PC Freeze during encoding process

[Chewy]

You'll know soon enough, the burner will cause problems in the dell
or the power supply in the newer computer will keep getting worse.

Newegg sent me a new liteon dvd-rom with a direct short on the 12 volt rail,
it ate one older power supply and tripped another one before I figured it out.

[dafaba]

So it’s been about three weeks since I moved my backup operations to the slow dell, and all is well. My main PC however has started locking up at all sorts of random times, sometimes during heavy gaming, or simple Internet searches, and sometimes I come home to find it locked up in idle. After extensive tests I thought I found the problem, a bad stick of ram, (even though it passed all the tests) I pulled one of the two 512’s out and it worked mostly fine, so I then thought to take that stick of ram that I pulled and put it back in the case all by it’s self, and no problems, then I put the other 512 back in for the full gig and the problems were back.
This leads me to believe that the slots for the ram in the MB are going bad.
But with my recent luck it will be something totally different. I’m going to pick up one full gig of ram on one stick and plug that in all by it’s self, hopefully that will be temporary fix until I can find a new MB that I like and can afford.
Just wanted to give you all an update.

Thanks.

[jmet]

Thanks for reporting back your findings!

GOOD LUCK!

[Chewy]

@daf...,
bingo, now lets look at how that ram is configured in bios.
try both sticks in the non-dual channel slots, run everest

computer/overclock/report/quickreportoverclock/plaintext

example!
CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 2158.88 MHz
CPU Multiplier 13.0x
CPU FSB 166.07 MHz
Memory Bus 166.07 MHz
Motherboard Name Soyo KT880 DRAGON 2
Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset VIA Apollo KT880
Memory Timings 2-2-2-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) 2T

SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM2 256 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM (2.0-2-2-5 @ 166 MHz)
DIMM4 256 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM (2.0-2-2-5 @ 166 MHz)

this is what I would like to see and the actual ram names

[Chewy]

You can also run cpuid and compare the memory and spd tabs

[dafaba]

So I'm not so sure what to look for in the bios concerning how the ram is configured. I checked it out, I can change the voltage of the DDR, but could not find anything else related to the ram.
I did add the other stick of ram, but this time I put them in the second and third slots (3 max), and so far so good, 4-5 hours and my system is stable. Below you will find the everest report, the type of ram I running is Rosewill 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200).
Thanks again for the ideas.


CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 2009.51 MHz
CPU Multiplier 10.0x
CPU FSB 200.95 MHz (original: 200 MHz)
Memory Bus 167.46 MHz
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-K8NS (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)
Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce3 250, AMD Hammer
Memory Timings 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) 2T

SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-4-4-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-4-4-8 @ 200 MHz)

[Chewy]

Rosewill 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200).
Thanks again for the ideas.


CPU FSB 200.95 MHz (original: 200 MHz)
Memory Bus 167.46 MHz
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-K8NS (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)
Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce3 250, AMD Hammer
Memory Timings 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) 2T

SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-4-4-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-4-4-8 @ 200 MHz)

So much for my theory of dual channel ram, everything's probably set to auto/
default in bios for the memory settings, that's not very good ram and the 2 sticks might not match each other well enough, since it's running underclocked at 166 it's probably fine now. Which slots are being used
shouldn't affect how bios sets the memory timings tho?????????
Look back at everest report or cpuid and get the bios date/version.
this might apply to you????

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/FAQ/FAQ_473.htm

[j_da_mans]

Hi I have never posted in a forum before, but I am having the exact same problem, I too have a Gigabyte K8NS M/board. Did the RAM swap fix this issue? or are you still using your Dell for DVD Shrink. I was leaning towards the conclusion that an updated M/board driver was to blame, but i still can't seem to fix it.

[Chewy]

what's the date on the driver package?
there's a new (2005-11-03) whql one

I just finished running windows xpsp2 as a repair disk on my NF2 mobo
downloading my new driver now

[j_da_mans]

Thats the one I have.

Bit of a breakthrough last night - I found that the Gigabyte M/board has issues when you have 2 or 3 double sided RAM installed ( I have 3 x 512 ) you actually have to manually set the RAM clock to 166MHz as opposed to Auto in the BIOS, I have done this and immedietly backed up 3 of my DVD's without any hitches at all, so fingers crossed that has done it!

[Chewy]

That's exactly what I have found out about bios settings,
they are a lot like <strike>women</strike> wookies, nice touch blu
they don't make sense.

You are probably home free now!



apologies to supermod cynthia

[j_da_mans]

Yes, I can confim that this has solved my problem! I am so happy I can go back to using Shrink again!

I see that this can affect a few different Gigabyte M\boards so if anyone else is experiecing similar problems I suggest trying this before you throw away any RAM.

Cheers everyone for you helpful posts!

[dafaba]

Hello all,
Since my Bios will not let me change the Ram Clock and since it is the original Bios it is clear that I need to update it, I have tried to avoid this outcome but it is clear now that it needs to be done. My pc is still running fairly well since I moved the ram to the 2nd & 3rd slots. I can't really test shrink on that PC though as I am still using the Dell for my back-ups, and I have had very few problems with the process with the exception on the time it takes.
However this weekend I will be moving my Main PC to a new case and plan on updating the Bios, formatting the hard drive, rebuilding the operating system, and updating all the drivers. This should give me nice clean slate and hopefully eliminate all my problems.
I’ll report back on my progress.
Happy Thanksgiving

[Floppy]

I am very happy you resolved your issues...

I extend to you a couple of expertise I have picked up over the years on dealing with everything from ZX specturm 68k, Commodore amiga 64, 166Mhz IBM 5-1/4" Floppies machines (were I got my nick name from)... Ok So I started when I was 2 years old (more like 14) but since Im only 29 (33) I would like to think I learned absolutly nothing....

basically I have been building Low/medium and High performing machines for a little over 10 years.....

The point is there is a few manufacturers I learn to trust more and more for reliability/price/quality...

Gigabyte I would trust on theire CPU cooling solutions only.... In fact anyone that insists on VIA chipsets is cutting corners and quality and performance...

No one is free but surely I never had, never will have a via chipset anything....

Now that I finished blowing my own trumpet and established absolutly nothing I can say....

Wanna build a wicked system......?

I can point in right directions.....

[Chewy]

Floppy take a 2 1/2 hr movie, decrypt to hard drive, apply 70% compression with shrink, in reauthor, no AEC or DA, I have an asus mobo with via chipsets that smokes, amd64 939 3000 venus. Smokes a lot in memory everst benchs also, with cheaper memory.