System Not Stable

[Ghost326267]

Hello I'm not to sure where to post this.
I have had this system built for a while (specs in sig) but I have discovered that it can be really unstable. On both orthos and Memtest the system locks up and wont respond to anything. This ends with me having to restart or shut down the computer.
Has anyone any ideas what the problem could be. On orthos it only seems to lock up when testing the cpu as well as the RAM with just the cpu its fine.
I do have problems with supreme commander locking up in the same way with an annoying high pitched beep sound if you think that could be related.
Any ideas would be a helpful as I have no idea what to do
thanx

[twin_savage]

it could possible be your power supply, b/c you have some pretty powerful gear on your rig, all of the things it becomes unstable on are very high load and higher loads translate into high power consumption.

[Ghost326267]

yeah i have been thinking about changing the power supply as it looks to be the weakest part in the system. Supreme commander seems to run the system hard so I suppose it has a simalar effect as a program like orthos.

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

you may also be looking at a hardware issue or even memory timings? set them to failsafe in bios and repeat.

to test for a power issue, see if you have a mate who has a powerful psu that you can loan and try to replicate the problem

alternatively

you can drop the power connections to a hard disc & dvd drives and put a less demanding video card in and again try to make it crash. if its fine then there is indeed a power issue.

[Ghost326267]

I did have problems with bioshock when that came out and when I changed to my old ram it worked fine. After a vista hotfix it now works with the new ram. Becuase of this I do suspect the ram. I have run memtest on the ram with one stick at a time and they worked fine.
I dont know anyone who has any parts I can borrow/ try.
I will try running the system without some of the connections and see what happens.

thanx for the quick replies :up:

[TouGe]

Are Jantechs that bad of a PSU?

I've run 4 150GB Raptor's Raid1+0, a 750GB Seagate 7200.10, a 74GB Raptor, 4 gigs Patriot PC8500, an x6800 @ 3.6GHz, and an OC'd 8800GTX on my PC P&C 850 Watt w/o any issues.
Would an extra 150 Watts on a PSU make that much of a difference? I would think this would be a RAM issue. Have you tried to test individual sticks at default using different slots on the mother board using memtest?

[nn_step]

well you might want to test how stable your system really is by running WCG for a week or two

[Ghost326267]

I dont know about the jeantech psu's to be honest but I have people say it could be the problem in the past.
I have tested the ram sticks one at at time but I will do it again tomorrow to make sure.

[Ghost326267]

well you might want to test how stable your system really is by running WCG for a week or two

the system only lasts just over a minute on both orthos and memtest so I dont hold to much hope for it running anything for a week:(
will download it tommorrow and see what happens though

[nn_step]

the system only lasts just over a minute on both orthos and memtest so I dont hold to much hope for it running anything for a week:(
will download it tommorrow and see what happens though

if it doesn't last a minute in Orthos, then you need to do some hardware changes before even hoping to have a stable system

[Ghost326267]

What do you mean by some hardware changes? All the parts are brand new and I would consider them to be high end parts.

[nn_step]

What do you mean by some hardware changes? All the parts are brand new and I would consider them to be high end parts.

I very much would not call the PSU a high end part
Just remember the most important part of the ENTIRE System is the PSU, everything else comes afterwards

[Ghost326267]

sorry yeah I didnt mean the PSU but all the other parts.
Ive been looking at the Enermax Galaxy for a while now so when I get some money in I think I could be changing that.
took loads of connectors out and ran orthos and it still crashed before one minuite.
I have now tried one stick at a time in all the slots running for about 20 mins with no problems. this was also run with only 2 hdd one dvd drive and without 4 case fans.
I ran the system again with both sticks in and it crashed before a min again. So it dont like to use both the sticks...any ideas about this?
thanx

[hoax]

forgive me if this sounds extremely stupid but what voltage are you using on the ram?

Had similar issues on orthos due to running my ram at stock voltage...raised it to specs and the problem is gone

[Ghost326267]

ah I forgot about that. I cant find anywhere in the bios that says what voltage its running at all i have is ram overvoltage (which I persume i can use to raise the voltage if its too low?)
Is there any programs that could tell me what voltage the ram is running at?
It should be running at 2.2 for this type I think...

[Ghost326267]

just installed easy tune 5 which comes with the mobo and it said that the ram was at 2.2.
this is starting to piss me off now

[hoax]

sorry to hear you are still having trouble... and yes I think they are rated at 2.2... but I hope you can figure out the problem soon :)

[CannonFodder]

Try relaxing the memory settings or dropping the speed to see how it responds.

[Ghost326267]

Try relaxing the memory settings or dropping the speed to see how it responds.

we have a winner lol :D yeah I lowered the speed of the RAM in the bios and orthos was fine, and also I managed to finish my test supreme commander level :up: gonna try different speeds to find the highest stable speed for it.
One thing puzzling me though, why cant I use it at the full speed 1066Mhz? my motherboard supports that speed.
Thanx for the help

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

could be a defect in the memory or in the memory controller of the motherboard

possibly bios

update the bios if available or try your ram in a mates machine.

[Ghost326267]

updated the bios earlier. made no difference
well ive found out with the ram at 800Mhz the system is stable enough for orthos and also supreme commander. I thought mem test was ok but after 10 mins it locked up the system so it could well be a memory problem.

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

got a friend who would be willing to chuck his ram in your machine for the sake of running those tests?

if its fine you bottomed the problem, if not then you could possibly be looking at the motherboard

[Ghost326267]

i put my old ram in. generic 667mhz ram and it worked fine. it could be the ram i suppose i have heard of a few problems with the corsair dominator series.
the system is stable with the corsair clocked to 800mhz except for memtest which crashed the computer

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

i see but you still may want to verify if it is the ram.

say for example, it could be a motherboard problem, only at 800mhz or faster? chuck your corsair in someone elses and repeat tests

[Ghost326267]

yeah I know what you mean i jsut aint got any mates that i could do that with unfortunatly.
i was messing with the settings to determine the fastest speed i could get and the next about 800mhz was 1000mhz and it crashed in the same way. so i have been sticking with that.
have been in contact with gigabyte but they are being a bit slow to respond after the initial reply.

[CannonFodder]

I don't know what memory options are on that board but it could be some random setting that the ram just doesn't like other than it's clock speed since you still have problems as low as 800. You might have to play around with some different settings.

[pH(x)]

updated the bios earlier. made no difference
well ive found out with the ram at 800Mhz the system is stable enough for orthos and also supreme commander. I thought mem test was ok but after 10 mins it locked up the system so it could well be a memory problem.

My friend Ghost you do not need to run the RAM at 1066 speeds especially if your CPU is overclocked. Anything higher than 1:1 ratio of FSB speed to CPU speed (FSB:CPU to ratio) is a waste. So try setting your Double Data Rate ram (DDR2) to twice the speed of your RAM, so if your FSB is 333 set RAM to DDR666(667) speed or FSB is 400 set RAM to DDR800.

Also your timings would be fine at 4-4-4-10-4 or 5-5-5-15-5

Those are still quite fast and should give you room to wiggle around. Best voltage for D9 RAM (which you probably have) is 2.35v -- try setting your dominators to 2.35 volts. And you may be able to run a timing like 3-2-3-5-3 @ DDR666 :up:

[Ghost326267]

cool thanx i didnt know that. 1066 is the stock speed for the ram thats why I was trying to run it at that.
Where would I go about changing the timings on the ram, im sure I cant see anywhere in the bios
Just set the FSB to 400 8x (3200mhz) ram at 800mhz and orthos crashed straight the way.
I haven't done anything like this before so im really unsure of what im doing.

just set the ram to 667mhz and the system is rock solid. all tests are fine.
Just wondering then why would you need ram that is 1066mhz if you have to drop it to 667 to make it stable? makes not sense to me and I could have saved some money.
Another thought is there anyway to get a stable system with fsb at 533? what sort of things should I look for? and would that let me use my ram at full speed?
sounding like a noob now :(