Major, major problems with new system
 

Anyone with some experience of computer hardware, please read this:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...eadid=17262856 :confused: :(

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Thats a lot of trouble you got there :(

Well here's my two penath worth.
It could be your soundcard or graphics card I know they are ok in your older system but one of them might not be compatible with the new mobo :(

Normally it is the soundcard that gives this type of problem with mobo's as I have seen it in some top end msi boards :(

Good luck I will keep my eye open for some more info.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

I had a problem like that recently when i upgraded (not as impressive as urs mind ;) )

I had a dual-display with a GeForce and an old PCI Savage, when i upgraded i replaced the GeForce with a Radeon aswell as a few other things, and it started freezing randomly.. no errors just totally frozen. Once i removed the second gfx card it worked fine. I can only think it has something to do with ur gfx + mobo combination or something as thats the only time Ive seen that kinda prob.

Hope this helps m8, an hope u get it working soon (nice spec btw ;) )

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Going to start the rebuild soon, I have an old GF4 MX400 in another PC so I'll try that out when I reinstall.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

OK, an update...

I flashed the BIOS to the latest version (which has only been out two weeks I think), reinstalled Windows, did all the updates and put my soundcard & graphics card back in and (fingers crossed) it's been fine so far - been up for hours now with no problems.
I just hope this is all ok now because going back to the A8V/FX53 combo made me realise just how fast it is compared to my XP3200/Asus A7N8X.

FYI - the graphics card is not the problem, I tried an MX440 in it and it still locked up.
That was before I reinstalled & flashed the BIOS.

Please god, let it be ok now!!! :erm: :disturbd: :)

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Nice one. :tu:

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Guys...
Never, ever buy an Asus A8V motherboard:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...26#post2952426
The forums are full of threads about problems with this mobo, it may be very, very fast but to hell with that, I want a system that I don't have to worry about all the time.
e.g. "I really shouldn't start this big download because it'll probably crash halfway through"... :rolleyes:

</rant over> :grind:

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Richard, you've probably tried it already, but under control panel/system/advanced/startup and recovery have you got "automatically restart" checked? If so, uncheck it, you might instead get an error in windows which'll make it easier to identify where the problem is, if it's not checked, ignore everything I've just written :D

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Yeah, it's the first thing I always sort out whenever I install.
Believe it or not, I'm actually wishing I get a proper blue screen or something which actually says something useful rather than the usual "Bye! I'm crashing now! Hope you had fun because I'm outta here!" :rolleyes: :rofl:

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

If I were you, I'd somehow get the motherboard RMA'd, tell them you've tried all the rest of your components on another machine and aim to get a different board.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Yeah, I'm hoping to get something based on the NForce 3 chipset.
I'm not 100% happy with Asus at the moment, they basically released an alpha motherboard to the public without giving a toss about the enthusiasts who buy the things.

Next thing to do is swap the RAM in my Athlon 3200 system (thank God I haven't sold that system yet!) for the RAM in this one then run it through some heavy duty benchmarks etc.
If it's fine then it's the RAM, if not it's the mobo - I'm assuming it's the mobo at this point...

If it does turn out to be the mobo I'm going for an ABit NForce 3 - different mobo brand, different chipset. :tu:

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

I'm aiming for an Nforce 3 (hopefully means I won't have to reinstall XP when I swap from NF2), The only S939 one I've found so far though is a Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939, and I'm not struck on the performance of GB boards.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Right, I've done some tests and concluded that the board is crap.
I swapped the RAM for some el cheapo high latency RAM from my other PC, ran it in single channel mode and it crashed while running 3DMark2001 at stock speeds.

Not what I wanted to see because it means the board is probably faulty which involves having to reinstall the CPU in another board which I really hate doing, and then reinstalling Windows.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Richard I wouldn't assume that your power supply is working correctly.

Why don't you try another if you have one?

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Get a decent disk scanner app - I had exactly the same issues and it turned out to be bad sectors on the harddrive in the middle of my profile directory!!!

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Ok,
3Dmark01 fails but Memtest passes yes - so it dosent look like its the memory.

I think your issue is Fastwrites you know - i have known so many people to have this issue with new boards. Go into your BIOS and disable it then run 3Dmark again.

3Dmark01 is IMO a brilliant program, not for benchmarking but for proving new systems.

Try it and let me know.

P.s. Wouldnt be a Hercules 9800 Pro would it?

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

No, it's not.
Thanks for your advice, I disabled fastwrites and I also ran a couple of hard disk surface scans but neither helped.
3DMark2001 ran for about 5 mins then it locked (screen went blank, high pitched noise from speakers, then rebooted).

I don't think it's a graphics card problem because only a minute ago I pressed the back button in my browser and I had a crash.
Strangely enough, I've been playing Doom 3 for hours with no problems at all. :confused:
Now that is one hell of a system test so I doubt if it's the graphics card or the power supply.
I've already proved this theory by using a GF4 and it still crashed.

Next thing to try is taking the HD from another PC and reinstalling Windows on that.
If it doesn't crash then it's either the Raptor HD itself or the SATA/RAID drivers.
If it does crash then it's almost certainly the motherboard.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

You may also want to look over at the AMDMB forums where a LOT of people post. They have a section specifically devoted to ASUS boards and a lot of discussions going on.

There is a whole heap of posts about your board - just do a search for A8V in the ASUS section of the Forum.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Have you got an URL for that?
I vaguely remember reading some official AMD forums to do some homework prior to buying an FX but I don't know the address.
Is it amdzone.com?

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Doh!

Its http://forums.pcper.com/

Sorry.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Thanks. :)

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Hmm.. thanks for that link but all I can find are people moaning about AGP locks as usual - nobody seems to be having the problem that I am. :rolleyes:
Going to phone OCUK TS in the morning to get this sorted once and for all.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Ooh, ooh!
I think I found something out!

Just now my system went to crash as usual with it's normal black screen, I waited for a sec and thought to myself "oh great, another crash" and then it suddenly came back and said "VPU recover has reported your VPU as not responding" or words to that effect.
Then I got the screen as shown below...
To me this means that it's even more a motherboard problem.
Right now, I'm using the "software renderer" which is like using a system without any drivers installed, pages take ages to scroll etc. :erm:

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

I've never heard or seen that error before :erm:

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

VPU recover is a feature built into the ATi Drivers, the thing is - if you dont have them installed how can it be recovering.

Unless you are using the ATi drivers that come with an updated XP - they are supplied by ATi and probably have feature as it was released in 3.8 cats. (More here)

SO therefore This would kinda seem to be a similar thing would it not.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

didnt read it all - so forgive me :) but did u try a different OS? 2000 for example

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

I'm using the Cats 4.7. :)

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Just got through to OCUK tech support and the guy said he's never seen anything like this and concluded that it's a faulty mobo.
He's using a mobo with a KT800 chipset too so it helped that he knew what he was on about.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Nice one - RMA then?

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

I've followed this thread with interest. The dangers of building your own machine :no: Put me right off. Methinks it's safer to let someone else do it - at least then you have someone to blame :)

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Blaming someone doesn't necessarily get your computer fixed any quicker, someone else could have put Richards PC together using the same fault parts and might have spent a lot longer coming to the conclusion that the motherboard was shagged.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

However the cost of getting someone else to build nowadays has fallen to the point that it is often £20-50 well spent, certainly was with my PC.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

If you're not confident building your own machine then I see no problem getting someone else to do it, myself, I'd not let anyone build one for me, every single one I've built for me (and other people) has lasted very well, I'm fairly sure Richard is just as confident.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

I'm fairly confident about the concept of building a machine, just when you start speccing higher quality components and more complex builds if it causes problems its harder to fault find, someone with lots of system build experience should be able to track it down quicker. Richards problem is a good example of this, the shared help here has helped him pinpoint the problem.

I would be confident building something my parents would use, but for my own use wanting Raid HDDs and other things means I would be less confident, also looking at component costs vs built cost I found the difference to be about £20 so not worht my time.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

No offcece mate, and im sure Richard is a bit tacked off now - but building up your own PC is half the fun of owning one IMO.

I wouldnt do it any other way AND i have had problems in the past.

But you learn as you go - simple things - like looking at forums to see what other people with the same parts that you intend to buy are having problems with and how they got them fixed and what a companys support is like.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

The hardware these days is much more complex and it's easy to create a fault simply by choosing the wrong hardware or configuring it wrongly - i.e. often the problem lies in the relationship between components rather than in anyone component. I'm confident I could build a PC - I know the theory and I've installed drives and cards - but I know the potential for problems is high, and hence I'm happier letting someone else do the build.

I understand that building a PC is "fun" but I'm sure Richard would agree that fault finding a build is far from "fun" and detracts from the overall experience.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

OK, an update.
After reading a 30 page thread on another forum, I changed the AGP speed to 4x and it ran 3DMark2001 without crashing!
I was slightly annoyed still because my score lost around 5000 marks, coming up with just over 16,000 but at least it was stable.

Then, I changed it back to 8x just to make sure and it finished also, giving me a score of just under 22,000! (stock speeds though)
I was getting seriously confused at this point but then I remembered that I also disabled the onboard firewire when changing AGP to 4x.
It seems that this is the problem, possibly some kind of IRQ conflict?
Maybe a conflict between the IRQ/PCI sharing or the Audigy 2 Firewire port?

I'll see how it goes and if it doesn't crash tonight then I'll maybe cancel the RMA and then buy an NForce 4 board when they come out, selling this one to pay for it.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

These days you shouldn't get an IRQ conflict problem unless the drivers for the hardware sharing an IRQ aren't IRQ sharing compatible. That said, I know that on my mum's laptop sometimes the speakers would screech and the dial-up modem would drop the connection - an IRQ conflict. You could list the IRQs in use and try reassigning the IRQ if Windows will let you - see what happens. Also look at DMA.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Word of warning - always beware of 1st version motherboards.

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Ain't that the truth, life's tough on the cutting edge... :p:

Re: Major, major problems with new system
 

Your beyond cutting edge and well into bleeding edge here