Problems with my system and it might be the Asus P5ND2-SLI

[dragsome]

Hi there,

With my new pc I am having some problems to keep the computer stable. I do overclock but the overclock is not extreme since my Pentium D 805 Idles between 40-45 degrees celsius.
I get lock ups where suddenly the whole computer freezes and you do not even know it. The screen is still there but nothing moves. Then you restart and it goes into an endless restart loop and starting to corrupt the windows. Then I let the memory check on the asus motherboard run and it gives me an error. AHA! It must be the memory. I take out the memory leave one stick and works fine. Move it around works fine. Put back other stick works fine. This happened a few times. Then I decide to get that Memtest86+ everybody uses to test memory. 19 hours running 0 (ZERO!) errors! So what is it then?! My Motherboard maybe? Before I RMA the board I need to know for sure.

Another problem... Most of the time my computer does not power down when I click on "shut down" in Windows XP PRO. It gets stuck on the "windows shutting down" screen and stays there.

Now recently I have been toying with the idea that it might be my Powersupply. I had nothing but praise for the Antec 550W PSU but who knows, maybe my system is really that demanding. If it is the PSU then is it faulty or just simply too weak? Would it explain both of the problems I described above?

Whatever the deal is I thought I'd ask the experts here before I sell my system. Please if you can help me on this issue and maybe what other more appropriate forums to post in I really would appreciate it.




I have a Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Powersupply.

My computer specs are as follows:
Asus P5ND2-SLI
Pentium D 805 @3.6GHz
OCZ Gold DDR2 667MHz @varies from stock to 720 MHz but always at 2.1V
ATI X850XT (flashed to XTPE)... underclocked when not in 3D application (Atitool)
4x Maxtor L01S300 300GB 16MB cache in RAID 0+1
NEC DVD-RW burner
Floppy
Audigy2 ZS SOUNDCARD
Winfast TV2000XP Deluxe TV CARD

 

[MrWizzard]

Have you tried clearing cmos and going with the default/workable setting?

What I mean is have you tried running it without OC anything?



EDIT:Your Power supply should be enough if it's not defective.

You are using a flashed ATI though, you have another AGP card you can put in for a while?

 

[dragsome]

Yes I have run it default with no overclocking but not for that long. Also my pc is running fine right now. But I think that is because I am not overclocking the X850XT which is a PCI-E and not AGP.

The current vcore voltage is set to 1.475v. Thing is that I have notice spikes in power according to Asus AiBooster. It falls down to 1.39v sometimes and it usually shows just 1.46v. Remember I manually set it to 1.475v in bios. This makes me think the PSU is not good enough for this kind of vcore. Can anybody explain if these power changes are good, normal or false?

I just ordered and OCZ GameXstream 700W to see how it works out. A damn expensive powersupply. But I rather start with that than having to change memory or the Motherboard since I can sell my antec.

 

[MrWizzard]

I have been told you don't want to the power to fluctuate very much.

Be careful what brand power supply you get though, I am not saying OCZ is bad. But just because it can put out a lot of power does not mean its stable or good power.

You may want to read some ANAND guides to see what power supplies they recommend. I used to have a power supply problem and I got the Tagen one they recommended all my problems were fixed.

Good Luck

 

[dragsome]

Are there any tests or tools with which I can check if and how much my powersupply voltages fluctuate

 

[Captante]

While Antec doesn't make the absolute best PSU's around by any means, unless yours is dying, its very unlikely your system is drawing too much power for it to handle, even with the 4 drive RAID.
The only way to tell for sure if your PSU is the issue would be to swap it out with a known-good unit & seeing if that solves your problems.. Seasonic & Fortron make some very good units @ reasonable prices & the absolute best IMO is PC Power & Cooling, although they arn't cheap & can be noisy under heavy load.

Heres a few good choices:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104014

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151025

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703001

 

[dragsome]

Originally posted by: Captante
While Antec doesn't make the absolute best PSU's around by any means, unless yours is dying, its very unlikely your system is drawing too much power for it to handle, even with the 4 drive RAID.
The only way to tell for sure if your PSU is the issue would be to swap it out with a known-good unit & seeing if that solves your problems.. Seasonic & Fortron make some very good units @ reasonable prices & the absolute best IMO is PC Power & Cooling, although they arn't cheap & can be noisy under heavy load.

Heres a few good choices:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104014

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151025

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703001

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately I was quick to get the OCZ 700 watt PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341002

I will go start testing right now. The reviews on Newegg for this PSU are 100% 5 eggs so I feel a bit safe with that but of couse we will see shortly if this helps. Also just now as I checked the Newegg reviews the last poster posted about how this PSU solved his memory errors so let us hope it helps me too .

 

[dragsome]

The OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI is terrible. The power itself is ok. But besides it being just okay the fan is absolutely terrible. It makes a rattling sound. When the Air Conditioning is not on in the room you can hear it over everything.

I guess I might have to pay more for a seasonic.

 

[octop8]

Honestly doubt it's the Antec PSU that's the problem. If there is insufficient power, the system normally just shuts down. RAM problems you get BSODs. Lock-ups and freezes, could be software-related, or maybe the graphics card?

 

[dragsome]

Then it must be either my motherboard or the graphics card. I have to admit I have not had any lock ups since I am not installing Ati tool and overclocking the card. But my GPU should be able to do higher clocks than it is now and it did. I kind of think it is the AtiTool fan control settings. I will see if I can change the fan setting of the X850XT by modifying the bios and just not install Atitool. But without Atitool I cannot have the card automatically overclock when in 3D (game, application) and underclock when just surfing the web.



Three more questions:

1. Is it normal for my Antec to fluctuate in vcore voltage all the time below the vcore I set in BIOS... not just normal but is it acceptable and could it cause problems

2. The Pentium D 805 uses a lot of power especially when overclocked. If I run it at 3.6Ghz-3.8 Ghz at around 1.5v and it gets on full load then I assume from my research that the power consumption jumps considerably. In this scenario is the Antec really up to the task considering this power hungry cpu and all those other devices drawing power from it at full load?

3. I still have the issue of the PC not shutting down sometimes(most of the time) when it is supposed to but instead gets sutck on the "windows is shutting down" screen. When I looked online there are incredibly lots of reasons and too much information. I did try to trouble shoot it using those resources and info but nothing. Any ideas on this would still be appreciated.