Help I am having PSU issues

oakdad · Post by **oakdad** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:25 am

Well I have been running memtest-86 now for the last 8 hours with no mistakes yet.) Now what should I run to test the rest of the system?
Ones that I have heard mentioned are the following, but being kinda green at this I really have no idea why I should run one verses the other.

Prime95
Business Winstone 2004 Multitasking
AquaMark3
BAPCO(r) SYSmark(r) 2004 Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity
Futuremark Corporation 3DMark(r) 2003

And thanks for all the help from you guys and gals out there. Without your help I would be running on a poorly running machine.

rbsteffes · Post by **rbsteffes** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 5:48 am

Folding@Home?

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 7:35 am

rbsteffes wrote:Folding@Home?

Don't do that please... IIRC, F@H has no checks to make sure that you're computing it properly. It's good for loading the CPU to 100%, but not much more than that.

I would recommend the Prime95 Torture test. It performs calculations with pre-determined results. And if the results of your calculations does NOT match their pre-determined results, you can be assured that your computer is not stable (for whatever reason).

Dobby · Post by **Dobby** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:54 am

I agree that prime95 torture is good way to start testing and if it's stable I would run either aquamark or 3dmark, which stresses also GPU. You mentioned earlier that shutdown happened shortly after gaming period so it's wise to test also under maximum stress.

surfed · Post by **surfed** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 9:28 am

The following includes cpu loads specific to architecture, i.e. PentiumII, AMD K6, XP, etc... I have not found anything else that puts more load on my cpu (I overclock more than 20%)

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/redelm/

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 12:24 pm

surfed wrote:The following includes cpu loads specific to architecture, i.e. PentiumII, AMD K6, XP, etc... I have not found anything else that puts more load on my cpu (I overclock more than 20%)

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/redelm/

Putting a load on your system will not show that it's stable unless you have stability-related heat issues. Prime95 loads your system, and most importantly, checks the results of it's calculations against a database of the correct answers. This assures that your system is actually stable (performs basic calculations without errors), something that seems pretty important to me. For further discussions, search SPCR Forums for "Prime95". We've had a few decent threads about the use and value of Prime95 over the years.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 2:03 pm

sthayashi wrote:
rbsteffes wrote:Folding@Home?
Don't do that please... IIRC, F@H has no checks to make sure that you're computing it properly. It's good for loading the CPU to 100%, but not much more than that.

I think that's not quite true. I have had systems crash with F@H w/o CPU overheating... even though in general usage the system works OK. This a sure sign of instability. But Prime95 is obviously a better test.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 2:31 pm

F@H does include checks to insure proper computation. However, when F@H crashes you also lose the work unit which is detrimental to the project in general.

If you suspect heat related issues, CPUBurn is the best way I know to stress your system. It will do no computation checks so your PC could be computing incorrectly. However, CPUBurn stresses the components a bit harder than Prime95, so much so that over a long time, your PC will very probably crash however stable you are. There are different options to the program to stress just the logic circuit, the memory interface, the chipset, etc.

Prime95 is one hell of a quick way to determine stability. If there's anything wrong with your system, it usually shows up pretty quickly.

If you also want to stress the GPU along with the CPU, i kind of remember reading somewhere that the game FarCry with all options turned on high is one of the most taxing applications out there, gobbling up both GPU and CPU cycles like crazy. Plus it's a lot more fun than watching ogres jumping off

oakdad · Post by **oakdad** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:00 pm

Well when I went to work today I had no errors after running Memtest-86 v3.1. I just got home and Memtest has been running now for 17 and a half hours and now I have 3 errors. Just how long do I run this Memtest and just how do I figure out what needs changing to get no errors.
It currently shows the following.

WallTime 19:27:05
Cached 2048m
RsvdMem 1104k
MemMap e820-Std
Cache on
ECC off
Test Std
Pass 35
Errors 3
ECC errors 0

Tst 7
Pass 19
Failing Address 0005a533bcc - 1445.1MB
Good 00000000
Bad 00010000
Err-Bits 000100
Count 3
Chan 1

Hum Cache changed from on to off during the time it took me to type this if it matters.

Well off to find me Prime95 so I can run it tonight.)

Again thanks for all the help, it really means a lot to me.

surfed · Post by **surfed** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:06 pm

Ahem, an error during memtest is bad. Test every stick individually. It might be a BIos setting, but it sounds like bad ram. Also is youre northbridge active or passive cooled?

oakdad · Post by **oakdad** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 7:30 pm

Not totally sure here is a link to a pick of it.
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp ... 468-02.JPG
I do believe it is active though.
Well I loaded prime95 and it wouldn't last much longer than a minute so I went into the bios and took the agp and cpu voltage from default to 1.65 and have now been running prime95 for 4 hours. I do have a consern though my cpu temps are 61c while my case is 20c and we are still at stock speeds. I bought a 80mm Zalman link here
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 206&depa=0
in hopes to run it at 20 dB but it is currently running at wide open and must say I am thinking I we may need a new fan for my cpu cooler link here
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 045&depa=0

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Sat Sep 25, 2004 3:03 pm

Athlon64-FX series runs at 1.5V default. 1.65V is too much. Heat increases exponentially to voltage. btw, 61C for 4 hours of prime95 aren't that bad either