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Random Freezing...

N

NTB

Diamond Member
Over the last few days, I've replaced my old Epox 8KTA3 / Duron combo with an ECS K7S5A and an Athlon XP 1600+. I formatted the C: drive and re-installed everything from scratch, rather than leaving the opperating system on after the switch. Ever since I've gotten the thing up and running, it's been randomly locking up on me. No error messages, no bluescreens, nothing. It just STOPS. Only way to get out is to hit the reset switch. Does this pretty much every time I turn the machine on, the only difference is that it happens at different time. May happen two minutes after the system boots, it may happen several hours later. Heck, I've even had it freeze while runing checkdisk before windows finishes loading. I'm out of ideas about what may be causing this, and I'm half tempted to rip the K7S5A out and put my old epox back in. I never did have this problem with that board. But I wanted to post here and see if anyone had any suggestions first. Click the RIG link below to check out the system specs.

Nate
 
Power Supply is an Antec 350, and yes, I did get a new heatsink & fan - I'm using the one that came with the XP.

Nate
 
I'm going to try anything I can before I actually have to start taking things out / disconnecting stuff. Just went into the BIOS and chose "optimal settings", then went in and disabled anything I wasn't using. Stuff like built in sound, the midi/game port, built-in LAN, and serial ports. Been cranking along for an hour now without a problem. Of course, that's how these things work: always lock up at the most inconvenient times, but never when you're trying to get them to.😉

Nate

whoops, forgot: set the FSB to 133/133 so that my processor would work correctly, as well. It's not runing underclocked.
 
read your rig specs ...why are you using the Hollywood(not needed with anything over 500mhz really) with such a fast processor? And also your Epox (with latest BIOS) does support XP procs
 
The H+ is for DVD-out. I know my video card has s-video out as well, and if I could use it, I would. But the PNY cards do not come with an S-video-->composite cable, and my TV only has composite connections.

As for the Epox, I know it supports the XPs now, but I needed a second MB anyway, since my little brother wanted to take my old Duron. Since the K7S5A was so cheap, I thought I'd give it a shot first. If this keeps up though, I'm going back to that Epox board and my brother's SOL.

Nate
 
I would guess ram could be your problem. try removing the 128 meg chip and run with only the 256 meg chip for a while and see if that helps.
 


<< I would guess ram could be your problem. >>



Might have been. I haven't pulled either of the modules out yet, but "optimal settings" in the bios backed all the timings off to their most conservative values. This thing's been runing since about 1pm without a lockup. So far, so good, but if it does continue to give me problems, I'll try that. Just one question though - why the 128? does this board not like to have different-sized modules in the two slots? just curious.

Nate
 
That shouldn't be a problem, but it is possible. Try taking both sticks out, one at a time. See if one might be the culprit. Unless of course, the lower timings fix your problem.
 
NTB, I had that motherboard for a short time. I had the same problem.

Well at first I had a different problem, it wouldn't boot after doing a soft reset... I had to unplug the cord from the wall and back in before it would boot again.

Then I discovered it didn't have the problem if I raised the ram speed to 133. That fixed my boot problem, but then had random lockups like you are having. Lots of them and often.

I returned the board and replaced it with a MSI K7T266 PRO2 and haven't had a problem. Its working perfectly. The MSI bios also has more options (which I haven't needed to change though), and even the bootup graphic is nicer (not that it matters, but its a nice touch).
 
Thanks for the reply, TBC. I may consider doing that eventually too - just consider the K7S5A a "stopgap", I guess. A Temporary solution until I can afford a better board. That said, I think I may have finally fixed this thing (gee, where have I heard that before? knock on wood!) I took the 128MB stick out, as reccomended, and then fired the system up again. It is now almost 11pm CST, and I've been up and runing (w/prime 95 torture test running in the background) sice roughly quarter after five. Going to leave the system going tonight and see if it's still cranking in the morning.

Nate
 
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