Asus P4C800 crash

[csab]

Hello guys,

As Garebo avoided me I start a new thread for my problem even if I know (from other forums, especially the forum of Corsair Memory) that "a lot of" people have the same crashes and issues than I...

The bug I'm trying to fix is the following one: my PC just switches off without any reason. I would not be able to say at which frequency because some times it's after 2 min 5 times crash after crash and sometimes the PC runs for hours... oO There is no error message, nor THE blue screen

First of all my configuration:

Mobo: Asus P4C800 Deluxe
CPU: Intel P4c 2,8 Ghz
RAM: 1 X Corsaire Value 512Mb PC3200 Cas2,5 (2,5-3-3-8) (at 199Mhz)
PSU: Qtechnology 400W PFC (Papst Series)
GPU: Asus 9600XT (Ati Radeon 128Mb)
HD: Hitachi Deskstar T7K250-8 (250Gb EIDE 8Mb Cache)
DVD-R: Pioneer DVR-A07 (xla or xlb)
SoundCard: Creative Audigy (on PCI)

BIOS Setting: All of the "Onboard Chipset" are disabled, the HT is running, tried to disabled the USB legacy, but that do not change anything, there is also no overclocking enabled. The PAT and the ECC are disabled... I tried to change the APM (power management) too but neither enabled nor disabled has apparantly an effect...

The last "good Bios" the 1019 one is installed with the last intel chipset drivers I downloaded from Asus website...

(I think all the stuff and settings are here...)

I have already made some tests in my quest of getting a working PC... I run most of the tests from "UBCD" under DOS. The memtest run for 1h30min and the memory seemed all right (it passed the memtest 86 (v3.2) 6 or 8 times). I run a CPU test also, after 1 mio iterations I stopped it
Under Windows XP Pro I used the Asus utility to monitor the temperatures and the voltages. The Mobo is about 30°C, the CPU about 33°C and never above 45°C even in full load. For the voltages there is only a difference of 2 or 3 mA for about 2h. The GPU temperature is never above 45-48°C even in full charge.

I already tried to reinstall Windows XP 3 times, on two different HD (the first one was a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120Gb on ATA 133) without any result. I also tried to run the system without any optical device, or with an other device (a Lite-On CDRW the model was the : LTR-52246s) too. I even run a Linux system that freezed after a while.. (but I was not an expert of Linux at that time, and even now I am not one )

And my system crashes and crashes and crashes... does not matter I am using it or not ! And I have no more ideas...

Please HELP me ... !!!

Thanks a lot

Csab

 

[westredd]

Have you swapped the psu yet? Also, it's worth checking that the vents on the psu and also the case are not clogged up with dust preventing airflow. I have seen this problem where the psu gets so hot that it gives up and shuts down the pc all of a sudden. Worth checking if only to eliminate the possibilty.

 

[csab]

Thanks Westredd, but the problem is not that, because the temperature of my psu is about 30-40°C. I can just touch it, and it's not so hot but I have no stuff to check it correctly...

And I checked the dust right now and that's not the solution I am looking for :-( There is no dust at all in my PC...

But thanks, you know that all propositions are welcome

Csab

Yes I am a MAC lover, and so what

 

[paparazi]

Powers down?
Freezes?
Just turns off?

Given the limited information.
I would also suspect the power supply.

martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[csab]

Under Linux (I removed Linux now for a while) it freezed.
Now it just powers down...

I think that the psu is not in cause, because of the monitoring I made... the voltages are changing only about 2 or 3 mA during serveral hours, it's a very little change considering the time...

waiting for other posts,

thanks

Csab

Yes I am a MAC lover, and so what

 

[dodge8604]

Mine seems to be doing the same thing that you have descibed, I replaced my psu today along with a couple other things and to no avail.

Also when you start up your system does it have trouble booting up the motherboard at all? Today my motherboard doesnt want to boot up, i've checked all the connections and still nothing. Sorry that Im such a newbie.

 

[westredd]

thanks for underlining some of the words it really helped

And I checked the dust right now and that's not the solution I am looking for

I didnt say it was a solution, only something that you should check.

Im presuming that the system just switches off in an instant, it's still not clear from what you have written. Powering down suggests that the pc is showing the message "windows is shutting down" and then shutting down gracefully.

It may or may not be the PSU. Fair enough it's not getting hot and there is no dust problem, but if my PC was totally shutting down without warning, the 1st thing I would do to try another psu in place of the current one before i would say that this is not causing the problem..

Monitioring M/board voltage changes is fine, but if there is a fault on the transformer or mains side of the transformer inside the psu this wouldnt get picked up from monitoring voltage or milli amps at the m/board.

cheers

West

 

[electronicsfreak]

Follow the link below and test your memory. Never heard of memory shutting a computer off but its worth a shot at checking.

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

[csab]

Sorry for the confusion West, english is not my native language so I have quite a lot of problems describing the issues.

So The PC switches off in an instant as you said it above...

And I am going to try the config with an other psu, but I think the problem comes not from there...

And for electronicsfreak, I checked my RAM with memtest86 and it passed it 8 or 6 times ...

Csab

Yes I am a MAC lover, and so what

 

[westredd]

no problem mate, good luck with this problem.

 

[westredd]

oh and post the solution when you find it to help othersn who have this problem.
cheers

West

 

[csab]

Sure West I will post the solution if I ever found one

But I am also sure that I will need the help of any guy in this forum, because of the complicated caracter of my problem and also because I am going slowly to desperate finding a solution...

PS: do someone know how to contact Garebo because I found him very nice and helpfull. I think he could give me some tricks and advices

Thanks everybody for your help

Csab

Yes I am a MAC lover, and so what

 

[csab]

Do someone think that a Graphic card problem could give me such issues I described above ?

I am now reinstalling Windows... maybe Service Pack 2 will help my PC

I have also tested my config with an other RAM ( a MicronTech PC3200). It has also passed all the memtests but the crashes continues. So I presume that my RAM should be Ok... (I also have to say that the Micron RAM runs for days/weeks on an other Asus P4P800 based PC).

I am waiting for other ideas

Thanks,

Csab

Yes I am a MAC lover, and so what

 

[garebo]

Boy, thats a switch, lol.
Sorry, i cant even find your old post.
I'm very sorry, I didnt mean to ignore you. Its just that there are other people here who know more than i do, so i dont worry if i dont post.

Since you have been having this problem for a while, can i suggest you take the motherboard out of the case. It could be that your motherboard is shorting out to the case. It does happen.
Not being rude at all, but i want to make sure you feel up to taking the motherboard out of the case and putting it back in?
If you are ok with that, take the motherboard and power supply out of the case, be careful of course. If you have any cards (pci, agp, etc,) take them out first but remember the position they were in. Put the motherboard
on a piece of foam or cardboard that is bigger than the motherboard. When you take the motherboard out you have to disconnect the power pins that go to the front of the case, so make a picture showing how to put them all back.
Connect the power supply to the motherboard, have only ram and video connected and then connect the power supply to your main power. When you are all ready take a flat screwdriver and touch the end on the 2 pins that were connected to the motherboard. When you begin to take the motherboard out of the case you find the connections from the front of the case to the motherboard, thats the ones i said to make a picture for yourself. So touch the flat part of the screwdriver to the 2 pins on the motherboard, the 2 pins that were connected to the main on\off for your case. That will start your computer up for you.
If you dont think you can do this please let us know. Either we can help or you might want to get a friend to help.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

I mentioned taking the motherboard out of the case and mentioned you could have a short. But usually, with a short (grounded) your pc wont start. But i feel that you have been having this problem for a while so its best to start at the beginning, and that means taking the motherboard out of the case.
Also, if you do this, please make sure that you not only connect the main power supply connector from the power supply to the motherboard, but also connect the small, 4 pin connector. It has 4 pins, 4 wires, 2 black wires and 2 yellow wires. You must make sure you re-install that connector from the power supply to the motherboard. You usually find it near the cpu\fan setup.

But before you begin all of this, one thought. Did you try to re-set your bios yet?





Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[csab]

Thanks for your advices Garebo,

There is no problem, I never thought you ignore me
And you're right, as you can see there are other people who posted and tried to help me ...

I am going to take the mobo out of my case this week-end, because I've got a lot of work until there... You are maybe right, even if I am not sure that a short would have my issues. But, for sure, I am going to try your take out my mobo...

And to answer your question, I understood the instructions you gave me, and I feel I can easily do this. I just have to plug in the Atx power cable and the 12V one. And also the RAM and the graphic card. Then start manually the mobo, after having plug in the power supply
But I am wondering why I can not connect a hard drive?

I have to precise also that my PC is able to run for, at least, 8 hours under DOS (I have made some hard drive test and have formatted my hard drive, both with Ultimate Boot CD). So the probability that I have a short is not so big. But I am still going to test your proposition Garebo

And to answer your last question, I have tried many Bios settings. I have already tried many times to reset my Bios settings to "Default".
But I don't know if you mean clearing the ROM or just loading default settings in the Bios...

Thanks once more

Csab

Yes I am a MAC lover, and so what

 

[garebo]

No problem at all. I know its hard to speak our language. I cant imagine trying this in Russian or some other language, so you are doing pretty good.
You likely dont have a short, but its still a good idea to do it anyway. give you a chance to clean up dust and dirt, lol.
I see you got the instructions ok! Just wanted to make sure.
As for the bios reset, default setting is good but a reset might even be better. You should find out which motherboard you have because the way to reset the bios can differ. The standard way is to disconnect ALL power to the motherboard, the power to the wall and the power from the power supply to the motherboard. Then take out the coin (round) battery. Try and test to see if its 3 volts. Either way, leave it out for now. Nearest where you got the coin battery you will find 3 pins on the motherboard with 2 of the 3 pins covered with a jumper. Move the jumper so it covers the last pin and leave it that way for 5 minutes or so. Then put the jumper back where it was, the coin battery back, and the 2 power back on, power to the wall and power to the motherboard. That is the standard way to reset the bios and its not quite the same as default settings, i dont think.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[adpucci]

I have the same problem.

I have a Toshiba satellite laptop with windows xp pro v2002 SP2 - intel celeron with 1.10 GHz and 368 MB RAM.

My laptop just... DIES. The screen and hard drive switch themselves off, I have to reboot it, at which point it goes through a disk check.

there is no log, no dump, no pattern apart from incredibly high CPU usage.

I have re-installed windows, checked the digital signature of all the drivers, nothing works so I am pretty lost.

the fan is on, I can hear it as we speak, as I said there is no pattern to this event, sometimes the laptop will crash again only a few seconds after rebooting, sometimes it will not happen for days.

I am not very handy with pcs, working with mainframes, so I hope csab will be able to do all the proper testing for me too ;-) and the person who gives me a tip on what to do about this situation wins free ice cream for a year, I promise...

thanks...

 

[garebo]

adpucci, have you tried a bios reset? You have to follow the mfgrs instructions on how as they vary.
Also, in dev mgr are there any marks at all?

You may have antivirus and other software for spyware and such, but its always a good idea to do an online scan.
It wont hurt csab any either. Thing is though, that csab has re-installed windows a few times already so if he has a virus\trojan it would be in his master boot record if it survived a hard drive format.
Anyway, you can go to trend-micro and allow them to do an online scan. They are a good company so there is nothing to worry about. But only do the first scan, not the other 2.
Let us know the results, please.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[BadBigBen]

@adpucci - Sorry to say this, You do not have the SAME PROBLEM... so please start your own THREAD... LAPTOPS are not the SAME AS DESKTOPs, and solutions are totally different...
btw. it could be heatrelated or LOOSE Connection in the CASE... replace the CMOS BATTERY for starters (NOT the LAPTOP battery)...

@csab - you mentioned that under DOS the PC functions correctly! then this indicates that there is an incompatibility with XP... Do you have a W2k CD at hand? if so try it with that...

The problem may be related to the APIC settings with in the BIOS, as APIC plays no part under DOS, under XP it is USED extensively...

another avenue that may play into consideration, is/are the Chipset Drivers are they installed or not? if they are installed do a new INSTALL of XP, and do not install them... see if that works.

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."