Major, major problems with new system

Richard M · 31-07-2004, 03:48

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

Rough.D · 31-07-2004, 09:07

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.

fragmeister · 31-07-2004, 09:18

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

)

Richard M · 31-07-2004, 13:00

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

Richard M · 31-07-2004, 17:44

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!!!

poolking · 31-07-2004, 18:27

Nice one.

Richard M · 01-08-2004, 01:41

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"...

</rant over>

Bifta · 01-08-2004, 01:49

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

Richard M · 01-08-2004, 01:52

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!"

Bifta · 01-08-2004, 01:55

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.

Richard M · 01-08-2004, 02:01

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.

Bifta · 01-08-2004, 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard M

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.

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.

Richard M · 03-08-2004, 15:26

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.

Salu · 03-08-2004, 16:44

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

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

Tricky · 03-08-2004, 16:57

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!!!