Problem with my system

[meaks76]

I was wondering if anyone knew of a good Hardware Diagnostic tool.

I upgraded my system a few months ago but it has never been right. The basic setup is as follows -

Windows XP
Latest BIOS Update
Latest NVidia Drivers

AMD Athlon XP3000 333FSB 512 L2 Cache Barton
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard
2 x 512 Mb DDR Memory sticks
Geforce FX 5600 256Mb

I am not sure how fast the CPU is supposed to run but I get it running at about 2100 MHz through the BIOS but during games the system tends to freeze and reboot. If I knock it down to around 1700 MHz it is stable. If I try changing the setting to make it run any faster than 2100 the system freezes and when I reboot it goes back into the BIOS options.

Another problem I have is games not running properly, and I assume this is connected. There are games which run really poorly like Hitman 3 and Thief 3 but then I play DOOM 3 and it works really well. And I recently got the new Sherlock Holmes game but when I run it it either beeps and freezes up or I get the dreaded windows blue screen but it disappears before I can see what the error is. But when I installed the same copy of the game on a friends computer it ran without problems.

I have formated my system a few times and tried different versions of Windows XP but still have the same problems. This makes me think that there may be a fault with a piece of hardware like the CPU, Motherboard, Memory.

So I was wondering if there was a piece of software which ran diagnostic tests on hardware. If such software exists I would be really greatful if someone could let me know its name. Thanks.

[dash.slash]

I have the same mobo and slightly lower rated cpu.. My problem was immense overheating. The sink that came with the cpu was useless, infact the base of it was scorched.

I switched to one of those coolertech aero+ monsters...took 15degrees off cpu temp :grayyes:

Made the system far more stable..

You should install motherboard monitor (http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/13/5/13-5-1.shtml) to check on your computer's temperature.

Mine runs at 40(cpu) and 22(mobo). 2700+ btw..

Failing that, poor ram always causes random reboots

[meaks76]

Thanks for the advice. I will try that motherboard monitor.

I should have mentioned before. The first thoughts I had were that either the chip was overheating or the power supply wasn't strong enough. So first I upgraded the CPU Fan to a Thermaltake A1889 Venus Silent Boast Heatsink & Fan but the system still crashed when trying to run it at 2100 MHz. Then I upgraded the Power supply to Super Flower Real 520w Quadruple Fan PSU. But this still didn't solve the problem.

As I say I will try this utility and see what happens.

[Thunder 1]

Hello Meaks76,

It May be your FSB jumpers setting on your motherboard(if It Has them) Check your motherboard Guide And If Change Them To The right FSB. Try That

[meaks76]

Thanks Thunder 1 but the FSB is set correctly. There are two settings - 200 FSB or 400/333/266, and it is set to the latter. The problem comes when I have to set the CPU External Frequency and the CPU Frequency Multiple. The most I can set it at is CPU Ex. Freq. 166 and CPU Freq. Multi. 14 which only gives me a speed of approx. 2100 MHz.

I installed the temperature monitor software, the CPU is 49C and the Motherboard is 28C.

As to the games problem I removed the memory sticks and tried one at a time but it didn't help.

As I said before when I try to play the Sherlock game I get a blue screen. I have been trying to read as much of it as possible before it disappears but I only get a split second. It says something about NV4_DISP and going into a loop. Is there anyway to get the bluescreen to stay long enough so I can read it. I fouind out that NV4_DISP was a file connected to NVIDIA. So I thought I had a problem with my drivers. I uninstalled the latest drivers and tried older drivers from my Graphics Cards official site (MSI) but it didn't solve the problem.

[meaks76]

I got the blue screen to stay. It contains the following -

Problem caused by file NV4_DISP
Device driver got stuck in infinite loop.
This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or the device driver.
Technical Info -

*** STOP: 0x000000EA (0xFFAE2DA8, 0x81FDAAF8, 0xF896DCB4, 0x00000001)

[meaks76]

Just giving an update on my situation.

I have solved the problem with the system crashing trying to play Sherlock Holmes. There was some kind of a problem with the latest NVidia drivers I was using. I uninstalled them and put on older drivers but that didn't help so I formatted my system and installed the drivers that came with the card and the game works fine.

But I am still not happy with my CPU. The system rebooted again when I tried to run it at 2100 MHz. And it doesn't seem to be overheating.

How fast should an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ actually run at before it becomes overclocking? Surely it is more than 2100 MHz which seems to be the maximum I can set it to run at through my BIOS.