Random lockup on winxp boot screen

[Matta]

Greetings all !

 

Since I assembled my bucket I'm having probs with windows when booting. Often when loading screen appears HDD stops loading and it just sits there until I push reset button. Usually right after that boots normaly but sometimes it tooks 3 or 4 resets til it boots up. After successfull boot everything works perfectly for most of the time. One rare occasions I get a freeze up second before desktop appears or sometimes in windows and I have to reset then.

 

I tried various things but it didn't help. Interesting thing is if I lower FSB to 166MHz hangs and crashing takes place oftenly than on 200MHz.

 

If I return FSB on 133 everything runs fine (but slow ).

 

I'm suspicious at SATA (curently I have 1.0.0.7 drivers). Could it be it or is it something else ?

 

Thank you in advance !

[Shinobi]

Hmmm, interesting. Initialy i'd have to say its memory related and from what you say about it running fine at 133mhz seems to confirm that. Maybe a sticks on its way out?

 

Have you tested each stick out on its own and tried different Ram slots?

[Surrept]

That somewhat sounding like the problems I was haveing on another board, which i'm leaning towards the memory and chipset not getting along. How does it run if you can get into windows without a lock on boot?

[Matta]

How does it run if you can get into windows without a lock on boot?

 

Well, that's also interesting thing.

 

Like I said, 90% of the time it runs great. I'm BF1942 and BF2 (demo) player and I haven't had any ingame crashes at all.

But sometimes (in that rest 10% of the time), I get lockups in windows, windows just freeze and then I need to reset. But it's not on regular basis, it's rare and random.

 

One more thing, perhaps it's just my imagination, but I've gotten a feeling that on 200MHz FSB, system is less "responsive" than on 166MHz, for example.

I have one more computer with Barton 2500@2800 (non mobile) 1GB of some crappy DDR400 RAM and Radeon 9800Pro card. That computer is running on its default FSB (166), I just raised multiplier and it seems more "responsive" in windows.

Memory benchmark in Everest says like it should say, more banwidth on 200 thatn on 166.

 

One more thing: When I assembled computer, I've put memory sticks in 1st and 2nd slot and it crash everytime if I set FSB to 200MHz with errors in MemTest. Then I changed to 1st and 3rd slot and it seems to be fine...

[red930]

Maybe running memtest on each stick separately and in diff slots will confirm suspiscions.

Test #5 looped for at least 10 or more passes and test #8 a couple times.

 

Also OCCT or prime 95 are better stability verifiers than running games

 

You might try a T(ras) of 8 or 11 also,what vdimm u using?

 

That ram looks like CH6,so you could try more vdimm using active cooling over 3.1v

[Surrept]

I don't know what to think about only being unstable during boots, maybe it's an issue with hd's. Look for some loose molex cables around your system.

 

Feeling more responsive at 166 is probably due to tight timings, the higher fsb is faster but in other spots that you don't really notice as much. For system startup and web browsing tighter timeings feel better, fsb is good for games.