Newbie in BSOD Crisis
 

New to the board, pardon me if this subject has been worked to death.


I've got a homemade system with the following specs:

AMD Athlon 900
512 Ram
WD 80HD
Sony 230A CD-RW
WindowsXP Home
other specs unknown

The comp worked fine for my son, he gave it to me for Xmas. In
February I got without warning BSOD Machine_Check_Exception Stop
0x00000009c
(0x00000002, 0x8053f0f0, 0xf6002000, 0x0000017a). Opened up the case,
got rid of all dust and debris, checked connections, all was well.
Until June. Same BSOD, all same parameters, and now is consistent
failure after 10 - 12 minutes of use, not even on line, with a CPU
use of under 10%. All the google-ing and MS support have just said
Ooops! Hardware failure! But how can I find out what failed? I
have added no new hardware. The power won't stay on long enough to
run any checks, and my income has been slashed too much to afford
repair shop at this point. (I spent 20 years building comps and know
my way around a little). Has anyone has this particular sequence and
have any good suggestions? The CPU is NOT overclocked.

Thanks in advance.

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Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

Artgal wrote:

New to the board, pardon me if this subject has been worked to death.


I've got a homemade system with the following specs:

AMD Athlon 900
512 Ram
WD 80HD
Sony 230A CD-RW
WindowsXP Home
other specs unknown

The comp worked fine for my son, he gave it to me for Xmas. In
February I got without warning BSOD Machine_Check_Exception Stop
0x00000009c
(0x00000002, 0x8053f0f0, 0xf6002000, 0x0000017a). Opened up the case,
got rid of all dust and debris, checked connections, all was well.
Until June. Same BSOD, all same parameters, and now is consistent
failure after 10 - 12 minutes of use, not even on line, with a CPU
use of under 10%. All the google-ing and MS support have just said
Ooops! Hardware failure! But how can I find out what failed? I
have added no new hardware. The power won't stay on long enough to
run any checks, and my income has been slashed too much to afford
repair shop at this point. (I spent 20 years building comps and know
my way around a little). Has anyone has this particular sequence and
have any good suggestions? The CPU is NOT overclocked.

The fact that cleaning solved it till SUMMER came along suggests to me you
have an overheating problem. Check the CPU heatsink fan(s), case fan(s),
PSU, etc.

If it was moved when your son gave it to you, as in from his house to
yours, then it could have jarred something marginally loose and 'cleaning'
just happened to jiggle it. So, if the fans are all running properly and
clean, but you're still having the problem, try reseating everything
(memory, CPU, cards, etc).

But the 'works for a short time' symptom strongly suggests a heat problem.

Thanks in advance.

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

The tower was shipped via US Mail from Kentucky to California in
December but was working pretty good until the first crisis in
February. My son did however, when he owned it, leave it running for
literally days at a time downloading song and movies.

Did more cleaning and did reseat memory sticks and connectors, but I
also noticed quite a bit of scorching on the CPU chip and the
heatsink case. Cleaned this off with alcohol as well as verifying
all fans are operational -- still shutting down.

The young man who built the computer for my son insists that a new
Antec 350 or above will set me right, but I'm worried that after
putting out money for a new PSU it might not have been the problem.

And as far as the exterior temperatures in the computer location, we
have air conditioning running constantly and room temps do not go
above 75, which is close to our pre-summer temps.

Why can't these things ever be easy??

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

Artgal wrote:

The tower was shipped via US Mail from Kentucky to California in
December but was working pretty good until the first crisis in
February. My son did however, when he owned it, leave it running for
literally days at a time downloading song and movies.

Did more cleaning and did reseat memory sticks and connectors, but I
also noticed quite a bit of scorching on the CPU chip and the
heatsink case. Cleaned this off with alcohol as well as verifying
all fans are operational -- still shutting down.

Well, the scorching doesn't sound good and cleaning it doesn't solve the
cause of it. Maybe the heatsink/fan was never all that great to begin with,
I.E. marginal.

It may be that it's pumped the thermal compound out or that moving it did
(or broke loose the thermal pad contact). I don't know your experience in
these matters but I'd remove the heatsink and redo the thermal compound.

How does the athlon case feel to the touch when it's running? How about the
heatsink? If the athlon feels quite hot but the heatsink feels cool then
it's (thermal compound) not getting the heat from the processor TO the
heatsink. If the heatsink is real hot then it isn't cooling well enough
(fan may be 'running' but not at full speed).

Just occurred to me, the moving might have popped a heatsink retaining clip
loose, maybe on just one end.

What motherboard is it? Is there a BIOS temp readout?

The young man who built the computer for my son insists that a new
Antec 350 or above will set me right, but I'm worried that after
putting out money for a new PSU it might not have been the problem.

Well, it's possible. Power supplies can go bad too (bad capacitors, etc.),
but since it was apparently working with the unit you've got in it now I'd
be suspicious of someone saying it was due to being under powered.

The Athlon 900 is 50 Watt max, 44 Watt typical, and while that isn't
exactly 'low power' it isn't exceptionally high either and I didn't see
anything in your equipment list that looked unusual.


And as far as the exterior temperatures in the computer location, we
have air conditioning running constantly and room temps do not go
above 75, which is close to our pre-summer temps.

It's often warmer at a wall and rooms have warm spots regardless of what
the thermostat says, especially with a PC blowing hot air into that area.
It can easily be 85F near a PC even though 'the room says' 75F. Anything
close to the case obstructing airflow? It's not in a desk bay or under a
table, is it?


Why can't these things ever be easy??

Murphy's law.


==============
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what's BSOD stand for?
Can't be blue screen of death...

what's BSOD stand for?
Can't be blue screen of death...

I think it means "boy survived, otter died." :-)

Since I last posted, my backup machine, an antique gutless but lovable
E-Tower, burned out the second power supply of its short life, so I
was without any machine.

In desperation I hooked the Big Guy up again, and without trying one
more single thing, it appears to have "healed" itself. In the last
week I have been on for increasingly longer periods of time, and the
only BSOD I encountered was while playing a graphics-heavy online
game.

I'm under no allusion that all is again perfection, but it appears
that I can at least surf the web, e-mail and burn CD's again,
hopefully this will continue until funds improve enough for a
complete checkup from a tech.

Thank you for your assistance and patience!

==============
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