System unstable, opinions please.

[MonkeyHood]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
4*1GB OCZ Platinum DDR2-800 @ 2.1V
gigabyte ga-ma78gm-s2h northbridge @ stock 1.2V


My system is unstable. It'll hardlock during TF2. This is an HTPC so no video card as the 780G chipset does well enough on it's own. I don't have my gaming computer at the moment so this is pulling double duty.

I've run Memtest86+ on 2 sticks at once, and 10 hours on the third stick and two runs on the fourth stick. I'll test each one again for longer periods of time.

The northbridge is hot to the touch. It burns my finger. Is the NB crashing my system? Could it be the RAM? The Ram is slightly warm but not by much.

[fungry]

Is your AMD CPU overclocked?

If all your ram sticks have gone through multiple runs on memtest86, it may be okay but that is not guaranteed. And also, don't exclude the possibility of software issues. Make sure you have the latest drivers for the integrated chip as well as any chipset drivers that may be involved.

[Giannis86]

what are the temp readings for the NB? that could be the reason for instability. try putting a fan over it and see what happens.

Furthermore putting 4 ram sticks puts a lot of stress on the mobo. (i had issues with 4 x1gb sticks with my 680 chipset..replaced them with 2x2gb and it worked fine)..Try using 2 sticks and see if anything changes

personally i would focus more on cooling the mobo as it sounds like heat problems..

[tiro_uspsss]

seeing as ur using the onboard vid, which, iirc is located @ NB, & u say the NB is hot - i'd say there is a heat problem.. @ NB! (duh) :D

[MonkeyHood]

what are the temp readings for the NB? that could be the reason for instability. try putting a fan over it and see what happens.

Furthermore putting 4 ram sticks puts a lot of stress on the mobo. (i had issues with 4 x1gb sticks with my 680 chipset..replaced them with 2x2gb and it worked fine)..Try using 2 sticks and see if anything changes

personally i would focus more on cooling the mobo as it sounds like heat problems..

Yeah, moved the Sys_fan over the NB since it's lying on it's side and has the upper door off. No hardlocks!