Stability fix for K7T Pro2-A system?

[CaptainN]

Hi! I just put together a system (my first one)...

850 MHz Athlon Thunderbird processor
MSI K7T Pro2-A mobo
Asus v7700 32mb pure Geforce2 GTS video
256 MB Crucial PC133 3-3-3 RAM
Asus 12xmax DVD drive
Maxtor DiamondMax 30 GB 7200 RPM ATA100 HDD
300W Premier Power supply
Linksys Enthernet card
U.S. Robotics Performance Pro 56K modem

and it pretty much rocks so far! Except for 1 thing...

When I do various seperate tasks, which don't seem to be specific (such as playing 3d games, or copying a file over the network, or searching the hard drive, or installing a CD game) the system just plain freezes on me. A cold lock, with no choice but to CTRL-ALT-DEL about 10 times or restart. Only happens once every few hours or so.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of problem? And if so, do you know how to fix it? I've upgraded the VIA 4-in-1 and the vid. card drivers to the most recent, but with little effect. Don't know if I should upgrade BIOS or not... that's why I'm writing I suppose.

Thanks in advance for your reply!

CaptainN

"You and the Capn' make it happen!"

 

[Davegod75]

sounds like a heat problem my man. Make sure your chip isn't overheating.

 

[etech]

Another thing to check, the premier power supply is not listed on AMD's approved list.
AMD power supplys for 850 TB & ATX

That does not mean it will not work, but you may want to look into it some more, ie, does it have the necessary current capabilites to drive your system.

 

[compuwiz1]

Are you overclocking? And you may need more voltage, if heat is not what is locking you up.

 

[RGN]

Mine is ROCK solid, even with my 650@910Mhz!! I use a converted alpha PEP66 for cooling.

 

[CaptainN]

Dave, you might be right about the heat. My processor temp. in BIOS is reading 41C on average, and that's only because I've taken the side panels off. I left them on at first only to discover a 50C processor temp... are these temps that hot, to the point of instablility?

Oh, and BTW, I'm NOT overclocking anything. And I'm using an Enlight 7230 case w/ the power supply that came with it.

CaptainN

"You and the Capn' make it happen!"

 

[ericb]

122F is not that hot looking through some of the other posts around here....I would say power supply over anything else.

 

[OD3]

I would have to agree. Try a different PSU, if you can find an AMD-approved one, and see if that helps. I recommend the Antec PP303X PSUs. They are quiet and solid in their supply of juice.

HTH

By the way, are you o/cing that GeForce?

 

[CaptainN]

Thanks for all your input thus far. Before I do anything else, however, I'm going to try this --keeping it at AGP 2x instead of 4x. Have only had 1 lockup since, and I'll wait to see if perhaps that was the trouble.

Any other input, experiences, etc, would still be appreciated...

CaptainN

"You and the Capn' make it happen!"

 

[funks]

Hmmm, does the crucial chips have 16 total chips in them? Are they 128Mbit by 16?

There seems to be a trend with KT133 boards having problems with 128Mb x 16 chips..

I have problems with my 8kta2 locking up from time to time when using these chips (2 Crucial 256 MB Chips CAS 2 - 128Mbit X 16)..

I was hoping that the MSI board will fare better with these issues, but it looks like it might not from your report..

 

[JimmyZ]

funks..I have 256 Crutual PC133. 128Mb x 16 chips...not a problem. INfact, they are running at 143 right now as I type.

I don't think the RAM is his problem...it's the heat, AGP4X, or PSU.

Jimmy

 

[PlunX]

I had the same exact problem with my K7T Pro2. Try this:

1. Uninstall your GeForce2 drivers and reset.

2. Uninstall the VIA AGP VxD drivers and reset.

3. Go into Safe Mode and install the VIA AGP VxD drivers in "normal" or "standard" mode, then reset back into safe mode.

4. Load the GeForce2 drivers.

See if this helps.


--------------------------------------------

Also make sure that AGP 4X is disabled in the BIOS. This causes a lot of problems as well.

 

[Mem]

I will have to agree about PSU may be the problem,my own MSI K7T PRO as no problems game or otherwise running Agp4X mode on my Geforce2 MX,your PRO2A board should be just as stable anyway go for a approved AMD PSU(that`s what I have), your ram is fine since I`m also using Crucial Ram which is excellent.

I`ve seen people get problems by taking shortcuts like PSU or ram & when you have a quality board like yours it`s not worth it.

 

[Regalk]

Barring PSU I would suggest taking a look at AGP4X and Det 6.XX series or higher. They do not work well. For AGP 4X and 3D/openGL to work use 5.45 or 5.33 this worked for me and no more lock ups. Even if you use 2X it will still lock up if using det 6.xx series.
KT133 and det 6.xx do not seem to work well.
I am using det 5.45 GF2 MX and 4X. Ran Quake 3 in a loop for 4 hours with duron 600@900 without any problems.

 

[CaptainN]

Well, things are looking good with just taking it down to AGP 2x. If this doesn't work, I'll try what plunx said.

 

[Unpede]

Captain, what OS are u running??

 

[CaptainN]

Win 98, but not SE.

 

[ZoSo]

Did you do a fresh install of Win98? Also, get the latest BIOS.

 

[CaptainN]

Well everybody, I'm almost certain that taking the video card down to AGP 2x solved the problems. Haven't had one graphics or GUI related lockup since (only had one lockup period in the past two days, while I was stressing out my network copying a few gigs to the new comp.) After seeing the stability, however, I got another fan just to be safe and mounted it on the case above the processor. Takes proc. temperature down by 10C - nice! That might be helping as well.

Just thought you all might wanna keep these in mind if anyone runs into such a problem...

And thanks for the suggestions!

CaptainN

"You and the Capn' make it happen!"

Oh, and BTW - there is NO visible difference whatsoever in games in going from 4x to 2x; at least not that I can see. Not even at 1600x1200 and 32-bit color!

 

[Sporko]

I just put my system together on the weekend and have been having very similar problems. I will just get a total freeze, sometimes on the desktop, sometimes while web surfing. When it happens, the power switch and crt-alt-del don't work but I can re-boot with the reset switch. I don't think it's heat because the highest I've seen the bios monitor is 39C. I will try to disable 4X AGP and see if that helps.

Duron700|Epox 8KTA+|AOpen 300W PS|Asus V7100 GF2 MX|128Mb AOpen PC100|SB Live Value|D-Link DE-220 ISA NIC|Maxtor 10GB|Win98(non SE)