Warning message with shut down...

[Budfred]

Some of you know that I have been building a new system and that I have had a number of problems with it... I thought I was reaching the end and was almost ready to post victory, but ran into a new problem... I would appreciate some help if anyone has any ideas...

I installed and was updating my tax software and decided to check the Uguru utility while I waited... I changed the setup to show Farenheit instead of Celsius and when I went back to the normal view, it started flashing red and shut my computer down... After a couple of reboots, I was able to set it to not reboot and saw that it was complaining about CPU voltage.... It was reading 1.37 Volts most of the time, but I think that is what it said when it wasn't freaking out... Upon further investigation, it also said that the DDR and a couple of other things were off too... However, I didn't see any clues of what to do about any of it and I am not sure where to start... Any ideas??

Oh, I switched the Temp reading back to Celsius, but it made no difference...

The system is a dualcore AMD 64 4200+ on an Abit AN8 32X motherboard... It has 2 gig dual channel RAM and 3 SATA hard drives... A 550 Watt Antec power supply and it is plugged into a UPS....

Any thoughts??

[hockey man]

Saphalline hasn't been active here in the past two days so far. I have no clue as how to advise you Budfred. I'm really sorry that this is taking you so long. . . .

[jlreich]

It may or may not help but that kind of thing is typical of a bad CMOS battery and/or a corrupted CMOS. Oh, and also double check in your manual how to set the CMOS jumper and make sure it is not set in the clear position. I have heard of new mobo's occasionally coming with the CMOS jumper set on clear. Probably whoever tested it cleared the CMOS and forgot to set it back. :rolleyes:

You could start with just clearing the CMOS with the mobo jumpers just to see if that helps. Don't forget to unplug the system from the UPS. Then replace the CMOS battery with a fresh one regardless. It's such a cheap part I always replace the battery in a new system these days.

If that doesn't help go into the BIOS and make sure everything is detected correctly. Make sure all the speeds are correct on the CPU and ram etc.. Make sure the timings are correct on the ram as well.

Hope that helps Budfred. If not we will go from there.

[Budfred]

It may or may not help but that kind of thing is typical of a bad CMOS battery and/or a corrupted CMOS. Oh, and also double check in your manual how to set the CMOS jumper and make sure it is not set in the clear position. I have heard of new mobo's occasionally coming with the CMOS jumper set on clear. Probably whoever tested it cleared the CMOS and forgot to set it back. :rolleyes:

You could start with just clearing the CMOS with the mobo jumpers just to see if that helps. Don't forget to unplug the system from the UPS. Then replace the CMOS battery with a fresh one regardless. It's such a cheap part I always replace the battery in a new system these days.

If that doesn't help go into the BIOS and make sure everything is detected correctly. Make sure all the speeds are correct on the CPU and ram etc.. Make sure the timings are correct on the ram as well.

Hope that helps Budfred. If not we will go from there.
Thanks for the ideas... I have reset the CMOS several times since starting up and I have been running the system for a week or more without any real problems other than the software... I'll pick up a battery and try that...

All the settings are default since I am not into overclocking at all and haven't messed with any of them... I am not even sure how to check the speed on the CPU and RAM, but the Uguru utility was indicating everything was normal until I changed the temp reading, so I am guessing that is not the issue... Part of what I am wondering is whether this is a glitch in the utility rather than a real problem... That 1.37 volt reading is the same as what it said when all was okay if I remember...

[jlreich]

If you think the utility is part of the problem uninstall it. If it doesn't change anything you can always reinstall it. You can look for an updated version as well.

[hockey man]

Could it be a faulty PSU? Isn't that one of the few components that you have not replaced?

[Budfred]

The utility is what reported the problem and shut down the PC, so if I uninstall it, it seems likely the PC won't shut down... My worry is that if something is really wrong, it could cause damage to ignore the warning... However, I don't know enough about the voltage requirements of the CPU or other components to even know if that really is a problem... I will try uninstalling and reinstalling the utility to see if that makes a difference...

I doubt the power supply is a problem since it is a pretty nice Antec, but if there really is a problem and I can't find any other potential cause, I may need to try that out too...

[jlreich]

1.37 is fine. The specs are 1.35-1.40. If you still have the Corsair XMS ram you said you ordered in your last thread the voltage is 2.75. And don't worry if it is off just a little bit, there is a certain amount of tolerance in the voltages.

It does seem like it is a problem with the utility and not an actual hardware problem. Go into the BIOS and poke around and see what the BIOS reports on the voltages (should be under "hardware health monitor" or similar). Any software utility has a high chance of being off when reporting these readings.

Also look in the settings for the utility and see if you can adjust the alarm sensitivity down a little to see that helps. It just may be set to high by default.

EDIT - Also there are some protections built into the mobo that will shut things down if it detects problems. I wouldn't worry about the utility. ;)

[Budfred]

That confirms what I was suspecting... I will go ahead with an uninstall and reinstall of the utility... If it continues to freak out, I may just dump it... Since I don't OC, it really isn't that important... I just wanted to watch temps while the system was getting settled... :)

Thanks again...

[Budfred]

Update: I tried to uninstall and reinstall the utility and it tried to shut the system down again... I checked BIOS and all readings seemed to be in norms... I am just going to remove the utility and get something else to monitor temps...

Thanks again... :)

[PCMan]

Budfred,
Wow, I sure hope you get these problems fixed and stop them...seems kind of jinxy :D

I have just been through a total change in hardware (just like you...actually many of our problems parallel each other's).

Anyways, if you are looking for a good program that monitors system temperatures, fan speeds, voltages, etc. I have a recommendation.

I have tried quite a few programs - each had their limitations. However, I found one that works in every way I need it to. It is called Motherboard Monitor: http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

What I like most about it is that I can customize it to my liking, but most of all, I like it because of its small footprint (memory/diskspace usage)...plus it's free. ;)

I am with you; I am not overclocking my machine, but after what I have been through (a fried CPU :rolleyes: ) and now a more powerful processor, I like to keep an eye the temperatures....anyways you and everyone else are probably bored by my babling. :cool: Hope this helps.

[Budfred]

I have used MBM in the past, but I figured it was easier and possibly more successful to go with the utility that came with the board... Obviously, that didn't work out... :eek: :rolleyes:

I suspect that some (many) of the software problems I have run into are due to the dualcore... Apparently some software just really doesn't like dealing with that...

[jlreich]

You're probably right about the dual core issue. Still a few bugs to work out dealing with it. Like I said I would keep an eye out for an updated version on the manufacturers website.

Let us know how things get on.