My New Computer

[x2k]

I just built my new computer, it's got a Intel Q9300 core2 quad processor, an Intel DP35DP motherboard and 4GB Corsair 800mhz RAM.

 

I put it together and it just worked which was great however I've had a few glitches. The first thing is that sometimes when supply power to the power supply (i.e plug is in or hit the switch on the powersupply itself) it seems to momenterily power up then down again. When I hit the soft power button after it powers up fine though. My theory is that this could be due to the power supply or the motherboard but going by the fact it's a £25 Sweex 650w power supply I reckon it's probably that. Has anyone had a similar experience and should I replace the power supply with something a bit better?

 

My second issue is that it appears to have reset once or twice. It had been running find for hours with me clicking and loading up all sorts of shit but when I actually tried to do something a bit more important it rebooted...I do hope it's not going to do it again. I'm running XP pro SP3, I'm thinking it could be the OS, a dodgy driver, hardware (I fucking hope it's not hardware!!!) or maybe the powersupply...anyone had similar issues with SP3 or got any suggestions where to start if it happens again?

 

Finally when I booted up this morning I got 3 Serious Error messages from windows (the ones where this ask you to send a report to MS), but is seemed to run fine and when I reboot I didn't see the messages again...any ideas?

 

Apart from that it's a fucking beast...loads up shit loads of plugins where my old PC would only load 1 or 2 instances of the heavier ones

[Wax On]

Big Ups on your new build.

 

As for your problems, first I would check there's no shorting going on. Did you ensure to place the mobo on top of the gold grounding pin holes supplied with your case usually, with the pin holes firmly screwed in? That has caused me issues in builds before.

 

Make sure all connectors are firmly in place and re-attach them to make sure.

 

Make sure there are no loose screws or any foreign objects lying at the bottom of your case, or hidden in the corners.

 

Boot into the BIOS and look at the memory and CPU settings, ensure that nothing is running at higher speeds than it should be, also check the BIOS temp monitor and look for healthy temps between 35-45C.

 

Make sure you have adequate airflow, no need for too many fans though.

 

Ensure the CMOS battery is firmly in place, I have had a loose CMOS battery short a board, turning it on and then off again when attempting to power on.

 

You would need to install a fresh copy of XP when migrating to the quad platform from an old platform, not doing so can cause weird software issues or lack of full performance.

 

Lastly, put linux on the machine for fuck sake!

[x2k]

You might be right...here I got a new one for you...

 

 

What do you call a peadophile who can't get any action?

Wax Off

[flowerpot]

Congrats on your new build.

 

As for your problems, first I would check there's no shorting going on. Did you ensure to place the mobo on top of the gold grounding pin holes supplied with your case usually, with the pin holes firmly screwed in? That has caused me issues in builds before.

 

Make sure all connectors are firmly in place and re-attach them to make sure.

 

Make sure there are no loose screws or any foreign objects lying at the bottom of your case, or hidden in the corners.

 

Boot into the BIOS and look at the memory and CPU settings, ensure that nothing is running at higher speeds than it should be, also check the BIOS temp monitor and look for healthy temps between 35-45C.

 

Make sure you have adequate airflow, no need for too many fans though.

 

Ensure the CMOS battery is firmly in place, I have had a loose CMOS battery short a board, turning it on and then off again when attempting to power on.

 

You would need to install a fresh copy of XP when migrating to the quad platform from an old platform, not doing so can cause weird software issues or lack of full performance.

 

Lastly, put linux on the machine for fuck sake!

[Wax On]

You might be right...here I got a new one for you...

 

 

What do you call a peadophile who can't get any action?

Wax Off

 

All i did is offered you some PC help and you come out with this!!! You KNOW i hate being referred to as Wax Off.

 

X2Ghey u r a n00b.

[x2k]

As for your problems, first I would check there's no shorting going on. Did you ensure to place the mobo on top of the gold grounding pin holes supplied with your case usually, with the pin holes firmly screwed in? That has caused me issues in builds before.

 

Make sure all connectors are firmly in place and re-attach them to make sure.

 

Make sure there are no loose screws or any foreign objects lying at the bottom of your case, or hidden in the corners.

 

I'm pretty sure this isn't the case...I did a very careful build...lots of cleaning and cable tieing

 

Boot into the BIOS and look at the memory and CPU settings, ensure that nothing is running at higher speeds than it should be, also check the BIOS temp monitor and look for healthy temps between 35-45C.

 

Make sure you have adequate airflow, no need for too many fans though.

 

I checked out the BIOS, I didn't pay too much attention though but it seemed to have detected the correct chip and bus speed (I think, I double check that when I get home later).

 

The temps are a bit heigher than that though, up in the mid 50s although I didn't think much off it because I know the chips are suppose to be able to run up into the 90s and above. There were 2 other temperature read outs which I'd never heard of before (something like MDI or something) which I assumed to be temperatures in specifc parts of the chip, on of them was at about 80C but I assume this is ok because the main chip temp was in the 50s? I'll check exactly what it was tonight.

 

Ensure the CMOS battery is firmly in place, I have had a loose CMOS battery short a board, turning it on and then off again when attempting to power on.

 

I'll give it a check.

 

You would need to install a fresh copy of XP when migrating to the quad platform from an old platform, not doing so can cause weird software issues or lack of full performance.

 

No migrating going on here...fully clean build.

 

Lastly, put linux on the machine for fuck sake!

 

This box is all about Cubase & NI synths so it ain't gonna happen.

 

All i did is offered you some PC help and you come out with this!!! You KNOW i hate being referred to as Wax Off.

 

X2Ghey u r a n00b.

 

Fair enough, I won't call you Wax Off any more you child raping peado.

[Wax On]

thanks

 

what you having for lunch today?

 

i'm having a sausage buttie. str8 fire.

[x2k]

thanks

 

what you having for lunch today?

 

i'm having a sausage buttie. str8 fire.

 

I've not go that far today, I'm currently having late elevenses which consists of a fruit salad and an apple and custurd donut (the long sort).

[flowerpot]

hen the last thing I would do is take it all completely apart and rebuild it if it continues to give issues.

 

Mid fifties is pretty high though for a 45nm chip, no kidding. I've pushed a 45nm E8400 to 4Gigahertz on air and it was around 43-45 in the BIOS, Depends on the amount of case components though so it's cool. The peak specification for these CPU's to run up to is 70C btw. Not saying it's a heat issue at all infact I doubt it, but just letting you know it isn't 90C, the pentium chips were though and the Celerons.

 

I have experienced a faulty cdrom rebooting a system before, but then I've also seen faulty mobos, RAM and CPU's do that, honestly the last thing I would do is blame the brand new components, but then you can start taking out RAM modules one by one and swapping out the PSU, then HDD, then CPU then Mobo.... in that order.

[x2k]

Then the last thing I would do is take it all completely apart and rebuild it if it continues to give issues.

 

Mid fifties is pretty high though for a 45nm chip, no kidding. I've pushed a 45nm E8400 to 4Gigahertz on air and it was around 43-45 in the BIOS, Depends on the amount of case components though so it's cool. The peak specification for these CPU's to run up to is 70C btw. Not saying it's a heat issue at all infact I doubt it, but just letting you know it isn't 90C.

 

I have experienced a faulty cdrom rebooting a system before, but then I've also seen faulty mobos, RAM and CPU's do that.

 

Well I'm gonna run it a bit longer first and see how if it does it again...then maybe a rebuild is in order...I'm just using the standard intel fan too which I imaging isn't the most efficient although there is plenty of space around it and there's not much else in the case. It was a bit of a bitch fitting it to because quite an lot of pressure was required and I didn't want to damage the mobo...seemed to be on properly though and I would expect it to be a lot heigher if not...maybe I'll get some paste and try reseating it. I didn't realise that the max temps had dropped down to 70C...the Intel temp monitor seems quite happy with it at this temp though.

[x2k]

also do you know of any good performance testing software, something that will drive the processors hard to I can a) see if it's doing what it should be and b) what temp it gets to under load?

[Sounds like a crime]

This is a little far fetched.. but believe me its happened. LOL.

 

Have you got plugged into a serge protecter. Some computers have "clever" which "clevely" manages how much power it uses, by trickling in power. But when plugged into a serge protecter, it tries to take over, and the computer tries to draw more power out.( but the protect stops it)

 

(very unlikly)

 

This ends up causing power shut downs and can ( in the worse case) fry components...

 

The Cpu shouldn't be overheating as they are quite realiable, ( not like those old style athlons )

 

It could be something just as simple as a driver conflict.

 

I have always used a power supply at that price, but in all honesty never really had a power hungry chip =).

 

May be worth consdiering

 

You may have to reinstall OS. But if problems persist maybe a total wipe and install.... ( hopefully not though).

 

On my new build for some reason i had error messages within a couple of days of installing OS. I reinstalled it dissapeared. Must have just been one file or so that didn't install properly etc.

 

 

The main temp seems fine ( I have no idea what the other read outs were)

 

I used to overclock chips and the temps would be in there 80s and still run fune without problems

[x2k]

Yeah, it is plugged into a surge protector...if it dies again maybe I'll take that out of the equation. TBH I'm not too sure about this power supply though...the brief powering up when it is first plugged in worries me.

 

I've check these other values out and there were the ICH & MCH temperatures, I can't remember which one was high but I've just read that one of them does get really high so I guess thats ok (at least the processor wasn't up in the 80s...like FP said...the limit on these now appears to be 70C which is lower than older processors). Also the fan is running pretty slow and I get the feeling that the BIOS will speed it up as the cpu requires so it may not get too hot...I've had a search and it appears that while most peoples are running lower than mine some people get their's into the 60s when under load (hence I want to give mine a proper blast to see what happens).

 

I really don't want to install again on account of it took me over 5 hours to get everything installed and I can't be fucked with doing that again (that's straight installing, not pauses or cockups, just 5hrs of inserting DVDs into the fucking drives). I may try to grab the latest drivers & bios updates from Intel and also unplug some of the usb devices if it continues (in fact it maybe something to do with them since there is a utility for one controller which causes the computer to reboot whenever I try to run it).

[Wax On]

thanks

 

what you having for lunch today?

 

i'm having a sausage buttie. str8 fire.

 

I've not go that far today, I'm currently having late elevenses which consists of a fruit salad and an apple and custurd donut (the long sort).

 

nice. custard donuts are l33t as fuck.

[Sounds like a crime]

Oh is that some ubs software that is bundled with the motherboard, I remember having to install shit loads of drivers for the usb's..

 

I do recall it causing some problems.. but i cant remember how i sorted it soz.

[flowerpot]

Stress testing apps:

 

CPU: Prime95

 

Memory: SuperPi

 

Both defacto standard.

 

Temps in 55-60 loaded wouldn't cause random reboots IMO, but it is a touch on the high side. That is loaded we are clear about that.

 

If you get any errors in Super Pi such as "not convergent in round" then you might be looking at RAM spped or timing issues and your BIOS might not have the optimum timings by default for your RAM and taking it down to 667 might enable you to use the current timings.As you can imagine it would be quite hard for the board manufactures to get default settings correct for every RAM/CPU combo. I have to adjust mine to optimize.

 

Maybe .2 extra vmem or .5 vcore is in order. The RAM should be around 1.9-2.0 vmem to operate correctly and I would guess a 9300 to be around 1.8-2.1vcore.

[x2k]

Nice one fp...I'll good back and stress test the fucker...I'm sure the temp isn't responsible for the reboot but if it gets much hotter I'll reseat the fan, it was a proper bitch to fit because as the intel manual suggest I did it when the board was in the case and it was hard to apply the pressure without causing too much stress on the board...it appears everyone recommends doing it to the board when it's not in the case as you can apply support to the back, any how 2 of the catches clicked in the place the other 2 just pushed with no click so I guess that it may not be quite right, I'll get some thermal paste after work.

 

I'm still partly tempted to think that the rebooting is down to the power supply, I've got a 450w one kicking around which while it's on the low side it should be enough so I may try that. I've also been reading up on some the usb stuff I have plugged in and people are recommending disabling usb hub power management to cause problems so I'm gonna try too.

[Steve]

450 Watts is probably plenty for the PSU. £25 for a 650W PSU is cheap as fuck, so it could be that.

 

Get yourself a decent cooler too and you should be able to take a few degrees off those idle temps. Apply the thermal grease according to the instructions on Arctic Silver's site, because how you apply it depends on the kind of chip you have. A thin line across the chip is the recommended method for a quad core CPU, but you need to have the line running in the correct direction.

[flowerpot]

Very Important to make sure that all four clips click, very much best to do it with the board out of the case, lay it on the motherboard box so you can apply nice pressure.

 

Agreed with Steve, a nice Zalman will work those temps out, and the best thermal paste out there: Arctic Silver AS5 or AS Ceramique, will drop temps by 3-5C for sure. I currently use the Asus Silent Striker AL and it's on par with both my Zalmans.

 

I think first get the sporatic reboots sorted, make sure you apply firm but caring pressure to the reseat, for the default cooler make sure you read the little booklet as you do it, ensuring you reset the clips to their default position before attempting a mount.

[x2k]

If that fails I'll probably just take the lid off and piss in it

[x2k]

Right...I've reset everything in the case...fan is definitely well fixed...but the other powersupply I've got is no good so I'm stuck with the one which does the funny startup (although it does do it on it's own so it makes me wander if it's the board.

 

I'm a bit baffled as to what the real temperature is of my cpu now...the Intel utility is pretty shitty. I've downloaded Core Temp and with the default settings my temp was up to 71C but that was with TJ Max set to 105...I then read that for 45nm chips TJ max should be at 95...that then looked a bit healthier. When running the maximum heat torture test with prime95 it was went up to 62C tops...however now matter what I throw at it with Prime95 the CPU usage is barely touched (28% tops)?????

[Wax On]

check yer x2k.co.uk emails

[Steve]

Use Orthos to stress test the CPU. Run multiple instances of it and set the affinity in Task Manager so that all 4 cores are stressed. That'll max out the CPU at 100%.

[x2k]

I actually just noticed the Intel utility came with PriMark and that maxed out the CPU...I bottled it when the temp acording to Core Temp hit 65C (tjmax set at 95) but the thing is the Intel utility tells me I've still got 30C to go before even worrying so I'm somewhat baffled here....everyone is telling 70C but the Intel Utility (for on an Intel board and chip) is telling me everything is great....I'm confused!

[Giraffe Dung]

personally, with that kind of power and with a whole lot of twatty 'this is good enough let's see if i can make it better' experience behind me, i would recommend clocking everything to the defacto standards, factory fans should be fine, but most of all getting a decent, expensive, tried and tested power supply. i have had so many problems running a shitty power supply because i thought i could save cash on it. end of the day you want to be able to boot up and have no problems, and hopefully never have to upgrade. if you're like me you get into the habit, nay expectancy, of tweaking and twatting round with your computer all the time. for a machine built specifically for running your music stuff, just let it run and if it runs well, then brilliant. if you can run 25 native instruments plugins on full power be happy, whether or not you think with better timing configurations you could run 35. because 25 full plugins is fine, getme? i mean, you should get waaaay over 25 running at full power with your spec, but whatever, hopefully you understand what i mean. just get a decent power supply and close the case for good imo.

 

 

 

i did on one build have a problem with the onboard gfx having an undocumented incompatibility with the ram i was using, which drove me mental for days and days and eventually i was one of the people who turned it into a documented issue which to be honest i feel like i should have gotten paid for, lol, but that's a miniscule chance. i'm betting it's the power supply. the soft reset thing is a dead giveaway, it's not holding charge right i reckon. or something.