Motherboard or PSU problem perhaps?

[NWgeek]

Okay, the quick specs:

Asus P5B- Deluxe
Intel E6300
2 gb GEIL PC-6400
ATI 3870
Antec NEO HE550

My problem is that I cannot get my system to run stable unless I overclock the Vcore and the Northside above stock voltages. This happens when I run all compnents at default. If at default voltage settings, my machine will occasionally restart or freeze and for instance, my mouse pointer in CAD will trail (thus delayed) the movement of my mouse.

I used to have this rock-solid for over a year overclocked to 2.8 (7x400) with minimal vcore increase and everything else stock (memory is 4-4-4-12 for instance). Then one day my machine wouldn't boot and I traced the problem to my Crucial ballistix Tracer, so I took those out (RMA'd) and it would boot, but was much pickier on voltages. I really want some advise on which component I should swap out first ; The PSU or the MB? I can even get the system to work seemingly fine at high voltages overclocked to the above specs, but I find it odd that it won't run stock (and yes, I kept all things stock and adjusted the RAM voltages to check that angle as well). Anyone point me which would be the best replacement part to get first? Im not any sort of expert, but it seems that I have voltage regulation issues to me...

Thanks much guys!

 

[egale]

I hate these sort of problems where you just have to guess what the problem is. I probably would replace the power supply first only because it is the easiest thing to do. If you replace the motherboard and don't get the exact model, you will most likely have to reinstall Windows which although not difficult is tedious and in my case, there is always something I can't restore.

I am in a similar situation with bsods from a used to be stable system. I replaced the memory, then the psu. Each replacement helped a little but if the bsods continue, its either Windows or the mobo. If I have to reinstall Windows, I am only going to do it once so I would replace the mobo at the same time.

 

[oddyager]

This is happening to my system as well. Its a little over 3 years old now (completely OC'ed the CPU, RAM, etc) and I did a fresh O/S reinstall probably about a year ago. Now everytime I do a reboot (the initial startup from powered down state is 100% fine) and it gets to the login prompt, BSOD. I'd have to shut down the machine, unplug cord from the back, wait for a few minutes, then power it back up. The last time this happened a re=install of the O/S fixed it (which was a year ago thereabouts). Now I'm going to use this as an excuse to upgrade my hardware. heh.

 

[NWgeek]

My hunch is that it is the motherboard.... We had a very hot day a month or so ago and that is when things went haywire. My suspicion is that the NB overheated because the only real change I did to the system was around March when I replaced the Zalman 9500 with a Xigmatic S1283, thus eliminating the benefit of the Zalman fan blowing down on the NB heatsink. Maybe that came to bite my arse when my office at home got hot when I was at work and the A/C was off. That is about the only thing I can think of... I have already done a fresh reinstall of Windows as well. Another oddity is that if I don't at least 1.4375 volts on my E6300 at stock speeds, I get the crashes and my sata optical drives become flakey (like everything else) as well.

 

[JonW]

It's probably the ram that's causing all that problem. Try running Memtest86+ Press (C/1/3/5) this would loop Test#5. The test not only stresses the ram but also the northbridge. If you're having heat related problems, it will show.

 

[NWgeek]

I did have a memory problem initially, but I have since RMA'd that ram. This problem occurs when I have used each of the following matched pairs individually:

2 x 1GB PC-6400 Crucial ballistix Tracer (the new pair they sent me via RMA)

2 x 512MB PC-6400 Crucial Ballistix (regular)

2 x 1 GB PC-6400 Geil (4-4-4-12)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Could these be cases of degraded CPUs, over time?

 

[beray]

Originally posted by: NWgeek
Okay, the quick specs:

Asus P5B- Deluxe
Intel E6300
2 gb GEIL PC-6400
ATI 3870
Antec NEO HE550

My problem is that I cannot get my system to run stable unless I overclock the Vcore and the Northside above stock voltages. This happens when I run all compnents at default. If at default voltage settings, my machine will occasionally restart or freeze and for instance, my mouse pointer in CAD will trail (thus delayed) the movement of my mouse.

I used to have this rock-solid for over a year overclocked to 2.8 (7x400) with minimal vcore increase and everything else stock (memory is 4-4-4-12 for instance). Then one day my machine wouldn't boot and I traced the problem to my Crucial ballistix Tracer, so I took those out (RMA'd) and it would boot, but was much pickier on voltages. I really want some advise on which component I should swap out first ; The PSU or the MB? I can even get the system to work seemingly fine at high voltages overclocked to the above specs, but I find it odd that it won't run stock (and yes, I kept all things stock and adjusted the RAM voltages to check that angle as well). Anyone point me which would be the best replacement part to get first? Im not any sort of expert, but it seems that I have voltage regulation issues to me...

Thanks much guys!

Do you have a decent voltmeter or oscilloscope? If you do I'll show you how to isolate the problem.

When I said decent voltmeter I meant something like this --> http://www.elfaelektroonika.ee...n/web_store.cgi?artnr= which is good enough out to 100 kHz.