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Few X2 4400+ (939) teething problems

fish99

fish99

fish99

Soldato
Joined
19 May 2005
Posts
5,053
Location
Doncaster
Hi, upgraded from a A64 4000+ (SD) to a A64 X2 4400+ last week, both Skt 939, see sig for rest of specs. The CPU is the only thing that's changed and nothing is overclocked.

I've had one BSOD while browsing the web (windows encountered a serious error ...etc), one freeze where everything was unresponsive, and a reboot during startup. I also had 2 spontaneous reboots but I think those can be put down to coretemp since it was running at the time and those haven't reoccured since during the last week.

Before changing the CPU the PC was rock solid stable. Temps look fine, highest I've seen is 52 degrees one core and 48 for the other after running two instances of SuperPI 32M for half an hour. Gaming seems fine too, the PC survived a 4 hr game of Supreme Commander. So I don't think it's a temperature issue. Don't think it's power since the PC got through 3 back-to-back runs of 3DMark06 without problems, and the PSU is an Enermax. The hangs seem random rather than relating to system load.

According to Asus the current BIOS on the A8N5X supports my CPU just fine. The only newer BIOS available is a beta (doesn't say what it fixes). So I'm now thinking software issues. I installed the latest AMD CPU driver after installing the X2, then the latest Cool'n'Quiet driver, and then the Dual Core Optimizer. Any reason why I would need to reinstall XP when switching to dual-core? Anything else software-wise that I might have missed?

HSF is Freezer 64 Pro btw /w AS5. Case has dual 12 cm cooling. Only other thing I can think of that's relevant is I have Cool'n'Quiet active (1000 MHz, 1.1 V for each core at idle). Kinda perplexed here... :confused:

Cheers for any help,
Simon.
 
Thanks, yeah I had those installed. I've followed the instructions in that link - removed cpu driver and optimizer (plus nforce drivers for the hell of it), then reinstalled them in the order suggested along with the MS dual core hotfix (not sure whether I had that on before).

I'll see how it goes. If it doesn't work I'll try turning CNQ off, then if that doesn't work an XP reinstall.
 
Damn, not working. Just had 2 freezes and 1 reboot in the last hour. The reboot again was while coretemp (the supposedly stable 0.94beta version) was running so I'll discount that, but the 2 freezes, one was while running SuperPi (2 instances) and the other was while just browsing the web :rolleyes:

The last freeze was with CNQ off so it's not that. All the correct drivers are installed. I expected upgrading to dual-core to be a painless experience...
 
I'm not overclocking, but I guess it's worth a try anyway. Will do. I've just bought some ArctiClean, cleaned HSF and CPU with it and reinstalled the CPU with AS5. I might try that beta bios too.
 
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2 x 1GB, dual channel.

edit:Touch wood it seems ok now. Might have been the nvidia SW IDE driver causing some of the problems, although I'm sure I didn't have it installed during the first few hangs.
 
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Yeah, I had major problem getting rid of the NV SW IDE drivers. Dunno why I installed them really I should know better, but for some reason the uninstaller didn't give me the option to remove them, and rolling back or changing to the MS drivers kept saying 'driver not intended for this platform'. It's one of the weirdest problems you can get on a PC because the cause is so obscure - it's actually Alcohol 120%'s virtual driver that causes it. If only I'd remembered that 2 days earlier.

Anyway, cheers for the suggestions guys :) I now have plenty more things to try should it start crashing again. I do have the hotfix and dual core optimizer on. Currently running 1T so I'll try 2T, and if I get desperate I'll reinstall XP. There's always that beta bios too.
 
Getting some weird issues now. The other night in a game of Sup Com I got this brief static noise from the speakers, followed by the screen going blank saying no input and then after a few seconds coming back on with the desktop and Sup Com still running minimized. Went back into the game ok but it happened another twice before the fourth time I got a BSOD. There was lightning around at the time so I put it down to an electrical surge.

Tonight though it happened again twice with no lightning or even rain nearby. That was in Sup Com again but it's also happened once when not in Sup Com.

Never had anything like it before despite owning a PC for 10 yrs. Seems unlikely it was a power surge, especially since I'm using a surge protector and a good PSU.

I've tested everything and it all checks out. Just passed two runs through a memory test, I did 3 runs through 3dmark06 the other day, I've run two instances of SuperPI 32M all the way through on seperate cores and no problems came up, and I've had the ATI artifact tool running and found no problems. Temps look completely fine. I've also had at least three 3 hr+ games on Sup Com over the same period that have gone absolutely fine. I even set Sup Com going with 8 supreme AI on a 40*40 map and left it for 2 hrs without problems.

All I can guess is some intermittent fault with either wall socket, PSU, motherboard or video card.
 
Already followed that to the letter. TBH I'm not sure it's anything to do with the CPU anymore, I can't see why a CPU problem would make my speakers hiss and my video card briefly switch off the way it seems to be doing. Seems more like the PSU is cutting out (which would be odd cause the X2 uses the same 89W as my previous 4000+ SD).

This morning, after botting into windows, I opened up Firefox was about to start browsing the web, and the PC just froze solid. I might try putting the A64 back in for a few days just to rule out the X2 as the problem.
 
Just an update, I tried the old A64 4000+ for 48 hrs and that seemed fine so I put the X2 back in and it's still hanging. It's mostly when the PC has just been switched on from cold, it gets to windows but the first app you run it will often freeze straight away. Sometimes you can still move the mouse around, and the HDD occasionally still chuggs but nevertheless the PC is unresponsive. Once it gets 'warmed up' so to speak it will happily get through any test you care to run without missing a beat.

I think applying a bit of logic, it's unlikely to be a software problem or overheating. It could be power though, although my system shouldn't stress out a 465W Enermax at all and in theory the X2 uses the same 89W as the single core I had. I tried 2T on the ram and that has made no difference. I will try upping vcore a notch, although that shouldn't be necessary at stock speeds, and it's unlikely to make a difference since the vcore is probably reduced by CnQ during most of the hangs.

Still rather puzzled...
 
Nope, it hasn't, just had several glitches in SupCom where the screen would go off and the game would minimize. Twice it came back on but the third time the screen had gone haywire flashing and the only solution was to alt-tab out and close SupCom down :confused:

I don't get it, if it's the CPU then how come it'll get through SuperPI 32M with two instances running? (one on each core) If it's any other hardware or software issue then how come the PC was fine when I put the A64 4000+ back in? Done a full scandisc twice, done memory checks. Virus/spyware is clean.

That's all with vcore at 1.4V. It does seem more stable with Cool'n'Quiet off but it's still not totally stable. Also it's clearly not just about the PC being 'warmed up' since the first SupCom freeze was 20 minutes into a game.

Really confused. I presume there's no known issues with Cool'n'Quiet on X2s? Again nothing is overclocked and nothing is overheating.

I'm gonna try some other games to see if it's just SupCom (although it has been freezing just in windows), and maybe try some older ATI drivers. If none of that works I'll have to reinstall the OS and try that beta bios. What a pain :mad:
 
Reinstalling the OS didn't help, but I think I've found a solution. It hasn't crashed for several days now since I switched power saving from 'minimal power management' to 'always on'. What's odd about that is you would think then it was Cool'n'Quiet that was causing the crashing, but it was even crashing with C'n'Q turned off in the BIOS.

I dunno if 'minimal power management' was doing something else power related, but nevertheless switching to 'always on' seems to have done the trick.

Only problem is 'always on' means the PC is eating more juice when idle but it's better than having it crashing. I might invest some more time into trying to get it stable with C'n'Q in the future.

Just want to say thanks for all the help :cool:
 
I don't think it is sorted actually, I've had a couple more lockups in SupCom (not game crashes, rather the system just freezing, early in games too) and two in Flight Sim X as well (same thing). This is with power management on Always On so Cool'n'Quiet is out of the equation.

Couldn't put that beta bios on since awdflash insists it's not for my board (bizarrely the motherboard identifier on my current bios is actually wrong, it says I have an A8N-SLI not A8N5X so the bios won't load, even though the current bios itself and the new one I want to load are defeinitely for A8N5X). The bios shouldn't be relevant anyway, my board has supported the 4400+ Toledo since launch about 6 bios revisions ago. So I'm pretty much out of options.

I will try another PSU later just in case it's that, but at this point I may just sell the 4400+ and buy a new Intel core 2 setup. I can't have a PC that freezes this much.

Really wasn't expecting this amount of problems just from swapping a CPU... :rolleyes:
 
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