freezing system (powersupply??)

[Gerard Verhoef]

Hi;

I added a harddisk to my computer and did a complete reinstall of windows xp
professional on that new harddisk
(partitioned the 160GB harddisk in 3 partitions, OS, Data and Apps). Still
use the old 40GM disk as backup.

I have setup the new HD (WD) as master and the old one (Maxtor) as slave on
the same eide cable (flat), The dvd drive and cdrw are on the other eide
cable as nmaster and slave.

Since then I have sudden freezes of my system. No warning, no error in
eventview, but a complete freeze.
Only a hard reset can get life back into it. When frozen I see that the leds
in my usb hub turn off too.
The freeze errus about once every 2 to 3 hours and seemingly independent on
th appliation(s). Before the harddik addition i never had this problem.

I run.winxp professional, latest updates on a amd xp 2400+ with 512 MB Ram,
MSI MS-6712 mainboard, a msi gf5600 videocard, creative 5.1 audio, tascam
us-122 audio/midi interface (powered by usb, 5V, max 500mA), plextor CDRW,
MSI DVD, Maxtor 40GB en WD 160 GB harddisks.

All powered by a 350W power supply, running on 230V.
AMD temerature is around 60 degr Celcius.

Whats the best way to troubleshoot this? Is it likely that I need a more
powerfull powersupply?

Thanks vor any suggestions

Gerard Verhoef

 

[philo]

Hi;

I added a harddisk to my computer and did a complete reinstall of windows xp
professional on that new harddisk
(partitioned the 160GB harddisk in 3 partitions, OS, Data and Apps). Still
use the old 40GM disk as backup.

I have setup the new HD (WD) as master and the old one (Maxtor) as slave on
the same eide cable (flat), The dvd drive and cdrw are on the other eide
cable as nmaster and slave.

Since then I have sudden freezes of my system. No warning, no error in
eventview, but a complete freeze.
Only a hard reset can get life back into it. When frozen I see that the leds
in my usb hub turn off too.
The freeze errus about once every 2 to 3 hours and seemingly independent on
th appliation(s). Before the harddik addition i never had this problem.

I run.winxp professional, latest updates on a amd xp 2400+ with 512 MB Ram,
MSI MS-6712 mainboard, a msi gf5600 videocard, creative 5.1 audio, tascam
us-122 audio/midi interface (powered by usb, 5V, max 500mA), plextor CDRW,
MSI DVD, Maxtor 40GB en WD 160 GB harddisks.

All powered by a 350W power supply, running on 230V.
AMD temerature is around 60 degr Celcius.

Whats the best way to troubleshoot this? Is it likely that I need a more
powerfull powersupply?

Thanks vor any suggestions

Gerard Verhoef

a 350 watt supply should be fine
however that 60c temp may be a bit on the high side.
though it won't harm your cpu
i'd try to get that temp down and see if your system still freezes

putting in the new drive *might* have slightly disrupted air flow inside
your machine

 

[Gerard Verhoef]

a 350 watt supply should be fine
however that 60c temp may be a bit on the high side.
though it won't harm your cpu
i'd try to get that temp down and see if your system still freezes

putting in the new drive *might* have slightly disrupted air flow inside
your machine

Thanks for your advise.
I still run this machine without the cover. I installed a better cpu fan
some time ago and lowered the temp e few degrees with that. Now it is around
57, not running games (and without the cover) Is there an easy way to get
the temp further down?

Gerard

 

[Cain Shugher]

Hi;

I added a harddisk to my computer and did a complete reinstall of windows xp
professional on that new harddisk
(partitioned the 160GB harddisk in 3 partitions, OS, Data and Apps). Still
use the old 40GM disk as backup.

I have setup the new HD (WD) as master and the old one (Maxtor) as slave

on
Your problem might be that Western Digital 160 GB hard drive. I bought a
120 GB WD and installed it as a 2nd HD in my box and started getting some
freeze--then I noticed how hot the side of my computer was. I opened the
computer and had to wait a while for it to cool off enough to handle it so I
could take it out. I was thankful it didn't fry my other HD. I sent it
back to WD and got a replacement--that one was a bomb also. The third HD WD
sent me worked OK, but it still ran hot. I ended up buying a kit to make it
an external hard drive. I've stayed away from those large WD hard drives
since then. WAY TOO HOT.

 

[WebWalker]

Thanks for your advise.
I still run this machine without the cover. I installed a better cpu fan
some time ago and lowered the temp e few degrees with that. Now it is around
57, not running games (and without the cover) Is there an easy way to get
the temp further down?

Did you installed any casing fans?

 

[Gerard Verhoef]

Thanks for all the advise. I'd like to let you know where I'm standing with
this little problem right now.

1. All readings from pc alert were kinda stable. Motherboard monitor
isn't compatible with my mainboard, so i wasn't able to log temps and
voltages.
2 Since Voltage the readings of pc alert didn't directly point in the
directyion of an underpowered supply and 350W is more than average, I
wasn't too sure that this was causing the problems.
3. So I removed the old maxtor disk and ran the system on the
WD1600alone. Still freezes.
4. Removing the us-122 didn't help either.
5 So it was unlikely that lack of pure watts was causing it
6 Reading some more on tweaksites people were mentioning that rasing the
Vcore a little sometimes was neccesairy to get a overclocked cpu stable. I
don't overclock, but the Vcore was 1.62V, just a little beneath the 1,65V it
should be. So i raised the Vcore using the MSI utility fuzzy logis to 1.68V.
That was something like 7 production hours ago. No freeze since than. Of
course, the reason that the original Vcore was a little low might be the my
PS isnt top quality.


Keeping my fingers crossed, just reinstalled the old disk. Have the cover
still off and hope it all stays stable. In a week or so I'm gonna try to get
the heat down a little. I feel much better if I can put the cover on again:
those chips don't like coffee as much as I do.

Thanks again

Gerard