[Flexradio] PC sudden reboot with machine check - was - PowerSDR won't start after Delta 44upgrade to5.10.00.5065

[Mike Naruta]

Thanks Dale and Jims for the info about failing
electrolytic capacitors.  I hadn't heard about that.
< http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=425 >
< http://www.burtonsys.com/bad_BP6/ >
< 
http://www.news.com/PCs-plagued-by-bad-capacitors/2100-1041_3-5942647.html 
 >


I put the big florescent magnifier on the mother
board and can't see any signs of bulging or
venting.  Of course, the capacitors could still
be failing.  Here's two photos:
< http://www.hamsdr.com/personaldirectory.aspx?id=727 >



I re-seated the boards and connectors and put
the 1 GB memory card into a different slot.
I even loosened and tightened the CPU.



Memory:  I've run MemTest86 for three periods
totaling about 50 hours of run time with zero
memory errors reported, so I hope that we can
rule out memory.  At the end of MemTest86 runs
the CPU was at 45.5 C and the motherboard at 35 C.
A nice utility, thanks Tim!
< http://www.memtest86.com/ >




Prime95:  < http://www.playtool.com/pages/prime95/prime95.html >
Prime95 is used for finding prime numbers, but
has enjoyed popularity as a PC stress-tester.
Thanks Tim!

This will break it.  The first two times I ran
Prime95 it stopped with a rounding error, then
each time after that it would reboot with a
machine check 9c.

I used SpeedFan < http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php >
to monitor CPU and motherboard temperature.

Another good tool is MotherBoard Monitor
< http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=204 >
but that one seems to have lots of bells and whistles.


I experimented with running Prime95 until the CPU
temp rose to 42 C, then stopped the test and let
it cool down, then started it again.  Remember that
MemTest86 ran continuously at 45.5 C.  When I
installed the CPU I used the proper paste.  There
are four fans on this PC, one in the power supply,
one on the CPU, a chassis fan, and a big chassis
fan.  And the shack temperature is 65 F.

I also ran PowerSDR with only 8% CPU and had it
machine check reboot twice with the CPU temp at
37 C and motherboard at 33 C.


It could be temp, caps, a second bad power supply,
solder connection, etc.  This all showed up after
updating the Delta 44 driver and installing VAC.



Anyone know how to read the parameters on for the
00 00 00 9c machine check for an ASUS K8V-X motherboard
with an AMD 64 3000+ ATHLON 64 RTL, and XP Pro?

Here's a few of the 0x parameters from recent
Event Viewer Dumps:
( Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event
Viewer,  thanks Dave)


00 00 00 00
80 54 61 f0
c4 5f c0 00
00 00 08 33

00 00 00 00
80 54 61 f0
c4 08 c0 00
00 00 08 33

00 00 00 00
80 54 61 f0
60 52 20 00
00 00 01 36

00 00 00 02
80 54 61 f0
f2 00 20 00
00 00 08 63

00 00 00 02
80 54 61 f0
f2 00 20 00
00 00 08 63



Mike - AA8K

I hate Windows!