System Crashes 0x8e/0x05 - Ram Or Cpu Issue?

Ok... Since I FINALLY made the move to a DDR based PC back in January,
I've been plagued with nothing but problems. First, the obligatory PC
specs

AMD Athlon XP2000+
MSI K7 Master-S Motherboard
2GB RAM (1GB Kingston, 1GB PNY, both PC2700 DDR)
160GB Maxtor HD
40GB WD HD
2x18GB Fujitsu U160 SCSI HD
M-Audio Audiophile 192 (previously a Digidesign Audiomedia III)
Diamond Viper 770 TNT2 (though past cards have been Matrox G450 DH and
generic GeForce2MX)
NetGear GA311 10/100/1000 NIC


Now... Originally, I had built this with my old AMD Tbird 1.3Ghz/100
processor in mind, but a call to my local PC recycler netted an Athlon
XP 2000+ for $5, couldn't pass that up. From jump, I had stability
issues, but I figured it had more to do with my being lazy and simply
transferring my old hd (60GB, not listed) from the old SDRAM based
machine (Iwill KV200-R board, 768MB RAM, all the same cards, plus
Adaptec 2940UW) and dropping into the new machine. From that point, I
got random blue screens, usually with 0x8E errors. I then came across
a deal for an ABit KD7A board and dropped that in there but the
machine all but refused to boot to windows. Figuring the issues was
with the install, I took another HD and tried to do a fresh install of
XP. The XP installer crashed repeatedly with the same errors. A quick
google search revealed that this is usually due to bad ram. I swapped
the Kingston ram out 4 times before sending the KD7A back for an
exchange. While waiting for the exchange, I reinstalled the MSI board,
and installed XP, but it crashed 3 times before making it through the
install once. Once installed, XP ran ok with the odd crash. Figuring
that the RAM couldn't be bad (I was now on my 5th 1GB stick of RAM) I
turned my attention to the video card and swapped it several times,
each with varying degrees of success. The KD7A came back and I
installed it and, once again, attempted to install XP which yielded
the same instability and crashed every time once the installer got to
the "starting windows" message.

I rebuilt the machine using the MSI board and installed XP a final
time and have been running that configuration ever since. It crashes
at random and I've just accepted that, but keep the original Tbird/
KV200R machine close by. A few months ago, I enabled the SCSI
controller on the board (I had issues figuring out how to do it in the
BIOS) and got rid of the 2940. A reinstall of XP was in order and was
done, but it had to be done normally because my usual practice of
installing as "Standard PC" for performance gains yeilded a non-
working SCSI controller. Ever since then, the crashes have occured
more frequently.

Figuring that maybe it was a RAM issue, I bought another stick of RAM.
Still had the same crashes, so I took it back to the store. Just
yesterday, I installed yet another stick of ram but kept the Kingston
in place for a total of 2GB of RAM. Now the machine is horribly
unstable. Quake3 refuses to run for more than a few minutes (locking
up the machine completely), VSO X to DVD crashes the machine when
creating DVD's (the heart of my side business), and doing something as
simple as opening IE or Firefox could crash the machine. Last night, I
ran Memtest86+ and have left it running. As of this morning, it was at
3 passes with zero errors. I did one last search (using the old
faithful TBird machine!) and found that the L2 cache may be the reason
for this instability. I'm going to do a CPU swap when I get home,
dropping the Thunderbird in place of the Athlon XP, but I'd like to
know if it could just be that simple. Can all of my issues really be
traced back to a bad CPU?

On Dec 5, 1:13 pm, Paul <nos....TakeThisOut@needed.com> wrote:
> gej wrote:
> > Ok... Since I FINALLY made the move to a DDR based PC back in January,
> > I've been plagued with nothing but problems. First, the obligatory PC
> > specs
>
> > AMD Athlon XP2000+
> > MSI K7 Master-S Motherboard
> > 2GB RAM (1GB Kingston, 1GB PNY, both PC2700 DDR)
> > 160GB Maxtor HD
> > 40GB WD HD
> > 2x18GB Fujitsu U160 SCSI HD
> > M-Audio Audiophile 192 (previously a Digidesign Audiomedia III)
> > Diamond Viper 770 TNT2 (though past cards have been Matrox G450 DH and
> > generic GeForce2MX)
> > NetGear GA311 10/100/1000 NIC
>
> > Now... Originally, I had built this with my old AMD Tbird 1.3Ghz/100
> > processor in mind, but a call to my local PC recycler netted an Athlon
> > XP 2000+ for $5, couldn't pass that up. From jump, I had stability
> > issues, but I figured it had more to do with my being lazy and simply
> > transferring my old hd (60GB, not listed) from the old SDRAM based
> > machine (Iwill KV200-R board, 768MB RAM, all the same cards, plus
> > Adaptec 2940UW) and dropping into the new machine. From that point, I
> > got random blue screens, usually with 0x8E errors. I then came across
> > a deal for an ABit KD7A board and dropped that in there but the
> > machine all but refused to boot to windows. Figuring the issues was
> > with the install, I took another HD and tried to do a fresh install of
> > XP. The XP installer crashed repeatedly with the same errors. A quick
> > google search revealed that this is usually due to bad ram. I swapped
> > the Kingston ram out 4 times before sending the KD7A back for an
> > exchange. While waiting for the exchange, I reinstalled the MSI board,
> > and installed XP, but it crashed 3 times before making it through the
> > install once. Once installed, XP ran ok with the odd crash. Figuring
> > that the RAM couldn't be bad (I was now on my 5th 1GB stick of RAM) I
> > turned my attention to the video card and swapped it several times,
> > each with varying degrees of success. The KD7A came back and I
> > installed it and, once again, attempted to install XP which yielded
> > the same instability and crashed every time once the installer got to
> > the "starting windows" message.
>
> > I rebuilt the machine using the MSI board and installed XP a final
> > time and have been running that configuration ever since. It crashes
> > at random and I've just accepted that, but keep the original Tbird/
> > KV200R machine close by. A few months ago, I enabled the SCSI
> > controller on the board (I had issues figuring out how to do it in the
> > BIOS) and got rid of the 2940. A reinstall of XP was in order and was
> > done, but it had to be done normally because my usual practice of
> > installing as "Standard PC" for performance gains yeilded a non-
> > working SCSI controller. Ever since then, the crashes have occured
> > more frequently.
>
> > Figuring that maybe it was a RAM issue, I bought another stick of RAM.
> > Still had the same crashes, so I took it back to the store. Just
> > yesterday, I installed yet another stick of ram but kept the Kingston
> > in place for a total of 2GB of RAM. Now the machine is horribly
> > unstable. Quake3 refuses to run for more than a few minutes (locking
> > up the machine completely), VSO X to DVD crashes the machine when
> > creating DVD's (the heart of my side business), and doing something as
> > simple as opening IE or Firefox could crash the machine. Last night, I
> > ran Memtest86+ and have left it running. As of this morning, it was at
> > 3 passes with zero errors. I did one last search (using the old
> > faithful TBird machine!) and found that the L2 cache may be the reason
> > for this instability. I'm going to do a CPU swap when I get home,
> > dropping the Thunderbird in place of the Athlon XP, but I'd like to
> > know if it could just be that simple. Can all of my issues really be
> > traced back to a bad CPU?
>
> Yes, a bad CPU can do it. Maybe the old CPU was tortured. Maybe
> it got "cooked".
>
> But a question for you would be, did you check the CPU compatibility
> charts for the motherboards in question ? Are they rated to run
> an AthlonXP 2000+ ?
>
> Example - CPUSupport for MS-6341 K7 Master - PCB revision sensitive.
> Newer board version will have filtered PLL supply voltage, which
> helps the later AMD processors. I didn't find the MAster-S.
>
> http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodcpusupport&prod_no=320&ma...
>
> There is some Abit info here. KD7A included. But the info isn't
> as precise as I'd like.
>
> http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/faq/generic/checkcpu.htm
>
> When a board is missing the PLL filter, it doesn't mean the board
> won't work, but it makes a nice excuse when it isn't stable.
>
> You could also move forward in time, when you pick up your next
> motherboard. If you check the CPU support charts, that should
> give you some idea what would make a good purchase. (I have an
> Nforce2 board that has worked for me. Issues with those only
> happen when the RAM is running near DDR400, and in dual channel.
> Also, I understand people have had the odd problem running 3x1GB
> on the Nforce2. Mine currently has 2x512MB and runs OK even when
> tested with Prime95 from mersenne.org and its torture test.)
>
> Paul- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -


The Master-S is the same board, but with an daptec U160 SCSI
controller on-board.

I do have the correct revision for this processor, though I never
checked to see whether it's a Palomino or Thoroughbred core.

I'll pull my old Tbird tonight and swap it with the XP. That way I
should eb able to determine whether or not it's the CPU (which I'm now
all but convinced of).

A new mobo is in the cards for Xmas, still going to be a Socket462 so
I can eventually get up to a Barton core Athlon XP.