Troubles with Asus A7N266-VM - freeze ups & shut downs

[Wiz]

I have a couple A7N266-VM mobos here, in great little systems and by and large I'm pretty happy with them.
There is one troubling behaviour though, and it occurs in both systems.
I feel like the systems are different enough that having the same trouble in both kind of points to a motherboard problem.
I have had the trouble with the 1003, 1004 & the beta 1005 bios loaded.
The things just stop working. It's a frozen system problem, mouse pointer sitting there on the screen unmovable.
Reset button brings everything back to normal.
I've seen a blue screen stop on the 1800 system once, and on the 2400+ it just did a spontaneous shutdown on me this morning, went through the "Windows is shutting down" gig.
I am running the memory at "2.0T" fastest timings but I've also tried slowing that down and it didn't make any difference.
I thought maybe it was the drivers, so I tried a few different ones. The ones on the CD that come with the mobo and it had this problem, the newer unified drivers from Nvidia and still the problem.
I do run Seti 24/7 on these machines. However I have had iNtel machines running seti 24/7 for over 3.5 years without troubles like this.
I have ethernet cable modem service, so there are no internal modems attached. I run a home network with a hub and two NIC's in the 2400 machine, which shares the internet out to the LAN.



system specs:

(first system)
Win XP Pro, running SP1
1005 b2 bios
Asus A7N266-VM
AMD 2400+ Tbred
Volcano7
512 meg PC2100
onboard LAN & Audio in use - not the video
64 meg Geforce 2 vid card
Seagate UDMA 60GB HDD
Lite-On DVD rom
Lite-On 40x CDRW
Leadtek Winfast TV2000 Deluxe tuner
300watt AMD approved PSU
Case has a big exaust fan on the back under the PSU
Mobo temp 32C (MBM 5)
CPU temp 39C (MBM 5)
CPU voltage 1.68V (MBM 5)
This is of course running stock fsb & multiplier - no modifications

(second system)
Win XP Pro, running SP1
1004 bios
Asus A7N266-VM
AMD 1800+
Some big HSF (can't remember the name - approved up to AMD 2200+)
256 meg PC2100
onboard LAN, Audio & Video in use
IBM SCSI DNES-309170W HDD
Qlogic PCI-QLA1280 LVD scsi controller
Lite-On DVD rom
Hauppage tv tuner
300watt AMD approved PSU
Case has a nice exaust fan on the side opposite the cpu.
Mobo temp 29C (MBM 5)
CPU temp 41C (MBM 5)
CPU voltage 1.78V (MBM 5)
This is of course running stock fsb & multiplier - no modifications

Any ideas what to check on these things to find the culprit?

 

[mechBgon]

Try a more powerful power supply, perhaps? I'm using TruePower330's on the 18 A7N266-VM's in my work fleet, and a TruePower430 on my own. They don't run SETI, but they do get a pretty solid CPU workout every day at lunch hour, when they're pegged at 100% CPU usage for a while, doing their daily virus scans. The TruePower units were picked for their long warranty and high output (242W combined 3.3V +5V for the TP330 and over 270W for the TP430). IMHO, 300W PSU's are for Durons

I'm running the RAM (Crucial PC2100) at SPD timings and using Win2000 here.

 

[Wiz]

yeah, I was thinking it's gotta be something that both systems have in common
OS (both Win XP Pro SP1)
MoBo (both A7N266-VM both using onboard LAN & Sound)
PSU - both 300W, but different mfg

Things that are different:
one uses the UDMA for HDD, other uses a SCSI card
one uses onboard video other uses an AGP card
one has 3 IDE devices (HDD + dvd-rom + cdrw), other only uses one (dvd-rom drive)
Different make & model cases.
one uses Leadtek Winfast TV2000 tuner other uses Hauppage tv tuner

 

[Assimilator1]

Nah 250w PSU's are for Durons

Wiz
Can you list all the voltage readings that those mbrds bios gives?

 

[Smoke]

Well, I'm sort of posting in both forums.

Change that memory timing to 2.5 and I bet your problems end.

I'm running Corsair XMS 3200 and Corsair XMS 3500 in two different systems. I get my highest OC/FSB when I run the timing at 2.5 instead of 2.0 or even 1.5. Sounds crazy but I read about that tip in one of the OCing Forums (somewhere) and it definitely made a difference. Of course, you are not OCing but what the heck, try it anyway.

 

[Wiz]

Assim, I did look at the voltages and they were all within +- .1 of specs
Nothing out of the ordinary there.

Smokeball, I ran them at 2.5T, 2.0, 2.5 and it happened at all settings. So I run at 2.0T since it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Didn't want to go buying new PSU's right now, Christmas is coming and I have already spent a lot on this hardware.
If that's what it takes, then I'll have to do it.

 

[lane42]

Wiz, The 300 watter should be fine for the 1800+, I have 2 1800+ with 300 watt ps and there both overclocked, big time with no problem. Are those temps running Seti.

 

[Wiz]

Yes, those are the temps while running seti.

 

[lane42]

They seem kinda low

I would try reseating cpu and HS\F

 

[mechBgon]

The A7N266-VMs tend to read low. My 1800+'s with the retail heatsink/fan units (including the stock thermal-interface pads) report in at 40-42C. This is in stark contrast with Abit's comparable nForce boards, which reports temps in the high 60's and low 70's, according to people who have them. Just one more reason not to cross-compare, I guess.

Wiz, instead of manually setting the RAM timings, set them to "SPD" and see what happens. That will let the module call the shots.

 

[Assimilator1]

Wiz
Have you gone back to square 1? ,pull out all unnessacary PCI cards & see if that cures it.Then add 1 back at a time until the problems re-occurs.
And yeah do SPD settings to the RAM for now,it'll elimnate an unknown variable.
Double check ALL your bios settings

 

[dmcowen674]

You can rule out heat. Rule out RAM by swapping etc. Also setting the RAM to stock SPD as others said. The only common denominator is WinXP. Do yu have Win88SE around from yesteryear?

 

[RanDum72]

If you are using the built-in sound, upgrade to the latest nforce drivers version 2.00. Link.. They are said to fix random lockups. My occasional lock-ups are gone now when I upgraded (motherboard is A7N266-C). MAybe a clean install of the OS would help.

 

[BadThad]

I have to agree with the power supplies being crap. AMD approved or not, the PS is frequently the culprit.

 

[Wiz]

Wow, all good stuff guys - I will try it out and let you all know how it goes.

Edit: - when I get back from visiting friends for the weekend, leaving tomorrow morning

 

[AnandtechViolator]

Originally posted by: badthad
I have to agree with the power supplies being crap. AMD approved or not, the PS is frequently the culprit.

Yes, the PS is the foundation of your system.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

have you tried changing the frequency spread, in case it's a static problem of some kind? I've also seen similar problems that turned out to be flaky power from the wall, are you using ups's on these systems? Also try re-seating your processor and memory, have seen this to have the same simptoms on some highly active servers and fixed the problem perfectly. Does anything show up strange in the activity logs? What error codes were given on the blue screen, it should have given you a good indication of what hardware or software caused the sod (screen of death). See here for more info on the dreaded blue screen of death's errors.

 

[Wiz]

Usually there is no blue screen, it just freezes up - you can usually see a mouse pointer on the screen but it wont move.
I had intel boxes plugged into the same ups before I got these AMD's & never had frozen systems with those.
I think it's either PS or OS related.