CPU Core Voltage Too Low -> Crash?

not for nothing, but it could be a hard drive issue. rec console accesses
the c drive I believe.

This occurred to me as well. I may have to buy and try out that
Tuff-Test-Pro and see if it can find a specific hardware problem.

Thanks

Don

Yes but simple movements such as casters on a chair, or the mouse on a plastic
surface will generate static. My brother had the same problem. We tried a
humidifier and presto, no more problems. I keep the humidity in my house on
the high side----have an automatic one in my furnace.
"Don Cohen" wrote in message
...
Do not overlook a static problem. In winter indoors with dry air almost
anythig will generate static.

True. But more often than not it occurs when I'm just sitting at the
keyboard, typing or mousing around, and bam! there it goes.

Don

Do not overlook a static problem. In winter indoors with dry air almost
anythig will generate static.

True. But more often than not it occurs when I'm just sitting at the
keyboard, typing or mousing around, and bam! there it goes.

Don

On Sat, 21 Feb 2004 17:11:04 -0500, "Don Cohen"
wrote:

Do not overlook a static problem. In winter indoors with dry air almost
anythig will generate static.

True. But more often than not it occurs when I'm just sitting at the
keyboard, typing or mousing around, and bam! there it goes.

Don

Hi Don:

Nothing like going crazy trying to track something like this down....

From reading your posts and replies and what you've already done to
trouble shoot the problem, I believe it is very definitely a hardware
issue.

I would suggest you not spend any more money on diagnostic programs or
the like. Of course a free one is always great to have. I'm not
sure I really trust AIDA32 to accurately monitor CPU voltages. The
best free application that I know of to do that is called "Motherboard
Monitor". You might wish to download and give it a try. Also, go to
the CPU makers web site and get the specs for your CPU. Both Intel
and AMD have spec sheets available which give the voltage and
temperature ranges for the CPUs they manufacture.

You may indeed have a bad motherboard or at least an intermittent
failing component on the board. It may even be memory related. I
don't recall you saying you swapped out the memory modules? Also, go
into your CMOS setup program and make sure all the settings for memory
are within specs. (CAS, RAS, etc)

Good luck.

forgot to mention I had boot and crashes when my WD120 started dying. even
in safe mode. drives are pretty cheap, even if it doesn't fix the problem
might be good idea to keep an extra around.

--


David MacLeod
Etna, Maine USA
P4 2.8 OC to 3.13
1 GB DDR 466
Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB
2 Seagate 120 RAID 0

"Don Cohen" wrote in message
...
not for nothing, but it could be a hard drive issue. rec console
accesses
the c drive I believe.

This occurred to me as well. I may have to buy and try out that
Tuff-Test-Pro and see if it can find a specific hardware problem.

Thanks

Don

also forgot to say clean out all temp folders. ones under documents/settings
and windows. might be an errored temp file.

--


David MacLeod
Etna, Maine USA
P4 2.8 OC to 3.13
1 GB DDR 466
Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB
2 Seagate 120 RAID 0

"Don Cohen" wrote in message
...
not for nothing, but it could be a hard drive issue. rec console
accesses
the c drive I believe.

This occurred to me as well. I may have to buy and try out that
Tuff-Test-Pro and see if it can find a specific hardware problem.

Thanks

Don

Nothing like going crazy trying to track something like this down....

Boy, is that the truth. It has consumed an incredible amount of time and
mental energy.

From reading your posts and replies and what you've already done to
trouble shoot the problem, I believe it is very definitely a hardware
issue.

I appreciate the confirmation. That seems like the only logical conclusion,
but we all know how strange the truth can be at times...

I would suggest you not spend any more money on diagnostic programs or
the like. Of course a free one is always great to have. I'm not
sure I really trust AIDA32 to accurately monitor CPU voltages. The
best free application that I know of to do that is called "Motherboard
Monitor". You might wish to download and give it a try. Also, go to
the CPU makers web site and get the specs for your CPU. Both Intel
and AMD have spec sheets available which give the voltage and
temperature ranges for the CPUs they manufacture.

OK, I've downloaded and installed Motherboard Monitor. Definitely more
complex than AIDA32 to setup. But I think I have it now.

It shows Core Temp for CPU varying between 1.46V and 1.49V. I checked
Intel's site, found my chip (SL66S) and it shows the spec for Core Voltage
as 1.500V. So according to MbMonitor my core voltage is still on the low
side, but how significant this 0.1 to 0.4 volts is, I don't know.

Regarding additional diagnostic programs - I'd rather not buy more as well,
but at this point, I still don't have an answer as to what hardware is
faulty, and what to replace...

You may indeed have a bad motherboard or at least an intermittent
failing component on the board. It may even be memory related. I
don't recall you saying you swapped out the memory modules? Also, go
into your CMOS setup program and make sure all the settings for memory
are within specs. (CAS, RAS, etc)

I haven't done anything yet with the actual (4) memory modules. Memtest86
ran for over 13 hours/7passes, with no errors detected.


So bottom line - where do I go from here????

Thanks much for the help.

Don

On Sat, 21 Feb 2004 19:11:11 -0500, "Don Cohen"
wrote:

Nothing like going crazy trying to track something like this down....

Boy, is that the truth. It has consumed an incredible amount of time and
mental energy.

From reading your posts and replies and what you've already done to
trouble shoot the problem, I believe it is very definitely a hardware
issue.

I appreciate the confirmation. That seems like the only logical conclusion,
but we all know how strange the truth can be at times...

I would suggest you not spend any more money on diagnostic programs or
the like. Of course a free one is always great to have. I'm not
sure I really trust AIDA32 to accurately monitor CPU voltages. The
best free application that I know of to do that is called "Motherboard
Monitor". You might wish to download and give it a try. Also, go to
the CPU makers web site and get the specs for your CPU. Both Intel
and AMD have spec sheets available which give the voltage and
temperature ranges for the CPUs they manufacture.

OK, I've downloaded and installed Motherboard Monitor. Definitely more
complex than AIDA32 to setup. But I think I have it now.

It shows Core Temp for CPU varying between 1.46V and 1.49V. I checked
Intel's site, found my chip (SL66S) and it shows the spec for Core Voltage
as 1.500V. So according to MbMonitor my core voltage is still on the low
side, but how significant this 0.1 to 0.4 volts is, I don't know.

Regarding additional diagnostic programs - I'd rather not buy more as well,
but at this point, I still don't have an answer as to what hardware is
faulty, and what to replace...

You may indeed have a bad motherboard or at least an intermittent
failing component on the board. It may even be memory related. I
don't recall you saying you swapped out the memory modules? Also, go
into your CMOS setup program and make sure all the settings for memory
are within specs. (CAS, RAS, etc)

I haven't done anything yet with the actual (4) memory modules. Memtest86
ran for over 13 hours/7passes, with no errors detected.


So bottom line - where do I go from here????

Thanks much for the help.

Don

Hi Don:

I don't believe the low core voltage is the problem. If anything, a
lower core voltage will usually result in the CPU running a bit
cooler. It's when the core voltage begins to exceed specs that the
CPU may overheat and shut down.

Where you go from here depends a lot on whether or not the unexpected
shutdowns are tolerable. If they're not, (they wouldn't be for me)
you may want to think about swapping out the memory modules for known
good ones. Since memory is currently inexpensive you might want to
pull all four modules and replace two of them and try running the
machine for awhile with less memory to see if that cures the problem.
Memtest86 is a good in house memory tester but not as good as
substitution.

Another remedy might be to replace the motherboard. But if you're
going to do that, you may want to shop around for an upgraded board.
Of course that means a large expenditure but if you're thinking about
upgrading your system, now might be a good time to do it.

Fry's electronics (if there's one in your area) generally has very
good purchases on motherboard kits. Their kits come with CPU and
memory. Of course the price varies depending on the board, CPU,
amount of memory, etc. Something to think about.

I wish you well with your trouble shooting.

Regards.

Hi Don:

I don't believe the low core voltage is the problem. If anything, a
lower core voltage will usually result in the CPU running a bit
cooler. It's when the core voltage begins to exceed specs that the
CPU may overheat and shut down.

Oh well....thought I was on to something....

Where you go from here depends a lot on whether or not the unexpected
shutdowns are tolerable.

Completely intolerable. I can't work on a system that could go down without
warning, corrupting and losing data, etc.

If they're not, (they wouldn't be for me)
you may want to think about swapping out the memory modules for known
good ones. Since memory is currently inexpensive you might want to
pull all four modules and replace two of them and try running the
machine for awhile with less memory to see if that cures the problem.
Memtest86 is a good in house memory tester but not as good as
substitution.

Well, this is do-able. Or I could just take out one at a time, and run
until it crashes or doesn't. Should run ok for most things with 768 mb.

Another remedy might be to replace the motherboard. But if you're
going to do that, you may want to shop around for an upgraded board.
Of course that means a large expenditure but if you're thinking about
upgrading your system, now might be a good time to do it.

Fry's electronics (if there's one in your area) generally has very
good purchases on motherboard kits. Their kits come with CPU and
memory. Of course the price varies depending on the board, CPU,
amount of memory, etc. Something to think about.

I'm willing to do this, but I worry - could it be the hard drives or optical
drives? If so, I could spend a lot of money and still not fix the problem.

That's why a program like Tuff-Test-Pro (if, in fact it really works, which
I have no data on) seems worth trying. I'm a physician, and would really
like to make a definite diagnosis, and not just keep operating until the
patient gets better (or dies!). Your thoughts on this???

Isn't there some reasonable way to identify the culprit????

I wish you well with your trouble shooting.

Clearly, I'm going to need it.

(I promise - this is my last set of questions to you).

Don

"Don Cohen" wrote in message
...
Hi Don:

I don't believe the low core voltage is the problem. If anything, a
lower core voltage will usually result in the CPU running a bit
cooler. It's when the core voltage begins to exceed specs that the
CPU may overheat and shut down.

Oh well....thought I was on to something....

Where you go from here depends a lot on whether or not the unexpected
shutdowns are tolerable.

Completely intolerable. I can't work on a system that could go down
without
warning, corrupting and losing data, etc.

If they're not, (they wouldn't be for me)
you may want to think about swapping out the memory modules for known
good ones. Since memory is currently inexpensive you might want to
pull all four modules and replace two of them and try running the
machine for awhile with less memory to see if that cures the problem.
Memtest86 is a good in house memory tester but not as good as
substitution.

Well, this is do-able. Or I could just take out one at a time, and run
until it crashes or doesn't. Should run ok for most things with 768 mb.

Another remedy might be to replace the motherboard. But if you're
going to do that, you may want to shop around for an upgraded board.
Of course that means a large expenditure but if you're thinking about
upgrading your system, now might be a good time to do it.

Fry's electronics (if there's one in your area) generally has very
good purchases on motherboard kits. Their kits come with CPU and
memory. Of course the price varies depending on the board, CPU,
amount of memory, etc. Something to think about.

I'm willing to do this, but I worry - could it be the hard drives or
optical
drives? If so, I could spend a lot of money and still not fix the
problem.

That's why a program like Tuff-Test-Pro (if, in fact it really works,
which
I have no data on) seems worth trying. I'm a physician, and would really
like to make a definite diagnosis, and not just keep operating until the
patient gets better (or dies!). Your thoughts on this???

Isn't there some reasonable way to identify the culprit????

I wish you well with your trouble shooting.

Clearly, I'm going to need it.

(I promise - this is my last set of questions to you).

Don

Don:

Sorry to but in on this fishing expedition but it seems to me the only thing
common to all your events is the CD Rom you were using with the Windows
disk. Try unplugging it and see if problems continue. A long shot I know but
cheap to try.

Pwy