Legit Reviews

i just built a new system and am having it randomly lock up after long periods of time, it doesnt seem to have anything to do with what im doing on the computer

its stayed up thru intense processing and died at all sorts of times while doing very little, once while booting, once it failed to boot at all (just showed jibberish instead of the bios)

crashed twice while installing the OS, a few times hours, or DAYS into running (while not doing anything of interest)

ive run a ram tester twice, and found 0 errors both times.

the MB has most upto date bios available for it. most of the bios settings are defaults (i didnt setup the memory with any special timings or voltages yet) but does the problem sound like it could be memory related?

here is the system:

• MB: ASUS M4N68T-M Socket AM3 Micro ATX Motherboard, NVIDIA Geforce 7025/nForce 630a Chipset, Supports AMD Socket AM3 Multi-core CPUs, Dual DDR3 1800 (O.C.), SATA 3Gb/s RAID, PCI-E x16
• RAM: Mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory 996585, 240-Pin, Unbuffered.
• CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz Socket AM3 45nm Processor, Model: ADX630WFGIBOX. Retail Box
• PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W ATX12V v2.2/EPS12V Modular Computer Power Supply, Active PFC, SLI Ready, 80 Plus Certified, w/ 135mm Fan, Model: OCZ600MXSP-B

ive also monitored its temperature and it is always waay down in the clear
while it was running 90%+ on all four cores it was showing less than 35 degrees C

heres the sensors:
Vcore Voltage: +1.10 V (min = +0.85 V, max = +1.60 V)
+3.3 Voltage: +3.39 V (min = +2.97 V, max = +3.63 V)
+5 Voltage: +5.04 V (min = +4.50 V, max = +5.50 V)
+12 Voltage: +12.28 V (min = +10.20 V, max = +13.80 V)
CPU FAN Speed: 3082 RPM (min = 600 RPM)
CHASSIS FAN Speed:1642 RPM (min = 600 RPM)
CPU Temperature: +32.0°C (high = +60.0°C, crit = +95.0°C)
MB Temperature: +31.0°C (high = +45.0°C, crit = +75.0°C)



since the entire system is new at once i am really not sure which part could be causing it, id imagine if it were memory id see other weird errors and random issues besides a sudden and complete lockup

theres nothing of use in any of the logs before any of the crashes

and nothing happens on screen either, it just stopps responding, mouse/keyboard does nothing, sometimes the keyboard flashes its leds, and if the monitor is in powerdown mode it flashes its light too

Have you check all the screws on the motherboard and other parts to make sure all is tight and snug? It's possible something is lose and shorting out the rig, it's happened to me before... Another suggestion is to test the power supply(since it was never mentioned). I can't think of anything else right now that may be doing it.

how do i test a power supply, swap it out and see if it still persists?

and all the screws are nice and secure, no loose exposed wires ;)

intangir wrote:how do i test a power supply, swap it out and see if it still persists?

and all the screws are nice and secure, no loose exposed wires ;)

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/3217/ ... =g11c28s88

Plug your PSU into a Power Supply Tester...the link shows what it looks like, so if you see a different brand go for it if you want. Just plug in the PSU to that and and hold the button down . Just be sure to unplug the rest of your system from the power supply when you test it.

cool ill give it a try

i wonder if my problem would show up from the test though because like i said it takes hours or DAYS for it to suddenly crap out

just did it again it was up for about 14 hours

I had the same problem on a system I put together last year. the processor was bad - i ended up replacing every other part before that fixed it. It would freeze up and random times. sometimes on boot, sometimes after up and running for hours.

well i replaced the psu and it still craped out
i notice it was crashing about 30-50% on boot so i determined that was a good way to test if it was stable

i set the memory timings and stuff for the ram and it still crashed

so then i replaced the ram, so far so good, i rebooted it a dozen times without a crash..
i do believe that solves it

so the mushkin ram blows
i replaced it worth corsair ram

What did you use to test your RAM before, just curious.

Dan

Exactly what Dan said. My first inkling with your problem would be RAM. RAM testers (DOS ones) only test for errors in the RAM. Programs like Super Pi, even though it's a CPU program, and Prime95 will stress the RAM in a real environment. I doubt your RAM was bad just that it wasn't getting enough voltage or the timings were too tight.

i used the memtest86+ or whatever it is, the thing that comes on linux live/install CDs

and ya im sure it doesnt accurately model and sort of realtime usage
but it passed consistently

im on linux so i dont know if any of these other tester tools you mention will work for me

also the timing/freq/voltage stuff i ended up manually setting in bios according to manufacturer and it still crashed
it apparently isnt very stable

the corsair memory i put in it now seems to be holding strong

I'm surprised memtest didn't pick up any problems. :-/

Is that board or chipset known for being picky with RAM? Does it have a very long QVL list for approved RAM?

Dan