Bizarre local lag problems

[jimmycsays]

For some reason, I keep getting lag spikes when I am in windows. It usually consists of mouse movement spikes as if the pointer is on a 5 second delay. This often happens when I start playing a game, it will begin to stutter, and eventually come to a lockup. When I get booted back into windows (if I even make it there) my mouse is still delayed, and all apps are frozen. Eventually, it will just shut down into sleep mode or something, turning off the monitor. I actually have to shut down and turn back on again to boot up. I just replaced my hard drive, so it can't be that. I have no idea what the hell is going on.
Is it possible my CPU is overheating whereas I didn't put enough thermal grease on? (I put on 1 very thing coat on the CPU die and the fan averages 3300rpm) Or could it be defective RAM? Or defective MOBO? This is very hard to diagnose, and very fustrating since this happens only intermitantly. Can't be a software problem, because I just reinstalled windows. And I have bought a new hard drive just recently. Any help in steps I can take to levy this problem would be greatly appreciated. I'd be nice to know exactly what piece of hardware is acting up (if any), or if I just need to reapply thermal gel, etc. The CPU registered at around 50 degrees Celcius in BIOS, but I didn't get a reading in windows. Now it won't even boot up to windows at all! It just hangs on the Windows Boot Logo! Any suggestions here on what is causing this problem? Thanks!


-AMD Athlon 64 3400+
-MSI K8V series Mobo 754 Socket
-1Gig RAM (2 DIMMS) 1-Kingston 1-Celron 512mb
-Windows XP Pro SP2
-Western Digital 40gig HD
-Nvidia Geforce 6800
-SB Audigy
-Samsung CD-RW
-Memorex DVD-RW
-550watt PSU
-3 Case Fans

 

[DonNagual]

Welcome to techspot.

At first I was going to say it is probably just a driver needing to be updated, but then you mention your CPU temps are at 50c.... Is that your IDLE temps?

That is pretty toasty for that processor if it is idle temps you are reporting. Sounds to me like you need to reseat that heatsink.

 

[jimmycsays]

I'm an *****.

Ok, I popped the RAM's out and replaced them with known good ones, and still same problems. So then I pop the CPU & Sink out and guess what I find. The friggin packing tape was still on the bottom of the sink.

I can't believe I would miss something like that, but it was very dumb of me. I removed the packing tape, reapplied thermal gel, and then clamped it back in. Now everything seems to be working normal now, and the idling temp is back in the low 40's.

However, I'm still getting a very slow boot. It hangs on the Windows Boot logo for quite a while before it reaches login. Do you think theres perminate damage now? Or would I not beable to boot at all if the CPU was damaged?

Perhaps the improperly cooled CPU resulted in something else causing the slow booting. I don't know but hopefully I saved it just in time. What do you think and what can I do about this slow boot up? Thanks for your help!

 

[DonNagual]

Great news!!! As long as you are booting up, I am hoping your CPU is just fine.

I am hoping that you just need some driver updates. Let's start here:

1. Go into your device manager and check to see if you have any yellow or red symbols.
2. Right click on "my computer" then "manage" then "event viewer" and poke around in that section looking for yellow or red error reports.

You can also run a diagnostic on your ram just to rule that out as a possibility. Go to www.memtest.org and run that on your system for 6 or 7 passes. The test takes a few hours so be forewarned.

I'm heading off to work. Not sure if I'll be able to check in today, but will check in as often as I can. Good luck!

 

[jimmycsays]

memtest

No conflictive or markings were found in device manager. Everything looks in good shape there. I ran memtest and got very disappointing results. However, I don't really know how to interperate it so I attached a snapshot I took of the screen here. Let me know what's going on. I have 2 512mb sticks (1 in each DIMM), so I'm not sure whether it's one or both of them erroring. Just take a look and see what's going on here.

By the way, loading maps in games takes 10x longer than usual also, so this really sounds like a RAM problem. Thanks again for the help!

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

If Memtest is giving you errors your ram is bad. Try testing each stick individually to see if it`s only one stick of ram that is bad.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[jimmycsays]

Ok I tested both RAM's seperately. Seems the Centron got 100 errors by Test #6, while the Kingston received NO errors up and beyond that point. However, when I booted with just the kingston, I got the same slow boot up. CPU temp is averaged at 48C. Fan is 3350. This is strange how one RAM failed while the other passed, yet I still can't get a fast boot on the healthy RAM stick. Could the CPU be perminately damaged as a result of the package tape being on the Sink as I stated in my original post? I mean I figured if the CPU was damaged, I wouldn't get a boot? Or is that not true.

This is very bizzarr. I have no other 754 socket CPU to put in so I couldn't troubleshoot the CPU. Besides, it could be the chipset on the MOBO? I was thinking about getting a 440 Kingston RAM and getting a little more clockspeed. I don't know where to go from here. I hope you can storm up some type of resolution for me guys.....what do you think...CPU? RAM? or MOBO? Maybe a combo of the 3? And where do I go from here? I appreciate the help guys...really.

P.S. I scored a 4150.00 on the MCS CPU benchmark test. That good or bad for an Athlon 64 3400+ ?