff my memory timing... I have it at 2,2,2,5...

My temps under full load were between 46-48C depending on room tempature. I am running an Alpha 8045 with a Panaflo L1A fan (Its pretty low flow) and AS3. My case is pretty cluttered inside with all the drive cables, both IDE and SCSI... Not the best for airflow....

Thanks for the pointers, I will try some things out and see if it makes a difference.

Dave

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

you are still 44mhz below waht corsair should be able to do....
do memtest86 and see if you get any errors, maybe the ram is just bad

 

[SgtSixpack]

Originally posted by: Buck_Naked
Here is the processor stepping:

AXDA2100DUT3C
AIUHB 0248MPMW

Maybe I should backoff my memory timing... I have it at 2,2,2,5...

My temps under full load were between 46-48C depending on room tempature. I am running an Alpha 8045 with a Panaflo L1A fan (Its pretty low flow) and AS3. My case is pretty cluttered inside with all the drives, both IDE and SCSI... Not the best for airflow....

Thanks for the pointers, I will try some things out and see if it makes a difference.

Dave

The memory timing which causes this HD corruption is the 5 timing. Sorry I don't know the name of it but it has little effect on performance but as you have seem a major impact of file integrety. Try a setting of 6.

This knowledge was garnered by reading this once upon a time:
http://www.lostcircuits.com/advice/bios2/1.shtml

 

[BuckNaked]

I let Memtest run through a couple of times and reported no errors.... Changed the memory settings to 2,2,2,6.... Haven't had any other problems, so I guess I will just wait and see if it happens again. Any other suggestions as to benchmarks to run to further stress test my setup?

I really appreciate all the input from you guys.... Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the link SgtSixpack, looks like a good read!

 

[BuckNaked]

Finally figured out what the problem was.... In my haste to get the system put back together, I put my SCSI Harddrive on the same channel as my SCSI CD ROM... 'Doh!

Everything seems to be running fine now... time to see what this thing will really do now that I figured out it was something other than my O/C causing the problem.

To everyone who gave me there input, thank you!

Dave