Comp freezes after 10 minutes or so... then wont Post...

[BadBigBen]

Hi guys,

I'll try it again... I got me a PIII 1GHZ Gigabyte 6vx7-4x MoBo 128MB Ram Voodoo3 2000 10gb Fujitsu drive a 350w PSU, it will freeze up after running around 5 to 15 min...

It will do this inside aswell as outside of the case, tried an AGP gfx-card, done everything you name it...

System temp last time it did this was ca. 32 degree celsius (90 F) CPU temp 46 C (114 F)... after freezing it will not reboot it just hangs there ergo no post... after around 10 min it will Post and boot up no problems... except that it will again hang after about 10 min and the SOS starts all over again...

I am tending towards a temp prob but am unable to locate the culprit, ie CPU MoBo or even the PSU... I am tending more towards the MoBo but...

I hope that someone might be wiser than me and point me towards the prob... thanx in advance for any inf...

Ben

PS. I have tried another PSU (450w and a lot better one) and the same thing happened...

 

[Comtech]

A couple of things you may want to try.
Get a heat sink and fan off any old CPU and goo it with some thermal paste to the chipset chip on the motherboard, then see if it keeps running. If so, you know the mobo is a problem.
If you have anyone with access to another mobo, test your CPU and see what happens.
Obviously not the PSU, unless you happened upon 2 bad ones in one shot.
I would also remove the HS/fan, and scrape/wipe it clean, the CPU as well, then reapply a super thin bit of cooling goo. Drop the HS on the CPU, then lift it up carefully. See if it's making any contact at all. Then reseat the CPU, put the HS back on, make sure it's righ, and tight. If you can get the edge of a piece of paper between it and the CPU, then it's loose, and the temps you're getting are not being reported correctly. Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[BadBigBen]

Thanx Jim for the Info will try it this eve when I get Home... and will let ya know if it worked...

Ben

 

[TechFlunky]

I had similar one a while back. Turned out to be a microscopic crack in the cpu core caused by the heatsink going in. Have no idea why it would POST fine one minute and the refuse to do anything on reboot but there you go....

Might also want to check the cpu and memory are seated correctly and that there are no cracks in the DIMMs. Apart from swapping them out for known good 'uns a magnifying glass and a torch can be used to check for cracks.

Good luck

 

[mainegeek]

Hello Ben,
The cpu temp 46c is not a worry. I would suspect the mobo as
the culprit. Take a look at the capacitors on the mobo. They
are the "tall barrel shaped things". Look at the top of them
for any rounded tops "crowning". They should be flat.

 

[BadBigBen]

Thanx guys,

Comtech - did what you suggested proped a cooling fan on top of the VIA694 chip (it had a heatsink on it already) and voila, the beast ran for more than an hour before locking up once again...

Mainegeek - the temp readings where out of the BIOS Hardware info part and I know that anything below 60c is in good shape... the caps do look fine all nice an flat... btw I knows what capacitors be... *G... No offence taken...

TechFlunky - the CPU is seated correctly, the Heatsink is squarely upon that, the MEM is good tested it on another Comp... but the one with the crack well I'll admit haven't looked at it that closely yet... thanx, will take a look/see...

My guess is that the damn CHIPSET Chip going...

Bros keep up the good work...

greets
Ben