kony wrote:
On 15 Oct 2005 14:08:38 -0700, "Cyde Weys"
wrote:

So my computer's running fine, and BAM, it suddenly becomes
nonfunctional. It repeatedly insta-reboots from inside Windows.
Windows will start successfully, but try using it for a minute or two
and the insta-reboot occurs. I figured maybe it's a problem with
Windows, so I tried my Gentoo Linux LiveCD ... not working either. The
computer boots fine and even sometimes gets the kernel booted, but it
quickly freezes after that.


So "BAM" really means that it hardly ever crashed (well, it
IS windows, but...) then regular crashing started occuring?

Exactly. Working fine with only the minor videocard problems I
recently talked about, although I even got those fixed until this.

Had anything changed or any events occurred? For example,
moving the system, being inside it, having recently switched
from AC to electric heater in home, BIOS changes, or ???

Nahh, I haven't been inside the system recently or changed anything,
just BAM, not working.


For example, someone brought a motherboard to me that they'd
stabbed with a screwdriver while installing a heatsink.
They knocked off several surface-mount parts around the
board's northbridge. I managed to get new parts soldered
on, and board works, but is now instable above 154MHz memory
bus. I could probably keep trying to resolder or maybe seek
(in vain) specs for the subcircuit but that's beside the
point, that other things can make memory modules seem
malfunctional even if the vast majority of the system works
fine.

I haven't done anything like that to this mobo :-O

At this
point I should probably mention that my memory consists of 2X Crucial
512MB DDR 333Mhz CL2.5 and my motherboard is an Asus A7N8X-X. So I
think one of my memory modules may be bad, so I try running with just
one. I get the errors in memtest. I try running it with just the
other memory module installed. I get the same errors in memtest:
specifically, the Err-Bits seem always to be 00ff0000.

OK, but, do these errors ALWAYS occur at same address(es)?

They occur at every address possible on the memory chips. Everywhere
from 512MB down on to 0MB.

I think it may be *possible*, but it's not
exactly probable. So what could be the problem then? Is my
motherboard borked?

I would try underclocking to 100FSB, 100Mem, and
conservative memory timings like 2.5, 3, 3, 7. (you will
have to manually set these, the memory may not stay at
CAS2.5 when the FSB is lowered if board is set to Auto or
SPD mode). I don't if this will prove anything but it would
eliminate physically failure in the modules and if the board
is stable underclocked it might provide some aux. use
instead of being thrown away (or is it under warranty)?
Also if you were using Turbo (or whatever it's called) bios
setting for memory, use the more conservative setting.

I already tried severe underclocking; it didn't change anything.

Also try clearing CMOS, nForce2 boards can sometimes have
wierd bios glitches... if you're running an early bios you
might also try flashing a newer bios but only if you can
regain stablity in memtest86, first. Do not flash the bios
when system is in a state where memory errors are likely.

How do I clear CMOS? Is there some battery I need to remove and
replace?

And just to try to head off a question or two, I checked my BIOS
settings and the memory timing is set to 333Mhz.

What make/model power supply?

I don't remember and I'm not seeing any obvious sticker on the PSU
without having to take the whole thing out, but it's black, has three
green glowing fans in it, it's big, it cost a lot, I remember
researching it and it was a good brand, and it's something like 550W.

Does CPU use 166MHz FSB as memory does?

CPU is an Athlon Barton 2500+ so I think the answer is yes.

Examine board for failed capacitors. A7N8X used "some"
fairly good caps, but I don't remember on the "-X" version,
I vaguely recall it had some component corners cut but I
can't recall for certain which parts). Some of the caps for
the memory are pretty far over towards the right-side edge
of the board, but check the rest too.

Nothing obvious.

Also check the CPU/heatsink thermal interface. If you had
used regular silicone based thermal grease it may have dryed
out over time... had that happen to a system here, so now I
only use synthetic based grease on flipchips. It might be
unrelated but you made no mention of checking temps (or
voltages for that matter) yet. Also check your memory
voltage settings in the bios.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

*Sigh* ... it looks like I'm going to have to buy a new mobo? I'll
test the memory in another system tomorrow but I don't think that's
going to be the problem.

I've been looking to do a system upgrade anyway so maybe this is just
serendipity disguised as misfortune. What I'm looking for is a Socket
939 AMD64 processor, and a mobo to go along with it. At some point in
the future I'd like to get a nice PCI Express graphics card but in the
meantime I'd like to hang onto my Radeon 9800 Pro if I can; do they
even make mobos with both PCI-X and AGP? Also, my memory (assuming
it's not borked) should transfer over to the new computer, right?