Help me find the source of my problem!!!

[idkfa]

Hi, im new here im a bit of a regular over at madonion but that place is no good for tech help anymore but hopefully I can make some new friends here!!!

Ill start with my specs:

AXP2000+
Epox 8K3A
512Mb XMS 3200

The thing is I wanted to put my ram through its paces so I cranked the fsb up a bit lol well it depends if u call 218 a bit Well my comp has never been the same. After i lowered the fsb back down to its usuall 179 i was having all sorts of probs corruption and random crashes to the BIOS in games. So naturally I thought it was the ram so I grudgingly picked up another stick of XMS3200 and lo and behold the problem remained even at 166 fsb

I asked for some help at MO and someone suggested to reformat due to possible corruption, i did it and the problem was still there no more corrupted files but crashing in games after 10 mins or so. I was a little disappointed at this stage and the next day when i tured on my comp i was greeted with the error message that a windows system file was corrupted, after this i realised that a part of my system is truly screwed and need to replace it, the problem is which part is it??? I hope its the mobo cos then i can get a decent one Nforce2 probably but after all this corruption business im not sure if its my mobo or my HDD???

Sorry to go on but i had to explain it as best i could i hope u understand, and please dont hesitate to offer any help!!!!

 

[Fireman]

Do you have a spare HDD to throw in and test it. I know high FSB speeds can corrupt HD files but I'm not sure about any hardware damage. It's possible that your hard drive is failing and doesn't have anything to do with the OCing.

 

[idkfa]

Thanks for the idea Fireman I will give that a go, will let u know how it goes.

 

[idkfa]

Well finally got round to it and well it crashed which is a good thing cos now i know its not my HDD. U recon its the mobo??? I read somewhere that the memory controller on a mobo is very complex and can go wrong do u think i damaged this by having the fsb too high???

Also if u do think its my mobo what do u think of the Asus Nforce2 board???

 

[Fireman]

Well maybe someone else will chime in on this one. I'm not familiar with the workings of the memory controller, or if that could cause file corruption. I don't own an N-Force board either so I can't help you on that one.
Maybe Networkman or one of the other dudes here might know.
Good luck.

 

[alm4rr]

weak suggestion, but you may want to check out the forums on ur mobo manufacturer's website (if there are any)
most mobo problems are not unique

 

[RustyNale]

Welcome to AnandTech, idkfa

Before you throw out your mobo, have you tried setting it back to stock default settings to see how stable it is there? I'd reset the bios via the mobo jumpers, then go into your bios and set it to run on default settings, then test it with your games. If you're comfortable with flashing your bios, I'd try that too. If all goes well, then start bumping your fsb back up...

 

[SwampsterFL]

RustyNale is correct in that this is the cheapest place to start.

HOWEVER . . . .to answer your question more specifically . . . yes, overclocking can damage your motherboard, and quite possibly has. Overclocking causes heat that the board was not designed to tolerate, and thus the reason that the manufacturer voids the warranty on any sign of this.

The fact that your game works for about 10 minutes before a malfuction indicates that it has to reach a certain heat level for the failure to make itself known. With the system dead cold (off overnight) fire it up and check your temps right away to see what you are starting at. It should be in the high 20's or low 30's Celcius. The fact that it is starting in the 40's would indicate you have a defective cooling setup on your CPU. The temps will rise X number of degrees based on use . . . with no regard to where they started. Therefor, if you are 47 degrees on a cold system, when it gets to a full head of steam you will be at or above safe limits. If your motherboard supports it, run a real-time temp/voltage monitor so you can see where it is as you get into your games.

Consider a more efficient CPU cooling system, they are worth the extra you will spend on them. Consider what is cooling your video card. Can you monitor that? Reroute your cables, etc. to gain better front to rear air flow. Add a rear fan if there is not one already present (I am assuming a front case fan is already present). If there is one there . . . add a second if there are facilities.

A good way to test your cooling system is to get a piece of clear plastic that could be temporarily held over the open left side of your computer. Blow smoke into the open system and stick the plastic in place quickly so you can observe where the flow is and where it isn't. All this may seem like nit-picking . . . but if you are going to overclock you need to fine tune this area or you WILL fry the system sooner or later.

 

[scottrico]

Did you check your power supply?

Try disconecting the power supply to the mobo, then clear the cmos.
If you have an extra ps, switch it and see if your system is stable.
It is the problem everyone always overlooks.

 

[idkfa]

Thanks for all the replies guys

Welp its like this, im 90% sure its my mobo, why, well because of what SwampsterFL said about the mobo heating up. Ive tried running the ram at 133 normal timings:Q but the same problem happens, a little while into a game and it crashes. Its not the cpu cos i have an slk 800 and its definatly on right, cooling is good i have two intake and two exhaust plus the psu one. So I think the culprit is my mobo so i ordered an Asus NForce 2 should arrive on sat

One last thing im worried about and was going to ask u guys about was the psu as scottrico said. Is it possible ive overloaded the psu??? its not even 6 months old and its 340W the thing is i read that psu are under alot more strain when playing games so it could be that.

One last thing!!! when i tested my pc with an old HDD i looped 3Dmark i watched it for about 10 mins and when i came back about 20 mins l8r it was back on the desktop (after a reboot i think) so to make sure I ran it again, this time it crashed after about 30 seconds which hopefully points toward an overheating mobo as the problem and not the psu, what do u guys think???

 

[SwampsterFL]

Based on your later findings, I would agree with your decision to replace the motherboard.

When doing the initial setup, make sure you have a good clean surface for your CPU/Heatsink mating. Make sure your thermal paste is even not too thick. Assuming a room temp of mid to late 70's, your CPU should start in the high 20's C and stay below 30 for the duration of the time it takes you to check and set things in the CMOS. If not, you have a cooling problem and it needs to be corrected before you go any further.