Weird lock up problem.

[Asschen]

This is what happens. My screen turns black, goes in standby and stays black. This happens randomly, it doesn't matter whether I'm playing CM, surfing the net or do nothing at all. Hitting ctrl-alt-del doesn't reset my pc, hitting the manual reset button doesn't reset it or pushing the on/off button several seconds doesn't turn it off. The only way to reset my pc is manually pulling the plug and restart.

I have the latest drivers and Windows updates. In my system panel everything shows up OK, no IRQ conflicts or such. The only solution I found so far is formatting my drive, doing this helps for a month or two.

My specs:

Windows XP

Aopen AX4T mobo

Intel P4 1.7GHz - 512 MB RAM

GF3 Ti200 vid card

SB Live Platinum soundcard

The only program constantly running in background is Norton firewall

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Schrullenhaft]

This sounds like some weird power saving or power supply problem. Do the LEDs on your system change color when the screen blacks out (indicating a power saving state) ? Is your computer on for a certain amount of time before this problem will occur ? Is your computer or its components still under warranty ?

The latest BIOS for your motherboard is R 1.07 (dated Sept. 5, 2001), but there are no details about power saving or video card issues, but it is the one listed by AOpen for XP compatibility.

I'm not sure if this could also be a function of an overheating CPU or motherboard monitor. Typically the Pentium 4's can actually slow down their clock speed and still run if the CPU fan has a problem and/or the CPU is just overheating. A motherboard CPU heat monitor might do something more drastic and turn off the current to the CPU. The motherboard manual doesn't give many details on the CMOS/BIOS setup, but you may want to look in the 'PC Health Status' and possibly the 'Power Management Setup' sections.

What brand is your GeForce 3 Ti200 ? I don't know if a BIOS update to the video card would affect anything here or not.

Another possible culprit is the power supply, where it may not be providing enough electrical current or it is overheating itself. Does the fan exhaust on the power supply (assuming that it is pointing outside and to the rear) feel unusually warm ? Is your computer in direct sunlight ?

[Asschen]

My PC is connected on a single current outlet (1x220V/10A) which also feeds my printer, cd-writer, cable-modem, screen and boxes. This worked with my old PC but it's possible that this one needs more. After all it has a 300W power supply instead of a 200W. I'll check it out.

All the LEDs are burning when this happens, the only one that changes color is the screen led, it goes from green to orange, stand-by mode.

I have the latest BIOS but I noticed some new mobo drivers, something about IAA and INF. I don't know what they are supposed to do but I'll try them out.

My PC's location is far from perfect to avoid heat buildup, but this problem also occurs when running open case on my desktop or just after startup.

My GeForce is also an Aopen, but I had the same problems with my Hercules GF2.

I'll also check out PC health and power management.

My problem is very similar to what these guys are experiencing. Link MSI forums I really hope my mobo isn't faulty. Is there a way to check that?

Thanks Schrullenhaft for your help, your engagement to this forum never ceases to amaze me.

[Schrullenhaft]

I doubt that spreading out the electrical plugins of your devices will make a difference. The amount of electrical current drawn by you're computer related devices probably isn't overloading that outlet. If it were, then a likely situation would be that when you started printing (assuming you had a laser printer) you may see your computer lock up, turn off or do what you've seen. But since this isn't what you're running into (the powering on of one device causing your computer to lock up at that moment), then I doubt that you're overloading that circuit.

Your computer power supply on the other hand (the box inside the computer case) could be a possible culprit. It may be overheating or not responding very well to the draw of electrical current that your video card and CPU are making of it (two of the more current-hungry items in the computer). Unfortunately there is no simple diagnostic in this case to determine if your power supply is good or bad (since it isn't completely dead). If you wanted to check this as a solution you would need to purchase a high quality, possibly 'name-brand' (Antec, Sparkle, etc.) P4-compatible ATX power supply (in the US$35-80 range or possibly higher). While this shouldn't be absolutely necessary, it does generally eliminate a questionable power supply as the source of the problem.

Generally AOpen motherboards are good quality (better than many other brands). But it's possible here that you do have a defective board. If the power supply isn't the culrpit, then the motherboard is almost definitely the problem. In fact with this particular problem there is a higher liklihood that the motherboard is bad rather than the power supply. This could either be the chipset overheating or some of the power-related circuitry on the motherboard is defective (capacitors, power regulators, etc.). Even the 'clock chip' could be a possible culprit here. Do you have any sort of warranty remaining on your motherboard/computer ?

I wouldn't really suspect drivers to be the cause of your problem (though it is also a possibility). If drivers were the cause then I would expect something to constantly trip up and cause your condition (such as every time you run CMBO, etc.). The IAA driver is Intel's Application Accelerator. It's intended to replace the IDE drivers Intel has had in the past. Sometimes these drivers don't work well and other times they're fine. I've seen these drivers perform differently (speaking of stability rather than performance) on the same type of computer. Basically I wouldn't recommend installing the IAA's. The INF driver is probably a good idea to install. In fact it may be best to install it before the video drivers, especially for an older OS like Win98. You're motherboard is based on the i850 chipset and Windows XP should identify it, but loading up the INF installer might still be a good idea for XP (I'd highly recommend it for any of the previous Windows versions). I can't recall if Intel updates the AGP code in the INF installer or not (like AMD and VIA do with their chipset drivers). Right now Intel has one INF installer that covers all of the Windows OS's.

[ June 07, 2002, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Asschen]

I checked PC Health and noticed that instead of 12V my power supply only gave 9.50V and just before crashing it went even lower. I got myself a new power supply and now it gives 11.78V. A lot better and no crashes so far (knocks on wood). If my PC crashes again, I can blame the motherboard. Luckily it's still in warranty. Those brand names you're talking about, aren't available over here.But I'll keep those names in mind if I have to purchase a new machine in a few years.

Thanks again for your help and expertise.

[Ralph Beaman]

I had a a problem like you described obove, and i found out that my MBGBK7-7VTX motherboard was defected and duscontinued! BE CAREFULL! I took my 1.4 Athlon based system in to be checked and the computer shop where i took it into said it was the cpu and motherboard was shot, but i sent it back to the company where i purchased it and found out it was the motherboard. I do not know if the computer guy was trying to scam me or not, but he said that Athlons were garbage and he would sell me a P4 instead! I would have spent more money than i wanted if i had listened to the computer shop.