I'll jump to my system specs, then get to the problem
K7S5A Motherboard (using newest SiS advanced drivers)
AMD Athlon XP 1600+ using the fan/heatsink included (I bought the boxed package)
2 256m PC133 ram chips (don't know brand, was on sale at Frye's)
40gig Maxtor Fireball
Voodoo 5 5500 (using Rocket's XP V4-5 drivers)
Creative 52x CD-ROM
Some generic 16x DVD-Rom
ZipCD 8x4x32
350w Power Supply
When I first built my system, I didn't quite have enough money for two sticks of ram, so I just got one 256m PC-133 and told myself I'd get the other later. Well, I got distracted with other things and that "later" ended up being like 3 months. No problems with just the one stick, but I couldn't use my processor to it's full extent, and could only run it at 1050mhz. Again, everything worked fine.
So, I finally break down and get that second 256m stick I promised myself. I run to my computer all giddy that I'll finally be able to use my processor in it's true 1600mhz glory. I put the chip in, set the bios to 133/133 mhz, reboot and get all smiley when I see bios listing my processor as 1600+ instead of 1050.
Life goes well for a bit, and I toss in BroodWar (I've been addicted since original StarCraft came out =x). A few minutes in the game, my computer up and restarts itself out of no where. No warning, no error message, nothing; just restarts. I kinda just shrug it off as a one-time sort of thing, and go on with my life. Later on, I'm playing another game (forgot what it was), and the game suddenly closes and sends me to my desktop. Again, I'm just shrugging it off as "normal random computer weirdness", hoping that's the end of that. Yet, the problem continues. My girlfriend comes over and I buy her Sims to play while she's here, she can't play it for more than a half hour at a time without my computer rebooting. And this doesn't only happen with games, but sometimes if I'm just working with DreamWeaver or something, but more frequently with games.
So, after all those seemingly "random computer weirdnesses", I realize they're /not/ so random, and that there's something wrong that needs to be addressed. I think back to what I've done with my computer lately, take the new ram chip out, change the bios back to 100/133 (or was it 133/100... I forgot the order, but I don't have a choice). Boot up at 1050mhz, play any game or do anything and nothing bad happens. My computer's in the bliss it was before I got the new ram stick.
I come to the seemingly-obvious conclussion that the ram stick is somehow faulty, and make plans to exchange it. But, before I do, I decide to test it out and make sure. I switch the two ram sticks (putting in the new "faulty" one and taking out my old one). I play games, zip up 800megs in files, whatever, no resets and everything works as well as it did with the other chip.
I get curiouser and start to seriously doubt the new chip is actually faulty. So, I wonder if the DIMM slot is faulty. I get around to trying both chips (one at a time, of course) in the other DIMM slot, no problems again.
Right now I'm using the newer chip by itself, with the old chip sitting in protective casing, my processor only clocking at 1050mhz. I'm stumped on what to do. My friend suggested it could be that with the increased processor speed would come increased maximum heat which was reached when I did higher-end stuff (such as play games). I thought about this too, but wouldn't the fan/heatsink that came WITH the processor made by AMD be sufficient enough? Any one have any ideas of what it could be/how to fix it? Anything would be more-than appreciated.
Z-R0E
[email protected]
http://www.z-r0e.com
K7S5A Motherboard (using newest SiS advanced drivers)
AMD Athlon XP 1600+ using the fan/heatsink included (I bought the boxed package)
2 256m PC133 ram chips (don't know brand, was on sale at Frye's)
40gig Maxtor Fireball
Voodoo 5 5500 (using Rocket's XP V4-5 drivers)
Creative 52x CD-ROM
Some generic 16x DVD-Rom
ZipCD 8x4x32
350w Power Supply
When I first built my system, I didn't quite have enough money for two sticks of ram, so I just got one 256m PC-133 and told myself I'd get the other later. Well, I got distracted with other things and that "later" ended up being like 3 months. No problems with just the one stick, but I couldn't use my processor to it's full extent, and could only run it at 1050mhz. Again, everything worked fine.
So, I finally break down and get that second 256m stick I promised myself. I run to my computer all giddy that I'll finally be able to use my processor in it's true 1600mhz glory. I put the chip in, set the bios to 133/133 mhz, reboot and get all smiley when I see bios listing my processor as 1600+ instead of 1050.
Life goes well for a bit, and I toss in BroodWar (I've been addicted since original StarCraft came out =x). A few minutes in the game, my computer up and restarts itself out of no where. No warning, no error message, nothing; just restarts. I kinda just shrug it off as a one-time sort of thing, and go on with my life. Later on, I'm playing another game (forgot what it was), and the game suddenly closes and sends me to my desktop. Again, I'm just shrugging it off as "normal random computer weirdness", hoping that's the end of that. Yet, the problem continues. My girlfriend comes over and I buy her Sims to play while she's here, she can't play it for more than a half hour at a time without my computer rebooting. And this doesn't only happen with games, but sometimes if I'm just working with DreamWeaver or something, but more frequently with games.
So, after all those seemingly "random computer weirdnesses", I realize they're /not/ so random, and that there's something wrong that needs to be addressed. I think back to what I've done with my computer lately, take the new ram chip out, change the bios back to 100/133 (or was it 133/100... I forgot the order, but I don't have a choice). Boot up at 1050mhz, play any game or do anything and nothing bad happens. My computer's in the bliss it was before I got the new ram stick.
I come to the seemingly-obvious conclussion that the ram stick is somehow faulty, and make plans to exchange it. But, before I do, I decide to test it out and make sure. I switch the two ram sticks (putting in the new "faulty" one and taking out my old one). I play games, zip up 800megs in files, whatever, no resets and everything works as well as it did with the other chip.
I get curiouser and start to seriously doubt the new chip is actually faulty. So, I wonder if the DIMM slot is faulty. I get around to trying both chips (one at a time, of course) in the other DIMM slot, no problems again.
Right now I'm using the newer chip by itself, with the old chip sitting in protective casing, my processor only clocking at 1050mhz. I'm stumped on what to do. My friend suggested it could be that with the increased processor speed would come increased maximum heat which was reached when I did higher-end stuff (such as play games). I thought about this too, but wouldn't the fan/heatsink that came WITH the processor made by AMD be sufficient enough? Any one have any ideas of what it could be/how to fix it? Anything would be more-than appreciated.
Z-R0E
[email protected]
http://www.z-r0e.com
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