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Software Tool To Test PC
slinga - Nov 17, 2004
  slinga Nov 17, 2004
Hey guys,

I've had more problems in the past month with my computer(s) then I have had in my entire life. The new pc I got has been freezing every 30 minutes or so, I have no clue why. I ran the test from memtest86.org, and it passed. Any other tools available? It's can't be any IDE device, I've tested all those. Keeping post short before it freezes...

Edit: Specifically for testing mobo and cpu, as that's all it could be. Possibly power supply, and if it is, I'm going to shoot myself.

 Quadriflax Nov 17, 2004
Try Sandra.... Its got a whole ton of things you might try running.

 slinga Nov 18, 2004
What are the signs of a video card overheating? Any recommended utilities for that? The weird thing is, I don't play graphic intensive games...and doh, I gotta install Windows for Sandra.

 Quadriflax Nov 18, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by slinga@Thu, 2004-11-18 @ 09:42 AM



What are the signs of a video card overheating? Any recommended utilities for that? The weird thing is, I don't play graphic intensive games...and doh, I gotta install Windows for Sandra.




[post=123988]Quoted post[/post]


D'oh, I just assumed you were running Windows. My bad.

As for the video card overheating, mostly things will just look screwed up and your computer will crash. At least that has been my experience. If you're not running anything graphic intensive and it's still crashing, odds are it's not the video card overheating. My Ti4600 ran fine in Windows and for all my 2D related stuff, but would flicker and eventually crash my system if I tried to run a 3D game. I don't know if Futuremark... makes anything for non-Windows based computers, but they've got some good stuff for hammering at your video card.

Really if it's this random and you've already tested your memory, I would think it's the PSU. Swap it out with one you know that works if you can and see what happens.

I'm also assuming you've made sure it's not your CPU that's overheating, right? (fan still spins, good circulation in your system, heatsink properly seated)

 slinga Nov 18, 2004
Man I'm depressed. I installed and patched Windows 2000 Pro on this same machine and not a single crash...been using it for over an hour. Looks like my linux fan boy days are over =(.

On a side note, anybody know anything about crashes in linux related to Nvidia video cards? I think it could of been the video card, but what the hell do I know. SuSE had Nvidia drivers on their YAST online update which I installed, but I had crashes either way.

 it290 Nov 18, 2004
Hmm.. Could be a number of things. What version of the Nvidia Linux drivers were you running? And what Xserver were you running?

 slinga Nov 18, 2004
Nevermind, hoorary windows crashed, now I know for sure it's a hardware issue!!

I have no clue what Nvidia drivers I was using for Linux. The screen looked fine either booting up on a live cd, or installing SuSE all the way. I'm going to fool around with Sandra know and see if it can shed some light on what's wrong with my box...

 slinga Nov 18, 2004
I think I caught some stuff:

Temperature Sensor(s)

Board Temperature : 32.0°C / 89.6°F td

CPU1 Temperature : 32.0°C / 89.6°F

CPU2 Temperature : 49.0°C / 120.2°F

Cooling Device(s)

Auto Fan Speed Control : No

CPU1 Fan Speed : 3245rpm

Voltage Sensor(s)

CPU1 Voltage : 1.79V

CPU2 Voltage : 1.20V

+3.3V Voltage : 3.33V

+5V Voltage : 5.05V

+12V Voltage : 11.61V

-12V Voltage : -0.02V

-5V Voltage : -5.26V

Standby Voltage : 4.95V

Battery Voltage : 3.06V

First of all I only have one CPU. I don't know about you, but I think the CPU temperature is kind of low, what do you guys think? The other thing that caught my eye is the -12V volate, it's at -0.02V. Weird thing is, I didn't notice that value in the BIOS when I checked earlier...

 Pearl Jammzz Nov 18, 2004
well you have socket temp, and diode temp. My cpu temp is at about 45. right now I run a 2500+ at 2.5 gigs and my temp is like 44 degrees celcius MAX. under 50 at full load you should be good. It's not the best, but your PC will still run fine.

try swapping hardware.....PSU is a huge one, so is your system mem. If you have ram you know is good, switch it out and see what happens. Same w/ the PSU. As with any "experiment" make sure and only have one variable at a time . Hope this helps ya.

 it290 Nov 18, 2004
That CPU temp isn't low at all.. in fact, it's a little on the high side. The voltage thing is definitely a bit weird, although I suspect it may just be an incorrect reading.

Is there any pattern as to when the lockups occur, or is it just random? Also, does the machine respond to ping when it's locked up?

 Alexvrb Nov 19, 2004
His CPU temp is probably fine. I've seen PCs run for days on end with much higher temps, it depends on the processor. If you think those temps are high, you haven't seen a Precott in action. The damned things have high typical operating temps.

You should list all your hardware. It is very unlikely to be your GPU, not with that kind of use. You should check your voltages with your system under load. Hopefully its not a flakey mainboard.

 slinga Nov 22, 2004
I don't see a point in listing my hardware, I've swapped everything in an out (except for the video card):

- creative sound card 5.1 live (comp crashes even when not installed)

- 3 com nic (comp crashes even when not installed)

- samsung 52x cd-rom (comp crashes even when not installed)

- integrated sound (comp crashes even when disabled)

- integrated nic (comp crashes even when disabled)

- QDI 4FX mobo

- P4 2.0 Ghz CPU

- nvidia video card

- 300 watt power supply

- 512 Meg DDR ram (passes memtest86.org's ram test)

- 3 Western Digital hard drives (knoppix crashes, crashes when I use different hard drives)

Wow on second thought that was actually kinda useful. I have it narrowed down to motherboard, cpu, video card, or power supply. I'm leaning towards video card, but I don't have a spare one to test, going to have to go buy one soon.

The only time I can guarantee a crash is buy watching flash movies. Other then that, I the crashes are random. I don't know how to further test this.

 slinga Nov 22, 2004
Ah using Sandra's burn in wizard, it crashed during the CPU utilization test. I'm going to try and replicate the crash again.

Edit: Can't replicate the error =(

 Alexvrb Nov 23, 2004
I'd be more likely to blame PSU or video card than the other two. The PSU could be supplying OK power under light conditions, but under a heavy load it might be choking. CPU utilization 100% might be driving it too hard.

Then again, your video card could just be flakey as hell. There's only one way to really test that. Hmm, I have a spare outdated AGP card, but it only runs in AGP 2X or below so your board would have to explicitly support older modes/voltages. Plus it has been sitting for a while, I'd have to test it first anyway.

I'd *normally* recommend you try updating your BIOS (sometimes they fix incompatibilities with certain graphics cards), but I wouldn't want you to risk it screwing up while it's flashing. That would be bad. It's really unlikely to fix anything anyway.