Just a few thoughts on what might be the culprit:

PS suffering an overload (have you added any new components of late,
like a new fan or drive?)

Dirt on the mobo (yes, I've seen an IDE interface operate incorrectly
and corrupt HD data due to excessive dust on the mobo)

Dirty/clogged HSF causing hi CPU heat

Clogged case fans causing higher temps

CPU thermal grease has "flowed" out of the gap between the HS and the
CPU causing higher temps.

I see your 5v line drops a bit with prime95 running, sounds like an
underpowered PS. Have you checked the PS fans to see if they are
spinning normally? PS fans seem to have the cheapest quality fans at
times, and when they get sticky, the PS tends to overheat and work
less efficiently.

--
Best regards,
Kyle
"DS" wrote in message
...
| Hi
|
| My pc has been stable for about 2 years, but now i get several
problems a
| day. When using normal apps such as Borland Delphi i have been
getting
| access errors, when running games such as C&C Generals, it will get
to
| loading the beginning of game 5 (USA) and hang every time. I have
also seen
| the screen saver crash. This has started happening in the last week.
I have
| not installed any new hardware, software or changed system settings
for
| several months. The machine has recently been connected to a HP
laserjet
| 4000 printer and is networked to another pc on a peer to peer.
|
| I have tried a scan disk, and looked at system info, used the
DirectX tests,
| but nothing appears to be wrong.
|
| I have tested the 2 sticks of 512 memory, but the system passes both
| memtest86 and the Microsoft windows memory tests. However, if I run
prime95,
| it will crash instantaneously on the benchmark tests and produce
various
| symptoms (hang, do a bit and hang etc, stop after 100 warnings for
illegal
| sumout) on the torture test.
|
|
| I have tried using the ASUS mobo Probe utility to watch what happens
to the
| voltage as prime95 is run:
| normal running prime95
| 12v 12.416 12.416
| 5v 4.945 4.865
| 3.3v 3.392 3.424
| vcore 1.696 1.712
|
| mobo runs at 28C - cpu at 51C
|
| The system is:
| Aopen h600a case
| ASUS A7N8X Delux
| AMD xp2600+
| 1 Gb of Crucial memory (2x512Mb pc2700)
| 120Gb Maxtor SATA drive connected to mobo SATA port
|
|
| UBER BIOS (ASUS Bios was not working with SATA harddisk reliably, a
year ago
| the UBER bios was recomended)
| settings:
| cpu ext freq 166Mhz
| cpu freq multiple setting AUTO (12.5x)
| memory freq [by spd]
| sdram CAS Latency 2.5T
| cpu vcore [auto]
| ddr ref volt 2.6v
| agp vddq volt 1.5v
| chip voltage 1.6
|
| Can anyone suggest what the problem might be or how to procede?
| Thanks
| D
|
|
|