Hardware·19,062 discussions

just a simple question

Locked

I had this problem with my board ever since I bought it (about 2 month ago) – the problem is that my pc freezes all of a sudden & there’s no way out but to pull the plug.
I?m running win 2k & win 98 (same thing is happening on both platforms) hardware used as follows: Abit KT7-Raid, Athlon T-Bird 800 Mhz, 256 mb pc 133 ram, IBM-DTLA-307030 ATA 100 hd (which started making a funny buzzing / scratching sound accompanied by no data read lately) VooDoo 3 3000 AGP, SB Live 1024,exturnal modem, generic network card (god knows what chipset it is, but D-link stopped me pc from booting all together), Hauppauge WinTV card, Adaptec ISA SCSI card, norm dvd, rw & floppy.
I’ve tried everything i could think off but changing my motherboard (I didn’t pay all that money just to chunk it away) ran all the tests – ram is ok, so is the CPU & there’s no hardware conflicts (some of the IRQs are shared but there’s nothing i can do about it), i have upgraded my CMOS as soon as there was an update (there was a bug in it, causing it to assign a wrong voltage to the CPU, causing the CPU in it’s turn to overheat & fry…), I have tried pulling out all my hardware & testing it on a different pc (works just fine) & my computer is properly assembled (it isn?t the first 1 I built?& up till now I had no problems I couldn?t find an answer for myself ) however i still have no answer as to what can be wrong with it. —— >:-(

Topic

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Point value changed by question poster.

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Point value changed by question poster.

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Quite a bit to digest for a “simple question”, but I’ll give it a shot

At first glance, I would say the ram is suspect, as well as the el-cheapo network card. The noise from the Hard drive is disturbing too… but you say the symptoms are the same on both machines, with 2 diff Operating Systems.

The problem most likely lies in the shared IRQ conflict. You’ve got about 10 pounds of hardware poured into a 5 pound bag, and it sounds like the system, while detecting no conflicts, is making calls to 2 different devices at the same time.

I hate to say it, but the only way to resolve this sort of conflict is either to very closely monitor what the PC is doing when the crash/freeze occurs, and work backwards, or strip the system down, and add components one at a time until you get back to a freeze.

I assume that all your cards are PCI or AGP, so you can turn off any legacy ISA support in the system BIOS, ensure the OS is set to plug and play, and double check the PCI/IRQ settings. Double check the manufacturer for any bios upgrades which might address this problem, or an improved driver for PCI steering.

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Poster rated this answer

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

i have tried this before 🙁 this is when i traced it to my network card (it was just part of the problem though) also it looks as though my board doesn’t like SBLive! (nothing of this sort is on the manufacturers site…why would they post it ? lol)i also believe my hard drive got damaged because of numerous hard booting 🙁 however i keep hoping there’s something i can do about it, short of replacing my board or all of my hardware…)

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

I think that your problem is related to the sharing of IRQs. Why do you have an ISA SCSI card? I would suggest that you pull most of your extras out so that you are not sharing IRQs. After that use the BIOS to set the IRQs to specific devices. When you run out of IRQs, you’re done adding extras. Try it for a while, I’ll bet that you will not have problems if you do not share IRQs.

Don

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Poster rated this answer

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Hi ! I’ve been building systems for quite a long time and of course, I had some problems like yours. There are more possible causes:
the first I would try is to find several (I mean 3 or more) different memory modules and try them. I had some boardthat reported the memory as being perfect, but the stability was saying something else: crashing!!!. Trust me, it worked for me in some desperate situations.
The second chance: network card (even if they’re brand name) are really bothered by sharing the IRQ with other cards. The system crashes in many of these situations. Try to run the PC without that card. Watch the IRQ assignment for all the devices. If you change their place on the board, the resources are allocated in different ways. I had a problem with an overloaded system (the IRQ’s were fully shared by a lot of devices). The TV card could be a problem, too.
My personal recomend would be (excepting the case when the memory isn’t compatible with the mainboard) to start the computer only with the video card and test it, than insert one card after another and see what could be the problem. Good Luck !

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Poster rated this answer

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Just throwing my 2 cents in.
Check the power supply and also make sure that all the fans work fine.
I have had a lot of times problems like that and then found out that the problem is one of the fans AND THE HEAT MADE THE COMUTER FREEZE (the CPU Fan or the Power Supply Fan).
Even if when you start your computer you see the fans work fine make sure that after being on for some time it still works.
Also after you reatart your computer b/c it has frozen go in to the bios and check for the CPU temp, (not all bios let you check that but if yours does do it).
It might also be that b/c you have so many devices that this increases the heat in the box so try adding a fan to the box.

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

Poster rated this answer

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

thx for all your replies ppl 🙂 i especially like the 1 at the bottom (about fans 😛 my pc is open & all 4 fans work perfectly fine :(if only it was that easy heheh) my network card has been mentioned (i had a prob with a branded 1 so i had to replace it with Tashica aka unbranded works fine, no probs) my scsi scanner is using my scsi card (& that card is isa 🙁 i am planning to get a new scanner 🙂 It?s not ram 🙁 I have tested me pc with all the modules I had/could lay my hands on ? same outcome 🙁
I did like your answers & given me having less probs ? they would?ve helped thx 🙂

just a simple question

In reply to just a simple question

This question was closed by the author

[Author]

Replies