Serious System Instability! Need advice

[OmegaSix0101]

Ok here goes nothing 🙂 I recently purchased a new Motherboard, Processor, Memory, and Vid Card (Specs below) to upgrade my comp. I keep getting random freezes in Windows (both on desktop and in games) after the comp has been on for at least an hour. Then sometimes when I reboot I don't get any video and no POST beeps (it just idles with no HD activity, nothing but fans spinnin), other times I get no video and POST beeps in a pattern of ....Long beep....Long beep.... and it just keeps beeping to no end. After trying to reboot several times I can sometimes get the comp to boot fine right into wondows. Below I will list in detal my specs and what I have tried to cure this problem.

Specs:

Motherboard - MachSpeed PT800DBP
Processor - Pentium 4 3.0ghz 800mhz FSB w/ HT w/ Northwood Core (With Silent Tower temps are 40c-50c)
Processor Heatsink and fan - Thermaltake Silent Tower w/ Artic Silver 5
Video - BFG Tech Nvidia GeForce 6800 OC at 8x AGP (temps on this are also normal, about 50c)
Power - Antec 430 watt True Power
Memory - 2 matching sticks of 512mb DDR 3200 RAM
Hard Drive - Maxtor 120gb IDE
Sound - SoundBlaster Audigy LS 5.1 PCI
One CD Drive
One DVD/CD Burner Drive
Chipset - VIA
BIOS - AWARD
Windows XP Home SP 2

Ok so far I have tried:

-I just bought th 6800 OC vid card so it is BRAND NEW

-I went back to the store and exchanged the power supply for a new one

-I have tried swapping RAM around and also sticking DDR 2100 (Which I know works) from an older comp

-I have fully updated windows (I had this problem before SP2 so that isn't the problem)

-I sent my motherboard back to MachSpeed and they said it tested fine

-I have tried booting with all Power cables (Except the motherboard power cables) disconnected

-I have updated (flashed) the BIOS to it's newest version

-I have tried clearing the CMOS

-I have run memtest (two passes) with no errors

That about does it. Like I said the poblem is intermittent. Sometimes she boots (and then usually freezes eventually), sometimes she doesn't, and sometimes I dream of pouring gas on my $1000's worth of computer and setting the bitch ablaze. Like I stated above temps seem to be fine so I dont't think thats the prob. The only conclusion I can come to is that the processor is failing. A little back story on the processor: When I bought the proccesor I bought a heatsink/fan to go with it by a company named ULTRA ($15). After I noticed that it let the processor heat up to about 70c I promptly got me the thermaltake and artic silver 5 (now temps are 40c-50c). Could I have damaged the processor before? Maybe, I don't know. Any advice on this post would be GREATLY appriciated. THANK YOU!!!

 

[mechBgon]

If I had to guess, I'd guess that your TruePower 430 may be stretched too thin on its 12V amperage to consistently feed a Prescott 3.0 and a 6800OC 🙁 but that's just a speculation. Enermax's 460W units have a lot of 12V amperage available if you want to try something else. After spending that much on a video card, I don't think another $75 for power is going to daunt you 😉

Backup speculation: is your RAM getting enough voltage? Don't leave PC3200 starving on AUTO voltage, give it 2.7 volts and see what happens.

Welcome to the Forums 🙂

 

[imported_rhfactor]

Does your intermittent problem happens on a cold boot, or does it only happens after your PC has been on for a little while?

 

[OmegaSix0101]

mechBgon : Thanks for the advice. You may be on to something because I am starting to think more and more that the problem is power related. I will also try upping the RAM voltage after to see if that helps.

rhfactor : It happens on both cold and warm boots (sometimes instead of freezing the comp forces a warm boot)

An update:Everything seemed to work ok yesterday then shortly after I posted this message (i'm on my laptop now) the damn comp rebooted itself then I got no video and no POST beeps, just power and fans spinning. I let the comp sit all night (maybe so it could cool down?) and it still won't boot. I was running for 3 hours at least and all my temps were good. I just don't know....