R
Robbie Hatley
I'm finally confident that I have a handle on that crash issue I've been
struggling with for years now, and posting about in this group for the
last few months. (USB, firewire, ethernet, and sound suddenly go offline,
about twice a day.)
Turns out the problem wasn't really caused by anything in Windows 2000 itself
but rather was a combo of these problems:
1. Wrong AGP aperture size in BIOS settings apparently caused mismatch
between driver and BIOS, resulting in memory corruption. Fixed by
changing AGP aperture from 256MB to 128MB.
2. Wrong AGP voltage. Video card is 4X/8X, and hence has two completely
different circuit sections:
4X (1.5V)
8X (0.8V)
Motherboard was injecting 1.5V even when in 8X mode, hence injecting
1.5V into circuitry which was expecting 0.8V, resulting in damaged
capacitors. (The caps in the 0.8V section are rated 1.6V, to give a
50% voltage safety margin they were never intended to be pushed to
1.5V.) Fixed by disabling 8X in BIOS.
3. Heat. Temp in case was getting up to 115F, and CPU temp up to 135F.
Too damn hot. Insufficient fans. Fixed by taking left-side cover
off computer. Slightly more HD and fan noise, but runs MUCH cooler.
My guess is, the video card was jamming the bus, causing the Southbridge
chip (which handles sound and networks) to get confused and shut down.
Since disabling 8X, system has been in very heavy use, many hours a day
for 10 days, often with many apps running, going into paging mode, and
running graphics and CPU intensive programs, WITH NO CRASHES WHATSOEVER.
So the problem is fixed! I hope.
Oh, and I bought a used AMD Atlon XP 3000 CPU with 400MHz front-side bus,
so my memory is now not only running in dual-channel mode, but is running
at full speed -- 400MHz instead of 333MHz -- for the first time since I
bought it. Wheee!!!! Sorry, can't resist gloating.
In closing, thanks to the many kind folks here who tried to help me with
this, even though it turned out not to be a Win2K issue.
--
Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
perl -le 'print "\154o\156e\167o\154f\100w\145ll\56c\157m"'
perl -le 'print "\150ttp\72//\167ww.\167ell.\143om/~\154onewolf/"'
struggling with for years now, and posting about in this group for the
last few months. (USB, firewire, ethernet, and sound suddenly go offline,
about twice a day.)
Turns out the problem wasn't really caused by anything in Windows 2000 itself
but rather was a combo of these problems:
1. Wrong AGP aperture size in BIOS settings apparently caused mismatch
between driver and BIOS, resulting in memory corruption. Fixed by
changing AGP aperture from 256MB to 128MB.
2. Wrong AGP voltage. Video card is 4X/8X, and hence has two completely
different circuit sections:
4X (1.5V)
8X (0.8V)
Motherboard was injecting 1.5V even when in 8X mode, hence injecting
1.5V into circuitry which was expecting 0.8V, resulting in damaged
capacitors. (The caps in the 0.8V section are rated 1.6V, to give a
50% voltage safety margin they were never intended to be pushed to
1.5V.) Fixed by disabling 8X in BIOS.
3. Heat. Temp in case was getting up to 115F, and CPU temp up to 135F.
Too damn hot. Insufficient fans. Fixed by taking left-side cover
off computer. Slightly more HD and fan noise, but runs MUCH cooler.
My guess is, the video card was jamming the bus, causing the Southbridge
chip (which handles sound and networks) to get confused and shut down.
Since disabling 8X, system has been in very heavy use, many hours a day
for 10 days, often with many apps running, going into paging mode, and
running graphics and CPU intensive programs, WITH NO CRASHES WHATSOEVER.
So the problem is fixed! I hope.
Oh, and I bought a used AMD Atlon XP 3000 CPU with 400MHz front-side bus,
so my memory is now not only running in dual-channel mode, but is running
at full speed -- 400MHz instead of 333MHz -- for the first time since I
bought it. Wheee!!!! Sorry, can't resist gloating.
In closing, thanks to the many kind folks here who tried to help me with
this, even though it turned out not to be a Win2K issue.
--
Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
perl -le 'print "\154o\156e\167o\154f\100w\145ll\56c\157m"'
perl -le 'print "\150ttp\72//\167ww.\167ell.\143om/~\154onewolf/"'
