[burnoutnotfadeaway]

once my pc shows my system specifications, just as it's about to show the Windows XP loading screen it restarts . on occasion windows will boot up and last for hours, days even without crashing. I can boot it up and sit with the BIOS screen up and it won't crash. it's so unpredictable and i've tried 2 seperate hard drives, both have the same problem even though i've tried both of them in other computers and are working perfectly, so i don't think they are the problem. Safe Mode has a similar problem, the system crashes after I press enter on Safe Mode. although i've tried 2 seperate disks and both crash at the same point. they both work fine in other computers and the problem doesnt always happen, sometimes the computer runs sometimes it doesnt, very confusing. everything has been replaced in the system since it started doing this. everything except the processor...surely this wouldn't cause that..as when windows does boot i can run virus scans, run games etc putting heavy load on the processor and it's fine. as soon as i turn it off or restart it wont boot again. all cables are all brand new and the cd-rom drive/floppy drive have also been replaced, as has the motherboard. it has been pretty tempremental, but today i've not managed to boot it up properly at all. usually it doesnt work for at least a few hours after it crashes. I've ran a Sisoft Sandra test and everything came back fine, so I'm well and truly lost. I tested a brand new hard drive and it has the exact same problem. Can anyone help? Time for a new processor? If you can help me out it would be very much appreciated.
Thanks

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lets see what your temps and voltage's are...get speedfan and use whatever screen capture program you like and post the pic back here...

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

[happyrock]

lets see what your temps and voltage's are...get speedfan and use whatever screen capture program you like and post the pic back here...

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

[burnoutnotfadeaway]

I've not been able to boot it up at all since I tried a different hard drive in it. With this hard drive it occasionally gets to the XP login screen then a red error message comes across the screen saying the voltages are set wrong and to switch the machine off immediately. The screen is very fuzzy making it bareable to read what the voltages are. As I can't boot up in any mode with any hard drive, I can't think of any other way to test with speedfan.Any suggestions?

[happyrock]

look at the back of the computer and make sure the selecter switch is 110 and not 220

Edited by happyrck, 08 November 2006 - 08:01 PM.

[burnoutnotfadeaway]

I presume the selector switch is on the back of the PSU?
I've done some further testing, here's the outcome...

Once it gets past the POST, before the Windows XP loading screen appears a BSOD appears, giving the following message:
"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer". It also prompts me to run chkdsk for viruses/file corruption.
The error code is as follows:
0x0000007B (0xF8981524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000).

On the odd occasion that it gets past the windows loading and gets to the Windows login screen, the screen is very fuzzy, and a red box appears saying "Attention signal frequency is out of range".
The frequency's are shown as:
H: 64.1KHZ
V: 60.1HZ
"Please change signal timer" is shown below the frequencies.

I rebooted into the BIOS and checked the frequencies there. They were shown as:
H: 63.9KHZ
V: 59.9HZ
So they both have changed slightly[why???]

There's an option in my BIOS called "Reset Case Open Status", when this is set to enabled and rebooted, it boots everytime to the stage where the signal frequencies error is shown.
I rebooted the system again in the BIOS and checked the voltages/temps
VCORE: 1.628V
DDR VTT: 1.280V
+3.3V: 3.232V
+5V: 4.677 (when I reboot again and double check this changes to 4.650V, rebooting again changes it back to 4.677 and vice versa)
+12V: 12.429V (again, when this is checked after several reboots it changes between 12.429 and 12.345, these exact two figures)
5VSB: 6.343V
CPU Temp: 44C, flickers back and forward between 44 and 45C
CPU Host Frequency: 166MHZ
PCI/AGP Frequency: 22/66MHZ
DRAM Clock Frequency: 166-DDR333

I powered the system down overnight, then when I switched it on about 12 hours later, the CPU temp was shown as 25C as soon as I booted it into the BIOS. Within 2-3 minutes it had risen to 44C again, I'm not sure if this is largely significant.

I'm not sure at all about voltages so hopefully someone can help out.
It's a socket 462 AMD Athlon 2.8ghz, with a Gigabyte GA-7VA motherboard. The BSOD is shown regardless if a harddrive is connected or not...so I hope someone has seen this problem before or at least can point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance!

[happyrock]

yes the 110/220 switch is on the back of the power supply....

you said you have swapped all the parts...does that include the monitor itself....

the cpu temps are fine...

5VSB: 6.343V ... this seems a little high but someone else will have to confirm this...I think the voltages are supposed to be within 10 %

you could have a switching converter failure on
the motherboard. Perhaps a MOSFET is fried or something...

go to this link on CAPACITORS and look at the caps on your mobo to see if you have one leaking or blown...they have pictures to look at ...

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1081/

[burnoutnotfadeaway]

Well it's never been overclocked. I can't see any physical damage to the motherboard at all, so how would I go about making sure the '5VSB' voltage is okay? Thank you

[burnoutnotfadeaway]

I forgot to mention, as I live in the UK, shouldn't my PSU be set to 220V, as I thought 110V was for the US? Thanks

[happyrock]

I forgot to mention, as I live in the UK, shouldn't my PSU be set to 220V, as I thought 110V was for the US? Thanks

how does everyone else have theirs set where you live...use whatever they use...I/we here in the US use 110

[happyrock]

Again..you said you have swapped all the parts...does that include the monitor itself....

[burnoutnotfadeaway]

Firstly, I looked at my PSU, it doesnt have a voltage selector?! The system has been tested with 3 different PSU's and it made no difference. One of the test PSU's was a 600w PSU taken out of a working system so I presume it was running at 210V.
I used an old CRT monitor and it ran 2 days straight with no problems. I then started using it with a year-old LCD flatscreen monitor which ran an older 800mhz and it ran fine. Perhaps the LCD monitor is the fault? It ran fine with the older system so I'm not entirely sure what's going on there, although I've downloaded the exact same drivers on both computers as they both run XP(XP on a 800mhz:o I know, but it's so much easier to run a wireless network). Nonetheless, as the LCD works with the old and not with the new, I'll have to look into that. I might just need to buy a new motherboard, which I'm not entirely sure about either. I know the sort of things I want from a mobo, but not exactly sure which ones are best.
I'd be looking for something with relatively good bus speeds, PCI slots, AGP 8x or better or a PCI-X slot(preferred). Onboard sound(I know they are usually crap but I'm not wanting to splash the cash until I know the system works effectively) and USB 2.0...not that fussy what type of hard drive it supports, as I have a couple of IDE's and a SATA hard drive. As SATA technology is faster, probably SATA interface would probably be better. I'd be looking to spend at most £50/$100. If anyone can point me in the right direction then great

[happyrock]

you say ..." I used an old CRT monitor and it ran 2 days straight with no problems. I then started using it with a year-old LCD flatscreen monitor which ran an older 800mhz and it ran fine."

this indicates the monitor is the problem

[Dan1887]

You definately have a voltage prob if your 5v is running at 6.4v, anything over 5.6 is too much, also does ur monitor draw power from your pc or rom a wall socket.

[Kurenai]

His 5V wasn't running 6.4, that was the 5v standby, which is much, much less important. If anything, the 5v was running low at 4.6 or so.

For general information, the 5v, 12v, and 3.3v rails need to be running within 5% of spec, or your power supply is defective as defined by industry standards. Voltages may need to be off by less or more than that to cause problems, depending on hardware used (for example, pci-express cards tend to be more forgiving on the 12v rail than high end agp cards, for some reason), but the 5% rule is generally a good one to use, as any quality manufacturer will agree that your power supply is defective and replace it under warranty at that point.

As far as the problem goes, does it present in exactly the same way no matter which monitor you use? I think there's some confusion over that.

[Dan1887]

yes i misread that, that being said a 5v rail running under 5 volts is not a good thing.