New ASUS A7V8X-X and XP3000 unstable!

[Electronic Punk]

Well my case does run at 19, a lian-li aluminium case... has a fan a the back, two at the front, two at the top.

It is also bloody freezing in here.

Personally, I would be worried if my cpu temp was up at 70, but thats just me, I have no idea what the 3000 is supposed to run out... but 10 more degrees and the motherboard will actually flip the power switch, and such temp increases can occur when highly intensive applications (ie strangely valve's steam) are launched.

 

[Electronic Punk]

Well waddy has a vapochill case, I thought I might add and a 9800 XT in the post, he hopes!

 

[Mainframeguy]

Unsure if temp. the issue... event 1003 anyone?

I accept I am letting my machine run hot - and I know long term this is bad news. But I am reluctant to say it's the cause of instability....I set mobo cutoff down from default 95 to 85 in BIOS, but never get anywhere near that. Hotest readout I had was around 56 after about three hours at 100% CPU. Now some folks seem to think that's not unreasonable - remember this is a high(ish) end AMD (they run hot) clocking at 2167, even on startup the temp is in the high 30's and rapidly reaches Ca. 44o with CPU idle. I may add another fan in time, I know other folks get their systems very cool p EP), and I am sure it is the best way to keep a system long-lived.

Here is what I have found... system crashes - when I get blue screen I often (but NOT always) see "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" with various STOP codes (EG x8E, x0A and many more). A techie friend thinks this is driver contention for an IRQ, which means a software driver issue (as the MS dump analysis suggests). The system event log shows me a code 102 with an event number of 1003 - at least that seems to be the one so far as I can see. Needless to say MS offer me no help on that and the newsgroup search I tried does not seem to give anything relevant for me.

I'm not really expecting anyone to resolve my problem from this information - but hope to at least dis-spell idea that it is a heat issue (surely when you get a temp cutout the machine is powered down! And I have NEVER has that yet, it's always black or blue screen resets).

OK I think I have given enough of my tale of woe now! A friend advised me to treat the new machine like a new puppy that needs training (I like the analogy!).... So I think I must have a Jack Russell!!

 

[Mainframeguy]

OK OK OK

I have to post here first (this is a thread mop-up, so appologies to any mods who read this more than once, at least I warned ya up-front!)

I wish, oh how I wish, I were a better listener! Many told me to try taking sides off and pointing fans - having got (I thought!) a decent well-appointed barebones off E-bay (99.9% satisfaction) I did not take that seriously.

Now I know better....

After... many many restarts,
STOP errors (1003 events, almost always),
Driver updates, trials, tribulations (I am sure you know),
XP complete re-install (traumatic!)
second (or was it fourth!) reinstall to get a clear one?
Ventures into recovery mode (for missing windize DLL!)
experimentation with Knoppix Linux to eliminate hardware failure,
Burnt out DVD R/W from failed firmware burn with system (ouch!)
.....

anyway - after all that and all it cost me in lost earnings while I was not developing/maintaining the ancient software upon which I labour (see user name)... Guess what I found out...??

My DDR RAM, whilst completely within spec., appears unable to tolerate case temps (as measured by ASUS/MBM) much beyond the 42/43oC mark before instability results. missed this initially because I was more or less completely focussed on the processor heatwise (this is well protected and has not given problems).

It took me a while to test - apart from frantic driver bashing I need to allow time to learn something is stable. Once side was off and floor fan blowing in (reducing temps about ten degs all around) then system suddenly had no more bad memory reads!

Thaink about it - drivers are "driving" all the time - if memory fails they will report it about nine times out of ten (I know from bitter experience!). And of course in this case when you run memtest, or any other tester of memory your system is not driven hard enough to raise the temp to fail memory! I should write to the memory testers to suggest they drive processore up to 95% while testing and use a little graphics on top.... then they would have failed MY memory!

So there you have it

I will be contacting my barebones supplier on Monday - if he odes not ship fans he looses goodwill/future order/a possible 0.1% off his Ebay rating!).

I hope this is of some help to anyone who had the misfortune to follow my threads of woes - and I thank you all for your support through what has been tricksome times!

PS - currently testing with floor fan blowing into closed case - as kinda "road test" for adding fans, it is looking good, but borderline - anyone thinks this test valid? Will fans be better, or worse than floor fan blowing into vent slot?

PPS - It's not all bad news, despite loosing DVD R/W I have installed router (WHY or WHY did I not get one sooner?) and gone wi-fi (oh yeah, that was why!)

Laterz - thanks again guys - threads to mop now...

 

[Electronic Punk]

I am going to get myself a 3000+ today, provided they are in stock and around the same price (+£20/£30) at the PC World OEM section (which is very good actually)

I checked my Soutbridge and I have the sticker with 333FSB on it ( I presume yours does) I already have the latest beta bios 1014.a or something.

Will have to buy some more coolant and spend a little time getting it nice and cool as this one is, but should be good.

Am I gonna notice an increase in speed?
Not only am I going from 2400+ to 3000+ (well 600 used to be alot )
But I am going to an FSB of 266 to 333
I am using a gig if crucial 2700 DDR-RAM, I guess it is compatible?

 

[Maveric169]

Something else you might also consider is a active RAM chip cooler, they are mcuh quieter than case fans, and will probley cool your RAM down so there within specs.

 

[Mainframeguy]

Sorry it took me so long to post EP - yeah, I think you'll see quite a difference, maybe not as much as me because I went from a 1900+.

I think the FSB will notice for you though - I am awaiting crucial RAM myself from my barebones supplier because I am still getting temperatures near and into the forties from my ASUS board and it is still causeing RAM problems despite having Samsung in there at the moment - which is actually a make ASUS resommend for their A7V8X-X mobo. If that fails then the mobo is suspect, which is really bad news.

Somehow I do not think you are going to have any temperature problems though - I am still puzzled about mine and hoping it could just be some bad RAM (though I have my doubts).

 

[Electronic Punk]

Yeah, I have a 3000 now.