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SETI main ship problems, randoom rebooting at [update]Solved!

Assimilator1

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Line voltages seem low too, +3.3v is running at 3.2v ,dipping to 3.15v sometimes ,my +5v is running at 4.45v ,dipping sometimes to 4.33v according to MBM5.This is with the CPU at 1.6Ghz ,FSB 152MHz.I've now downclocked it to default speed (1.4GHz) & the voltages are a tad higher.
The other thing is I'm having random reboot troubles ,sometimes it can be ok for weeks ,yet last night I had to run the CPU at default speed to get it stable to run my UT server (today too).

Atm I'm guessing my cheapo PSU isn't upto it & maybe faltering?

This is my thread in GH forum for a little more details

[update]re bios/MBM readings compared to a mulitmeter ,they were spot on for the 3.3v line,reading about 0.3v too low for the 5v line & about 0.2v too high for the 12v line.I still haven't had as low readings as I did when I originally posted here😕
 
I would vote for the P/S too. I started having severe system slowdowns on what used to be a stable PC, replaced the P/S and all is better. 🙂
 
My vote is on the floppy drive ribbon cable. :Q 😕




Okay, so it probably is the fault of the power supply, but those floppy drive ribbon cables just get overlooked so much, that I figured they deserve a vote once in a while.
rolleye.gif

 
LOL@NWM! 😀

It could be the floppy drive ribbon cable....or even the hard drive ribbon cable. Have you ever pinched one while putting a case back on, and all the sudden things are flakey? had that happen to me once, and the cable didn't look bad at casual glance, but a close inspection (after looking for all kinds of other problems) showed a nick in it that was causing the problem. Replaced the cable, all was good again. 🙂
 
I believe it's ±10% for ATX power supplies. I nominated the TruePower 330 in your thread there, it maintains ±3% on the most critical lines and ±5% on the others. Incidentally, use a voltmeter to confirm voltages, because I find that motherboards don't report voltages as accurately as you might want.
 
Thanks Mech ,re the voltage readings.I'll grab my multimeter & test it at some point.

Btw the voltage specs are +/-5% for 12v,5v,3.3v ,+/-10% for the negative lines ,more specs are avialble from the other thread where I have posted a link to an ATX guide specs(pdf)

If my meter bears MBM out my 5v line is too low & the 3.3v is right on the limit🙁
 
I had a cheapo PowMax 400 watt ps in a rig and replaced it with a Truepower 330, wow what a weight differance. The Truepower 330 watt was like twice as heavy as the cheapo 400 watt :Q Thats gotta mean something.
 
Your rails are well within specs, voltages are 3.3, 5, & 12,+/-10% on positive and negetive according what I learned in AC/DC circuits in college. The reasoning is that the voltages are divided, you have a total output that is split between your positive rail and your negetive rail by reversing the polarity on one half of the divider circuit.
Have you tried lowering the timings on your memory? Had the same problem with my kt4vl until I lowered the memory controller rating from ultra timing to fast timing, works great now.
 
def gonna say its teh PS. get a Antec TruePower 330 or 380, whatever one you need. tyhey are solid as a rock. I have the 430 because it was 3$ more then the 380
 
lobadobadingdong
Hmm ,well according to the specs I listed further above (from an ATX PSU spec guide) the variance allowed on the +v's are +/-5% ,so my PSU is out.
Re RAM timings ,well this RAM has run at 150-152MHZ at CAS 2-2-2-6 for over a year & its been ok ,so unless the RAM is giving out on me I wouldn't of thought it would be that.
Btw I built a rig for a friend a while back which kept rebooting after about 10mins unless I underclocked it to 100MHz FSB! 🙁 ,when I took a close look at the RAM voltage it was running at 2.43v instead of 2.5v.I suspect the cheap PSU wasn't quite doing the right voltage ,I fixed it by upping the RAM voltage on the mbrd ,then I got 2.53v(ish) & it was ok 🙂.
Pitty I can't check the RAM voltage on my mbrd ,though I have got a RAM voltage jumper it is supposed to be on 2.65v atm

I'm gonna plug in the multimeter in a min ,I'll let you know what voltages I'm getting.

[edit]just seen the price of the Antec True power 380 ,its £64!:Q ,f*** that! 😉
The TP 330 is £45 ,SL300 £35 & the Enermax EG365 is £41

SL300 is top of the list atm on price & has more combined power on the 3.3& 5v lines compared to the Enermax😕
 
Grrr ,this is driving me nuts!

It had been fine since I lasted posted ,then last night I just had the urge to up the FSB from 152 to 155MHz ,it got to windows ,lasted 5mins & then rebooted itself.Ok no probs I thought I'll just set it back down to 152MHz................. no go ,just rebooted🙁 ,same at 148 ,at 144MHz I got errors😕 ,so I set it too 139MHz & let it be.............3.30am in the morning (2hrs latter)it woke me up with its repititive bleeping as it kept rebooting :|.
I set it to 133MHz FSB & left it going.7am (ish) I got up & went to work (knackered),5.20pm I get back.Guess what I hear when I get in! ,yep ,bleeping from rebooting! arrrggghhh!🙁.Looking at the 'found ' directories created by Win2k it 1st did it at about 13.30 ,& then 1/2 hr latter in evere decreasing circles until it couldn't even get to windows by about 16.30.By which time it had corrupted some SETI .sah files & it restarted from 0%🙁 (sorry Mgallik ,2WU's lost🙁).

Anyway ,I turn it off for 1 min whilst I grab the screwdriver & multimeter.Fire it up,go to bios, & check the voltages with the meter,3.28v,4.9v& 12.2v ,no probs there.Exit & bootup ,gets to windos no problems!
rolleye.gif
.Increase FSB straight to 152MHz ,gets to windows no problems!😕 .Increase to 155MHz .................,gets to windows no problems!wtf???😕 .Increase to 157MHz FSB (starting to worry about high PCI bus of 39MHz),gets to windows no problems! ,but it does drop out of UT ,not surprisng seeing as I only have PC2100 CL2.5 RAM ,its doing well!.Drop FSB to 155MHz ,lasts longer in UT but still drops out (no rebooting).Drop to 154MHz FSB bootup ,play 2 games of UT ,seems to be ok as a quick test.

And here I type at 154MHz FSB CL 2-2-2-6 ,1.62GHz with no rebooting & seems stable (though I need a real session of 2-3 hrs of UT to confirm that 154MHz is ok).
I'm thinking that either turning off the PC somehow helped it ,though I did that for 10mins last night & it made no difference.....so scrub that idea😉 ,OR that removing the side somehow disturbs something & 'helps' it that way.
Note I have R&R the RAM sticks,Vid card & even the cpu.Whilst R&R the vid card did help once it hasn't cured the fault.
Another thing I did was to gently prod the vid card & RAM whilst the PC was running to see if there was a bad connection ,had no effect.

I beginning to think I have a marginal electrical component in one of many things!🙁 ,the PSU,the RAM ,the Vid card or the mbrd ,basically I'm still stuck.
If i can measure the PSU voltage with the multimeter whilst its rebooting itself then I could elimnate that or otherwise as a reason.

The hardest part about this ah heck is that the fault won't stay there!...................... me needs Poof to console me!😉

*me screams & runs off down road tearing hair out!*
 
Started rebooting itself again yesterday ,so this time I left it on whilst I got the meter & screwdriver.

The moment I probed the ATX plug it stopped rebooting! :|.............. I hope that doesn't mean there's a crack in the PCB near there..........................

Its been running fine since
rolleye.gif
 
Well God damn he's right! ,it started rebooting again tonight so I shut it off & pulled the ATX plug.3 of the pins for the red line are charred brown!:Q ,1 particularly so.This explains why it stops doing it when I probe it with the meter!
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As a temporary fix I have squeezed the terminals together slightly to tighten their grip,that's a mechanics trick of mine😉

Thanks Wiz 😀
 
I'd be worrying why those 3 pins have been "charred" brown. :Q

If it's corrosion, that's one thing, but "charred" usually means burnt, and that's not a good thing. 🙁
 
Well I'd guess its because the terminals had a poor grip on the pins ,I see this kind of fault regularly on cars & vans that I work on.
The terminal over a period of time looses its tension & thus its grip on the pin ,sooner or latter this developes into an intermittent contact which cause slight arcing! ,this then heats up the terminal & it loses even more tension ,its not long after failure at that point.

Never thought I'd see that problem in a PC! ,anyway I've squeezed the terminals so they grip tightly again but I know the metal will have been weakened so I'll have to replace the plug at some point.I think I'll just hack off a plug off an old 230w PSU I've got & use krimp terminals to join it to my 300w😉
 
Mark-

Good to see you got to the bottom of it!

Never thought I'd see that problem in a PC!
Click to expand...

Would you believe that was the problem on the first PC I ever fixed? It was my work PC at my old job, a 486DX4-100 :Q The power connection to the hard drive (a WD 850 as I recall) was loose. Rolled the barrel connector a bit tighter and it's still working as far as I know.

Cheers!
viz
 
That's right guys - keep those connectors tight!!!
That's what happened with my last burned up mobo - I drew heavy amperage through a loose 12V connector.
Oh well, live and learn eh?

Glad you found the problem Assim1!!! 😉
 
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