Help! why is my t-bird suddenly ruined? what will amd do?

[dpopiz]

Oh boy.
I don't get it. My computer has been running FLAWLESSLY (haven't had a single crash or anything) for about 4 months. Today I instslled Unreal and played it for the first time. Very early in the game it froze (video frozen, sound repeating, reset not work) I cycled the power and now whenever I boot up, the d-led on the board (its an MSI) stops at "Processor Initialization." I tried wiggling the memory and all the cards, then I took out all the cards, then I took the hsf off and took the cpu out and put it back in. Still the same thing. Does anybody have any idea how this happened or if AMD will do anything about it. Its a 900 t-bird.

Thank you.

///UPDATE: now I don't know what the problem is. I tried clearing the CMOS and now it will boot just fine except that it consistantly freezes (ctrl+alt+del not work, reset not work) after about 30 secs. Have any idea what this could be???

Thanks again.

 

[SpeedTester]

Is it a retail chip?? If not when did you buy it and whats the warrantee??
Does your computer beep at all on bootup?

 

[Adul]

try swapping out powersuply with another one and see if it works.

 

[clarkmo]

When you say reset doesn't work I assume you mean the button on the case. I don't think it's your athlon. Could be a loose wire or even the psu. You cna get some strange reponses form a faulty or weak psu

 

[Bonefrier]

Hey..what are your led's stopping at now? It wouldnt happen to be "assign all resources to isa" would it?

 

[dpopiz]

I swapped both the video card and the psu and it made no difference: still freezes about 30 secs after bootup no matter what I have it do.

 

[dpopiz]

btw: I;ve been running the chip at 1.6v core and it is idle at about 47-51C on my MSI K7T Pro2. Could either of these possibly have damaged my cpu?

 

[V]

I believe tbirds are supposes to be run at 1.75v. Any one know if that is right?

 

[Boonesmi]

yeah, im also wondering why you are running at 1.6 core voltage, maybe thats why your not stable

 

[Bonefrier]

Is it getting into the windows splash screen? Also what is the readout
on your D-LED's when it hangs? I'm having a simular problem with my KT-266
and I am trying to find some clue to figuring out if its my cpu or mainboard.

 

[dpopiz]

I was running at 1.6 to keep the chip a little cooler with my quiet but wimpy hsf setup (I'm the noise freak guy).

AND

It can boot into win2k just fine (d-led is all green). In other words, everthing seems to be normal except that it freezes really badly about 1 min (I was saying 30 secs before, but was wrong) after power on.

 

[Camm]

Try a larger heatsink and fan just to be sure it isn't getting hot. Also heatsink paste if not already. Good luck,

Camm

 

[Jwyatt]

Look in the bios when you boot to see what the temp is running. LEt it idle for a few minutes there. I know this is not under load, but might tell if your cpu is a bit warm. I like to have mine no more than 10c over ambient temp while idle.

If it runs w2k fine I would look at what you loaded with unreal. Any updates like DX? Some drivers might be conflicting.

 

[dpopiz]

Well, for the 5 months it hasn't crashed, it's been running idle at 48-50C and under load about 50-52C, but right now I have it set up so that it runs idle at about 31C. I don't think heat is the problem here. However, one thing that may have caused a problem is that about 3 months or so ago, the fan wire stopped contacting while I was gone and so my t-bird was running at 70C for about 15 mins. Could this have damaged the cpu and only showed up now, 3 months later?
To answer your other question: I'm sure its not just a driver problem or something because it freezes after 1 min both when I boot into win2k AND when I'm just sitting in the BIOS; it seems to freeze after 1 min no matter what I do.

 

[SpeedTrap]

<< instslled Unreal >>



uhm you gave your answer in your first post, maybe a clean install is in order

 

[dpopiz]

I have a new bit of information that may be very useful: I found that it freezes after a minute with my Radeon LE, but if I swap it for a G400-tv, it just blanks the screen instead of freezing. Could the problem be something related to the graphics or AGP?

Also

I still haven't ruled out the possiblility that there may be something wrong with my cpu. I took off the hsf and examined the core and noticed that it a has VERY SMALL chip out of two corners. However, I have have been running fine for 5 months since I last had the hsf off. Could this be a problem? Maybe since there is a little chip out of the core covering material, that part of the core could be not contacting the hsf and getting too hot. But of course, that doesn't make too much sense, because...the whole 5 months no probs thing.

 

[IBuyUFO]

I chipped the corners of the core and it still works. That's nothing to worry about unless you've cracked the core.

 

[IdahoB]

If you've damaged your CPU, it wouldn't even boot. It's more likely to be memory (if it IS a hardware issue, which sounds unlikely). Make sure the memory setup is correct.

 

[dpopiz]

IdahoB:

I really do think it's hardware problem, since it even freezes in the BIOS. Isn't that right to assume?

 

[McCarthy]

And if you put it back to recommended voltage it still does this?

--Mc

 

[dpopiz]

Yes, I am running at the default vcore now.
I just did a whole huge series of tests and have found something VERY INTERESTING. I discovered that if the cpu temp gets up to about 42-43C, the core voltage shoots down very quickly to 1.49v. At that point it freezes. It makes sense that it would freeze after suddenly dropping to 1.49, right? I can actually run just fine if I set up enough cooling to keep the cpu below 43C, and therefore at a good ~1.75v vcore. But why is it now doing that as soon as it hits 43C? A different psu makes no difference. >>>Also, I just remembered ONE THING that I did change that day, shortly before the problems started: I plugged the machine into a different power strip, which was plugged into another one with quite a few other things plugged in. Could a shortage of power comming from the power strip possibly have damaged something that is causing this voltage-dropping effect?

 

[BurntKooshie]

As the temperature rises, the electrical conductivity decreases (more resistance). Maybe that has something to do with it. Once it reaches a certain temperature, there isn't enough current for the chip (because of the increased resistance), and this is in turn caused because you have waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much stuff plugged in? Just a guess.

Not to mention you've got a firehazard.

 

[SpeedTrap]

what PS you have in it? and other specs as in drain from PS

 

[Redstar7]

Hey PainKiller could you post all your system specs please? This is pretty interesting considering that the only difference in your working rig and a non-working rig is an install of Unreal!

 

[GundamF91]

probably the CPU then. probably shouldn't have &quot;under-volted&quot; it. :/