terrible stability problems

P

Purplehaze

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 27, 2000
Messages
94
Running a p4t533-c motherboard with a 1.8a pentium 4. I've been fighting stability issues with this system for nearly a year now. The system will randomly blue screen (even sometimes after being idle) and give driver or memory errors. I have vcore set to 1.5v but whenever I check asus probe it seems to read in the 1.6-1.65 range.

I've tried switching to new rdram modules two times already to no avail. All drivers should now be up to date, the only thing I have not tried is a bios flash since I don't have a floppy drive (just use cds). Is there any way this could solve the problem? I can't think of any other solution at this point and it's extremely annoying to have my only computer at college constantly going down when i'm trying to write papers and do work.

If the bios flash might do the trick, how could I go about doing that with a cd rather than a floppy?

Thanks in advance.
 
You could make a bootable floppy and install the bios from that or break down and get a floppy drive just to plug in when you need it.

Regardless, a number of things could be causing it to be unstable, first is the power source, if it's fluctuating or low it could cause issues, a good UPS is always nice to have to stop that from happening. In the machine it could be anything, best thing to do is strip the machine down to the basics and go from there, run it with minimal memory, the vid card and one hard drive. Also if your power supply could be the cause, specially if it's some generic no name brand. If it's still unstable, try to get a donor machine and start swapping parts.

If you haven't done a clean install of the OS in awhile, that wouldn't hurt either...
 
well i've tried reinstalling xp a few times in the past to resolve the issue, and have learned that i'm lucky to even get it fully installed. the computer loves to blue screen mid-way through. only have one hard drive so the only thing I could really strip would be the sound but i'll have to try that. how would I go about making a bootable cd?
 
Just copy the files to a CD instead of a floppy. It should be a fairly straight forward process, nothing special to make it bootable as long as the BIOS is set to boot off CD.
 
I remember having that board, It was the one that made me swear never to buy and ASUS board again.

Toms hardware had a reveiw sample and the only review on the net of the board. Went to 200fsb if i remember all kinds of volts. The box said extreme overclocking on it.

I ordered it first day got the box, said extreme overclocking. Pulled my TH7II out. back in 100fsb cpu days.

Hey NO AGP/PCI lock, And WTF 153fsb limit?? Where's the volts?

What happeded to 1mhz fsb overlclocking like the review board. What's this 130 133, 137 143 crap,

This isnt a dam ECS board it's an ASUS!!!

I looked at my Box again, It said extreme overclocker!! I paid $220 for this Dog!!


Back to the questions and end of my Rant. Your lucky I remeber this board.


What do you have it clocked at?? 143 and 147 i had problems but 153 no problems.

And im hoping your loading xp at stock FSB on this rig.

And follow al of mjones73's PS checklise if you can.

UPS's are cheap line conditioning, whenever you can get a 350 for $30 or a 500 for $40 buy it. Doesnt matter if you get 2 minutes run time your getting it for steady volts.

And here:

to rule out BAD CD, or crappy windows. Download this Linux distrib Knoppix version,

Go to download off this page and download the .iso, then burn it with nero or whatever you use. Webbrowers built in and all Math calculation pack for college.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

Loads and runs totally off CD no HD needed , and includes Office. Supports just about all hardware, and might save your ass while your in college. Just keep the CD for an emergency.




It's nice to keep around for testing computers also. And you hate waiting to load a new windows. or waiting on a HD thats screwed on a RMA. It's a free.

I use it for my F@H Rigs 8 of them. No HD needed. saves $$
 
I'm running the board at totally stock speeds right now (1.8a on a 100 fsb) with a 4x ram multiplyer. Turbo mode disabled so it's less aggressive. The strangest thing is that the last time I tried a brand new pair of memory modules, when they were in together the computer wouldn't even post, but when I used one new one with one old one it would boot fine but have the same stability issues.

I'm thinking the board itself may be fried or something, we had a heat wave last year when I was a freshman living in a dorm and since there was no a/c it caused my system to go haywire. Ever since then, no matter how many different rimms I try I get mem errors.

I thought about the bad install cd so i've tried 2 or 3 different ones just to be sure, with no luck. Right now i'm afraid to try another install because at least I have some functionality (or I wouldn't be typing this, although it did error out once already while trying :D).

So my new questions are:

Where would be a good place to find a ups at the prices you mentioned? Sounds like good cheap insurance to make sure the volts are regulated, especially since i'm living in a college apartment this year and a fraternity house the next two years.

Do you think the mainboard could be the problem after all? It looks like you had quite a few problems with yours, and i've had that possibility in the back of my mind for quite a while now but just hoped it was something else.

If so, what board would you guys recommend I try switching to? I'd like to keep my 1.8 since at the time I could still overclock with stability it would hit 2.4 or so fairly easy and performed great for everything I need. I'd also like to stay with a rambus board since i've already dropped so much cash on rdram...I have about a gig of ram I could stick in the new board if that's the problem :D.
 
Looks like I was barking up the wrong tree with the rimms then. Back to my other question, what board would you guys recommend for a 1.8 northwood, overclocks decently, and supports rambus?
 
OfficeMax.com or instore

Top 2 on this page

http://www.officemax.com/max/solutions/search/search.jsp?bvc=yes&searchType=product&searchString=ups

The top one you get another $10 mail in rebate, which brings it down to $39

I ordered one of each online, with some other stuff, Microsoft Optical basic mouse for $4.95 and microsoft internet keyboard is $9.95. and a ton of free after rebate stuff and used a $30 off $150 coupon.

What would i recommend. I still have my original Abit TH7II. Fixed AGP/PCI. Most stable board i've ever had. I use to run it @ 195fsb 3x mult, with a 1.6a in my Vapo. and 145fsb X4 multi.

I use to own all you Single channel DDR owners back then!!! hehe. I said RDRAM and TH7II in the same paragraph *FOO will be in here in a second. He has Rdram Radar!!! Watch you'll see he comes out of no where

I bought one here a month ago to use up some rdram and a 2.0a 100fsb cpu for a rig. $25 bucks for a Raid version.

http://www.dumpinggoods.com/dumping...-ACCWARE-0778LNSDG486&Cc=&ic=MB-ABT-0032&tpc=

The place sounds shady with the name, But i've ordered from them probably 10 times. I get a lot of refurb MB's for my Folding @ home Farm rigs.

You better get it if you want it before someone snatches it up.

Last years MB and years before can be had for $20. Runny a lot of them Look and Even Smell new!!!

MMMM new motherboard smell!!!!!

I bought 3 abit KG7 Raid boards, AMD chipset, no via crap. Cant be beat for the price.
 
Wow thanks for all the info, that's way cheaper than I thought it would be. I guess it pays to have a little old technology in my machine :D. With the geforce 4 4200, 1.8 overclocked to 2.4+ and a gig of rdram I think the system will still be a screamer for the work I do and the minimal gaming it's used for (I lost a lot of interest when the damn thing couldn't last one full round of warcraft III anymore without a reset).

I find it kind of funny that the ups is now more expensive than a board that cost me nearly 200 a year or so ago.
 
Yeah it's crazy, I buy a stick of 512 memory and it costs more than a brand new IS7 motherboard?? Sure seems like a lot more Hardware on the motherboard??

The TH7II is a great board, No other Intel board had such a long run. And im still using one now with a 1.6a @ 2.8ghz for my daughters computer.

First board i ever had or made with a Fixed PCI/AGP, Never worried about that corrupted Raid 0 for once!!


I've got a slew of Bioses, Just pm me when you get it. One's for extra Volts to the cpu. up to 2.2v if needed.

Let us know how you make out with it.
 
Just ordered it earlier this evening so it will arrive either friday or monday most likely. Got out for under 35 bucks with shipping and everything, so shouldn't be bad. I'll be sure to pm you when I get it like ya said for those tweaked bios files :)
 
I was wondering if you had any BIOS that seem to OC decent and fix the cold boot issues. Something that let the RAM be run at something lower than 600 would be nice as well as I think my RAM may be capping out my 1.6 OC. Well gave the TH7-IIR setup to my sister now but I'd like to pump some more out of the OC anyways. :D
 
Well it looks like the motherboard isn't the problem either. Same damn errors as before. I'm giving up on this computer after going back and forth with it for nearly a year. I find it hard to believe that all 6 rdram modules i've tried are corrupt, the motherboard isn't the problem, i've tried pulling all cards but the video, and the power supply wasn't the problem. Looks like i'm just going to use my laptop until I buy a new system down the road because this thing has turned into a monetary black hole.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top