Problems with new Core 2 Build... random reboots

[Corren]

OK. I've just finished assembling and installing the OS on my new Core 2 box. Everything was running perfectly last night. I had Windows installed, patched, Visual Studio installed, and pretty much had it running perfectly.

While browsing on google, I clicked a link that had some kind of questionable content which triggered my E-Trust A/V to say it had quarantined a virus. Wonderful I thought. I shut down, rebooted, and when the Windows XP logo showed, the computer hard-reset.

I figured some exploit that is not patched had comprimsed my system, so oh well, I'd just reformat and start over.

Here's where things got dicey, and, for sake of argument, I don't think what happened next had anything to do with random virus quarantine. As a side note, that's the first time i'd EVER seen E-Trust, or my computer have to quarantine something.

When i'd turn on my computer, it would hard lock at at the initial friendly display screen, before even starting to show bios posts. If I reboot, it would work fine until it got to the hard drive.

If I unplug both hard drives (sata), it would find CD rom fine, and attempt to boot to CD.

If I plug either hard drive in alone, it will find them, and attempt to find a boot sector on the HD. If the system drive is plugged in, it will still hard reset at the windows xp screen.

I'm currently 24 minutes into memtest's full pass.

Here are my system specs, Currently, I'm running EVERYTHING at Bios Defaults:

Intel Core 2 Duo E660 with Sycthe Ninja
Asus P5W-DH (Came with Bios 1101, using 1101)
EVGA 7900GT with Zalman vf900-cu
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 (DDR2-800 2GB Kit)
Seasonic S12 series 430 watt PSU
Antec Solo Case
7-in-1 Media Reader + 3.5 Floppy (USB/Floppy)
Samsung DVD-RAM
WD 74GB Raptor (Primary drive plugged into RED sata port (#1))
Seagate 250Gig 7200.8 Sata (Plugged into Sata #3)

Please advise!

Update:
MemTest completed full pass, I'm now running concurrent passes of Test #5

 

[Gronich]

It's the dilithium crystals Captain, they canna take it!

Classic signs of a PSU unit struggling to power all your devices. Get another PSU of at least 480watts.

 

[phile]

This is quite the doozy you are presenting. See if flashing the BIOS to 1305 helps matters.

http://p5wdh.de/downloads/asus/bios/p5wdh1305.zip

-phil

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Corren
OK. I've just finished assembling and installing the OS on my new Core 2 box. Everything was running perfectly last night. I had Windows installed, patched, Visual Studio installed, and pretty much had it running perfectly.

While browsing on google, I clicked a link that had some kind of questionable content which triggered my E-Trust A/V to say it had quarantined a virus. Wonderful I thought. I shut down, rebooted, and when the Windows XP logo showed, the computer hard-reset.

I figured some exploit that is not patched had comprimsed my system, so oh well, I'd just reformat and start over.

Here's where things got dicey, and, for sake of argument, I don't think what happened next had anything to do with random virus quarantine. As a side note, that's the first time i'd EVER seen E-Trust, or my computer have to quarantine something.

When i'd turn on my computer, it would hard lock at at the initial friendly display screen, before even starting to show bios posts. If I reboot, it would work fine until it got to the hard drive.

If I unplug both hard drives (sata), it would find CD rom fine, and attempt to boot to CD.

If I plug either hard drive in alone, it will find them, and attempt to find a boot sector on the HD. If the system drive is plugged in, it will still hard reset at the windows xp screen.

I'm currently 24 minutes into memtest's full pass.

Here are my system specs, Currently, I'm running EVERYTHING at Bios Defaults:

Intel Core 2 Duo E660 with Sycthe Ninja
Asus P5W-DH (Came with Bios 1101, using 1101)
EVGA 7900GT with Zalman vf900-cu
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 (DDR2-800 2GB Kit)
Seasonic S12 series 430 watt PSU
Antec Solo Case
7-in-1 Media Reader + 3.5 Floppy (USB/Floppy)
Samsung DVD-RAM
WD 74GB Raptor (Primary drive plugged into RED sata port (#1))
Seagate 250Gig 7200.8 Sata (Plugged into Sata #3)

Please advise!

Update:
MemTest completed full pass, I'm now running concurrent passes of Test #5

I don't know, 430w should be enough for his system. I'm running a very similar setup overclocked, with a 450w, without so much as a hiccup.

-phil

 

[Corren]

Originally posted by: Gronich
It's the dilithium crystals Captain, they canna take it!

Classic signs of a PSU unit struggling to power all your devices. Get another PSU of at least 480watts.

I don't believe it's PSU related, unless I have a defective unit. I could be wrong.

I don't think it's insufficient power because based on input from SPCR, you don't need that kind of power. Additionally, if I remove devices, it doesn't magically start working.

Edit: Grammar

 

[Corren]

Update:

removed all system devices except KB, one HD, Vid Card.

No USB devices plugged in. No CD. No Floppy.

When plugging in my old HD (7200.8 Sata Seagate, which still has a windows install) it boots to the windows screen and then hard resets.

When I plug in my new HD (WD Raptor, with a windows install) it just sits with an empty screen doing nothing.

 

[phile]

Have you tried the BIOS flash?

-phil

 

[Corren]

Not yet. Was running Hard Drive diagnostics on the new drive.

Where can I see a list of fixes on the new bios?

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Corren
Not yet. Was running Hard Drive diagnostics on the new drive.

Where can I see a list of fixes on the new bios?

We're talking about ASUS. The only thing I have ever seen written in an ASUS BIOS changelog is "support for new CPUs added".

Go with 1305. It's widely considered one of the better BIOS revisions for this board. Personally, I saw no difference going from 1101 to 1301 to 1305, but I"m not pushing my system all that much. In any case, it's probably fixed something, so it's worth trying.

-phil

 

[Pabster]

I'd look closely at that power supply.

 

[Corren]

1305 installed.

Hard Drive diagnostics ran and it's ok. Installing OS again. Halfway into XP and so far so good.

 

[bmgoodman]

I think your AV hosed your XP setup! See http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=6980 (September 4, 2006
Windows component flagged by antivirus
Red faces at Computer Associates)

HTH!

 

[bmgoodman]

Sorry I was a few minutes late to the party. Looks like you'll at least know what happened! You should call and chew CA out!

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: bmgoodman
I think your AV hosed your XP setup! See http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=6980 (September 4, 2006
Windows component flagged by antivirus
Red faces at Computer Associates)

HTH!

That would not surprise me. AV software has gotten ever more intrusive and volatile. I used to use Norton AV, and have since stopped using it. I now rely mostly being cautious, and doing the odd scan with Windows Defender and the web-based Trendmicro Housecall.

-phil

 

[Corren]

Morning update:

I ran MemTest #5 for 4 hours last night with my memory at DDR2-800 (rated speed).

I came home to 1500+ errors, but the test was still running.

I ran MemTest #5 overnight with the memory at DDR2-533 (bios defaults) and woke up to it hardlocked after 61 passes, but no errors.

What's going on here?

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Corren
Morning update:

I ran MemTest #5 for 4 hours last night with my memory at DDR2-800 (rated speed).

I came home to 1500+ errors, but the test was still running.

I ran MemTest #5 overnight with the memory at DDR2-533 (bios defaults) and woke up to it hardlocked after 61 passes, but no errors.

What's going on here?

You should test each DIMM separately; see if you get the same results with them both.

-phil

 

[Corren]

From Corsair Support Page:

- Memtest freezes or my system reboots when running memtest.

Check that you have USB legacy support disabled in your BIOS setup. Some BIOS?s had a bug in them which causes memtest to write over the memory area used by the USB legacy support resulting in freezes or reboots.

Rerunning with both dimms at ddr2-533 with legacy support disabled.

 

[Corren]

Ok. Mem Test 5 with both at ddr2-533 threw errors on pass #38.

Rerunning with only one dimm.

 

[Conky]

You might try switching the dimms around too.

I've found that sometimes a pair will produce errors in one set of slots and not the others.

 

[Corren]

Further update.

Let the first stick run for 100 passes of #5 at DDR2-533.

The second stick is currently at 200 passes of #5. I'm going to change it to a full pass, and let it run overnight.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Corren
Further update.

Let the first stick run for 100 passes of #5 at DDR2-533.

The second stick is currently at 200 passes of #5. I'm going to change it to a full pass, and let it run overnight.

Refresh my memory (no pun intended... ok, pun intended)... what memory do you have, and at what voltage?

-phil

 

[Corren]

Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB Kit

It's rated at 1.9v 5-5-5-12 timing at DDR2-800.

I'm running it by SPD at bios defaults for all settings, including speed, which sets the memory to DDR2-533.

 

[phile]

So, have both sticks passed in separate testing?

-phil

 

[Corren]

Stick 1 ran for 100 passes of test #5.

Stick 2 has run for 200 passes of 5 and 15 passes of 1-10

I was going to let stick 2 run all night, then start stick 1 again tomorrow on another torture test.

if that works, I'll test a stick in slot 2.

 

[Corren]

Stick #2 in Slot #1 has run 53 full passes and 200 passes of #5.

Going to try each stick in slot #2 next.