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I recently upgraded my CPU, motherboard, and RAM, and my system has been unstable since. The behavior is somewhat predictable: it crashes mostly while I'm running programs that use video and 3d. Examples would be flash video in firefox, some of the screensavers in xscreensaver, and video in mplayer.
This doesn't seem to be related to CPU usage, however: I can run prime95 torture test (100% CPU usage in top) for hours without problems. It also seems to have no problem idling in X for days. The problems seem to start only when I do something like play a video.
Here's the troubleshooting I've gone through so far:
-made sure memory timings and voltage were on manufacturer's spec
-checked fans and other heat-related issues
-ran memtest86+ for several hours (no errors)
-ran prime95 torture test for several hours (no errors)
-pacman -Syu
I've noticed the following errors popping up repeatedly in errors.log
PCI: BIOS Bug: MCFG area at e0000000 is not E820-reserved
PCI: Not using MMCONFIG.
It seems to always be "at e0000000."
The hardware configuration is totally standard:
-Intel Core 2 duo E6300
-G.SKILL 2GB DDR2 800 (model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - verified compatible at hardocp)
-MSI P6N motherboard
-Geforce 7300
The graphics card is an obvious suspect, but that's one piece of hardware I *didn't* upgrade, and it was running fine before then.
Last edited by moire (2007-10-15 21:16:38)
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Update: I've found that when I disable HPET in the bios (disabling Speedstep didn't work), the triggers such as playing video no longer cause the machine to freeze *completely*. Instead, it partially hangs for about 10 seconds (I can move the mouse pointer in X and hear audio, but there's no other visual response and clicking things in X is unresponsive) - then it resumes normally after those 10 seconds of partial hanging. This is really strange.
I still can't say it's strictly a hardware issue because of the good results in memtest86 and prime95. Still, I'm tempted to try new RAM. Until I make that investment, does anyone have ideas on what I can do with kernal or bios configuration?
Last edited by moire (2007-10-17 17:00:35)
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Consider the discussion of RAM in the following:
http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm
It may be related to your new ram install even though it discusses 64 bit and pci-e it also describes the application of video items in ram.
It especially covers the 3GB implications and the real story on 4GB use.
Best to you!
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