Unstable System - Any ideas?

Kent

Kent

Kent

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Joined
6 Jun 2006
Posts
132
I've recently upgraded my PC and stuck an 8600gt 512mb, 2gb of Crucial RAM and an Athlon X2 4200+ in.

The parts I've kept from prior to my upgrade are:

Asus M2V Motherboard
'X-Power' 400w PSU
Creative Audigy 7.1 Soundcard
Maxtor 60gb HDD
CD-ROM Drive

I've installed XP SP2 with no problems, but when the system comes under a little bit of strain it crashes for around 20-30secs, then a BSOD flashes up and then restart. I can happily be on MSN and browse the internet at the same time with no troubles, but like I said it doesn't take much before it gets unstable.

I'm assuming it's the crappy PSU, but I though it'd be good to get a second opinion. The motherboard should be okay, right?

Any ideas? Thanks.
 
try running with 1 stick of memory in differenct slots, could try running memtest over them as well.

use onboard sound if the mobo has it and remove the sound card and disconnect cd drive from power, and run with 1 stick of memory see if that helps.
 
Crappy PSU, temps, voltage, though the CPU should be stable on stock volts at stock speed. Defective RAM can also cause this kind of problem. On general principle, Id put in a quality PSU whether or not its the actual problem. Memtest86+ should show up any bad RAM. Check the temperatures and voltage rails, if the temps are too high then reseat the cooler, if the voltages are more than 5% out of spec, replace the PSU ASAP.
 
I noticed in the BIOS that the VCORE was something like 1.25 generally and that 12V was only like 11.2 - 11.3

So, PSU?
 
11.2 / 11.3v on the 12v rail seems a bit to low to me, what about the 3.3v and 5v line?
 
I think that might be it :) I've had something similar as you are experiencing. Get a good PSU. If someone can confirm it before he gets a new PSU ;)
 
Hmm, I got round to installing my sound card drivers and haven't had a crash since. I've also been able to play CoD 4 on Max settings with no crash.

Looks like it's solved, but what a weird reason?

Edit: The irony of it is, 2 minutes after I made this post, it crashed. So frustrating. Even after playing cod 4 @ 40fps.

Edit 2: I've realised that most if not all of the times it's crashed it's been using Firefox, so I'm going to use IE7 for a bit (much to my disgust) to see if that's where the problem lies.
 
Last edited:
wesley said:
Hello Kent :)

cant use msn as i'm at work :) what firefox version ? u said summat about Java at the other day.
Click to expand...
I just played cod 4 for about 15 minutes again, no crash.

I've now had it crash whilest using winamp with nothing else open. However, I'm using winamp and IE7 with no crash.

It's completely random. It crashes on everything (apart from cod4 so far, which is weird). I've had 2 crashes in 2 minutes before and then not another for 30 mins. The java thing I was on about was a system scanner (for game requirements) - that did crash every time but it's also random too.

I don't know why call of duty hasn't crashed though.
 
All of the drivers that need to be installed, are installed. I'm leaning towards it being a low powered PSU but why wouldn't it crash immediatly in a game? (Or at least run slowly).
 
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