Problem: System is very unstable and locks up all the time...

[RamzaBeoulve]

This is a wierd problem, but ever since I installed a new Athlon 1.1 gHz last week, my system's running very unstably. I did not overclock anything, installed the latest drivers for everything, and upgraded to the latest version of the BIOS. It was running fine when I still had a Duron 1 gHz CPU, but now it's constantly locking up. My system specs are:

Athlon 1.1 gHz
MSI K7T Turbo Limited Edition
512 MB PC133 SDRAM
MSI nVidia GeForce3 Ti200 128 MB DDR
Western Digital Protege 40 GB 5400 RPM HDD

Basically, what happens is that the system looks like it's running stabily, but then out of nowhere, the thing just locks up. The screen goes blank, and I am forced to restart the machine manually. I've been having this problem ever since I installed the new CPU, so I don't have any other ideas to what might have happened.

Another thing I did right before I installed the CPU was that I took the VGA card out and tested it out on another motherboard I have to test if it still worked. Ever since then, the lockups happened, so I'm assuming it's either the CPU or VGA card that are messed up.

Just another piece of information is that the CPU is running at 59 degrees celcius.

 

[Mem]

but ever since I installed a new Athlon 1.1 gHz last week, my system's running very unstably

Clue there plus the 59C temp,I would remount the heatsink and check it`s seated right or get a better cooler, your problem seems to be a temp one,however you can never rule out faulty cpu or something else, so try getting the temps down and see if that improves the stability.

One more thing what PSU and OS are you using?

 

[Shooters]

59C is pretty high especially for a non-overclocked processor. Remount the heatsink like Mem suggested and while you're at it, check out the cpu core and make sure you do in fact have a 1.1GHz chip. You should see the number "1100" somewhere on the top line.

 

[corkyg]

Agree with all the folks pointing to your CPU temp. 59C is within safe limits, but too high for steady stability. I like my T-Bird to stay under 50C. I have it alarmed at 52C so I don't get surprised. It is currently running at 40C with the mobo at 35C using Asus Probe. How is your ambient room temp?

 

[RamzaBeoulve]

In response to Mem:

1) I'm using an Allied 300 Watt Pentium 4 PSU
2) I'm using Windows 2000 Professional


In response to Shooters:

I traded CPUs with my brother last week, so he got my Duron and I got his Athlon, and he assured me that it's a 1.1 gHz chip. I then checked to make sure, and it was, in fact, a 1.1 gHz chip.


In response to corky-g:

My room temp is somewhere around 23 degrees celcius.



From what I'm reading, it must be the heatsink. The heat the chip produced when at full load is around 70 degrees... that's pushing it. Any recommendations on a good heatsink/fan combo?

 

[Mem]

From what I'm reading, it must be the heatsink. The heat the chip produced when at full load is around 70 degrees... that's pushing it. Any recommendations on a good heatsink/fan combo?

Try the ThermalRight SK6,or Taisol CGK760092 ,there`re plenty of good coolers to choose from, depends on how much you want to spend and if you will do some serious overclocking.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

It really has to be a hardware issue - Win2K very rarely just freezes.
Make sure you're using some kind of thermal compound and re-seat the heatsink. What are you using at the moment?

 

[RamzaBeoulve]

I'm currently using a Thermaltake Super Orb and some Arctic Silver II

 

[DrZone]

If you have another piece of RAM you might want to swap that out to. Faulty RAM can do crazy things.

 

[RamzaBeoulve]

The RAM's not faulty. I've been using it for about a year now.

 

[RamzaBeoulve]

Ok, I just bought a Volcano 6CU+ online ... for an Athlon 1.1 gHz, a Volcano 7 wouldn't be worth it.

 

[CubicZirconia]

The 6cu+ is really really loud, be prepared.

 

[DrZone]

Tell me about it!. The heatsink is alrite though - just replace the fan with an Enermax or Panoflo.

 

[RamzaBeoulve]

Aww crap