auto reboot, continuous long beeps

R_Tribesman

Evening chaps, i've been getting this problem for a few weeks now and its time i tried fixing it. After long periods of gaming my computer will suddenly just reboot itself, some time not starting(just gives me a never ending series of long beeps) and sometimes doesnt detect the memory.

I know long beeps are a memory problem and not detecting memory can signify that the ram is not seated right or is damaged, well i've reseated the ram numerous times and i've ran memtest86 and OC Windows memory test numerous times, used one of the three sticks until the crash happens then trying the next one to eliminate which stick is bad and so far the crash just keeps happening no matter what the tests tell me and no matter which stick of ram is bad.

I've ran the western digital caviar hardrive diagostics(just in case) and swapped soundcards(just in case). I ran virus scans and CHKDSKs and defragged the pc. Reinstalled drivers all over the place, checked the bios immediatly after encountering the problem for temperatures which all seem to be normal.

Any ideas or solutions?

One thing im thinking it might be is the motherboards dimm slots acting up, although i really cant tell. Another thing i've noticed is that the RAM is very hot after the crash (is it even possible for ram to over heat lol? who checks the temperature of ram tbh)

*NF7-S nforce2 ultra 400
*2x 256mb corsair xms 3200(running at 2700)
*1x 512mb corsair value s. 2700
gf:fx5900
Athlon xp 3000+
Audigy 2

Krusty_Clown

Could it be a problem with your graphics card over-heating?
Particularly after long periods of gaming, it might be worth checking it out..

R_Tribesman

I thought of that, although when i reboot after these errors the temp of the gfx card was normal. Fourthermore, the gfx card is set to indicate over heating when it exceeds "core treshhold" wouldnt this indicater kick in before the reboot if it was the gfx card?

I'll have to try it either way i suppose.

seamus

It is possible for RAM to overheat, believe it or not, and there are heatsinks available to to cool it. If you haven't made any changes to your hardware setup though, I can't say why it would suddenly happen. Is your case temp high after these reboots?

R_Tribesman

The case temperature has always been high, nothing serious though. It hasnt changed durasticly since the reboots began.

Let me throw something else into the mix, at the same time the reboots began i start getting blue screens. My first guess was the audigy2 because creative drivers are... i dunno, messy? Whatever, they aint great is what im saying. So i done fresh installs, and latest driver installs, the problem persisted. Evetually i took the card out and used onboard sound, as a test. The reboots persisted however the BSODs stopped. Today i put my audigy2 back into the machine (thinking for some reason that the ram was causing both problems) the BSODS returned.

I think its more of a coincidence that sound card and some yet unknown piece of hardware began to malfunction at the same time.

Heres more, around the time this all started my motherboard fan start making bad noises(its hard to tell whats making the noise but when i place my finger against the mobo fan the noises dampened(leaving me to believe it was the mobo fan). These noises, i presume, are caused by the fan and when i heard the noises today i sat my finger against the corner of the cpu fan and then on the ram... large vibrations whenever the noise happens.

PS. While writing all this i just realised that when the reboots started i took apart my pc to try reseat the mobo fan, during the process i took the oppurtunity to move the soundcard one pci slot to the left (away from the gfx card for better airflow). Is it possible that because i moved the card without uninstalling drivers that theres two sets of drivers conflicting and causing the blue screens?

One more question: Is there any creative equivelent to detonator destroyers that i can use to remove creative soundblaster drivers?

leeroybrown

Firstly, this isn't a driver issue. Once your PC crashes the OS has stopped running (obviously). It's up to the BIOS to get everything booted when you reboot. Memory detection problems indicate either memory problems or northbridge problems.

I think you should look at the possibility of your motherboard's northbridge overheating. The northbridge interacts the CPU with the Memory Bus and AGP Bus (along with PCI bus via the Southbridge). When you're gaming you're running the most northbridge intensive operations possible at full tilt.

You say that your motherboard fan started making bad noises? Are you referring to a small 40mm one on a chip somewhere on the board. If you are this is more than likely your northbridge fan. Even if you're not referring to this fan check that it's clean (be careful not to damage it),unobstructed and running fine.

You say that you ran memtest86. how long did you run it for? If you havn't run a real burn in test (4 or 5 hours) do it and you may well see the same problem occur.

stevenmu

I had a weird one after moving my Audigy 2, when I started up windows again it found it as a new device and only 6 of the speakers worked. I just used control panel to uninstall everything creative and reinstalled with all the latest updates.

As for the rebooting I'm kinda wondering if your PSU is about to go, your system sounds kinda hot in general so something could be slowly burning out. I'm sure someone else can suggest a utility that can log your voltages and current (I think theres one called motherboard monitor but I don't know if it's generic or specific ) and see if there's any sudden drops or spikes before reboots happen.

R_Tribesman

Interesting.

leeroybrown, im referring to the only mobo fan on my chipset (check out the NF7-s2 on komplett.ie practicaly the same mobo) Last night i took out the mobo fan and cpu fan, took them apart and cleared any dust from them (the parts are fairly new so there wasnt much to clean). The problem continued.

stevenmu, *very* interesting that you mention psu here, not 2 weeks before all this began i was forced to disconnect both my cdrw and dvd drive, most case fans (most because i have a thermal take:xaserIII and theres about 875630964 fans in the case :P), an extra ethernet card and various other bits and bobs because the psu couldnt handle my system. Its a codegen 350w(i knew this would happen some day but why does it have to happen when im broke) I'm going to buy a hiper 520w soon from komplett and hook it all back up. Maybe my psu is on its final thread although i think a solution this simple is too good to be true.

I also done one of those online tests that calculates how much power your system will use and it came up over 350 and didnt take into accoutn alot of things in my case(you know those forms you fill out, check the boxes for the pieces of hardware you have).

I think what im going to do is try hold out for a new PSU, in the meantime change my fx5900 with my ti4600 and see how that works out.

More ideas and solutions are appreciated.


Niall

stevenmu

I think 350w PSUs often supply more, somewhere around 380w seems to be common enough, if you've been stressing it alot though it could reduce the life of it. I think I saw on a thread here before that codegens fail fairly often too. Seeing as you're planning on a new one anyway you could get lucky, doesn't happen often with computers but it can happen

Blub2k4

Have you tried to swap the ram about a bit to see if there is a problem with it?
I notice that the ram is different types so I would check that possibility and check for faulty slots and faulty ram.
Also if you are having fan problems then remove the sticker that is on the fan carefully and oil the fan up again with sowing machine oil, if you do it carefully you may get the sticker back on successfully.

StRiKeR

it sounds like its either your mobo chipset or cpu is heating up, causing your system reboots! seens your fans aint working the way they should, it could also be the mobo starting fail on you, I had a mobo before with onboard sata raid, one of my drive started going bad, tho it was the drive, took it out, the next drive does the same then, it was the sata controller onboard, replaced the board(upgraded the PC at the same time since I have to take out the mobo anyway), bingo!

if it turns out to be the PSU and you gonna get one a thermaltake or enermax would be good choice!

if you gonna stick with AMD go for the nForce3 or wait for the nForce4 if you can!