Strange Problems

System:
Epox 8KTA3-L MB
AMD Athlon 900 proc.
256mb oem memory
300w case
tdk 16/10/40 cdrw
memorex 52x cdrom
2 20gig wd hdrives
nvidia gf2-mx400 video
linksys 10/100 nic
Winme with all current upgrades/drivers

Heres the rub.
While replacing an epox mb that was having video problems kl-133m I noticed a "smudge" on the bottom of the processor appears to have overheated at some point. System seems to run ok except in the following areas.

1. When I visit this site http://www.livewave.com/cobrand.asp?feed=9 And attempt to manipulate the camera control I get a bsd with OE : 0028 : 00000004 and the system is locked.

2. A couple of times while running system monitor the kernal processor usage goes to 100% It also stays at 40% all the time.

3. When I remove a cd from the either of the drives explorer shows the title on the left side of explorer. Sometimes even after a reboot.

4. When going into bios settings the screen "Blinks" twice. But seems to be ok other than that.

Any Ideas as to what the heck is going on would be appreciated.

Mike

I found that there was an 80 pin cable going to the cd's checked with mfr. was told only 40 pin. That seemed to correct cd problems.

Swapped out memory and tried the above site and got a complete lockup and black screen.

At this point I suspect video (which is brand new)
or the processor. Which has that discoloration.

What?
Do I smell or something???

Welcome to sysopt Kestros.
Sorry for the big delay. A large part of the replies folks get at sysopt are from members that have experienced a similar problem on either their own machine or someone elses machine. You might have hit the golden problem that hasn't been seen. You also might know the answer already with noticing that smudge on the CPU. Hang in there and the right person might log in and say, "Hey! I had that happen to me, and here's the solution."

I've stumped the furums a few times and I've been here for over a year. Hang in and we'll see.

Cheers!

Thanks,
It Locked up when viewing an AVI file this am.
Could this be the processor?
The system seems to run ok but at times it gets screwey and starts to hang. I thought a bad processor was like being pregnant, Either you are or you aren't.

Thanks for the reply.

Mike

You dont happen to have a Aureal sound card do you?

No just the pc-97 the mb came with.
I am beginning to wish I'd never started this project!!
My old Emachine is still bulletproof!

sound like your proccesors been spiked at some point, the "smudge" you speak off is a burn in that ic chip due to the fact that it's multilayered the spike would not burn out the whole chip sometimes. the best bet is to make sure you have "clean" power (use a inline safe power) and check your p/s then replace it.

You could try setting the CPU a lot lower than its rating to try to eliminate the CPU as the problem. (i.e. when the CPU runs at a slower clock speed the problem goes away = damaged CPU highly sensative to temperature.)