pc crashes between 10-30 minutes

[bellins1]

Help,

I've endured this long enough... Maybe someone could please tell me why my pc crashes intermittently. I've reinstalled the win2k pro os, gave it plenty of ram(256mb), and just put a new cpu (amd kd-2/550)in it. The problem is, after a while, it starts to act funny... like I'll click on something or hold my mouse over something, and it will start to act really slow, and take it's time showing whatever I am clicking on, instead of just popping up like it should. (hope that's understandable)..

Also, when I installed the new cpu, it says only 500 in the startup screen, even though I have set the jumpers to be a 550MHz... I know it's old, but something is seriously wrong with it, that I'm just not aware of... I'm not sure what else I can do... other than install a clean version of 98 instead...

Hope someone can help with this...thank you very much... Steve

 

[bellins1]

Also, I put a new ball bearing fan on the processor, I've been keeping the side open, and I guess I could try leaving the slot below the AGP card empty... I would think it's a overheating problem...but I'm just not sure...One thing, I don't have the glue that goes between the cpu and the fan... not sure if that would make a huge difference or not... Any suggestions would be appreciated... Thanks..Steve

 

[Jesuspower]

Set the jumpers to 500. Don't use it until you set the jumpers. Unless you were trying to overclock the processor. in that casse good luck.

If you were, try a peltier or moving the computer to a new location and making sure that nothing is loose. -God Bless

 

[LeKirk]

I presume you are talking about the heat transfer paste that goes between the CPU and the heatsink. Without this the heat is not transferred but builds up in your CPU until it cuts out. You may have a warning/cut-off point set up in the system somewhere that shuts down when the temperature becomes too high or it may just fail due to over temperature. If you have a utility that shows your temperature (a hardware monitor or similar) keep looking at it whilst you are working and note the temperature rise. See how high it gets before your shut-down kicks in.

Buy some paste and refit the heatsink following the instructions that comes with the paste.

 

[Jesuspower]

Ohhhh. I didn't read your post well(sorry). OK, read it 3 times just to be sure.

If you are absolutly sure about the cpu speed, check the chip for damage (ie. bent pins). also, double check the jumpers -God Bless

 

[bellins2]

thanks so much for your excellent advice... I'm planning on trying your suggestions asap.... Thanks again... Steve

 

[bellins1]

ok,

I've tried the thermal paste between the cpu and the fan to transfer the heat, but it still shuts off right away... also, i tried cpu cool monitor and pc monitor...but neither were very good applications... do you have any applications you can suggest that would monitor the heat of the cpu while I'm using it? I'm thinking it might be a file problem though... just not sure..

Thanks,

Steve

 

[fidleid]

What happens if you log out and then log back in. I have a Pentium 233 with lots of ram, 2 40 gig hard drives, CD burner and it acts as a server for a small LAN. This think is incredible. I am an a 1.5 Gig now and the 233 seem to be almost as fast. I can have 10 or 12 windows open and be burning a CD at the same time. Nobody who ever sees the 233 can believe it but since I put 2000 on it ever now and then is hangs up as you described. If I click on the close box the window might not close, graphics get distorted or only part of a window comes into view. I cannot attribute it to a time a day or how long the machine is on. In fact this machine has not been cold started since October of 2000 and I use it everday.

Is it possible your problem is software? I think mine is. So what happens if you log off and back on when the symptoms show up?

By the way a Peltier is a sold state cooler which can be attached to the cpu. I can cool the chip to below 50 degrees F. Unfortunately my experience is that many 500 run without fans. I see lots of them in my shop for CD replacemt or power supply fan etc. and notice the cpu fan is bad. Many times this does not affect the computer and is a secondary fault we find as a result of the disk failure.

 

[24Peaches]

When I shut down my pc(custom built) and restarted it, my power supply shut off about 5 seconds after it was turned on (case is 4 months old). I tried another power supply from a 2nd system I have but there's no change. After replacing the power supply back in my 2nd system, that power supply is making noise now. What could be happening?

 

[bellins1]

Do you think it might be a memory issue?

I have been dealing with problem for sometime now, and between 2 operating systems both with clean installs(not dual booted). I uninstalled Win2K because it kept crashing, and freezing up... I installed a new processor(amd k6-2/550)-the highest i can go with the mobo, memory(256 mb) and finally went to installing win98 instead... I thought that would fix the crashing problem, but I still had the old CMOS/BIOS until I upgraded that with the newest version. That at least allowed it to see the new 550 MHz proc, instead of what it was seeing on the boot screen(500 MHz).

Now that Win98 is installed, I'm still getting problems with the pc crashing(or freezing) when I click on explorer and try to make the window larger.

I went into the F8 rescue screen and booted up step-by-step, and didn't allow certain files to load... I noticed I had no problems when I didn't load the last step which was allowing the windows drivers to load(it then started in safe mode)...

Then, I tried not loading some other files in the startup process instead, and found it would start freezing again.

Looking deeper into the HIMEM.sys file and some other files... in the himem file, I was seeing errors like:

Warning: The High Memory Area(HMA) is unavailable.

64k high memory area is available.

Error: HIMEM.SYS has detected unreliable XMS memory at address $5 to continue starting your computer press enter.

Shadow RAM disabled.

Does this mean anything to anyone? Now I have 98mb(pc100) memory installed instead of the 256mb(pc133?)... Do these errors mean that the system is not using the whole memory amount that's available?

If you have any suggestions for me, please tell me... I have done almost everything I can think of...

1 more question... When you reinstall the os from a format, does that install a new registry also? I have 3 partitions all together, but only formatted the system partition..

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Jesuspower]

It could be the mother board. I had a similar problem, and it was the MB -God Bless

 

[tep0583]

You know, I did have a problem simular to this and it did end up being the memory. In my case just pulling all the memory out and reinstalling it one DIMM at a time to try to isolote the bad DIMM solved the problem. Basically I just reseated the memory. If you can borrow some known memory from someone or have some spare, it might be worth swapping out to see if things improve.

Note: in my case, I would get random hard locks. I would have to cut the power in order to shut down.

 

[bellins1]

That's the same thing that is happening with me. But I have shifted multiple DIMMs around between the 3 slots... and still am not convinced that it's a memory problem.

A little bit of deduction might result in an electrical problem though... possibly a burnt out mobo. Over the past 2 months, I noticed that I changed my ceiling fan light bulb 2x, swapped out a surge protector, and (sometimes) hear my speakers "zap" when static electricity has built up on the metal chain on the fan, and I happen to be walking by causing it to discharge. It must be on the same circuit. I'm thinking that that little innocent zap has also fried my motherboard to the extent of letting it work just long enough until some unknown memory part (that might have gotten toasted)is not doing it's job on the mobo. Thus, causing the freeze ups. Probably something to do with higher memory(>64mb).

I've tried everything else I can think of short of replacing the mother board and hard drive. I've reinstalled win98 and win2k over 10x with different variations, but still can't make it all the way through. I used to have win2k on there originally, with 256mb ram, k6-2/400mhz.

Hopefully, I'm going to order a new motherboard, processor and hard drive this weekend. I'll let you know how that results after I get it going.

Thanks for your advice,
Steve