Re: Computer locking up and not sure why



>I just put together a new PC. It is in an Antec P180 case and has a
> ASUS SLI-Premium motherboard. As well, I have a 550W Antec Power
> Supply, BFG 7800gt video card, and AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400 CPU.
>
> My problem, it locks up from time to time. I"ve had it together for a
> week and twice during that time it locked up. The first a couple days
> after putting it together. Then last night it locked up again.
>
> Once when I put a PC together I had frequent lockups, about every 4-5
> hours and it turned out I found out the CPU was running around 130-135
> degrees so I know that's the problem. This time with all the fans in
> the case plus a Thermaltake Big Typhoon fan I can't see it doing that.
> I did put the white paste on the CPU.
>
> Anyway, I used ASUS Probe to check temperatures. It said the CPU is
> running at 36/96 degrees. It said the motherboard is at 39/102 and
> the CPU Fan is running at 1506RPM, the Chassis Fan at 1074RPM. These
> temperatures seem fine, is that true? These are of cousre under no
> load and I Have not ran the PC under a heavy load yet.
>
> I am thinking as well it could be a driver issue. The first couple
> days the PC was new and not much was installed and last night I
> installed a lot of drivers. Anyway, any idea what could be causing
> htis and most of all, are those temperatures okay? Thanks.

Okay, first of all, even though you got a good cooler/fan combo, it doesn't
mean it was correctly seated. I've built quite a few computers, and I was
tripped up on one occasion, building a socket 775 Prescott system for a
friend. Make sure it's completely and correctly seated. Your temp reading
may not be accurate, either.

Second, I think your motherboard as AI overclocking. If it's locking up
while you're using it, it could be overclocking itself on the fly to a level
your components can't handle. I have a friend that had one of the first MSI
boards with this feature and it caused him lockups when gaming, sometimes.
It turned out that the dynamic overclocking feature was the culprit. He set
it for something lower, like "Private", and it worked a lot better.

Third, it very well could be drivers, or just a bad OS install. Since you're
using an Athlon 64 X2, you are using Win XP Professional, right? Win XP Home
does not support dual cores or processors.

Fourth, that same friend that had dynamic overclocking issues bought a BFG
6800GT card and it caused problems in some games because of the factory
overclock. It's doubtful that this is your problem, but it may be worth a
look.

Lastly, I read in your other post you updated your BIOS. If the problems
existed before the update, chances are that isn't the culprit. If it has
happened since, or you never got to find out because you immediately updated
your BIOS when you built, then download a fresh BIOS in case yours was
corrupted, and reflash.


.



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