Random reboots & BSOD's, power supply to blame?

[Choralone]

About 6 months ago I replaced the dead 235w PSU that came with the case I've had for a couple of years with a 250w Enlight PSU. About a month ago my machine started randomly rebooting itself or Win2K would blue screen out. I have a Celery 2 566->850mhz that was running stable at 1.8V and about 45C (48C under a heavy load). My machine will run for days without a problem, but it seem to only be when I'm actually doing something (surfing, games, whatever) that I'll have a problem. Specs are as follows.

Celery 566->850mhz 1.8V
Asus P3V4X BIOS 1006.002
Asus S370 slotket
GlobalWin FOP32-1
128MB PC100-CAS2
V3-2000
2 PCI NIC's
El Cheapo PCI Sound Card (for free what the heck!)
DVD and a burner
15GB IBM GXP75 HDD
30GB WD HDD
A couple of 80mm case fans

I've tried setting my RAM to CAS3 & tried different sticks with the same results, boosting the CPU voltage up to 1.9 (at 850mhz) with the same results. My machine will crack OGR all night at 953mhz and 1.9 core voltage so I think 850 isn't out of the question for stability. Do I need to get a better PSU? 300 Watts good enough? Anything else I should try? I suppose I should try going back to 566 for a bit, but why would it run fine at 850mhz for several months and then start doing this?

 

[tweakr]

I've had problems similar to what you describe recently. My CeleronII 533 was running for a while at 896mhz, but I've since had to reduce this to 800mhz to keep it stable. I initially suspected my power supply too, but have since installed a 330w Enermax, and the problem remains. There has been some suggestions on overclockers.com 's website that Intel chips may degrade with time, I'm worried that my chip will continue to decay...

cheers
tweakr

 

[frank828]

it does kinda sound like u dont have enough power, have u tried running the Celery at default speed but same voltage? Try that. Then lower the voltage back to the default voltage and see if it still crashes.

If it doesnt crash at default voltage, its probably the PSU that is holding u back.
Since u've tried different ram and all that, its probably the PSU.

FYI most of the 235, 250, 300 watt supplies out there have very similar combined power specs...most are around 120-150.

The combined power rail is what will give you stability in your CPU. It is the 3.3 and 5v rails.

Currently im running a PSU that has 384 watts combined. It is a Seventeam 400watt.
My older 300watt SH could not take the voltage, and i'd have the same type of problems you would have.

If u want, i am also selling these PSUs.
Either a Sparkle 300watt or Seventeam 300 or 400watt.

Sparkle 300: $52 shipped
Seventeam 300: $51 shipped
Seventeam 400: $99 shipped

The Sparkles are one of the best PSU out there IMHO
Check out some reviews on the Seventeams at 400watt
300watt

LMK at pranky828@hotmail.com or PM me if ur interested

frank

 

[Choralone]

I really do think it's my PSU that's giving me fits. Although, I am still wondering if there's something else I might have missed. Do anybody else have any suggestions? I've noticed that my machine seems more likely to act up when I'm doing anything disk intensive. Which doubly sucks because I usually end up with Win2k wanting to check all 45gigs of HDD space when it restarts.

 

[frank828]

did u make sure to install all the busmastering drivers that came with the motherboard?

 

[Choralone]

Yep, everything it hunky dorey in device manager. I have the VIA IDE busmaster drivers installed. According to Win2K UltraDMA mode is enabled. I know if switch it to PIO mode my Sandra HDD scores go in the toilet. I guess I'll just have to buy a new PSU. Thanks for your help Frank!

 

[frank828]

isnt it true that u dont need busmastering drivers for Win2K??
I thought that u dont need theM? or is the for just he AGP miniport?
i dunno i forgot.

frank

 

[Choralone]

You don't NEED the busmaster drivers for Win2k, but I've found they do speed things up. You do need to install the AGP drivers and such though. I just installed the VIA 4in1 pack when I did my intial Win2k setup and have installed newer 4in1 packs as they come out.