Random Reboot/failures

[Jeepyny625]

A couple of weeks ago my computer started acting strangely. It's an AMD 2100+ overclocked to 147/14x, so about a 2400+, on a Soyo board with Via chipset.

Basically, it started having difficulty booting up, whereby it would reboot during the process, then proceed normally.

Then a few days after that, it would have real difficulty booting up, needing at least 4 reboots to get stable. And then while stable, it would sometimes randomly reboot. And if it didn't reboot, it would randomly crash programs (games) and note a hardware error in process.

I throttled the overclock down, but that didn't seem to help much. Then I tested the memory chips (2x512MB 2700 DDR) individually and they seemed to be fine. Ultimately I brought the whole thing back down to spec, and kept the Vcore at 1.7V, a little above spec.

So I'm a bit confused. I don't think it's the power supply, but I don't know. I suspect the CPU and/or motherboard only because when it was stable it would sometimes have those program crashes. Now that it's at spec, it seems to run okay.

Either way, I have an Athlon 64 3000+ and Asus board on its way. I just need to know whether they were a waste and I could've fixed this with a new power supply or was I on the right track?

 

[endyen]

You did the right thing. With that new setup, you should br good till Intel gets to 4ghz.
Chances are that one or more of the capacitors near the chip have started to fail.
I would get a new more powerfull psu for the new chip.

 

[Jeepyny625]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm running an Antec 430W power supply and a Radeon 9700 video card. I've also got 3 ATA HDs, 2 CDs, and a Zip drive. After the new board, it will 2 ATA HDs, 1 SATA HD, and the two CDs - lack of IDE connections on new boards.

I'd like to think that the Antec is up to the job.

If you have another idea, let me know.

 

[Crashman]

Check your board for bad capacitors. They should be flat (not rounded) on top and not leaking from the bottom.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>