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Trying to replace processor again....

=GG= Mr Moe

Grizzled Veteran
Mar 16, 2006
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Newton, NJ
OK,

Back in May, I purchased a newer Pentium 4 processor with Hyperthreading that is a bit faster than my previous one. Biggest thing was to get the improvement in front side bus speed from 533 MHz to 800 MHz and take advantage of my faster RAM (DDR400) which is currently running at 333.

Well, I did get a noticeable performance boost in speed and framerates while playing RO (10-20 fps) and running other games and programs.....

BUT

I would occasionally get random crashes, either program crashes or system crashes. This would happen when the computer was idle, or under heavy task and was completely random. Some days it would not happen at all, and others 5 or 6 times a day. This absolutely is NOT a problem with RO! I ran my system with just Windows XP only installed on the hard drive after a hard drive reformat and it still happened.

- I tried everything from reformatting my hard drive, loaded all new and updated drivers (including chipset), turned HT on and off, made sure programs were up to date etc, switched cards in their slots, fixes from Microsoft, etc, and still no luck.

After more than a month of troubleshooting, I put back in my old processor. I have absolutely no problem with system or program crashes with my old processor and current hardware.

---------------------------------------

I want to try replacing the processor again, because the one thing I did not try was to relax the timings on my memory, which are aggressively set by default (for that particular memory). What I want to know or get ideas about, is there a chance that this will work? Does anyone have any thoughts on this or know about this? Will I just be wasting my time? It's sorta a pain to remove the cpu cooler and if it doesn't work, I will be doing it twice (to replace the new with the old again...)

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. :D
 
I don't know that much about Pentium 4's, but if you only change the FSB for an increase in the CPU speed and the RAM runs in sync with the FSB (1:1), then you will need looser timings at 400 than at 333, assuming they were pretty much as tight as possible at 333. RAM is usually rated based on their stable CAS at each FSB, so if its CAS2.5 @ 400 rated you can probably run it at CAS 2.0 at 333, but try 2.0 at 400 and theres the chance it will be unstable. Try to find out what timings the manufacturer recommends at each FSB. If you set it at 400FSB though with default timings I would have thought the timings would be read from the SPD (stable timings stored by the manufacturer on the memory chip) and set automatically to the most stable rate. But if you set it to aggressive, maybe they weren't set to stable timings?

Also when you overclock the FSB you overclock the whole system (I don't know about the way Pentium 4's handle this though), including the PCI slots and video card slot, which can make your hard drive, soundcard, or anything else unstable, so that could be why it was crashing. In my conroe rig you have to lock the PCI slots in the bios at 33.3mhtz and the PCI-E at 100, otherwise they get overclocked too. Not sure if its the same for the Pentium 4.
 
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OK, Back in May, I purchased a newer Pentium 4 processor
See now that's where you've gone wrong. Go buy an AMD ;)

Random crashes like that are annoying, and given that they don't do it with your old cpu you know where the problem is. Keep and eye on the temps, try using default speeds for both the CPU and the RAM.
I used to get random crashes when I first got my XP2500 and o/c'd it to XP3200 speeds. But I upped the voltage a bit and it became stable. And stayed like it for over almost 2 years :)
 
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It is likely a Power Supply issue or RAM timings issue. Try slower RAM timing and/or try upping the Voltage to the RAM. Also be sure to Update the BIOS version of the motherboard. Try those things first since they cost no money.

If that doesn't work, make sure your Motherboard supports the P4 you upgrade to, if it does then consider buying a newer Quality(always important!) higher Wattage Power Supply. Why give up 10-20 FPS increase?
 
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Thanks for the help/info and thanks to those who sent emails.

Got the paste (Arctic Silver!), already got a new TrupowerII installed over the summer, and I do know from testing and Speed Fan that its not an overheating problem, even though the processor runs hotter than my current one.

I am making a list of things to try (as I am only going to do this once more) Hopefully it is just a timing or voltage problem that I neglected to try before.

Again, thanks and if anyone has anything else to add, it will be appreciated. :)
 
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Is your memory dual channel? If so aggressive timings can cause issue, for example I have dual channel DDR400 I can time it at 2-2-2 if I put it in slots 1 and 3, if I put it in 1 and 2 (dual channel) I cannot go lower than 2-3-3 without crashes. But dual channel mode works much faster anyway.

Also I would say memory timings when going from running at 333 to it's full speed could cause the issue as well, roll them back a bit. In fact I'd bet a sizeable amount of money that if you forget the arctic paste and all that **** and just ease the timings back your issues go away :)
 
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