Possible that my Power supply is causing all of my problems?

[MBrown]

My rig
4400X2 @ 2.5Ghz
2GB of DDR
8800gts 640MB
160GB Hard Drive
4 Fans
DVD burner
floppy
480W Antec NeoPower

Now my problems are these. I randomly get BSODs with vista. There is absolutely no reason why I should be getting these. My computer was at idle overnight and I woke up this morning to a BSOD. When I pllay games on it, I either get a hard lock, a BSOD or it just kicks out to vista.

Even when I had XP my PC would sometimes not boot up EVEN with everything at stock speeds. And the part that I don't understand is after many times of installing XP with SP1 on it all of a sudden it doesn't install anymore. I brought it to the shop and the guy tells me A64's are not compatible with SP1 so he slipstreamed my copy of XP with SP2. And that problem started with an even lesser system with a 3500 @ 2.4GHz and a 7800gt. I even bought a new motherboard to see if that fixed the problem. And with my newer 4400X2 is still cannot install XP with SP1.

So could it be my power supply that is causing me all of these problems?

 

[MarcVenice]

Bsods are often if not always memory related. It might be that your PSU is giving off unstable voltages, so to make sure you should replace your PSU with a PSU from another PC, from a friend or whatever. If the problem persists, it's not the PSU 480w should be enough for your rig. How much amps are/is the 12v rail pushing?

It could be btw, that your mobo is giving your ram the wrong, to tight, timings, or perhaps it's not getting enough voltage.

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Bsods are often if not always memory related. It might be that your PSU is giving off unstable voltages, so to make sure you should replace your PSU with a PSU from another PC, from a friend or whatever. If the problem persists, it's not the PSU 480w should be enough for your rig. How much amps are/is the 12v rail pushing?

It could be btw, that your mobo is giving your ram the wrong, to tight, timings, or perhaps it's not getting enough voltage.

I don't know how to mess with timings. I just let my mobo handle that. I guess I'll check to see if there is enough voltage.

Edit: I checked my timings. In this order 3-4-8-4. My DIMM voltage was at 2.73 so I bumped it up to 2.8. I don't know if that is going to help or not but we will see.

 

[MarcVenice]

3-4-8-4 ? It will be nearly inpossible to run ddr800 at those timings. Install cpu-z and make a screenshot of the memory tab, then host it somewhere. That should speed things up a little ...

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
3-4-8-4 ? It will be nearly inpossible to run ddr800 at those timings. Install cpu-z and make a screenshot of the memory tab, then host it somewhere. That should speed things up a little ...

Its DDR400. This is what CPU-Z says.

CAS#---------------------- 3
RAS# to CAS#------------ 4
RAS# Precharge-----------4
Cycle Time (Tras)----------8
Bank Cycle Time (Trc)----10
Command Rate -----------2T
DRAM Idle Timer----------16 clocks

 

[MarcVenice]

CAS#---------------------- 3 should be 5
RAS# to CAS#------------ 4 should be 5
RAS# Precharge-----------4 should be 5
Cycle Time (Tras)----------8 should be 15

Those are generous timings but nothing weird for ddr800.

try that, I'm guessing that will help a big deal when it comes to bsods. Have you ever run orthos ? You really should, memtest as well, it will check your memory for errors.

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
CAS#---------------------- 3 should be 5
RAS# to CAS#------------ 4 should be 5
RAS# Precharge-----------4 should be 5
Cycle Time (Tras)----------8 should be 15

Those are generous timings but nothing weird for ddr800.

try that, I'm guessing that will help a big deal when it comes to bsods. Have you ever run orthos ? You really should, memtest as well, it will check your memory for errors.

I have DDR400

 

[MarcVenice]

oh fudge ... It's kind of confusing since its ddr, double data rate, so cpu-z sais 200mhz, but it in fact will be ddr400. Since you said ddr400 I simply assumed it was running at 800mhz for some reason.

Anyways, those timings should be good for ddr400, but you've got 2gb, do you have 4x512 or 2x1gb?

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
oh fudge ... It's kind of confusing since its ddr, double data rate, so cpu-z sais 200mhz, but it in fact will be ddr400. Since you said ddr400 I simply assumed it was running at 800mhz for some reason.

Anyways, those timings should be good for ddr400, but you've got 2gb, do you have 4x512 or 2x1gb?

4x512

 

[MarcVenice]

hmz that could be the problem. Since you have a nforce4 chipset, like me, you can only run the memory at 333mhz instead of 400, or you need to push more vram.

CAS#---------------------- 3 should be 4
RAS# to CAS#------------ 4 should be 4
RAS# Precharge-----------4 should be 4
Cycle Time (Tras)----------8 should be 12

See if that helps. Find out the max voltage your ram takes, mine takes 2.5-2.7v, but can handle 2.8 no problem really. If you're comfortable giving it 2.9v, you could try that as well. Otherwise you should try running a ram divider.

I'm not 100% sure though, because I have read about the newer memory controllers that come with e6 steppings should have no problem running 4x512mb at 400mhz, but my toledo core, e6 stepping won't run 4x512mb at 400mhz, so who knows ey ? It's worth trying though

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
hmz that could be the problem. Since you have a nforce4 chipset, like me, you can only run the memory at 333mhz instead of 400, or you need to push more vram.

CAS#---------------------- 3 should be 4
RAS# to CAS#------------ 4 should be 4
RAS# Precharge-----------4 should be 4
Cycle Time (Tras)----------8 should be 12

See if that helps. Find out the max voltage your ram takes, mine takes 2.5-2.7v, but can handle 2.8 no problem really. If you're comfortable giving it 2.9v, you could try that as well. Otherwise you should try running a ram divider.

I'm not 100% sure though, because I have read about the newer memory controllers that come with e6 steppings should have no problem running 4x512mb at 400mhz, but my toledo core, e6 stepping won't run 4x512mb at 400mhz, so who knows ey ? It's worth trying though

I could not change CAS# because there was no 4 option. I changed cycle time (tras) to 12. Now I just need to try to get a BSOD to see if that has worked.

 

[MarcVenice]

Yeah mine can't be changed to 4 either, so 3-4-4-12. If it doesn't work, using a ram divider should do the trick. If it runs at 333mhz, you can tighten the timings to something like 2.5-3-3-7.

 

[MBrown]

I was able to play STALKER for a little while with out getting booted out. But maybe I should say anything just yet. I don't want to jinx myself.

 

[madcow53]

Hi,
I am having (perhaps) a similar problem. Basically, that after running my computer for some time (regardless of OS, tried Vista+Ubuntu, happens in both), the computer just locks up. No BSOD, it just freezes and it doesn't respond to keyboard or mouse. Now, I keep a constant check on my temperatures and they're all fine (CPU TEMP in the 30s, System TEMP similar, and GPU Temp in the high 50s). So, maybe I'm having the same problem with the memory timings.
I have 2x1 GB Kingston PC5300 chips. What do you think?

Other system specs:
C2D E6400 (not overclocked)
8800GTS 320MB
500W Enermax PSU

Thanks for the help

 

[madcow53]

Ran cpu-z and here are my RAM timings:

CAS - 5
RAS to CAS - 5
RAS Precharge - 5
Cycle Time - 15
Command Rate - 2T

Additionally, it's DDR2 667 MHz

 

[MarcVenice]

Your PC locks up, that's different then a BSOD. Your memory timings look to be quite relaxed for ddr2 667mhz. If it would be heat, the PC would simply restart itself or shut itself off, so it doesn't overheat. I have no real suggestions to your problem. Perhaps it could be different parts of hardware that don't like each other. This sometimes happens between videocards and soundcards. You could also try removing 1 stick of memory, and see if the problem persists, if it does, try the other sticks and try again.

Removing unnecesary hardware, like a soundcard or some kind of PCI card could help determine your problem as well.

@mrbrown, let's hope your problem is solved

 

[Rubycon]

Download and run this.

 

[madcow53]

I already ran memtest from the grub boot option, although it was a different version. After several tests, it did not detect anything wrong. Could the latest version pick up on something this one didn't?

 

[Rubycon]

Yes get the latest version as it should recognize all the features of your chipset.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

BSOD's are often memory, but there are other potential problems that can cause them like a bad device driver.

Diagnosing BSOD's can sometime be a PITA here are a few steps
1. Diable the bios option "reboot on fatal errors", this will cause the computer to stop on the BSOD screen instead of immediately rebooting. This allows you to record the full error message so you can research it.
2. Find and download MS's dump file analysis tool, and analyze dump file

Here are some helpful links

http://www.vladd44.com/other/irq_error.php

http://www.pcstats.com/article...?articleid=1647&page=4

 

[madcow53]

Ran memtest v3.3, no errors...
I am not getting BSOD's though, that was MBrown. In fact, my computer doesn't even reboot, it just hangs.
When it happens, it's not just the screen that freezes up, but if there's any music playing it also hangs making that annoying clipping sound.
Could it be a problem with my Mobo? I'm using the Gigabyte DS3

 

[madcow53]

Here's another tidbit of information...
It hangs a lot sooner in Windows Vista than it does in Ubuntu, in fact for a while I thought it was a software issue because I had gone a couple of days in Ubuntu without a problem til one day I was surfing the web and it happened. In Windows Vista, in just a few minutes after being booted, already hangs.

 

[MBrown]

Hey Marc thanks for the help man. :thumbsup: I haven't had any BSODs yet and I have been playing STALKER a whole lot lately.