Ravenhaft
11-17-2005, 04:55 AM
Hello, I'm new to posting on the forums, as I've never seen a need to post. However, I recently upgraded my computer, replacing my CPU, motherboard, and video card. I bought an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, a DFI Lanparty RDX200, and, slightly more recently, a brand new ATi Radeon X1800 XT. I have a 600 Watt Power supply, a brand new 36GB SATA Raptor running windows x64 (like a dream, takes less than 30 seconds to load windows). However, I have been plagued by frequent hard lockups, as well as restarts. The freezes have seemed to be random, and I game in a room that's about 30F (no heater, lol). It isn't overheating, as the lockups occur at odd times, such as when chatting or typing, not while playing games. I can play quake 4 at ultra quality, full everything for 3 hours and not get a lockup, then I might run Trillian for 10 and lock up. Right now I'm running a completely stripped down windows, only device drivers for the mobo, not even the video card drivers. So far, aside from right after initial startup, I have had no errors that were not directly caused by me. Allow me to explain further.
While in pursuit of this elusive problem, I decided to run some Sandra burn-in tests, in an attempt to figure out if I was indeed having a hardware problem, using the newest version of Sandra. Each benchmarking module, independently, ran fine with no difficulties or lockups, and benchmarked at around the expected areas. However, as soon as I attempted to run the comprehensive burn-in wizard, the computer would restart at test initialization, and would do one of two things. 1) It will reboot, and sit with the fans max blast, no video signal, until I hard power off from the PSU. 2) It will reboot, and restart normally.
The former is the more common of the two, but I have had both happen. What seemed strange to me was that the mainboard information tool in Sandra also caused crashes. Searching Sandra's website, I found three problem children known to cause that problem. After trial and error, I was able to get Sandra to run the Mainboard Information module with only one box unticked - Include Temperature, Fan Speed(s) & Voltage(s) Information. Ah hah! The problem. This is my third install of x64 windows, and I should have been tipped off that this was potentially the problem , as any time I would try to remove the atitool driver outside of Safe Mode I was met by the same problem. I'm not sure if this is something specific to my motherboard, the model, or what, and I know this motherboard is still quite new, however, I am at my wits end, and am seeking any aid or assistance you fine individuals may be able to offer. I can provide any more information, if anyone is interested, I tried to give the broad scope of my problem.
While in pursuit of this elusive problem, I decided to run some Sandra burn-in tests, in an attempt to figure out if I was indeed having a hardware problem, using the newest version of Sandra. Each benchmarking module, independently, ran fine with no difficulties or lockups, and benchmarked at around the expected areas. However, as soon as I attempted to run the comprehensive burn-in wizard, the computer would restart at test initialization, and would do one of two things. 1) It will reboot, and sit with the fans max blast, no video signal, until I hard power off from the PSU. 2) It will reboot, and restart normally.
The former is the more common of the two, but I have had both happen. What seemed strange to me was that the mainboard information tool in Sandra also caused crashes. Searching Sandra's website, I found three problem children known to cause that problem. After trial and error, I was able to get Sandra to run the Mainboard Information module with only one box unticked - Include Temperature, Fan Speed(s) & Voltage(s) Information. Ah hah! The problem. This is my third install of x64 windows, and I should have been tipped off that this was potentially the problem , as any time I would try to remove the atitool driver outside of Safe Mode I was met by the same problem. I'm not sure if this is something specific to my motherboard, the model, or what, and I know this motherboard is still quite new, however, I am at my wits end, and am seeking any aid or assistance you fine individuals may be able to offer. I can provide any more information, if anyone is interested, I tried to give the broad scope of my problem.