System instability

[rtcpenguin]

I built a system about 3 weeks ago, and I've been experiencing seemingly random reboots and crashes while playing games. Sometimes, a game will freeze for a moment, a blue screen will appear for a split second, and the computer will reboot. Other times, a game will just crash to windows. My temps seem pretty good, 35-40 C idle, and 40-45 C full load.

Here are my specs:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
2x256 MB Crucial PC2700
Radeon 9500 Pro
Creative SB Live 5.1
Lite-On DVD and Lite-On CD-RW
Floppy
Thermaltake Volcano 11+ HSF
Antec 300 watt Power Supply (came with my Antec SX1030 case a year ago)

Heres a screenshot of my temps and voltages

 

[momento]

I had the same problems too (crashing to the windows, blue screen out of sudden and random reboot followsuit) when i first built my system 2 weeks ago. My rig was epox 8rda+, 2x256MB crucial pc 2700, barton 2500+, all from newegg.

Okay, at this point i think you probably have flashed your bios and all the device drivers to the latest. Anyway, for me the problem - instability - was the 2 sticks of crucial 256MB pc2700. My default ram voltage (Vdimm in the bios) was set at about 2.6V, someone in the forum suggested changing it to 2.77V (the next higher available voltage). Guess what, the problem went away, no more instability, everything ran perfectly. Try this and see if it helps.

Apparently, some of the crucial pc2700 have conflict with nforce2 mobo.

(Anyway, I just changed my 2x256MB crucial pc 2700 to 2x 512MB kingston pc2700. Bestbuy was having sales last week. 2 sticks of 512MB kingston cost the same as 2 sticks of crucial 256MB after rebate. My computer runs perfectly now without even having to up the ram voltage )

 

[EeyoreX]

You could also just have a bad stick of RAM. Try memtest86 and see if you get errors. Of course, it could also be a problem with incompatability as was mentioned above. memtest would be free, just a couple hours or so, or you could just replace the RAM as it is often the cause of such problems, especially if your temps are good.

\Dan

 

[PainTrain]

Try a new PS, and check out this Article I jsut got through writing to another guy with t similar problem. Bumping the CPU down works for until I get a new PS. I would suggest you do the same.

Goood luck

 

[rtcpenguin]

Alright, thanks for the advice...my thinking was it was probably the power supply, but even so, most Antecs are underrated (ie, they produce more power than listed). I'll try bumping up the DDR voltage, and see what happens. I just downloaded the memtest program, and I'll run that as well. If neither of these fix the problem, then I think I might plop down the $50 for a new PS...

Thanks

 

[rtcpenguin]

Okay, I ran memtest86 for about an hour, and got 6 errors....You think thats a sign of bad memory? Or could that also relate to the need for a new power supply?

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: rtcpenguin
Okay, I ran memtest86 for about an hour, and got 6 errors....You think thats a sign of bad memory? Or could that also relate to the need for a new power supply?

Thats no good at all, you should have zero errors.

RMA.

 

[gramboh]

Memory problem for sure. The thing to consider is that you are probably running in dual channel which, I understand, stresses the memory more than normal, first try bumping up Vdimm (not sure how high that RAM will handle, high spec ram like Corsair and OCZ handle up to 2.9v under warranty). If there are still errors try single channel or RMA.