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#1
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random blue screens when warm
Hello,
My computer (a three year old homebuilt Athlon based PC) just recently starting giving me random blue screens. These only seem to occur when the pc is warm (problem begins about half an hour after turning on the pc, with pc undergoing light usage (office apps, email, etc.). The problem first exhibited itself, however, during a game of Doom 3. After warming up, the computer is practically unusable, with blue screens occuring immediately after logging in (and sometime before). If I let the computer sit for a couple of hours, all is fine until it has warmed up again. I've checked my CPU temps and they are same as always....around 49 degrees C (around 53 C after processor intensive activities). The voltages on the power supply all appear okay according to a utility that came with the mother board. I've added no new hardware nor have I downloaded any updates recently. The problem persists even with the pc booted into safe mode. I'm beginning to suspect that one of my DIMMs may have gone bad, there is a problem with the power supply, or with the chipset on the motherboard. (Although I do have it undergoing additional cooling by offsetting the oversize fan on my cpu such that it blows onto the northbridge chip's heatsink. But if it was the RAM, shouldn't the problem also occur when the pc is cold? The fact that it only occurs when warm makes me wonder about the power supply (despite the nominal voltage reports). The chipset would be scary...no way to test this without purchasing a new board and if I did this I may was well scrap the pc alltogether and build a new one! Anyway, this is a tough nut to crack and am wondering if anybody else cares to shed insight into this problem. Craig |
#2
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random blue screens when warm
Just wanted to add that I've also checked this computer for spyware and
viruses and it is clean. I think I mentioned that no updates had been applied (at least not for at least a few months prior to this problem manifesting itself). Craig |
#3
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random blue screens when warm
Craig wrote
My computer (a three year old homebuilt Athlon based PC) just recently starting giving me random blue screens. These only seem to occur when the pc is warm (problem begins about half an hour after turning on the pc, with pc undergoing light usage (office apps, email, etc.). The problem first exhibited itself, however, during a game of Doom 3. After warming up, the computer is practically unusable, with blue screens occuring immediately after logging in (and sometime before). If I let the computer sit for a couple of hours, all is fine until it has warmed up again. I've checked my CPU temps and they are same as always....around 49 degrees C (around 53 C after processor intensive activities). The voltages on the power supply all appear okay according to a utility that came with the mother board. I've added no new hardware nor have I downloaded any updates recently. The problem persists even with the pc booted into safe mode. I'm beginning to suspect that one of my DIMMs may have gone bad, Unlikely, but easy to test that possibility with memtest86 run overnight. there is a problem with the power supply, or with the chipset on the motherboard. Or bad caps on the motherboard. (Although I do have it undergoing additional cooling by offsetting the oversize fan on my cpu such that it blows onto the northbridge chip's heatsink. But if it was the RAM, shouldn't the problem also occur when the pc is cold? Not necessarily. RAM doesnt usually go bad, the problem is that the timing used isnt suitable for the RAM and that stuff can vary with the temperature. The fact that it only occurs when warm makes me wonder about the power supply (despite the nominal voltage reports). Yes, glitches on the rails wont usually be visible in the voltage reports. The chipset would be scary...no way to test this without purchasing a new board and if I did this I may was well scrap the pc alltogether and build a new one! No reason to indicate that thats a problem. Anyway, this is a tough nut to crack and am wondering if anybody else cares to shed insight into this problem. You've just got to try the possibilitys, obviously with the easiest to try first. |
#4
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random blue screens when warm
Craig wrote:
Hello, My computer (a three year old homebuilt Athlon based PC) just recently starting giving me random blue screens. These only seem to occur when the pc is warm Have you tried reseating everything such as memory and cards? Maybe something has worked loose. -- Bill Brought to you from Anchorage, Alaska. |
#5
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random blue screens when warm
"Craig" wrote in message oups.com... Hello, My computer (a three year old homebuilt Athlon based PC) just recently starting giving me random blue screens. These only seem to occur when the pc is warm (problem begins about half an hour after turning on the pc, with pc undergoing light usage (office apps, email, etc.). The problem first exhibited itself, however, during a game of Doom 3. After warming up, the computer is practically unusable, with blue screens occuring immediately after logging in (and sometime before). If I let the computer sit for a couple of hours, all is fine until it has warmed up again. I've checked my CPU temps and they are same as always....around 49 degrees C (around 53 C after processor intensive activities). The voltages on the power supply all appear okay according to a utility that came with the mother board. I've added no new hardware nor have I downloaded any updates recently. The problem persists even with the pc booted into safe mode. I'm beginning to suspect that one of my DIMMs may have gone bad, there is a problem with the power supply, or with the chipset on the motherboard. (Although I do have it undergoing additional cooling by offsetting the oversize fan on my cpu such that it blows onto the northbridge chip's heatsink. But if it was the RAM, shouldn't the problem also occur when the pc is cold? The fact that it only occurs when warm makes me wonder about the power supply (despite the nominal voltage reports). The chipset would be scary...no way to test this without purchasing a new board and if I did this I may was well scrap the pc alltogether and build a new one! Anyway, this is a tough nut to crack and am wondering if anybody else cares to shed insight into this problem. Craig Go check your Event Viewer first to make sure you don`t have any Application or System errors. That`s easy, and free. The next worst problems, are Overclocking (heat generation), and possible memory or PSU problems. You could d\load a memory test program, and run it, to test your RAM Now you`re on your way g. www.memtest86.com/ http://www.short-media.com/download.php?d=458 |
#6
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random blue screens when warm
I thought about trying a memory tester, but I suspect it will simply
blue screen on me during the test (it's consistent about blue screening as soon as it has warmed up). Good tips about the PS rails. I'll try reseating everything when I start to remove hardware. The computer has been overclocked in the past (video, cpu and bus), but at the moment it is running at stock speeds and the memory (and the video card) are actually running a bit underclocked. (Card came that way from the manufacturer that way and as for the memory, I purchased DIMM's to use on a Athlon 3200 but ended up building it with a 2500. (With the intention of overclocking to 3200 speed, but it was never entirely stable at that speed, it would blue screen on me at bad times...like when I was winning during a game! A rarity for this old man. :-) ) Besides, it had been running rock stable until just recently. The problems happened suddenly, as though someone had "thrown a switch" and turned on the blue screens. This is why I'm sure it is a hardware failure of some sort. Craig |
#7
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random blue screens when warm
Craig wrote:
I thought about trying a memory tester, but I suspect it will simply blue screen on me during the test (it's consistent about blue screening as soon as it has warmed up). Use memtest86. It makes a bootable CD or floppy and, once you've booted from the CD or floppy it goes straight in to the test, thus taking Windows out of the equation. It's well worth a go. Also have you had your hand on the CPU heatsink while the machine is running to see if 49c is sensible for the actual temperature of the chip. I just wonder if the mainboard is not seeing the true temps on the chip? Cheers Alex |
#8
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random blue screens when warm
On 19 Dec 2006 13:10:29 -0800, "Craig"
wrote: I thought about trying a memory tester, but I suspect it will simply blue screen on me during the test (it's consistent about blue screening as soon as it has warmed up). Good tips about the PS rails. I'll try reseating everything when I start to remove hardware. The computer has been overclocked in the past (video, cpu and bus), but at the moment it is running at stock speeds and the memory (and the video card) are actually running a bit underclocked. (Card came that way from the manufacturer that way and as for the memory, I purchased DIMM's to use on a Athlon 3200 but ended up building it with a 2500. (With the intention of overclocking to 3200 speed, but it was never entirely stable at that speed, it would blue screen on me at bad times...like when I was winning during a game! A rarity for this old man. :-) ) Besides, it had been running rock stable until just recently. The problems happened suddenly, as though someone had "thrown a switch" and turned on the blue screens. This is why I'm sure it is a hardware failure of some sort. Actually sudden changes are more often software, hardware more gradually degrades if it's still working as much as it is/was. Take the cover off and check all fans, and clean out dust if warranted. Leave cover off and point a desk fan into the system and see if it helps. Inspect capacitors for bulging or venting. Memory can easily become less stable if it overheats, but it's doubtful the system temp is changing THAT much unless you had a serious cooling problem. The PSU could be having trouble, but more significant at this point might be examining what those Blue Screens state... what's the error message and stop code? It could be a great hint, in addition to checking Event Viewer. Don't think about "but it might blue screen" while checking memory, just do it... besides, we mean memtest86+, not a windows based memory tester that can't test nearly as much memory. If you have a multimeter, check and monitor voltage that way and see if you can cause the fault, perhaps running a gaming benchmark like 3DMark (whichever version is appropriate for your particular video card so as to not be bottlenecked too much, allowing a good load on both video and CPU. Is it possible you have AC electrical problems, perhaps a heater is coming on and your PSU is too anemic to cope with this? Perhaps the system is on the floor next to a heater duct that came on and elevated temp a lot? I doubt your chipset is overheating if the rest of the chassis is reasonably ventilated, especially with the CPU fan blowing over towards it. However, some software monitor programs may be able to show it's temp, it would be good to more closely monitor voltages and temps, and while the cover is off as mentioned above, recheck all mechanical connections such as cards, cables, memory, etc. "Rarely" it's possible for an open core CPU like an Athlon XP era to dry out it's thermal compound and appear cool enough, but to have an island of compound over the area with the thermal diode embedded but no 'sinking of heat over other areas of the CPU... so the temp looks ok but some parts of the CPU are hotter than others. What I'd just described I would normally consider so unlikely and remote to be unworthy of consideration- but I had just this situation occur a few months ago, and after pulling off the heatsink, putting fresh compound on it was fine thereafter. |
#9
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random blue screens when warm
Thank you to all who offered advice...I think I found the problem (and I got
lucky, too). Tonight I decided to try some troubleshooting, anticipating a long procedure of removing, swapping and replacing hardware. Well, I began by removing one of my (3) DIMMS (after letting the computer warm up and begin blue screening). Lo and behold, I hit the jackpot on my first try! I removed the DIMM and the computer booted just fine. I let it run for a couple of hours, including taxing it with DOOM3 and moving some files (did these to generate some heat and put a good load on the power supply). All remained stable. I put the DIMM back in, rebooted and instant blue screen! The memory stick in question is a 1GB DIMM from USModular. Allegedly it has a lifetime warranty, but I checked the warranty terms and they dictate that it be returned with the original receipt, original package and original anti-static bag! (WTF?) I'm going to phone them tomorrow to see how rigid this policy is. Computer is running fine now using my remaining memory (a pair of 512MB modules). I installed that DIMM almost exactly a year ago....interesting that it would fail so suddenly. Craig |
#10
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random blue screens when warm
Craig wrote:
.... snip ... Computer is running fine now using my remaining memory (a pair of 512MB modules). I installed that DIMM almost exactly a year ago. ...interesting that it would fail so suddenly. Now is the time to check whether you can replace all your memory with ECC modules, which in turn depends on whether or not the chipset is ECC capable. If you had had ECC the only symptom would have been a slowdown, accompanied by a record in the bios memory of corrections applied. -- Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net) Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems. http://cbfalconer.home.att.net |
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