Constantly replacing PSU's

I just blew out my 2nd PSU. The First was an Antec 430W TruePower. The 2nd was a ThermalTake 480W. Did I mount my motherboard wrong, or could the board cause the PSU to stop working?

It could be a multitude of things causing this to happen...sounds like it's time to take it to a qualified technician and let him/her have a run thru your rig...
Check to ensure that there are no extra standoffs underneath the MB causing a short...
Like I said it could be anything in the system...it could also be your AC coming from the wall giving you surges and blowing out the PSU's...get a GOOD UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for your rig, it's worth the investment in that the time, effort, money that you spend to replace parts will be far less in the long run from a PSU burn in your system...PSU's blowing out can cause major havoc with components in systems thus rendering them damaged but still functional and death of that/those component(s) can come at any time taking out other components in it's wake...
Bonz

Similar Messages

Replaced PSU with TAGAN, good decision?

I have a MSI Neo 2 Plat and a 3500+. My old Enermax is playing up I think. I get a crackling noise coming from it, also my rails according to corecentre for my 12V vary from 11.73,11.79,11.85 constantly. My V Core also goes up and down from 1.46-1.49 ( using 1.3 bios) I decided to go for a Tagan 480W, it has 28A on the 12V and is also supposed to be silent. Was this a good choice? Also what do you think was up with my Enermax 465W? IE the crackling noise and inconsistent rails? I have no stability probs, but was concerned it was gonna give up the ghost?

Well, the noice coming from your PSU could well be due to a fan which isn't working properly anymore. ALso you said that you didn't experience instability. According to the varying voltages reported by Corecenter, I can say that there are lots of people here complaining about corecenter reporting wrong numbers, which also tend to vary all the time, so I wouldn't trust them too much. The Tagan PSU however is a very good replacement of your old Enermax. It is very quiet and thereby rock stable! Like Bas, I always recoomend people a good PSU with more than enough juice to keep the system stable in every situation, and the Tagan and the OCZ (470W/520W) are two of those...

QUICKSILVER: Power problems even after replacing PSU

When I press the power button. The light comes on and fades out.
Before I replaced my rev D power supply with a rev C, the fan would turn about a 1 centimeter when I pressed the power button. Now it does not do that.
The ebay seller claims the power supply was good, but I'm not so sure. Does it make a difference that it's Rev C? This is the PSU I bought:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300256905483&ssPageName= STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=020
What would cause something like this?

Your internal memory battery may have discharged & needs replacement. Also try a PMU reset. See Mac PRAM, NVRAM, CUDA/PMU & Battery Tutorial
 Cheers, Tom

T3: After replacing PSU, id read u1pcu1 is blank

About 5 hours agi, I replaced a PSU in my T3 since the old one had batteries that were 2 years past their expiration date :-). However, on the replacement, id read u1pcu1output is all blank:
T3-foo:/:<5>id read u1pcu1
Revision :
Manufacture Week :
Battery Install Week :
Battery Life Used :
Battery Life Span :
Serial Number :
Battery Warranty Date:
Battery Internal Flag:
Vendor ID :
Model ID :
Here's the other one (can you say "deferred maintenance"?):
T3-foo:/:<6>id read u1pcu2
Revision : 0000
Manufacture Week : 00262000
Battery Install Week : 00462002
Battery Life Used : 1132 days, 17 hours
Battery Life Span : 730 days, 12 hours
Serial Number : 012232
Battery Warranty Date: 20021115134029
Battery Internal Flag: 0x00000000
Vendor ID : TECTROL-CAN
Model ID : 300-1454-01(50)
I have two solid greens on the repalced PSU, and fru stat says everything is normal.
Do I need to wait a few more hours for the new batteries to charge?
Do I need to do the "id write busage" to fill in this info?
Any ideas?
Thanks,
-w

Well, with the "new" PSU (that has probably been sitting on a shelf for two or three years) , and the other "old" PSU with the 4 year old batteries, "fru stat" is now cycling betweeb both batteries good, one at fault, and the other at fault, at about 8 hour intervals. "id read" output is still blank.
NiMh batteries should be good for a least hundreds of charge-discharge cycles, and should last for many years if charged properly. I have some NiCds AA cells are almost 10 years old (although most lasted about 3 years), and most of my NiMh AA cells are about 3 or 4 years old and show no signs of wekness.
An excellent link to battery information: http://batteryuniversity.com/
Sun has every right to be conservative with T3 batteries, considering the criticality of the application, but the batteries should be good for more than two years if your electricity is not going off every day. I only wonder if the output from "fru stat" is a true indication of the battery's ability to power the system.

Replacing PSU on Quicksilver G4

Hi there, I have a 10 year old Quicksilver G4, and have arrived at the conclusion that the power supply needs replacing. I have tried to follow the instructions on the apple web site http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58769
However, I can't remove the front panel of the Mac (which is pretty much the first step!) I lifted up the tabs but it seems stuck at the top and bottom where the front panel reaches the top and bottom grab handles at the front of the machine. The picture shows the front cover removed but with the grab handles in place. I have tried brute force but it feels like I would snap the panel in half.
Any tips please?
Many thanks.
Best
Pat

Hi-
You don't need to remove the front panel, only the bezel around/in front of the optical drives.
Looking in the side of the tower, locate two tabs that are connected to the bezel. Gently push the tabs in (toward the optical drives) and move the bezel out away from the tower. The bezel will swing like a hinged door, so you must clear the tabs to the front of the tower before the bezel can be fully removed.

Mail constantly "replacing" deleted outbox messages

One of my sons tried to send messages to his hotmail account from my ibook. This seems to be causing spinning disk syndrome. When I try to delete the messages from the outbox they keep getting replaced. Mail crashes sometimes but not others, but always I get the spinning disk on opening. I always have to force quit to turn off the computer.
Any takers?

The messages which seemed to be causing the problems are in the "Delivered" box. Initially I got the spinning disk again, but have now been able to delete them without them returning. Should I delete the "Delivered" box?
Well, normally there's a 'sent' box where messages that have been sent are placed. If this 'delivered' folder is just a folder then yes.
My default mail account is no longer there in mail preferences. Can I easily restore this (I couldn't find the tab for adding an account)? Before I do, does this all sound...hunky dory?
If you click on the name 'Mail' in the menu bar and choose preferences/accounts you can add a new account and enter the information you used to set up with.
iMac 20", 2.1GHz, 250GB HD, 1.5GB ram Mac OS X (10.4.6) iBook G4 1.33Ghz, Maxtor 200GB onetouch III, 2mb DSL, Linksys WT54G wifi

Powermac G5 won't boot after new PSU replaced- says no ram installed!!!

I've recently inherited a friends old Powermac DP 2.0 G5 after it died a death. After some testing I diagnosed that that PSU had died in it- something that seems quite common.
Having found some detailed instructions online, I sourced a replacement PSU and set about replacing it. All went well with no major problems. I put everything back together and then powered the machine on. The fans whirled to life but there was no video out. I then noticed that the power light was flashing twice and then a break.
I checked on Apple's website and it was saying that 2 flashed is no ram installed. Yet there are 4 sticks installed - surely these all can't be dead? Has anyone got any words of advice? I'll be gutted if it's the logic board as the replacement PSU was really expensive....help!

Could be the RAM, sockets, Logic board, only way to tell is to swap them out.
Have you done a PRAM reset...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
How to reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436
Earlier G3, G4, G5 models...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1939

Mac Pro (2006/7ish) PSU

Hi all,
Quick question - just wondering how much a replacement PSU (+ labour) would be if done through an Apple Service Centre (UK)?
I was think probably ballpark £500?
Cheers.

They work off a fixed price list, not time&materials. So call or visit them and ask.
Have a defibrillator nearby.

Which PSU is best to buy for Early 2005 dual 2.0 G5

following on from this topic-
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2370706&tstart=0
I'm looking to purchase a replacement PSU but what I want to know is do I have to get a 450w one or will any of the others work in my machine ?
Thanks

Ok the replacement PSU arrived today, fitted it an hour or so ago. Mac booted first time and I checked systems profiler to check everything else was re-installed fine, no problems there. Shut her down and tried the power button and she booted straight up, thought I was on to a winner.
Just to be safe I shut her down after spotlight had done it's thing and went to boot the Mac again and this time nothing happens same as my previous problem located here -
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2370706&tstart=0
I've reset the PMU (although my systems date didn't change when I managed to get the Mac to boot!?) Left it unplugged for 30 mins or so but I'm still having the same problem, can't be another dodgy PSU can it ?
It doesn't seem as bad as my last one, seems a bit easier to get the Mac to boot, my old one took 2 days of being off to boot. Also when I unpacked the replacement this afternoon I opened it up to make sure there were no signs over over heating and the board looked perfectly fine.
I'm lost now!
Any ideas ?
Message was edited by: lhkmusic

PSU 12v output

I get steady 11.55 12v output from psu and it drops to 11.43 under high cpu stress. This has got to be unacceptable. I have new psu on the way. Enermax 460W 3.3v 35,
5v 35, 12v 33. Maybe that'll hold up the 12v rail. Then maybe I can run prime95 w/o failing. I expect it could be something else but psu is cheap one and can't find anything on net about it. That's why I'm replacing it. Stress info readme file said inferior psu could cause problems if voltages dropped under load. I'll post on this when I replace psu and run test again.

Quote
Originally posted by gleonard
Goodcooper, I live in Willard NC.
Forgiven, I didn't get noisetaker. I got EG465P-VE(FM) I think something like 70% minimum at full load.
ok, just wondering becuase we sold a lot a lot a lot of axio cases at my shop up in Fayettenam... and i thought maybe it was a coincidence or something, but i'm not sure who else sells Axio.
Anyway, the problem with Axio is, we stopped carrying thier PSUs/Cases... for two reasons really... first of all thier getting sued by RAIDMAX cuz thier top-end cases look almost identical... and second becuase thier PSUs are nothing to be longed for...
we'll see how the new brand turns out... but just giving you a little info on Axio...
(i think we got about 10 or so Axio cases left in stock, and after that thats it... no more... )
also, the model you got will definetely be sufficient, and i hope it solves your problems

KT4AV killed my PSU?

Hi! I new here. wondering you guys can get me some opinion about that is going on with my desktop.
My mobo killed 4 PSUs with the same model listed below. All of them do NOT have any burn smell.
What I have tried.
- 1st PSU died - got burn smell.
- replaced with 2nd PSU (model listed below) been working fine for pass 6 months 24 hours desktop running. sometimes i shutdown the desktop and let it run again.
- 2nd PSU died - no power etc. NO burn smell. MOBO etc no burn mark or smell.
- replaced 3rd PSU (same model) it died again after 1 hour of installation. Again no burn mark smell etc.
- next day i bought a KOSS AVR Activa A-80. Check for power leakage from the casing with a test pen (test out the pen is working) - NO power leakage. Connected the desktop with replacement PSU now with the AVR. able to power up and run the system with any problem - runnining normal for 24 hours for 4 weeks.
- today, I'm facing the same problem. PSU dead again!
please tell me. Am i using a crappy PSU? I think i ought to buy a better PSU and see how it goes. If it is the same, I'm going to bang my head on the wall
thanks!
My system specs:-
NO Overclocked ETC. Plain default specs running 24 hours.
AMD XP 1600
MSI KT4AV
Kingston 256MB DDR Ram
Geforce 3 Ultra
Nec DVD Writer 4X
Nec DVD drive 16X
Cheapo 100/10MB PCI NIC
Sound Blaster Value.
17 SAMTRON Monitor
SEADA PSU Model: KC-400 ATX
INPUT: 115V/230V AC 60/50Hz
7A/3.5A
Output: 400W MAX

ok extra work for me over my weekends! reseat stuffs from mobo. clean the CPU fan and things suggested by great people here giving me good suggestions.
I going to get a replacement PSU but i doubt it will be stable. I'm in office right now so i'm not be able to get the exact voltage specs from the PSU.
i dont think is a power point or power surge power because the last PSU died was with a AVR connected. Must be bloody PSU!!
But this mobo never had an issue killing the PSU right?
Asenius - nope. I dont have a special condition. just power point (socket)--> AVR --> desktop. well there are no beep sounds. Yup I gotta do that and see.
hexanir - 1 hour PSU died - next day got the same PSU replaced. was tested out working on another computer - it work fine for several months after that and died again.
multimeter is way out of my league For D-bracket USB i need to check whether i got or not. Bad electricity - i have bought an AVR but still same.
Sharp - I'll get you the specs later when i'm at home.

Gpu, Psu, Bios, or Memory Problem?? HELP!!

Continous problem arises again.
My Visiontek Geforce 3 Ti-200 still continously studders in heavy graphic
applications, such as Quake 3 and Divx. I have stated this problem before
with little luck fixing the problem. A complete format and installation of
Windows XP, nForce motherboard drivers 2.00, then the latest 43.xx Detonator
drivers has been done, with the problem still arising after installing Quake
3 (the next application after the GPU drivers) and testing the new
installation. In my findings, the most recent change of hardware specs is
the new CPU, a AMD Thoroughbred A XP1800, which after installation, make my
system function worse than with my old 1.2 Duron. The studderring of the
graphics and a new bug in the BIOS keeping me from changing the clock
spectrum is a few of the occurances. The BIOS bug only happens when i try
to change the clock spectrum to anything other than disabled, then i will
save and the system will freeze at the post screen, this has never happened
before with the 3.00 BIOS and the Duron. Another occurance is when i load
High Performance setting and set the Memeory clock to 2 clocks instead of
default 2.5, Quake 3 will load very slowly, and the studderring is no more a
heartbeat like studder, but every 30 seconds the game will freeze for about
5 to 30 seconds, then continue. Repeating this until I exit the program. I
had upgraded the BIOS to allow the T-bred chip, which may have borked my
motherboard and/or my AGP. I have used the Geforce Tweaker with good
results in overall GPU performance. I can tell when I change settings that
my FPS in games have increased/decreased. I believe this may be a
global/software problem and hopefully not a RAM/PSU/GPU/CPU problem.
AMD Thoroughbred XP1800
MSI K7N415 with nforce 2.00 drivers, 3.2 BIOS
Visiontek Geforce 3 Ti-200 with 43.XX Detonator drivers.
2* 256 PC2100 Crucial DDR RAM CL2.5
Maxtor 80GB 5400 HDD Main parition with swap file of 768-1536
Quantum 30GB 5400 HDD 2 paritions - 1 normal, 1 swap parition of 1.6 GB
withe second parition of 768-1536
Enermax 351 Whisper PSU model EG365VP-VE
Label:
+3.3 - 32a
+5v - 32a
+12v - 17a
-5v - 1a
-12v - 1a
+5vsh - 2.2a
+3.3v and +5v = 185w
Total Power 350W
Bios:
+3.3 - 3.32
+5v - 4.91 to 4.99
+12v - 12.28 to 12.34
-5v - 5.40 to 5.45
-12v - 12.11 to 12.19
vbat - 3.08v
5vsb - 4.94
Generic cd-rom drive, floppy drive.
Hyrdaulic Case with 2 side intake fans
CPU temps - @37 idle/load
Case temps - @ 28 idle/load
Windows XP, no SP1
Tweaked with TweakXp, defrag every week or after installation of an
application, turned off system restore, auto updating, virius protection
(when doing heavy graphics heavy applications), etc
All applications and games are patched and updated to their latest versions
unless listed above.
TRIED:
AGP Apeture: 64 and 128
Detonator drivers 40.XX to 43.xx, unistalling the drivers, then deleting the
display folder under c:/Nvidia
Geforce tweaker fast and quality settings
Overclocking and underclocking
Turning off all anti-aliasing, astrpic, vertical sync filters
Slightly overlcocking and underclocking FSB.
Changing memory clock form 2.5 to 2
High performance BIOS and default settings
Reseating the GPU
Lowering hardware accellerator under display properties
Changing resolutions (currently at 12*10)
Disabling wallpaper, windows graphics, etc.
Cleaned up case wiring
Did not try:
Changing/replacing : PSU/GPU/Memory/CPU - dont have extras lying around
Memtest
Disabling ACPI before Windows Installation (i think its ACPI)
Nforce 2.03 drivers
Detonator 23.XX to 39.XX
Changing BIOS back to 3.0
Any type of GPU modding
Begging and praying
I do alot of graphic intensive work, and this problem is starting to show up
in applications like Photoshop, 3dsmax, and GTKradiant (Q3 level designer).
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Its the memory, last thing i would of thought of. Not that its bad or anything. I did memtest overnight with no problems and no errors with both sticks in but i recieved a message on a forum to try one stick earlier, I took out the newest chip and the problem went away.
Is there something wrogn with the 2.00 twin bank memory controllers?? Can I install only the memory controlelrs from the 2.03 update, if so how? Everything else is stable and fast in my machine now... too bad I have to lose half my memory...

Bad PSU, MB, or incompatible? [Solved!]

Hello again. Regarding new build with an MSI 975X Platinum Power Up Edition. When I try to boot absolutely nothing happens. Sometimes the MB powers up for a second, momentarily spinning the CPU and graphic card fans, but most of the time not even that.
MB: MSI Platinum Power Up Edition
PSU: Antec NeoHE 550 (18 amps max at 12 volts, 24 amps max at 3.3 volts)
Processor: Intel Duo Core 2 6600 w/ OEM heatsink and fan
RAM: Patriot, 2x1GB, DDR2, PC26400, 800MHz
Graphics: EVGA GeForce 7900GT KO
I get the same results whether or not the RAM is installed and I've tried one chip at a time, in different slots. Also tried without graphic card, same result. Removed MB from case to test for board/case short, same result.
I've double-checked the CPU fit - seems like it can't be installed incorrectly because of notches. I've also checked the power plugs (molex for PCI, 6-pin PCIE to card, 24-pin to board, and 4-pin to CPU).
I wanted to test with a different PSU, but my next-newest PSU is only 20-pin and has no PCIe cord.
It sounds like a PSU problem to me, as if it provides power to the MB then stops delivery. Are there any known compatibility issues between the NeoHE and the 975X? Could the problem possibly be with the MSI motherboard? I've e-mailed tech support at Antec and hope to hear something soon.
-Bob

I have almost an identical setup on a MSI 975x powerup edition and a Antec 550w TP II PSU and getting similar issues... Im getting horrible issues with not being able to cold boot and start up the computer. However after about a few hours of turning the computer off and unpluging from wall, Im then able to boot up after a couple times of resetting the comp. This problem may have started after I flashed back to 7.1 im not sure if its the bios and settings that are causing this horrible boot issue but im not positive (also note this problem only occurs when I try to OC anything over default). Im almost afraid to turn off the computer because of the cold boot issues. Another note way back when I first setup my system I heard a little pop sound and a burning electronic smell... I was worried when this happened... but disregarded when I was able to boot up my system with no problems and OC my CPU to 400FSB... but over time it seems this issue with cold booting was getting worse over time. 3 weeks ago I was able to boot in with 400FSB but would always have minor cold boot issues where I would have to restart the system 2-3 times. Then 1-2 weeks ago the problem got worse where I would have to restart 5-10 times about. Now I cant boot up the system without turning it off resetting cmos and leaving it unpluged for +3 hours. Im not sure if the PSU is the problem because I dont have a replacement PSU that supports this mobo and its power reqs. So the issue is its either the Motherboard or the PSU thats causing the problems im not sure which one it could be... espically since Im able to boot up after going through the long process of turning off the comp and restarting multiple times.

Bad psu or mb

have been running this system for a month now and last week I turned puter on and the fans started off running very slow (not the whine that I am used to 4-80's and 1-120 fans) any way the fans quit working and the comp did not start tried several more time by pushing the on button. the NEW ultra xconnect psu blew a fuse I removed the ps from the case and opened it up and replaced the fuse I then plugged back in the 110v and nothing else I jumpered pin 3 and 4 and blew another fuse rma time Ultra sent me a new psu upon installing this new psu i repaced the asus mother board with a chaintech znf3-250 (couple of months old) unit won't power on ....installed new k8n-neo unit won't power on .....power supply will start to spin fans and then shut down if I disconnet the 4pin wire from the motherboard the psu will start and keep running (the powersupply) When the psu first went out it burnt a new asus k8v-se board several chip sets look like they were burnt from the inside out

I have almost an identical setup on a MSI 975x powerup edition and a Antec 550w TP II PSU and getting similar issues... Im getting horrible issues with not being able to cold boot and start up the computer. However after about a few hours of turning the computer off and unpluging from wall, Im then able to boot up after a couple times of resetting the comp. This problem may have started after I flashed back to 7.1 im not sure if its the bios and settings that are causing this horrible boot issue but im not positive (also note this problem only occurs when I try to OC anything over default). Im almost afraid to turn off the computer because of the cold boot issues. Another note way back when I first setup my system I heard a little pop sound and a burning electronic smell... I was worried when this happened... but disregarded when I was able to boot up my system with no problems and OC my CPU to 400FSB... but over time it seems this issue with cold booting was getting worse over time. 3 weeks ago I was able to boot in with 400FSB but would always have minor cold boot issues where I would have to restart the system 2-3 times. Then 1-2 weeks ago the problem got worse where I would have to restart 5-10 times about. Now I cant boot up the system without turning it off resetting cmos and leaving it unpluged for +3 hours. Im not sure if the PSU is the problem because I dont have a replacement PSU that supports this mobo and its power reqs. So the issue is its either the Motherboard or the PSU thats causing the problems im not sure which one it could be... espically since Im able to boot up after going through the long process of turning off the comp and restarting multiple times.

MSI Neo2 K8N Platinum - Freezing Issue during games

First off greetings to everyone on these forums...
I purchased the MSI Neo2 K8N Platinum motherboard from NewEgg back at the end of March to compliment the AMD 64 "Winchester" processor that I also purchased at that time to replace a slightly older AMD XP "Barton" system that was using the Abit NF7-S motherboard. For the past month I have been fighting an unusual and highly irritating issue that I have noticed during game play and have tried everything that I know of and more in an attempt to remedy this issue, but to no avail. This is the general background of the situation and now I will descibe in greater detail as to what this issue I am referring to is and the symptoms of this issue and some of the various methods used to remedy this issue.
The issue is that while play a game the system experiences a short 5-10 second freeze during the game randomly, but usually several times an hour. During this freezing the sound would loop and as suddenly as the freeze occurs it would cease and the game would continue on as if nothing happened. However, sometimes this would result in the system freezing outright after this short 5-10 second freeze... but it does not feel like a total system freeze, but rather a video freeze as the sound continues and I still have keyboard control... but this does require me to force a manual reboot of the machine itself. I have scowered the internet and various forums in an attempt to find what the issue was and use various methods to remedy this issue, but so far nothing has worked in my favor... but it does seem like this issue has been plaguing other users with the MSI Neo2 Platinum motherboard. Below are some of the methods that I have used in an attempt to solve this issue:
*Default Clock for CPU/Memory/GPU; Over/Under Clock for CPU/Memory/GPU
*Increased voltages to CPU VID, AGP, and Memory
*Disabled/Enabled AGP Fast Writes
*Increased AGP Aperture from 64MB to 512MB
*Enabled/Disabled ATI/nVidia Speedup option in BIOS
*Forced AGP clock lock to 66-67mhz
*Relaxed/Aggressive memory timings
*APIC enabled/disabled
*Gate A20 turbo/normal
*Disabled all unneeded onboard components (Realtek NIC, Sound, SATA)
*Disabled nVidia MAC and attempted to use 3Com Gigabit PCI card instead
*Swapped HDD Cables
*Tried PCI Sound Card (SB Audigy2 ZS Gamer) in PCI Slots 3/4
*Tried video drivers from 71.89 Official to 76.45 beta modified drivers
*Tried 5.10 official nForce drivers to remixed 7.02 nForce drivers (5.10 drivers uses 4.36 GART, higher drivers uses the 4.40 GART)
*Applied all the latest updates from Windows Update Website
*Reinstalled Operating System (Windows XP SP2) 5 different times clean with various settings (APIC on/off, etc...) and different drivers.
*Installed Audio Card (SB Audigy2 ZS Gamer) with older and the latest drivers available from Creative's website
*Replaced PSU (Previously was a Thermaltake 420watt PSU, 18A +12v) with a OCZ Modstream 520watt PSU (28A +12v)
*Video card is KNOWN working from previous build (AMD XP 3000, Abit NF7-S)
*Hard Drive is KNOWN working from previous build
*CD/DVD-ROM drive is kNOWN working from previous build
*Heat is not an issue... all components temperature is well below rated level, the only unknown is the chipset temperature (it has a active heatsink and seems to not be hot to the touch, applied AS5 to it anyway)
*Used latency tweak to the video card
*Used Rivatuner to force constant performance level
*Tweaked BIOS to force even clock rates and forced 1.4v to the GPU Core
*Used original GPU BIOS
*Used MSI Neo2 K8N Bios 1.4 - 1.8 and modified BIOS 1.8
*No background applications are running (not even antivirus)
*Used application to force maximum refresh rates for my monitor
*Memory passed MemTest86+ for over 24 hours
*System passed Prime95 and SuperPi for over 24 hours
*System seems stable in all non gaming related applications
*Checked through various troubleshooting procedures
*Disabled SBDRVDET.EXE using MSCONFIG
*There are no IRQ conflicts outside of PCI system management sharing IRQ11 with the NIC and USB... in APIC there are no IRQ conflicts what so ever. Regardless neither method worked
*Installed AMD 64 drivers from AMD
*Disabled DEP in boot.ini
*...and many other various tweaks and modifications.
System Specifications
CPU - AMD 64 3200+ "Winchester", using Thermaltake Silentboost K8 and AS5
Motherboard - MSI Neo2 K8N Platinum (nForce3 250GB Ultra) - Using Bios version 1.8
Memory - 2X 512MB Corsair XMS TwinX1024-3200C2PT (2 Modules, Memory Slots 1 and 2 used)
Audio - Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS (PCI Slot 3 used)
NIC - Onboard nVidia MAC, Disabled Realtek NIC
Video - XFX Geforce 6800NU 128MB AGP (BIOS Rev 1) - NV Silencer 5 and AS5
Case - Thermaltake Damier Series 5000
PSU - OCZ Modstream 520watt (28A +12v rail)
HDD - Western Digital 1200JB 7200rpm IDE
DVD-ROM - Lite-On 16X DVD-ROM
Floppy - Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.25"
OS - Windows XP SP2/DirectX 9c
I have been fighting this issue for well over a month now and I am frankly nearly out of ideas, this does not necessarly prevent me from playing games, but this does interfere with the games I do play (especially online games). I do demand absolute stability from the games that I play and this issue only began AFTER I upgraded to the new motherboard, processor, and memory. The only thing I have not tried is something that I do not have access in attempting on this motherboard, and that is increasing the voltage to the chipset.
Here is my theory on what is going on is that I believe is there is a fault with the chipset on this motherboard and this is manifesting itself while I am playing various games on this system. Of course I would like to try increasing the voltage to the chipset as that would increase stability, but there is no option in BIOS to increase the chipset voltage like the previous motherboard I had (Abit NF7-S). It is possible that either a) the chipset is at fault and is causing me this issue or b) the chipset is not recieving enough voltage.
My question to the rest of you is this, what do you think the problem is and what ideas do you have that I may try that I have not tried yet. Additionally if there is nothing else that I may try should I attempt to RMA this motherboard and will that help, and is there any other versions of this motherboard that I should be aware of. I would appreciate any response from a MSI representative and any comments from those that may have positive suggestions for my issue. Thank you in advance for your time and any help that you may be able to render.
The GameMaster...
*EDIT* Added additional methods attempted... (there was a lot... so I did not remember everything that I have tried)

Quote from: dacull on 25-May-05, 16:06:33
Does it only happen in online games, or can it happen in all games? One thing to make sure of is to turn off CRC checksum offload in your NVidia MAC properties (everyone do this, it is incorrectly calculating checksums which leads to servers ignoring your packets). However as you have tried a different network card you can discount this theory.
For me it looks like the biggest culrpit is your 6800NU, i have read alot of bad things about the NU and you have a low bios revision there, just because it worked well against your old chipset doesnt mean it will work well against your current chipset. Sounds like a BIOS fix is needed as some timing is out somewhere.
Ensure Spread Spectrum is off (and as you have already pointed out Fast writes, ATI NV Speedup) and your card is running at default clock.
As a test beg/borrow/steal another graphics card (preferably nvidia) and see how it goes so you can narrow in on your video card.
It is not just one game, but it is more prodominate in certain games than others... the game in question here is Planetside... though I stuck a demo of Unreal Tournament 2004 on a loop bot match and it seemed to have locked up after 4 hours (not sure how many times it experienced that 5-10 freeze as I went to bed). As for the video card it was KNOWN working from a previous build in those same games (Previous build was a AMDXP3000 and a Abit NF7-S nForce2 motherboard). The only components different in this build is the AMD64, the MSI Neo2 K8N, 2 new sticks of Corsair XMS to replace the Corsair ValueSelects, and the SB Audigy2 as I would never use a software codec audio solution. Spread Spectrum is LOCKED in BIOS and disabled... ATI/nVidia speed up was disabled from the start... and I tried the Video Card at default clock, over clocked, as well as under clocked and the same issue resulted... as I said before it is NOT the video card.
There are two other things I could try is use my old Geforce4ti 4200 and see what happens... or even try out WindowsXP 64-bit edition as someone earlier suggested. I wish I could find a new BIOS for my XFX 6800NU, but there there is only the revision 1 BIOS that I was able to find. The mystery continues...
The GameMaster...

Constantly replacing PSU's

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