System Rebooting Under Some Load

[Poontos]

I have had this setup with rock solid reliability since October 2001:

Epox 8KHA+ (Same BIOS since the fall, Jan 08/2002)
T-Bird 1.4 @ 1533 via 11.5x @ 133Mhz (v.core 1.750) (Vdimm @ 2.60)
x256MB Crucial PC2100
WD 80GB 8MB
IBM 40GB 60GXP
Asus V7100 32MB Vid
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
etc...

A new variable... a pretty warm basement room. I had not encountered any reliability problems in the past, so I have not been even monitoring temps for this PC for at least 7 months now. In the past though, I recall them being much less.

Boot up Sys Temp: 30C
Boot up CPU Temp: 47C

Since I setup my new WD HD, I re-partitioned everything and installed Win2K Pro from scratch with SP3. I did not run any burn-in software, since I had never had problems before. Although, I have only encountered this touchy unreliability since I moved to school here in this basement and it has been very hot the last week or so.

So I was just in the process of setting things backup and installed AVG A-V and decided to a do a full scan. About 3-4mins in, the system just rebooted. No error messages. So I thought it was AVG, so I uninstalled it and installed NAV2002 and the exact same thing happened -- reboot after a couple of minutes in. So...

1.) Anyway I can track it down to specifically being a heat issue? How are my temps?

2.) How can I discount it from being an OS w/ SP3 issue? Anyone know how to analyze Win2k mini-dumps?

3.) Any suggestions? Leave the case open with a fan blowing on it? Leave my PC off until the first snowfall? 😀 (Umm, class starts tomorrow and I need the friggin PC, so that ain't gonna work).

4.) Could it be the VIA 4-in-1's? Which would be the best to run with my setup? (I think I have 440v(a)p3 installed).

Any more info needed, please let me know.


Thank you!

 

[Poontos]

Bump

 

[SolrFlare24]

OK...first to help diagnose the problem, there should be an option in the system control panel to disable reboot upon hitting an error. This way if something bad happens you *should* be able to at least get a blue screen or some other error report to help you track down what specifically is unstable.

It is possible that the higher temps are causing your system to not be able to run at the levles they were able too before. Heat always plays a factor in how high you can OC your system.

Another possibility might just be your ram is going bad. Do a search for a good RAM testing program off google like memtest86 or one of a multitude of others. Run the test and see if you are getting a lot of errors. Failing memory or RAM that is running too high under temp/physical conditions can be a good cause of system crashing errors.

I'd chaeck your memory and disable reboot on major system errors so you can see whats going on. If its one specific file for example thats causing the problem, its always possible that dll or whatever has become corrupt. If none of those tests seem to help, try clocking your system down and see if it will run stable. If it runs fine then yeah its probably the heat change thats killing your system

 

[rogue1979]

The warmer cpus' run, the lower the stable overclock is. Your overclock could have become unstable with the warmer temps, rebooting can be a symptom of cpu instability. Try to upgrade your cooling, or lower your overclock slightly. You can also try bumping the core voltage slightly, but this will increase the temps further. 47C is a little warm for boot up, what is the cpu temp under full load?

 

[LouPoir]

Sounds like a temp problem.

But I can tell you when i changed my HD from Maxtor to WD, i had to throttle back on the FSB because the WD could not handle it. Same exact setup, just a different drive.

Lou