ASUS P5B P965 + E8200 starts to have problems

[Jesus_Panella]

Hello.

Exactly four years ago I bought what has now become my secondary PC, the Core 2 Duo E8200 that came with an ASUS P5B P965 ICH8 motherboard and until now I haven't had any problems with its operation and performance.

However, this PC is currently having failures, and not related to the hard drive, since I have checked that everything is in order, but rather they come from the motherboard.

This PC is increasingly having trouble doing the POST (well, getting the image of the motherboard) and is having more and more problems connecting to the internet. Moreover, recently it seems that every time I want to connect to the internet with this PC, I have to unplug and reconnect the cable to the router.

Apart from that, the CPU performance is starting to decline, something that really worries me a lot. I noticed it in the 3DMark tests, in the Super Pi and in some other benchmarks, and I knew that the performance of this PC is declining and quite fast.

Just yesterday I did the Super Pi 1M test, and it turned out that without doing any overclocking, nor downclocking (reducing the CPU speed), instead of doing it in 17 seconds and four tenths, it took me 20 seconds.

In games, I noticed that in many games that I have installed, like Unreal Tournament III, a game that has always been smooth for me, is going bumpily, with constant stops, even with the current GTS 450, when before the PC decreased its performance I noticed a huge difference in games after changing the 8800 GT with the GTS 450, and now I am seeing that they are performing practically the same with one as with the other.

And in many applications, especially when I use Windows XP Mode (I use Windows 7 professional and sometimes I use programs that are not compatible with Windows 7) I noticed how its performance dropped even by more than 50 %.

I don't understand what really is wrong with this PC, since I still use it very often, although it's not the one I use the most, but it scares me a lot that soon it will say "this is as far as I go"

[cobito]

There could be several things:

· The chipset may not be properly cooled (check that the thermal paste is in good condition and that there is some airflow through the heatsinks from some case fan.

· The RAM may be faulty. A problem with the RAM can cause widespread failures throughout the hardware.

· The graphics card may be faulty. Like the RAM, a defect in the graphics card can explain many of the symptoms you mention.

· The power supply may be supplying incorrect voltages. Although the board may perform checks, it doesn't hurt to check with the multimeter.

[Jesus_Panella]

I don't think it's a problem with the power supply, since it's new, and I already checked it by putting it in the third computer for a while and it performed perfectly, while I put the Corsair VX550 back in the second one for a while. Besides, that Thermaltake XT 575 W is 80 plus, just like the Corsair, with the only difference that it's modular.

But I am suspecting that it could be a problem with the chipset or the RAM. I will try with less RAM, lowering it to 4 GB and testing each module, so that none of them is defective.

I will also check the graphics card, since I see myself putting the legendary 8800 GT back in this PC (the one that's in my third computer) :D. Which, by the way, is still giving a lot of trouble (in the AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+ it got a respectable 6400 points in the 3DMark Vantage)

Although perhaps it's a problem with the motherboard that's getting old <:(. After all, the motherboard of this PC is the oldest component in this configuration and if it breaks, I will have very few options for a motherboard change. I will try to clean the inside of the case and the components, although I know I cleaned it not long ago (I usually clean the computers every six months).

[cobito]

@Jesus_Panella:

Although it might be a matter of the motherboard that is getting old <:(. After all, the motherboard of this PC is the oldest component in this configuration and in case it breaks, I will have very few options in changing the motherboard. I will try to clean the case inside and the components, although I know it has not been long since I cleaned it (I usually clean the equipment every six months).

I have had the P5B Deluxe for five and a half years and it still works like the first day.

[amd125]

To rule out the Ram, you run a MEMTEST for a few hours and that's it. If it's faulty, it will give you errors in a few minutes, luckly, and you'll know where the problem is.

And if it's the motherboard... well, that's bad. Anyway, if there's no other choice, you format it and if it goes wrong with Windows newly installed, that's bad.

[Jesus_Panella]

I recently formatted the hard drive, so I don't think it's a matter of the operating system. I'm running Memtest on it now, and there's something that surprises me. It doesn't recognize more than 4 GB, so I'm starting to suspect that a memory module is failing.

Windows 7 recognizes the 8 GB of RAM (I use the 64-bit version), although it's very likely that if the memtest gives me errors, it will reduce the RAM of this PC to 4 GB. It may have been the best thing that could have happened to that PC.

[Nemo]

Run Memtest in two groups of 4GB to locate the module (or socket) that is failing and hopefully that is all.

Best regards

[cobito]

@Jesus_Panella:

I recently formatted the hard drive, so I don't think it's a problem with the operating system. I'm running Memtest on it now, and there's something that surprises me. It doesn't recognize more than 4 GB, so I'm starting to suspect that a memory module is failing.

Windows 7 recognizes the 8 GB of RAM (I'm using the 64-bit version), although it's very likely that if the memtest gives me errors, it will reduce the RAM of this PC to 4 GB. It might have been the best thing that could have happened to that PC.

In the BIOS there is an option called "Memory remapping". If you put in 4 or more GB, you have to have it enabled for the system to detect all the memory.

[Jesus_Panella]

It seems like there was some luck in the end.

I took out two memory modules reducing the amount of RAM to 4 GB by removing module 2 and module 4 to benefit from Dual Channel, and it seems that the values that were always giving me have been reset.

I tested the super pi and it's back to the 17 seconds and a bit that it used to give me, just like the graphics card is back to the values it used to give both in benchmarks and in games, before that problem occurred.

In the Windows 7 evaluation test, the scores have also been reset, since with 8 GB of RAM, the memory was only indicating 5.5 points, worse than even the hard drive, which gives 5.9. After reducing the RAM to 4 GB, leaving it in Dual Channel now it's indicating 6.3.

It's hard to believe what can happen to the computer if a memory module is broken.

[Sylver]

@Jesus_Panella:

It seems like there was some luck in the end.

I took out two memory modules reducing the amount of RAM to 4 GB by removing module 2 and module 4 to benefit from Dual Channel, and it seems that the values that I was always getting have been reset.

I tested the super pi and it's back to the 17 seconds and a bit that it used to give me, just like the graphics card is back to the values it used to give me both in benchmarks and in games, before that problem occurred.

In the Windows 7 evaluation test, the scores have also been reset, since with 8 GB of RAM, the memory was only showing me 5.5 points, worse than even the hard drive, which gives 5.9. After reducing the RAM to 4 GB, leaving it in Dual Channel now it's showing me 6.3.

It's hard to believe what can happen to a computer if a memory module is broken.

Don't rush, because it could be a matter of one or several memory slots and not the modules themselves, as Nemo said.
I would change the 4Gb that it has right now for the other 4Gb that you removed from it, using the same slots and see what results you get, because you might get the same performance again and the modules are perfectly fine and it's a matter of the motherboard. Make sure of that.

Best regards

[Jesus_Panella]

I've tried the other two memory modules and after running the tests, they indicated that they were fine (no errors) and practically gave the same results in all the tests.

However, I changed the position of the memory modules by putting them in banks 2 and 4 and it seems that I'm seeing a strong slowdown when posting and when loading Windows (it takes me fifty percent longer, despite having recently formatted it). However, the super pi 1M test still indicated 17 seconds and a few tenths.

The 3DMark Vantage gave practically the same result (10,350 points), but in the 3DMark06 the score dropped by more than a thousand points, going from getting 12,500 points to only 11,000.

Is it really the motherboard that is having problems?

I opened the tower and observed that everything seems to be correct, but in the last tests I heard a strange little noise coming from the motherboard that I didn't like at all. <:(

It should be taken into account that I have been using this PC for four years very intensively and in fact I am still using it very intensively despite the fact that it is no longer my most powerful PC. Moreover, I am using this PC much more intensively than my main PC (the Core i5 2500K) which I use for programming and playing some games at night. But I play many more hours with the Core 2 Duo, due to the fact that it is connected to the internet by cable and not the i5 2500K (which is connected by Wifi).

In addition, this PC even survived a voltage surge that took out its first power supply and probably between this and the fact that I am using it very intensively, this may be causing the motherboard to be aging.

[Sylver]

@Jesus_Panella:

I've tried the other two memory modules and after running the tests, they indicated that they were fine (no errors) and practically gave the same results in all tests.

However, I changed the position of the memory modules by putting them in banks 2 and 4 and it seems that I am seeing a strong slowdown when posting and when loading Windows (it takes me fifty percent longer, despite having recently formatted it). However, the super pi 1M test continued to indicate 17 seconds and a few tenths.

The 3DMark Vantage gave practically the same result (10,350 points), but in the 3DMark06 the score dropped by more than a thousand points, going from scoring 12,500 points to only 11,000.

Is it really the motherboard that is having problems?

I opened the tower and observed that everything seems to be correct, but in the last tests I heard a strange little noise coming from the motherboard that I didn't like at all. <:(

It should be noted that I have been using this PC for four years very intensively and in fact I am still using it very intensively despite it no longer being my most powerful PC. Moreover, I am using this PC much more intensively than my main PC (the Core i5 2500K) which I use for programming and playing some games at night. But I play many more hours with the Core 2 Duo, due to the fact that it is connected to the internet by cable and not the i5 2500K (which is connected by Wifi).

In addition, this PC even survived a voltage surge that took out its first power supply and probably between this and the fact that I am using it very intensively, this may be causing the motherboard to be aging.

So that's what I suspected, that it's the slots or one of them in particular that have problems. You can try giving it a reset/flash of the BIOS and maybe it will work again and pull well with the 8Gb, some motherboard has already done this to me...

Regards

[Nemo]

Well it seems that the culprit is the ram socket that for any failure might not supply enough voltage or whatever.
It sometimes happens that the connectors get dirty or simply some solder that loses effectiveness. But it can happen to all connectors, PCI's, USB, ram sockets... suddenly one day they stop working.

Isolate the one that gives you the error, if only out of curiosity, because I'm not sure if it's a good idea to put 3 ram modules in it or maybe if it compensates.
Regards

[Jesus_Panella]

Good afternoon again. After doing several revisions, I realized that the memory socket that was failing was the 2. That's why when I put the memos in the 2 and in the 4 I was going slower than in the 1 and 3. I also tried doing 1, 2 and 3, and I got errors again, while 1, 3 and 4 didn't give me errors. However, with three memory modules (6 GB of RAM) I saw that it was not a good idea, since it canceled the Dual Channel and slightly lowered the results. I decided to do a total cleaning of the motherboard, socket by socket, noting that the memory sockets were the dirtiest, especially the one that was failing, noting that sockets 2 and 4 were the dirtiest. Previously this PC had 3 GB of RAM (one of the memory cards was 2 GB and the other 1 GB) and the memories were placed in sockets 1 and 3. That's why sockets 1 and 3 were cleaner than 2 and 4. Then it was when I replaced the 1 GB memory that had socket 3 with a 2 GB one, having the PC with 4 GB and benefiting from Dual Channel, increasing its performance considerably. Upgrading the PC from 4 GB to 8 GB of RAM I barely noticed improvement as at first I imagined I would notice at the beginning, when socket 2 still didn't fail. After cleaning, socket 2 works well again, after doing the tests, and I tried again with the 8 GB of RAM. However, the results it gave me in the benchmarks were practically identical to those with 4 GB of RAM, except for a slight improvement in the 3DMark06, and the fact that in the evaluation of Windows 7 it gave me 6.6 points when with 4 GB it gave 6.3 points. Seeing the very scarce difference in performance in having that PC with 4 GB that with 8 GB, perhaps I should leave the PC with 4 GB of RAM, which was when this PC was going the best.

[Nemo]

I'm glad that in the end it was nothing, as I told you before, that happens to many connections.
As for the upgrade from 4 to 8 GB, it's relative. If the programs you use regularly are not very demanding and the RAM usage rarely exceeds 3 GB, it's absurd to put 8 GB (just the other day I was talking about this with Bm4n in another thread), it won't be noticeable because those extra gigabytes are simply not used. It's different to go from 2 GB to 4, since Windows 7 almost consumes those 2 GB without starting any program and you can notice an improvement in performance.
However, if you really use programs that exceed 3 GB or more in consumption, its expansion becomes essential.

Best regards

[Sylver]

I agree with Nemo. For example, I would need more memory because I use VST instruments to produce virtually and so on, so I usually have to load large amounts of samples and applications into RAM, and it is noticeable with only 3Gb. Since you have 8Gb, leave them placed, if you do not notice any slowdown or problem, better 8 than 4, and if you are going to virtualize even better. If on the other hand you are not going to use it, you could save them or sell them, whichever is more practical for you.

Regards