P4 Unstable!! Need Help.......

[klandatu]

This one is for the Guru's.....Here go's.......We had a P4 1.6Ghz in our PC which we built (i am an electrical engineer and have built >20 PC's) in it it was a Asus P4B motherboard with 1Gig of PC 133 memory, a Geforce 3 video card , an 80 Gig Hard Drive, a sound blaster Audigy MP3+ sound card, etc. This PC ran games very well with no problems, we then got our hands on a brand new P4 1.7ghz Retail box processor and replaced the P4. Now when my son plays his games that are graphic intensive the pc locks up after about 5-10 minutes, screen freezes and the sound stutters, we reboot the system and its back to normal. So we decided to do an upgrade to see if we could fix this problem and we changed the case and put in a Enermax power supply rated at 431 watts, we changed the motherboard to an Asus P4S333, with 512 meg of PC2700 DDR memory, and a new Geforce 4 with 128 meg of DDR memory, everything else is the same. And when he plays his games it still locks up after 5-10 minutes. My feelings are that the processor is Defective and I should send it back to intel under its 3 year warranty. But I would like to here if any one else has any other ideas? Much appreciated and thanx in advance.

 

[WarCon]

If that was the only common item between the two systems then its definately possible. What did you use on your heatsink (thermal compound/pad)?

 

[Jwyatt]

I dont think hs compound would make a difference in this case. I dont think he's overclocking his system. Stock pad and cooling device should be fine.

have you tried going back with the 1.6 cpu to see if it changes?

 

[WarCon]

I really only asked because it had been on two separate systems and those retail pads are definately only one use items. I also don't think thats the problem though, but just looking at the only two things that were changed in the first stable system.

 

[Jwyatt]

Thats true about the pad being used only once. It does seem that those are the only common things in the system besides the installer and the software.

Does this happen in all games or just one particular game?

 

[DarkOrca]

maybe it's worth checking the temp of the CPU. It could be the HSF being malfunctioning.

P.S. does your son hit the computer each time he got killed in the game?

 

[klandatu]

Hello,

And thank you to all that responded with thoughts of what the problem might be. Well im happy to tell you I replaced the processor with a Brand new retail boxed P4 1.8a and it's working perfectly!!!!!!! My 2 boys have played their games on it for hours with no problems, and the hottest it gets is 41c but now I would like to answer some of your questions.
Yes I installed a new cpu pad on the heat sink when we moved it to the new motherboard, and after that didn't work I removed the pad and tried white heat sink compound and that didn't work. and NO my boy's do not beat on the PC after they play a game....
And the 1.6 processor I had I sold when I purchased the new 1.7 p4.
anyway, I contacted by phone, Intel and they told me that the processor was defective and they sent me (through E-mail) the procedure for sending back a defective processor and the RMA number, and I sent it back UPS on saturday.
Once again thanx to all who tried to help..

 

[WarCon]

Glad you figured it out. It really did sound like it had to be the processor. That was the only real common denominator.