Unstable system - random reboots and blue screens

[ajgoodfellow]

Hi

I built a new PC about 6 months ago and up until recently it was fine

About a month or so ago it started rebooting - this got more and more frequent

I tried reducing the memory speed from DDR2-800 to DDR2-667 but that didn't help

I ran Memtest for about 3 hours and over 5 passes without any errors at DDR2-800, 1.95V

I upgraded from XP Professional x64 edition to Vista Business 64-bit edition but that didn't help -the Vista setup would blue screen at the beginning

Decreasing the CPU speed from 2.8GHz to 2GHz greatly reduced the frequency of the blue screens so it looked like I had a faulty CPU

I've checked the PSU voltages and they don't budge (they're good at 12.2V, 5.1V and 3.3V)

I bought a new cheap CPU to tide me over whilest the original CPU is being RMA'd

The machine still occasionally blue screens though (although less than with the FX). I've tried updating the drivers but that doesn't seem to help

Any ideas would be much appreciated, thanks!

My current spec is:

- AMD Athlon X2 3800+ @ stock, 1.4V
- 2x1GB Corsair XMS DDR2 ram @ 800MHz 5-5-5-18 2T
- ASUS M2N-E motherboard
- HIS X1900XT 512MB graphics card
- Antec Neo HE 550W PSU


Thanks


Alistair

 

[Van Diemen]

You say RAM & PSU are okay & its still Blue screening with the new CPU, I would say maybe mobo problems.

Graphics card could also cause this.

 

[kmistry]

Gone are the days when blue screens meant people going OMG it's dying! But to be honest with you it would be a great help if you could tell us what the blue screen error messages were? I've had one or two blue screens with this setup in my sig, though I've just recently discovered that it's because of my router!

Also have u perhaps tried updating your BIOS? or check on mobo forums if people have been having problems with said board? RAM you have seems to be fine as you ran memtest Have u installed anything new that made it blue screen as many times its because of compatibility issues with something new installed e.g. an expansion card or something? And as stated above it could be mobo or GFX, when do the blue screens occur - what are you doing when it happens?


Kiz

 

[Meatball]

Are your RAM timings correct? I know my PC used to be unstable because the ram timings were wrong even though it passed memtest fine

 

[ajgoodfellow]

You say RAM & PSU are okay & its still Blue screening with the new CPU, I would say maybe mobo problems.

Graphics card could also cause this.

Thanks for your reply - yeah it does sound like that unfortunately

Vista has twice said that there is was a problem with the graphics drivers (not much out of the actual number of reboots) so that's why I tried new drivers. I haven't noticed anything else that might signify a faulty graphics card though, such as artefacts

I've put off activating my new copy of Vista for this reason - as it's OEM I don't want to activate it if I need a new motherboard!

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Gone are the days when blue screens meant people going OMG it's dying! But to be honest with you it would be a great help if you could tell us what the blue screen error messages were? I've had one or two blue screens with this setup in my sig, though I've just recently discovered that it's because of my router!

Also have u perhaps tried updating your BIOS? or check on mobo forums if people have been having problems with said board? RAM you have seems to be fine as you ran memtest Have u installed anything new that made it blue screen as many times its because of compatibility issues with something new installed e.g. an expansion card or something? And as stated above it could be mobo or GFX, when do the blue screens occur - what are you doing when it happens?


Kiz

Hi

Thanks for the reply

I've recently updated to the latest BIOS, 0603, but it doesn't seem to have helped unfortunately

It seems to happen at random times - during the night when it's just downloading, during a game, reading e-mails, browsing the web, watching a film, copying between disks, etc

The blue screen message is PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Are your RAM timings correct? I know my PC used to be unstable because the ram timings were wrong even though it passed memtest fine

They're actually slacker than they should be

Stock is 800MHz 5-5-5-12 1T but I've tried 800MHz 5-5-5-18 2T and even 667MHz 5-5-5-18 2T to try and improve reliability

If I set the timings to their stock values it seems to be worse. This motherboard has known issues with different memory though and it wouldn't work with this ram before I updated the BIOS

I did check that this ram was OK before buying it though - the main issue seems to be the fact that it can only supply a maximum of 1.95V to the ram. Thankfully this ram is specced at 1.9V

 

[Higgins]

Have you tried uninstalling the drivers and using a driver cleaner then re-installing?

Googling the error message points to memory errors or driver problems, seen as your passing memtest with no problems it maybe a faulty driver.

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Have you tried uninstalling the drivers and using a driver cleaner then re-installing?

Googling the error message points to memory errors or driver problems, seen as your passing memtest with no problems it maybe a faulty driver.

Cheers for the reply

I haven't tried that - it's definitely worth a try

I saw the same things on a Google search, along with suggestions of a faulty CPU but as I've replaced the CPU and changed the OS I'm not sure

Definitely worth a go though!

 

[DasFruitMachine]

If the crashes are related to clockspeed, it may be your PSU to blame (the higher the clockspeed, the greater the power required). I'm having similar issues with my PC and the crashes are significantly worse with a higher clockspeed (though my PSU is 3 years old). Pretty much any stability problem can stem from a faulty PSU, so it may well be a good idea to test with a different PSU if possible.