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  • Sudden problem, help/ideas needed

    OK here's the problem:

    After running great for a long time, my system suddenly stops. Just stops!!! The video image is still on screan if it was on, screen is blank if off (PM controlled, not the problem there). Everthing just randomly freezes. Totaly unresponcive, clock does not advance, power switch will not cause system to go to sleep (but will power off). Nothing. No errors, no BSOD, nothing. This happend on the desktop, so it's not a game or DX problem.

    So far I have tried:
    -Thoughrow surface scans an hard drives (no problems)
    -Reseated memory, CPU, Cards.
    - Checked temps and voltages,no problems moments before freeze. (everthing is well cooled, even tried cover off, with AC vent aimed at case; PS- PCP&C Turbo cool 300)
    -Removed CPU from slocket and reseated.
    -Removed HSF, reseated with better thermal compound.
    -Checked and/or reseated all cables.
    -Slowed memory timeing to 3-3-3 (Micron 7.5PC100, ran 133FSB at 3-2-2 with out incident for many weeks)
    -Put bus back to 100MHz.
    -Checked registry, no problems found, also used Norton WinDoctor.
    -SMART monitor has not logged any problems with hard drives, even when running during freeze.

    I have not yet switched out the CPU to see if it's suspect.

    My suspicions were with the main hard drive, because during the NDD (replaces scandisk) test at boot-up after freeze it has aften found cross-linked files, instead of just lost clusers. I have a new HD on order, hey it's as good an excuse as any to upgrade.

    Any other ideas????

    HELP!!!


    Many of you know my specs. If you need/want details just ask. And yes, most resent BIOS (v2.47), and no beer parties (USB and SQ2500 share, but had no problems playing sound in games while useing USB game device, for over a year).

    Mark F.


    ------------------
    OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
    and burped out a movie

    The specs can't hurt and may help for those that aren't familiar with them. SO..

    How do you copy the IRQ list from Device Manager? That will give you all installed components quickly, and the MoBo is a AOpen AX6BC Rev 1.3 (not Pro or Gold).


    [This message has been edited by Mark F (edited 21 February 2000).]
    Mark F. (A+, Network+, & CCNA)
    --------------------------------------------------
    OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
    and burped out a movie

  • #2
    If I had your symptoms, I would reinstall Windows to a fresh (formatted and partitioned) HD. If that did not solve the problem, I would suspect the processor and MB. Most likely the MB (cheapest option).

    Comment


    • #3
      Only used the SMART utility to see if the HD was the problem. Don't have Norton running all the time (no SystemDoctor loading at startup). Just the indiviual utilities as needed. Have left PC running with 84% resorces (boot state is 92%) and returned to frozen desktop.

      Won't rule it out but dought it's a temp problem. My first though, but it happens at stock setting, lots of fans, cover on or off.

      Nope no new installs. (well uninstalled and reinstalled SETICashe, but used same DL on on other PC without problems. The newest versions seems to have fixed the problems with CLC2, hurray!!!)

      PM is off in the BIOS.

      Clock frozen, mouse won't move, nothing!

      Will try to clean the contacts tommorrow. (also have some new ones on the way, will switch 'em out if the problem still exists when they get here.

      Can't do the last part or I won't have reception on my TV

      Did I miss anything?



      Mark F.

      How do you copy the IRQ list from Device Manager? OK so I'm too lazy to type them in by hand . Anyone?


      ------------------
      OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
      and burped out a movie


      Mark F. (A+, Network+, & CCNA)
      --------------------------------------------------
      OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
      and burped out a movie

      Comment


      • #4
        <tt><nobr>System: online.

        Query: How do you copy the IRQ list from Device Manager?

        Results/Solution:

        1. Click: Start-&gt;Programs-&gt;Accessories-&gt;System Tools-&gt;System Information
        {or Run: &quot;x:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSINFO\MSINFO32.EXE&quot;}
        {or Run: &quot;MSINFO32.EXE&quot;}

        2. In Microsoft System Information:
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a. Expand Hardware Resources
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b. Click IRQs
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;c. Click on an IRQ on right window pane.
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;d. Type: &lt;CTRL&gt;-A (to select ALL)
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;e. Type: &lt;CTRL&gt;-C (to copy to Clipboard).

        3. Goto <font color="#0000FF">MURC Forums</font> and paste content of clipboard with &lt;CTRL&gt;-V

        System: offline.
        </nobr></tt>

        ------------------
        Warrior Acolyte of M, Alter-Ego of JamesA who is <u>now</u> a Dumbass.
        Now equipped with Holy Asbestos Armor designed by Dilitante.

        {Darn UBB. Thanks Jorden.}


        [This message has been edited by Warrior Acolyte of M (edited 21 February 2000).]
        <b>Warrior Acolyte of M</b>, Alter-Ego of <b>JamesA</b> who is currently a <b>Dumbass</b>.
        Now equipped with Holy Asbestos Armor<sup><small><tt>TM</tt></small></sup> designed by <a href="http://forums.matroxusers.com/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=63" target="_blank"><b>Dilitante1</b></a>.

        Comment


        • #5
          If you had your frontside bus bumped up,it may have damaged your fat files or somehow currupted the os.You may have to fdisk and reinstall.
          Have found that by increasing fsb,it can have negative effects on your hard drive.
          Just a thought...

          Comment


          • #6
            FSB was 133, so PCI was/is 33MHz. Shouldn't be a problem for the ISE chanel. It used to run for a year with FSB at 124/129 (with a 1/3) divider.

            Well so far it's been OK with the old CPU. I will see if it's still running in the morning. The 550FC ran fine for a month+, so don't know?! Will try it in an other system and see what happens.

            James A BIG thank you!!

            Here it is finally:


            0 System timer
            1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
            2 Programmable interrupt controller
            3 (free)
            4 Communications Port (COM1)
            5 PCI Ethernet DEC 21041 Based Adapter
            5 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
            6 (free)
            7 Linksys LNE100TX Fast Ethernet Adapter
            7 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
            8 System CMOS/real time clock
            9 Vortex AU8830 Sound Blaster Pro Emulation
            10 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
            10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
            11 Vortex AU8830 PCI Audio
            11 Vortex AU8830 Multifunction PCI Platform
            11 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
            11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
            12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
            13 Numeric data processor
            14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
            14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
            15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
            15 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller

            Night all,
            Mark F.



            ------------------
            OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
            and burped out a movie


            Mark F. (A+, Network+, & CCNA)
            --------------------------------------------------
            OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
            and burped out a movie

            Comment


            • #7
              Mark, looking at your IRQ 11 here.
              11 Vortex AU8830 PCI Audio
              11 Vortex AU8830 Multifunction PCI Platform
              11 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
              11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering

              You've got 2 or 3 different pieces of hardware on that IRQ and only one IRQ holder. That's not good!

              Did you try to boot up in WIndows safe mode and delete any double entries in the device manager, then reboot?
              Or goto Win safe mode and delete at least the Vortex apps, then reboot and let Windows re-install them and reassign IRQs to.

              Thanks for another IRQ puzzle, btw

              Jord.
              Jordâ„¢

              Comment


              • #8
                Mark F,

                Maybe you should move the Vortex2 to another PCI slot and see OR change the IRQ for the USB controller.

                Not sure if there is any conflict between the Vortex2 and the USB or not.

                Also disable the SoundBlaster Pro emulation through Device Manager if you don't play antiquated games (read: <code>DOS</code>).

                What happened to your floppy drive? Do you have one? If so, IRQ 6 should show the floppy controller.

                Why do you have 2 NICs? IP routing, NAT, firewall?

                Using USB mouse? If so, disable PS/2 mouse in mobo BIOS.

                The above suggestions just help you free up IRQs. It is entirely possible that you have some other conflicts in your system. <code>8)</code>

                Good luck!


                ------------------
                JamesA: Dumbass MURCer with &lt; 100 Posts!
                System Details

                "Have you had any licorice lately?"

                <b>JamesA</b>: Just a <b>Dumbass MURCer</b>

                Comment


                • #9
                  USB and SQ2500 share, but had no problems playing sound in games while useing USB game device, for over a year. Still don't and it's just the one SQ2500. It gets reported as two because it is multifunction.

                  Yes, two NIC, cable modem and LAN.

                  PS/2 mouse.

                  No floppy! LS-120.

                  I use the USB ports and have not been able to change their IRQ assignment.

                  Only had one IRQ Holder for PCI Steering even when a NIC tried to use the IRQ with them, and still didn't have problems. But I forced it to play nice and move.

                  Well, all seems well at the moment. Has been running for over 12hrs with old CPU / . Damn, like I'm going to be able to get a replacement 550FC any time soon . I'll try it in another PC and see what happens. Now if I could only get this 450 to work at 600 . Can't get it over 580 .

                  I'll let you know if the problem continues, so far it looks like the CPU was the culprite.

                  Thanks for your replies!

                  Mark F.

                  ------------------
                  OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
                  and burped out a movie

                  There that looks better. b, i, whatever!


                  [This message has been edited by Mark F (edited 22 February 2000).]
                  Mark F. (A+, Network+, & CCNA)
                  --------------------------------------------------
                  OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
                  and burped out a movie

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Mark F,

                    Drop one NIC and get a hub or switch. Plug your cable modem cable to the uplink port and your NIC to one of the ports. Free up an IRQ.

                    Overclocking your CPU will normally cause system locks like this unless you get an extremely stable chip and have really good cooling. The chip part is mearly luck of the draw. Unless you bought your CPU through an overclock garuntee (very rare) you are not going to be able to return it.

                    If you want to keep your new CPU overclcoked get a better heatsink/fan combo and make sure you use good thermal compound. Putting a heatsink on the back of the chip (assuming it is not a socketed CPU) will help too.

                    Jammrock

                    ------------------
                    Athlon 650, Biostar board, 128 MB PC133 (Crucial), G400 32 MB DH, SB Live! w/ Digital I/O, 10/100 NIC, lots of case fans, etc...
                    “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
                    –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Jammrock-

                      Unsafe at any speed

                      Didn't matter OCed or not. As soon as it locked the first time I droped to stock speed, Still happend. After running fine for over a month. As for it being a heat issue, well it would lock at either speed. Once right after it locked at 100, I right away rebooted at 133. Now the chip would not have had a chance to cool significantly expecialy if it was locking from a heat issue, and now running at greater stress. And it ran for about 7.5 hours without locking (longer than it had run the last time total).

                      As I said I'll try the CPU (550FC/Iwill SlocketII combo) in an other PC and see what happens. If there is a problem there it's the CPU or Slocket. If not well...maybe MoBo, just not sure. That is if things stay stable with the 'old' CPU (PIII450).

                      If you ment the luck with my 450, well I know, just would like it to be able to go higher. But I've never said it's a problem that is preventing it from doing it. Yep, it'll 'only' go to 580 stably; oh well! Will have to play musical CPU's when something new comes in. I'll probably throw together something for the GF with the 450 (as the slowest CPU in the bunch), so I won't get all the pretty fonts slowing down my system. Probably need a new KMV (HMMM..will a 4port work with only 3 PCs?). Oh damn, there goes that OC jones again. I need help, but...

                      How many free IRQs do I need?

                      ~16Hrs with 450 (@580), so far so good . Well the new CPU would be really good. Damn, and I liked my FC

                      Mark F.


                      ------------------
                      OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
                      and burped out a movie




                      [This message has been edited by Mark F (edited 22 February 2000).]
                      Mark F. (A+, Network+, & CCNA)
                      --------------------------------------------------
                      OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
                      and burped out a movie

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        mark, it may be your sound card. i had similar problems with my system and a vortex 2. system would lock up randomly with no error messages. forceing 1x helped but did not cure. (amd k7 system) the card did work flawlessly in my bh6/g400 but had has problems with my k7 (sb live cured it.) (just a thought i could be wrong.)
                        msi 6167 mobo k7 500 wk41 now at 650. 256 meg ram ,addtronics case w 250watt sp power supply, matrox g400, maxtor diammax 2500+ 10gig hd,10x aopen slot dvd, 3com 10/100 nic, sb live xgamer sound card, efecent networks dsl modem, dlink 701i dsl router/firewall, lots of controlers (joystick throttle rudder raceing wheel), 19in ctx monitor, logitech mouseman wheel usb, and klipsch promedia v2-400 speakers. win98 oem and win2k pro dual boot.

                        noel
                        it's times like this that make me think of my fathers last words....

                        Don't son that gun is loaded.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Coming back to a
                          My suspicions were with the main hard drive, because during the NDD (replaces scandisk) test at boot-up after freeze it has aften found cross-linked files, instead of just lost clusers
                          I had that a while ago and in the moment I expected Wondiws to poop up, I heard some weird looping sound fomr my HD instead ...

                          I rebooted into NT and launched DiskDoctor .. result was a BAB BLOCK on my primary HD and obviously exactly the block that contained neccessary data.

                          My point is that NDD for DOS didn't find that bad and thus didn't map it out, resulting in that scratching loop. NDD for WinNT did find it, mapped it out and let me boot into W98 safe mode, from where I launched that 'pcrestor.bat' that comes on your W98 disk ... everything peachy now.



                          So my advice would be:

                          Run NDD from a Windows environment (if you don't have NT you could consider to install a minimal version of W98 onto a different HD)

                          Hope that helps ...

                          Cheers,
                          Maggi
                          Despite my nickname causing confusion, I am not female ...

                          ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional
                          Intel Core i7-3930K@4.3GHz
                          be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2
                          4x 8GB G.Skill TridentX PC3-19200U@CR1
                          2x MSI N670GTX PE OC (SLI)
                          OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
                          4x2TB Seagate Barracuda Green 5900.3 (2x4TB RAID0)
                          Super Flower Golden Green Modular 800W
                          Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
                          LG BH10LS38
                          LG DM2752D 27" 3D

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            merchant2112-
                            Nah, It's been crunching away under my torture test, for over a day and a half. Everthing is fine again, only change was downgradeing the CPU back to my old setup (pIII450).

                            I have to get around to trying the 550FC in the other system and see what happens. I've flashed the BIOS (to CuMine compatable), but haven't swapped yet. The real problem will be if there's a problem in there; will the cause be the CPU or the Slocket, arrgggh?

                            So I'm back at down to 580Mhz , but scareing the rock of Gibraulta again .

                            Maggi-

                            I did the NDD thoughow surface scan in Win98, is that pretty much the same?
                            New HD will be here today anyway.

                            Thanks,
                            Mark F.

                            What case covers?...
                            Oh I thought those were just for shipping!

                            ------------------
                            OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
                            and burped out a movie




                            [This message has been edited by Mark F (edited 23 February 2000).]
                            Mark F. (A+, Network+, & CCNA)
                            --------------------------------------------------
                            OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
                            and burped out a movie

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              LOL

                              interesting typo-mistakes ...

                              Wondiws to poop up

                              Too funny to be corrected !!!

                              Despite my nickname causing confusion, I am not female ...

                              ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional
                              Intel Core i7-3930K@4.3GHz
                              be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2
                              4x 8GB G.Skill TridentX PC3-19200U@CR1
                              2x MSI N670GTX PE OC (SLI)
                              OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
                              4x2TB Seagate Barracuda Green 5900.3 (2x4TB RAID0)
                              Super Flower Golden Green Modular 800W
                              Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
                              LG BH10LS38
                              LG DM2752D 27" 3D

                              Comment

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