Troubleshoot Older Quad Core Q9400 Freezing During Video Loads

[AtlBo]

First, this happened from the first boot after I replaced the original Pentium Dual core E2160 processor with a Quad core Q9400. I had updated the BIOS prior to installing the new quad core, which was required. Basically, I can run video or anything else for a 4 hours in a browser or whatever, and then the PC will crash. It's not a huge problem, obviously, but it is annoying, and I would like to come up with a solution. Doesn't seem to happen any other time.

Board is rated for the chip, but it's a weird board. Of all things, it only supports single channel memory operations. Also, only will hold 4 gigs of RAM and DDR2 at that. So this problem rings like a simple situation where the system is actually crippled by the single channel memory. The actual freezing, however, seems to be initiated due to the processor being used very heavily when video is run. In Chrome, for example, the html player on Twitch.tv won't load sometimes and then I might get this weird animated gif type effect where a short portion of viideo plays over and over. Sound just goes out when this happens. Once loaded, really can only run 720p and then at 30 fps. A quad core that benches at 3300 on passmark should be able to do much better. Anyway, am I way off track wondering if the RAM being pushed hard could be causing the freezes. The sticks are brand new. I am sure as sure can be that the sticks aren't the problem (or the sockets).

Been reading about overclocking and clocks and voltages, and I actually wonder if this might be a situation where I could look into underclocking the RAM. I know nothing about the subject. Still, performance is already blah for the power of this processor, and I am not happy with it overall. Ultimately, I am just wondering if I am stuck just looking for a new motherboard that supports double channel memory. At least I could find one easily that supports DDR3 at the same time, so it seems like it would be worth the effort. Just worried about the Windows key for the machine. That's the thing. Any advice on what to do is appreciated.

 

[Prorootect]

... and clean your fan, why not

 

[AtlBo]

Glad you solved your problem .
Regarding that 1080@60 issue the problem is with the inefficiency of HTML players, you could try playing the online YT vidos on your Media player.

Thanks @rockstarrocks. I am using WMP on the PC at this time. If I ever get a chance, I will take a look and see what I can come up with.

For now, I'm just kind of still in a little bit of a state of shock that a poor power connection was the problem. I've been inside the PC a several times working mostly on this issue, and I upgraded the processor and RAM. For sure I disconnected/reconnected the power to the board when I swapped PSUs last year. Still, really didn't seem to me that could have been the issue. OK, it was my turn to learn for real about power connections I guess lol.

 

[BoraMurdar]

WMP is poorly optimized for new codecs, streams and containers. I was going to suggest you to try playing some 1080p 60fps video offline by downloading it first, or playing it through MPC-HC, PotPlayer, Gom or some other modern media player and see how the components behave. Of course, it is a different world from playing the same through the browser but it can differentiate some things. Try some HEVC video also and see what happens.
Apparently @rockstarrocks beat me to suggestion

 

[AtlBo]

... and clean your fan, why not

Nice suggestion @Prorootect. I did that last night while I was in the case. There was some dust, so I wiped them down with ArmorAll. Heat sink has a little bit of dust under the fan, but I will get to that next time. It sounds like listening to a dream rwith 3 clean case fans spinning. The sound is nice as long as the fans are nice and clean. Pretty decent case that muffles the sound a good bit, so it's not too loud.

On the side, I want to get one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/Metro-Datava...3065&sr=1-1&keywords=metrovac#customerReviews

With 7 PCs it would be great to have. Also, this would do a good job of cleaning out the inside of the PSU, which I am sure needs cleaning on some of the PCs here especially. Don't see any dust, but I there has to be some inside some inside given the age of 4 of them. One of them was originally a Windows 2000 PC...1.5 GHz Pentium lol...

 

[Prorootect]

Nice suggestion @Prorootect. I did that last night while I was in the case. There was some dust, so I wiped them down with ArmorAll. Heat sink has a little bit of dust under the fan, but I will get to that next time. It sounds like listening to a dream rwith 3 clean case fans spinning. The sound is nice as long as the fans are nice and clean. Pretty decent case that muffles the sound a good bit, so it's not too loud.

On the side, I want to get one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/Metro-Datava...3065&sr=1-1&keywords=metrovac#customerReviews

With 7 PCs it would be great to have. Also, this would do a good job of cleaning out the inside of the PSU, which I am sure needs cleaning on some of the PCs here especially. Don't see any dust, but I there has to be some inside some inside given the age of 4 of them. One of them was originally a Windows 2000 PC...1.5 GHz Pentium lol...

Clean up with a brush (which simultaneously prevents the fan from running) and vacuum cleaner at the same time - the effect is guaranteed.
Pay attention to static electricity - keep the vacuum cleaner on the tip and the metallic PC case.

 

[AtlBo]

Finally got back to this. Saw improvement and thought I had the problem solved on freezing but, unfortunately, it wasn't permanent. The freezing came back after a couple of days. So I finally found time and broke down and removed the heatsink, cleaned and reset the processor, repasted, cleaned and reset the heatsink, etc. This time when I replaced the heatsink I was very careful to "drop" the pins slowly into the holes allowing the heatsink to rest on the pins. Made sure to go 100% by the Arctic Silver guide for the Q9400. Think I may have tried to force the pins down too soon when I reset the heatsink previously after originally changing processors.

It's booting and running clean now. The heatsink fan was noisy before and even the rickety sound is gone. Could be the heatsink may have actually been a little bit off kilter from one corner to another maybe causing the fan to wabble. I noticed it's slightly magnetically drawn to the upper part of the housing and there is a little bit of vertical play between the fan and the housing along the fan axle. The magnetism keeps it vertically stable. It's very sturdy, however, and I think the play is intentional. So I believe the heatsink must have been a little bit off kilter. Quiet not for an older PC.

Did have a couple of other small issues. First, fans kept running in sleep mode. I had reset the BIOS to defaults, so sleep was set to S1. Set to it S3, and that solved that issue. Second, I had noticed before resetting the processor the temps of the two processor dyes weren't identical, with the first dye being up to 10C hotter. Those have evened out now. I had read up on the issue and attributed it to the quad core architecture, although mentions of the issue being linked to improperly placing the heatsink or improperly pasting had stuck in my mind.

Appreciate the help again. Really enjoying the old crate now. It's amazing going from 1000 passmark to 3300 on the same motherboard LOL. It's really stable now too. Video was having issues before, but not now. I think the HD 4550 graphics card is the only thing keeping me from running 1080p@60 fps. It doesn't stress the processor, but frames do drop at 60 fps. 1080p@30 fps is great though. I highly recommend getting an old "pet" like this one for you guys who like hardware. Great fun.

It's just for a test. I assume the other computer is working fine with that Rosewill so no harm. BTW, depending on the specific model of Rosewill, it could be an excellent supply. Many of their top models have earned excellent reviews for quality construction and excellent regulation, efficiency and ripple suppression.

Well, I did finally get around to this before repasting/resetting the heatsink. Installed the 500w Rosewill PSU fist into this PC as a test. Thought this might have solved the issue, but it did not do so. I booted in and had a good session, then the issue reappeared so on to the processor.

Those so called quad core processors have always been problematic. Moreover your MB is old, though it supports the said processor but its going to create all kinds of problem.

Reiterating, it appears this is discussed around the internet for a reason. Looks like you are correct that there tends to be an issue with the quad cores being sensitive. They are great fun though.