win 2k strangeness

[PKL]

my spces:

Amd duron 650
64mb pc133 ram
Abit kt7
voodoo3 3000agp
soundblaster pci128
smc network card, pci
300w psu

all running on win2k, with the first full patch

whenever i run a 3d programme eg. Half life, motox madness2...
completely randomly these programmes decide to close themselves down and either give me my default windows screen or dump physical memory forcing a restart.

this has only happened since i installed the duron, kt7, ram and new psu about a month ago.


any solutions gratefully accepteded :)

[Calzor Suzay]

Hmmm does this (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q261/6/06.asp) help?

[PKL]

nope :)

Counterstrike crashed within 3 minutes :mad:

any other options?

im going to send my ram back to scan i think

[Calzor Suzay]

Was the only thing I could think of off the top of my head
Maybe somethings overheating and as a consequence shutting down.
Does V3 have a fan and is it working?
Is there another card which would get hot aswell in the pci slot right beneath it?
Chip heatsink seated properly?
You say your going to send the Ram back to scan, did this start happening after you put the new ram in?

[PKL]

i just had a crash, the cause of it ran something along the lines of a device driver conflicting with the ram.

ive checked and double checked all of the heat sinks and fans.

the processor is fine. (not overclocked and temp. is fine in bios)
the v3 just has a big heatsink, so to avoid any problems i dont have anything in pci slots 1&2
the network card is in 3, and the souncard is in 4.

ive had all of this agro since i purchased a new processor, mobo, ram, case and psu.
it seems to run fine other than these completly random reboots. the memory dumps also occur frequently when im watching any films from the hard drive using windows media player 7. i can only watch 20 minute chunks :)

i have stripped the thing right down to nothing and reassembled it from scratch to try and find any problems, but with no luck.

[[MPD]BIG-FOOT!]

ok

firstly the 300w psu how is it marked as there are alot of 300w psu's about which arnt certified with the ce tested approved for continuos supply of 300w

Those that arn't are not suitable for a stable AMD platform

2nd
the ram how many sticks make up the 64mb
if 2x32 then are they the same ?
if 1 are you allowing the bios to determine the sync frequeny timing of the ram..ie is it set to auto
if it is try backing off the ram timming as a lot of Unbranded ram can not sustain continuous high load for any length of time before getting out of step

3rd
how big is your system case and what is the air flow routing like, preferably u should be running it in a midi tower or better still a full tower, u should be sucking in cold air at the front bottom of the case and venting it at the top rear with case fans

does running the system with the case covers off make any difference ?

4th
Almost forgot
how big is your virtual memory setting (swp file) if u are allowing windows to manage it then set the upper and lower limit to the same which should in your case be set to at least a minimum and maximum of 194mb (2½ times the size of your ram)



[Edited by SASKWATCH on 27-11-2000 at 04:22 AM]

[PKL]

firstly:

300w PSU is certified AMD athlon aproved

secondly;
the ram is one 64m Dimm running at 133. could you describe how to how to reduce the ram timing. i take it this is done via bios, but where abouts exactly can this be changed? at the moment the ram is set to 8/10 ns. i can set it to "normal, "medium", "fast" or "turbo". there are a few other ram options but i cant remember them off the top of my head.

3rd and 4th:
the case air flow is fine and i have manual created a 250Mb SWP file for windows vm.


cheers for the help

[PKL]

argh


things have taken a turn for the worse

i now get random memory dumps even when the system is idle.

and i just installed the latest 4in1 drivers for the mobo


:confused::confused::confused::confused:

[drokk]

I smell a hardware failure :(

[JGJones]

Problem only started when you installed a PSU, Duron, mobo and memory...

1. PSU is certified for the Athlon family and it does switch on so unlikely to be that...

2. Duron - you can start up the PC...I doubt you can get a "semi-faulty" CPU...it either works or not.

3. Mobo - possibly be this?

4. Memory - I believe this is the most likely culpruit...even if some bits in the memory is faulty, a system will still boot up just fine, run just fine and all that, but when the OS address a specific block that's bad, it'll crash with a memory dump as is happening to you.

Try getting a program called PC Check (forgot where from, do a search on http://www.google.com, it's bound to be in there :) And yes I'm a lazy bugger) and do a memory check. Or better if you can, get a different stick of memory and swap it and see what happens...if you still get crashes then the next possible faulty bit is the motherboard, replace it if it's under warrentry.