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#1
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A8V random reboots - Turn off BIOS "auto" settings?
Hello, I have an Asus A8V Deluxe with the AMD Athlon 64 3500 processor,
Win XP PRO SP-1, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card and it reboots at random. Usually it happens when I am closing or opening a window in IE v.6, a small box of garbage will open in the upper left corner of the screen and without any further action from me the system reboots. It usually happens within the first 15 minutes of use and may occur several consecutive times until a stable set up is enabled. If I get past about 30 minutes, nothing I have run will crash the system. Therefore I don't suspect heat. I have a Antec 430 w power supply so I don't think it is lack of power. I have done the obvious, pulled and reseat cards, memory and cables. I ran system scans with Norton AV, AdAware, Spy Sweeper. I ran Memtest 86 overnight for 70+ passes without an error (One 512 mb stick of generic pc-3200 memory). I installed the latest updates for MB BIOS, ATI Radeon Driver and Win XP update. I put the Radeon card on it own power lead. The Device manager shows no problems and the Radeon card is only device on IRQ 16. I have been making changes in the BIOS and may think I have the problem solved when it reboots. I can't locate any solid information on what the BIOS "auto" setting do in the AI Overclocking and Memory configuration screens. With AI Overclocking and Memory configurations set to "Auto" does each reboot load a possibly different set of parameters? Thus sometimes the system is unstable. Is it possible to view the BIOS parameters that were loaded when using the "auto" setting? Should I turn off all "auto" setting and set all parameters manually? Should I be looking at something other than BIOS settings? Sorry for the long message but thanks for reading, Bill Steininger |
#2
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On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 09:38:39 -0400, Bill wrote:
Therefore I don't suspect heat. The fact that the problem goes away after about 30 minutes or so does make me suspect temperature to be part of the equation here. After all that is the only parameter that changes over time. In your particular case it sounds as if the problem is too low a temperature (in contrast with the normal overheating issues). The main two effects of hardware warming up is that chips get slower (CPU, memory etc) and that you have some mechanical effects due to expanding material. Since you have already tried reseating various components the most probable cause is a timing issue. With cold hardware something is running too fast, but once things have warmed up the problem is gone. Standard repair procedure in such a case is to get a can of freeze spray and selectively cool down components until the error occurs. However I am not sure if you can also do this with a PC. Cooling down one part to -40 C while the rest is very hot will cause great mechanical stress. And frosting will be an issue too. Anybody here have any experience using freeze spray on a PC? Kind regards, Danny Sanders www (o o) ,---------------------------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo-. | This message is printed on 100% recycled electrons. | `-----------------------------------------------------------------' |
#3
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On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 17:16:42 +0200, Danny Sanders wrote:
As an afterthought: it could also be a bad connection or solder joint. Erratic contact while cold but good contact when warmed up. You could try fiddling with various connectors or gently apply pressure to the circuits boards to see if you can cause a reboot that way. Regards, Danny Sanders www (o o) ,---------------------------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo-. | This message is printed on 100% recycled electrons. | `-----------------------------------------------------------------' |
#4
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I got the same config here, except I got 1024 megs of ram and a X800.
Mine is stable form the start. What cooler do you use? Have you replugged all power cords? Switch them over from one gadget to the next, change them. I had one that would connect to the DVD correctly, but would work perfectly with the hdd. Try that. Otherwise: Get it back, thats not normal. I think it is the MB. Try to set all bios values to auto and or default and do not overclock the system. If it runs stable here we go. Does it happen on a clean install of XP? I once had a programm that caused the crashes. Try running something like powerquest PM in Dos mode with a mouse or better some Knoppix CD just to get it working without windows. If it runs something is bad with your XP install. If it is a hardware failure it shoul dhappen on knoppix or dos, too. Try reseating the 9800 again and firmly. Klicking a window could be related to the GFX card. |
#5
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"Bill" wrote in message t... I have done the obvious, pulled and reseat cards, memory and cables. I ran system scans with Norton AV, AdAware, Spy Sweeper. I ran Memtest 86 overnight for 70+ passes without an error (One 512 mb stick of generic pc-3200 memory). Generic RAM?!?! Do you see generic listed anywhere in your mb's list? http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/sock...d/overview.htm Forget Memtest. If you really want to test, then run long full system backups for a few nights, saving the backup file to the hard-drive. RAM issues often come up very randomly, especially under load, so I wouldn't rely on any single test. First, reduce the vid card's acceleration to none, to rule out the video card. Then check the Windows Event log, to rule out any nasty background application or service. Also, disable the virus-scan to rule that out. If those are fine, you could try fiddling with RAM, cache, and speed settings in BIOS, which may resolve it. But I'd replace the RAM with some Asus recommended ones anyway, since I think that's the culprit here. RayO |
#6
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Ray,
"RAM issues often come up very randomly". That is exactly why one should use memtest86. A process such as backup will not exercise all of ram randomly, it will do repetitive tests to parts of ram only. A better out of the box test is to create a scheduled task using the shutdown command to initiate a restart. The task should start say 1 minute after the system goes idle after boot so the system continuously boots. Windows [XP] boot does thrash parts of the system, but is by no means any kind of exhaustive test either. - Tim "RayO" wrote in message ... "Bill" wrote in message t... I have done the obvious, pulled and reseat cards, memory and cables. I ran system scans with Norton AV, AdAware, Spy Sweeper. I ran Memtest 86 overnight for 70+ passes without an error (One 512 mb stick of generic pc-3200 memory). Generic RAM?!?! Do you see generic listed anywhere in your mb's list? http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/sock...d/overview.htm Forget Memtest. If you really want to test, then run long full system backups for a few nights, saving the backup file to the hard-drive. RAM issues often come up very randomly, especially under load, so I wouldn't rely on any single test. First, reduce the vid card's acceleration to none, to rule out the video card. Then check the Windows Event log, to rule out any nasty background application or service. Also, disable the virus-scan to rule that out. If those are fine, you could try fiddling with RAM, cache, and speed settings in BIOS, which may resolve it. But I'd replace the RAM with some Asus recommended ones anyway, since I think that's the culprit here. RayO |
#7
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"Tim" wrote in message ... Ray, "RAM issues often come up very randomly". That is exactly why one should use memtest86. A process such as backup will not exercise all of ram randomly, it will do repetitive tests to parts of ram only. A better out of the box test is to create a scheduled task using the shutdown command to initiate a restart. The task should start say 1 minute after the system goes idle after boot so the system continuously boots. Windows [XP] boot does thrash parts of the system, but is by no means any kind of exhaustive test either. - Tim Speaking from experience, I've had memory problems that memtest86 would NOT reveal (running ALL tests), but would still lock up my system in Windows, so I can see where Ray0 is coming from. -- Brent |
#8
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Ditto. Neither is perfect. I was not dismissing it completely. I suppose the
one test memtest86 does not have is the long boring repetitive task test... - Tim "Bx.C" wrote in message ... "Tim" wrote in message ... Ray, "RAM issues often come up very randomly". That is exactly why one should use memtest86. A process such as backup will not exercise all of ram randomly, it will do repetitive tests to parts of ram only. A better out of the box test is to create a scheduled task using the shutdown command to initiate a restart. The task should start say 1 minute after the system goes idle after boot so the system continuously boots. Windows [XP] boot does thrash parts of the system, but is by no means any kind of exhaustive test either. - Tim Speaking from experience, I've had memory problems that memtest86 would NOT reveal (running ALL tests), but would still lock up my system in Windows, so I can see where Ray0 is coming from. -- Brent |
#9
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On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 09:38:39 -0400, Bill
wrote: Should I be looking at something other than BIOS settings? Try setting you down from 8x to 4x and report back if it helps. I have nearly the same system as you as it would do what you describe, but only when i launched 3D games. Lowering the AGP to 4x seems to have solved the problem for me. |
#10
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