New CPU = random lockups

[Avalanche 0]

Hi all.

 

I just upgraded my CPU to the highest spec my mobo can officially take, an AthlonXP 1800+. Surprisingly it runs close to 10 degrees cooler than my old 1.2Ghz chip, so I know for a fact it's not overheating.

 

But ever since I put it in, my system has been acting up. It'll randomly lockup, hard lock, no bluescreen, I need to hit the reset button. ;(

 

Now it seems to mostly happen when I'm playing mp3s in winamp, but it did happen once when I was just opening Dreamweaver, so I don't know....

 

Like I said, it's not overheating, and I can play Battlefield 1942 til the cows come home without a single hiccup, but in windows, just running regular everyday apps it will hang for no good reason.

 

Anybody have any notions on how to track this down? Obviously it's related to the CPU upgrade, but does that mean the CPU is faulty? Or what? I sure hope not.

 

Anyway thanks for any help.

[sapiens74 0]

You are using a rather old chipset.

 

Are you using the newest drivers?

 

Bios?

 

If so have you tried a fresh install of windows?

[AndyFair 0]

Have you also tried clearing the CMOS so that the BIOS picks up new settings for the CPU rather than trying something that's hanging around from the old processor?

 

Just a thought?

 

AndyF

[tuneS 0]

I suppose you have already upgraded your motherboard's BIOS to the latest version (do it if you haven't done it yet). Try doing a clean Windows XP install to see if the problems aren't related to any "remnants" of the old CPU. Or you could also try to change the FSB to 100MHz just to see if the 133MHz FSB is the source of the problem.

[Avalanche 0]

Yeah, I know it's an old chipset, but I can't afford to replace the mobo for at least another 6 months.

 

It has the newest bios, and I installed the latest 4in1s.

 

I haven't tried a fresh install of windows however, and I'm reluctant to do that, cause I just installed and I think I've reached my maximum on internet activations, so I'd have to call them to get a new activation code, and I really don't like doing that, for reasons that have nothing to do with the computer, and there's no point getting into them here.

 

I'll try clearing the cmos, that's not a bad idea.

 

But I think it actually may have been an offending driver. It occured to me last night after I posted the question that I bought my new CPU and my new speakers at the same time, and since I got my speakers I've been listening to music much more often than before. About 5 weeks ago I updated the drivers for my sound card, but I can't remember ever having listened to mp3s on my comuter with the new drivers until I got these new speakers, and every time except once the lockup occured duing mp3 playback. So I reverted back to my older drivers and it hasn't forzen yet. Mind you, I haven't really tested that yet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It would be nice it it was that simple.

 

Thanks for the tips, and I will try clearing the cmos!

[Marktait 0]

Wasnt there something about windows having a problem if you went from a non SSE CPU to an SSE CPU??

 

This would explain why only apps crash your pc

[Avalanche 0]

Is that true?

 

Can anyone confirm or deny this? Cause if it's the case I will reinstall.

 

A link to some info would be great, and thanks for the help all.

[adamvjackson 0]

1.2GHz should have had SSE instructions. Someone jump in and correct me if I am wrong, but with regards to internet activations, provided LESS than 3 of the 10 checked hardware components have changed, internet activation is no problem. I know of NO internet-activation limit, provided it's all on the SAME PC. Every 120 days, the internet-activation database is wiped clean, so to speak. If you haven't activated it in that period of time, the next time you activate windows, the hardware that you currnetly activate with is the new 'standard' to which re-activation is compaired against.

 

Given that information, I recommend a clean install.

[Avalanche 0]

It has been my experience that telephone reactivation is required every 2 or 3 times you install windows.

 

A friend of mine only installed once with internet activation, and the next time windows told him to do it over the phone, and his hardware didn't change a bit.

 

Finding concrete information about MS's activation regulations is just about impossible, and I sure think it would do them and us a lot of good if they would just lay out the rules simply and easily for everyome, but that's enough on that, I don't want to threadjack my own thread!

 

PS. I wish I could remember, but I honestly can't whether my old 1.2ghz has SSE support. And I'm not about to put it back in to find out. I've tried searching around the net for T-bird Athlon specs, but I can't seem to find any. Oh well.

[adamvjackson 0]

Microsoft Product Activation FAQ:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[ln];302878

 

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/piracy/productactivationfaq.asp

 

[Marktait 0]

My 1.2 Athlon didnt have SSE and my 1.2 Duron doesn't either, Anyway let me know how you get on.

[adamvjackson 0]

Just read that K7 (>500MHz) had SSE instructions...

 

http://www.sandpile.org/impl/k7.htm

http://www.athlon.co.uk/

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19990611S0004

[Avalanche 0]

Well it froze again, this time with the other drivers, and again runing winamp.

 

And I read a bunch on Athlon's SSE implimentation, and it appears that pre-palomino core Athlons only have partial SSE, but the palomino core brings full SSE.

 

So I'm about to start yet another reinstall. This makes the 3rd in 2 months, it's getting to be a bit of a pain. But it looks like it's needed.

 

I'll post here after the reinstall.

[Avalanche 0]

Well I'm back. Reinstalled, and activated over the interent no less.

 

As soon as I finished the reinstall I went online to grab my monitor driver, and my system froze twice at that page, with absolutely nothing running, but I'm almost certain that was caused by the flash animations on the page, and not my cpu. That's happened to me before, but I was pulling my hair out anyway.

 

After I got the system back up to date, and with all the current drivers, everything seems to be good so far. I haven't installed winamp yet, which seemed to be the most offending app.

 

So far so good though.

[Marktait 0]

All i can say Avalanche is good luck

[Avalanche 0]

Well turns out that I seem to have fried my motherboard, can't possiby see how I did it, but apparently that's what I did.

 

So off to the shop for a new board and ram.

 

A Gigabyte GA-7VA, it's got a kt400 chipset and USB 2.0, so it's pretty sweet. Also 512Mb of PC2700.

 

So my wallet is substantially thinner than I anticipated.

 

Anyone have any recommendations for stress testing I can do so I can rule out the CPU being bad? Cause that would really suck.

 

Thanks for everybody's help.

[adamvjackson 0]

3DMark 2001 SE looped overnight should rule out a bad CPU. Tough break, I feel for you...

[Avalanche 0]

Well I figured that would be a decent one, but unfortunately there was never any problem running 3D apps, only programs within WIndows, the most offending ones seem to have been Winamp, MS Word, and Acrobat Reader. Also any web page that has Flash animations were a huge problem. So far with the new equipment I haven't had problems with any of these programs, but I'm still leary of it.

[adamvjackson 0]

How about MadOnion's (FutureMark, now) PCMark 2002? Try looping that overnight instead. There is a demo/shareware version available, that's just under 9MB.

[Avalanche 0]

thanks, I'll give that a shot.

[adamvjackson 0]

No problem, hope all goes well.

[AndyFair 0]

You could also try something that is purely processor intensive, like SETI or one of those other grid applications.

 

Rgds

AndyF

[Avalanche 0]

Hey great idea!

 

Do you know the names of any of those other research ones besides Seti? Not that I'm against finding little green men or anything, but I think I'd rather have my computer do something a little more practical with it's excess cycles.

 

I know there's one out there that researches something to do with cancer or something, that one would be great.

 

Thanks.

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

Here is on, but i know there is a better one out there, i had it before! but can't find it now!

 

http://www.extremely-sharp.com/es/es_cancer_slashers.html

 

Or you can fight aids:

 

http://www.fightaidsathome.com/

 

or a site with a few, well 3 of them.

 

http://www.webtribe.net/~cyberpunk/dc.htm