finally found out the problem with my friend's dell. ran a thorough check of each components again and this time i discovered that the gc's caps were bulging already. tested it on another pc and it caused the same random hang problem. thanks to members here who dropped by my thread to offer your help

now i have another dell cpu with me, dont know how to test it as it doesnt have any agp slot..

This post has been edited by dlwl: Apr 9 2009, 02:34 PM

@dlwl,same o my previous Gecube 9550. A lot of caps were bulged!

decided to retired my old P4 rig.
letting go my P4 2.8E 1M/800 only bare chip.
anyone interested can contact me.

huh.. pentium 4 thread.. :-)

How about the motherboard? What motherboard you used for the pentium 4? Is that a socket 478? I'm hunting for the socket 478 motherboard....

quite sure that the mobo is S478

yes, it's Abit IC7.

@voscar ,want to grab the IC7 ?

I still deciding......
Do you think if given a budget around RM300, is it possible to buy a new motherboard+processor+ram? Maybe use cheaper Intel Celeron Dual Core? It still perform better than my current 2.26GHz 512kB non-HT P4, right?

This post has been edited by voscar: Apr 11 2009, 07:00 PM

A low ebd celeron dual core will be slightly better than your 2.26GHz P4. Well,i think not really a good move from P4 to Celeron. Your rig is use for net surfing and downloading?

in my opinion, anything is better than a celeron

lol its really the bottom of the food chain

even while u mention 2.26ghz proc, i still think at the back of my head that its better than a faster celeron even

i think with your budget you can get yourself a decent amd x2 processor, which performs much better than a celeron dual core.

I have came to the important milestone in my "crazy and pointless" upgrade project on Acer Aspire EL.

I got Pentium 4 "Northwood" 2.6 GHz (512KB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB) from Imbi Plaza at a reasonable price, plugged it into my S81M mobo (400MHz FSB), spreaded some CoolerMaster ThermalFusion 400 thermal paste and voila! It ran faster than my previous Pentium 4 "Willamette" 1.5GHz (256KB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB.)

I played NFS:Undercover again and the user events responded better than my old setup (no more stupid delays when punching the keys.)

Now, what I need to improve is my PC133 SDRAM modules since one of the DIMM modules is not running at the correct configuration (Apacer PC142??). Maybe, I will try to look for the rare 1GB PC133 SDRAM (not server-type) if possible.

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 13 2009, 10:43 AM

i also have that problem, my apacer pc133 running at weird speeds as you mentioned. it cant run together with my kingston pc133, the pc will boot but keep restarting at the windows boot screen. what i did was to downclock it to pc100 only, but then it's kinda wasted to downclock it

I don't face that kind of problem you've mentioned. But, I know that when SDRAM modules are not properly synchronized, it will interfere with the memory read/write operations as there are memory banks with slow and high speed intermix.

I notice that my Enermax Cluster 80mm PWM case fan (12V) is not working well for old motherboard design like S81M. S81M have three fan headers with 3-pin design (one for CPU fan, two for non-CPU fans). These 3-pin fan headers are designed for voltage-drop fans and they could not support PWM fan design except with some modification to shut off the PWM circuitry in the PWM fan.

When I use this Enermax Cluster case fan (with 4-pin design) onto any 3-pin header available on the mobo, my Windows will not shutdown properly at a certain condition, usually when I use the PC for a longer time (where heat introduces resistance). The PSU, PWM fan and GPU are still active even when the hard disk has been powered down. I have to manually switch off the power using the power switch of my PSU. It is also the same even if I use the 4-pin Molex connector adapter that is used to connect to PSU directly rather than to the mobo.

I have monitored the voltage fluctuations on +12V rail sensed by SMSC chip. It seems that the PWM fan (which is operating at 0.5A, 0.5A x 12V = 6W) is introducing a current load higher than the expected power down current threshold required by S81M. Adding this current load to S81M will give an impact to the ability for the PC to power down properly. I need a way to regulate the voltage to the PWM fan to reduce the current load or maybe I have to resort to voltage-drop controlled fan with 3-pin design.

http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/forums/ha...ard-214194.html

Another alternative to get these products:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=329

FAN MATE controller
http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=206

FAN MATE controller seems to tell something interesting:



It can be implied that the mainboard will not power down if the rotation of the CPU fan is above the number of RPM. This is true with PWM fan as the fan will operate at full speed if the PWM line is not connected. In this case, my Enermax will run at max. 2000 RPM which is above 1500 RPM.

So, I need to get the non-PWM case fan with 3-pin design that only works at max. 1500 RPM or draw less than 6W with minimum startup voltage at 5V.



http://www.quietpc.com/nz/casefansacc.html

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 13 2009, 06:00 PM

Yeah, basic net surfing and watching online video streaming, can said 60% of the pc usage is on watching online video..
But if I go for Pentium Dual Core, the proc itself will be around RM220+ already, cannot fits my budget......

Yeah, previously I'm on Celeron before change the proc to Pentium 4 just last year end, immediately can feel the huge differences
But now the current celeron Dual-Core is better, I saw somebody's celeron E1400 OC to 3.0GHz, Fritz chess benchmark score 3734, while my P4 is score only around 800+
Refer the chinese forum below for the score....
http://cforum3.cari.com.my/viewthread.php?...&extra=page%3D2

How? Please advice on the proc, mobo, and RAM combination. my budget range is rm300-400. I don't care if it's a AMD, as long it's a 2 core will do.....

Who selling P4 ee can pm me. Im very interested

Here's my benchmark on the Fritz Chess. I got 1481 with my P4.A real dual core of course can perform better on this.Watching online video streaming can utilize CPU up to 60%,that's quite high.

what i got is this.

ASUS M2N68-AM (178)
ATHLON X2 5000+/5200+ (~200)
1GB RAM (40)

that would total up to RM418. slightly overbudget

for intel setup it's harder to fit that budget if you go for slightly higher step procs like pentium dual cores. can go for this setup

ASUS P5KPL-AM (178)
Pentium Dual Core E5200 (239)
1GB RAM (40)

total : RM 457.

maybe you could try to check if lower spec models are still available, like intel e2xxx series or athlon x2 4xxx series. can lower down your cost.
you can try asking at the recommendation thread at hardware q&a. maybe they can give better recommendations than me

my p4 rig is finally retired. it served me well for >5years. now mobo+gc+ram is lying around.

thinking of letting them go soon. Items to be let go:
p4p800x(cmos reset prob, sata got some issue)
2.8c northwood 800fsb HT L2 512k
2.4A prescott 533fsb L2 1mb
galaxy 7600GS ddr3@1600mhz(on par with 76gt) + zalman fatal1ty FS-V7 vga cooler from Edmin.
2 x kingmax ddr400 512mb ram

@voscar
at 300-400 will be quite limits your choice. unless you look for 2nd hand stuffs. new cpu can easy eat half of your budget. same case for new mobo. top up till 500 will be nicer. <400 is very tough.

my estimation:
cpu=200+
mobo with built-in vga=200+-
ram=<100(2gb)

at 500 budget you can some room to breath. maybe can grab more ram. 1gb wont last you long.