ATI 9800 PRO + asus A7N8X-X = crashes *solved*

[Jh00]

Hi there!

I'm writing this post because only God knows how much pain I've been
through these last 10 days after buying a new PC, so I hope this post
can be of any use to someone else.

*PROBLEM:
-Computer suddenly rebooted while playing 3D games, after 30-120
minutes of gameplay OR displayed a blue screen of death , but without
any writings on it.
- Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) also displayed errors
on all Torture Tests, after 1-2 minutes of running.


*MY SYSTEM:
asus a7n8x-x mobo with 1009 bios (nforce2)
512 mb Kingston ram DDR400
Athlon XP 2600+ (Barton)
Soundblaster Live MP3+
MSI RX9800PRO-TD128 (ATI 9800 PRO) with latest bios
Vulcano cooler
2 x 80gb Barracuda Seagate HD's
HP 7500 cd-writer (this really sucks)
500W SATELLITE power supply
Samsung SyncMaster 753DFX

Even though I had all my drivers updated, including the nforce,
catalyst, agp etc.etc., the problem still persisted.

*SOLUTION:
Call me noob, but I hadn't realised that I had bought a Barton
processor.. And the guy that tested the computer before selling it to
me set the CPU frequency to 200Mhz (which results in 400Mhz FSB).

I thought that it was alright, and let it be.

However, when I almost loosing faith, I finally found the processors
spec pages from AMD (hell, why it is so difficult to find this info in
their website). For reference, this is it:

http://139.95.253.214:80/SRVS/CGI-B...00000000169932968,K=1906,Sxi=18,Solution=3913

By checking what was the number printed on my processor, I realised
that it had a max FSB of 333Mhz, so I had to change my BIOS to 166
(166x2 = 332Mhz FSB).

I was 100% sure that I had solved the problem, but even though I got
no more errors from Prime95, I still got video crashes.

The fix was to raise the voltage of the AGP slot by 0.1W, to 1.6W .
After this was done, NO MORE CRASHES!

I ran Prime95 Torture tests AND the Demo Loop of FarCry with all
settings to the max, both simultaneously, for 10 hours and the
computer seems to be rock solid!

Please, if this was of any use to you, feel free to send me an email!

Cheers.
Júlio
Brazil

 

[Humga]

Hi there!

I'm writing this post because only God knows how much pain I've been
through these last 10 days after buying a new PC, so I hope this post
can be of any use to someone else.

*PROBLEM:
-Computer suddenly rebooted while playing 3D games, after 30-120
minutes of gameplay OR displayed a blue screen of death , but without
any writings on it.
- Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) also displayed errors
on all Torture Tests, after 1-2 minutes of running.

Try system cooling.

At 400Mhz FSB and still boot...I can't never do that! The processor must
have 1 or 2 cooked-transistors in it

Better get your money back!

 

[Blaedmon]

from the symptoms straight away it sounds like a heat or memory issue, but u
seem to have found otherwise. My a7n8x-x with the 9800pro was a rock the day
I built it. But i'm using an 2500+xp-M and overclocking to XP3400+ with
512corsairddr400 full ratio.

 

[OZMAN]

I have the same motherboard and I have had a similar experience. Originally
my system would crash anytime I ran CPU intensive programs like Pinnacle
Studio. Most games played fine. I thought I fixed the problem when I
updated my BOIS to the latest. And it was working fine until I recently
changed my videocard. It now might crash after a hour or so of gaming. And
I want to stress might crash. After the crash I have to reset my CPU speed
in my BIOS from 1800+ back to 2400+. Last night I played MOHAA for an hour
or so and then ran 3dMark03 and it crashed during the CPU tests and not the
video tests. I was thinking it was my new videocard but because it crashed
during the CPU tests, so I'm lost. Any suggestions would be much
appreciated.

My system is:
Asus a7n8x-not deluxe
Athlon 2.4g w/Athlon Fan (packed together)
Gainward Geforce 5600xt
Kingston 512 MB DDR - PC2100 133 MHz

 

[Ben Pope]

from the symptoms straight away it sounds like a heat or memory issue,
but u seem to have found otherwise. My a7n8x-x with the 9800pro was a
rock the day I built it. But i'm using an 2500+xp-M and overclocking to
XP3400+ with 512corsairddr400 full ratio.

Could have been memory if it was set at 100% it would have been downclocked
too.

I'd be fairly confident the Corsair would be ok, but with Corsair I think
it's recommended to up the voltage a notch.

Could be borderline PSU.

Still difficult to say, really. I suspect it's probably incorrect
settings - removing a couple of drives or upping the VDIMM voltage and
clocking it up again might rule out the PSU.

Ben

 

[Martin Stone]

I have the same motherboard and I have had a similar experience. Originally
my system would crash anytime I ran CPU intensive programs like Pinnacle
Studio. Most games played fine. I thought I fixed the problem when I
updated my BOIS to the latest. And it was working fine until I recently
changed my videocard. It now might crash after a hour or so of gaming. And
I want to stress might crash. After the crash I have to reset my CPU speed
in my BIOS from 1800+ back to 2400+. Last night I played MOHAA for an hour
or so and then ran 3dMark03 and it crashed during the CPU tests and not the
video tests. I was thinking it was my new videocard but because it crashed
during the CPU tests, so I'm lost. Any suggestions would be much
appreciated.

My system is:
Asus a7n8x-not deluxe
Athlon 2.4g w/Athlon Fan (packed together)
Gainward Geforce 5600xt
Kingston 512 MB DDR - PC2100 133 MHz

Just to add myself to the list:
Asus a7n8x-deluxe
Athlon 2400 w/Hooge fan and sink with blue LEDS
Geforce IV Ti 4200
1024 MB DDR - 333 MHz

Now, MY machine was just shutting off power down dead while playing
demanding games - for example NFS underground would kill it guaranteed.
ASUS probe would never show a CPU temperature above ~55 and I've heard that
most people put the alarm warning level up about 70 odd. I've made an
unsightly configuration with the power supply well away from the chip, and
now the machine will play thief 3 (loads of dynamic lights and bump maps)
with the CPU temp at about 42-44. The game locked solid eventually, but it
didn't just power off. (Poor old graphics cards heat sink could've fried
eggs at this stage) So, I did a 'special reboot' and then XP would only
launch in safe mode at first, but then was OK ...

I hate computers.

 

[First of One]

Should have gotten a Mobile Athlon - same Barton performance but with an
unlocked multiplier and lower CPU voltage.