Asus Striker Extreme lga775 freezes

[gameboy3800]

I've got an old hp voodoodna blackbird dedication edition with full watercooling on the qx6850 and twin 8800 ultra cards. it boots up and works fine, but only for a few minutes at a time. i've checked the temps, and they seem fine; mid 30s at bios. i've checked for dust in the radiator and everythings clean. i can feel the pump working and everything. so i dont think its cooling related. i've pulled everything nonessential; wifi card, sound card, any extra hard drives, and its still freezing. it probably could use a bios update, but i've seen reports of the striker series of boards not performing good after a bios update anyways, so i'm not sure what to do.

 

i've looked it up and apparently the striker extreme is actually a pretty expensive board, so i'd love to keep it running and keep my voodoo blackbird completely original. any help would be appreciated.

[Guest]

Overclocked? Voltage used? Cpu degradation? 

[gameboy3800]

On 2/12/2020 at 11:20 PM, ShrimpBrime said:

Overclocked? Voltage used? Cpu degradation? 

everythings running auto speeds/voltages. although the system does have an overclock option, so its possible its been running oc'd for years. i'll see if i can find an older core 2 processor to toss in it and verify board condition.

[gameboy3800]

On 2/12/2020 at 11:20 PM, ShrimpBrime said:

Overclocked? Voltage used? Cpu degradation? 

got cpuz installed and it showed it running at 1.07v.

when booting up today the fans actually werent at full speed, and i could here there was some coil whine, but couldnt hear where it was coming from. think the power supply being old is causing it to not deliver clean power?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, gameboy3800 said:

got cpuz installed and it showed it running at 1.07v.

when booting up today the fans actually werent at full speed, and i could here there was some coil whine, but couldnt hear where it was coming from. think the power supply being old is causing it to not deliver clean power?

This is a very possible thing. You say 2x 8800 Ultras??? 

 

Eh, hardware this old, could give up the ghost any time I think. Cpu, PSU, GPU.... all at risk.

 

Coil whine doesn't always mean death is coming though. You just hear the current at an audible frequency, that's all.

[gameboy3800]

6 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

This is a very possible thing. You say 2x 8800 Ultras??? 

 

Eh, hardware this old, could give up the ghost any time I think. Cpu, PSU, GPU.... all at risk.

 

Coil whine doesn't always mean death is coming though. You just hear the current at an audible frequency, that's all.

yes; twin 8800 ultras. i could try taking them out but that would likely require taking out the entire loop as they're all attached like an aio. i'll see if i can get any temperature monitoring software just to ensure that the loop is still performing as it should.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, gameboy3800 said:

yes; twin 8800 ultras. i could try taking them out but that would likely require taking out the entire loop as they're all attached like an aio. i'll see if i can get any temperature monitoring software just to ensure that the loop is still performing as it should.

Yea, check the loop.

Wouldn't hurt to try a different power supply, might be easier than tearing down the loop.

[gameboy3800]

2 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Yea, check the loop.

Wouldn't hurt to try a different power supply, might be easier than tearing down the loop.

i'll see if i can get msi afterburner on it to underclock the gpus too just to make sure they're completely stable.

[gameboy3800]

So I underclocked the cpu (turned the cpu multiplier from 9 to 8 ) and ran at power saver mode and it was able to last long enough to get everything but proper gpu drivers installed. Took a look at the temps using hwinfo and cpu was at 37c and GPU's were at 47c. plenty cold enough to determine that the water cooling system is in good condition for its age. 

After it froze up I took the opportunity to clean out the GPUs and see the psu. Found out its got the 1100w top end option. GPU's were pretty dirty with dust. Took some compressed air to them and now they can breathe better. I dont think they got dirty enough to cause it to overheat in any way to be the source of the freezes. It must be something else. 

[gameboy3800]

update: i have managed to fix the freezing problems! there was some missing vrm heatsink pushpins that kept the heatsinks from having proper mounting pressure, as well as the old thermal paste on the north & south bridges being absolutely rock hard. i've replaced the motherboard vrm heatsink pins and put on some new thermal grizzly compound and now it runs as it should! Hope this info helps anyone else with similar LGA775 motherboard freezes!