No luck with my upgrade, help please

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Here's the problem. I bought new parts to get myself ready for lab partners and have had nothing but problems.

Part list: all new
MB ASUS A7V8X-X
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Barton
RAM 3x OEM 512MB DDR-DIMM PC-2700
HD Maxtor 120GB Diamondmax Plus9
GC ASUS Radeon 9600SE

Installed everything and it booted up fine into BIOS. Try to install an OS and thats where the problems start. With Server 2003 and 2000, it hangs at the screen to check the system compatibility. With XP it goes further, 1 blue screen and messages Press F6 ... Press F2 ... and then hangs.

I've tried different Linux versions, Fedora Core got the furtherest and started formating the partitions then dropped out with a kernel panic error, the same with Mandrake 9.1, SuSE 9.1 and Knoppix 3.4.

I've tried all possible combinations of master/slave/cs settings with the dvd-rom and hd and in both primary and scondary IDE channels. 2 different cd-roms and 3 hd's also bring tears to my eyes.

I'm out of patience and nerves as this has cost me 3 nights already.

Can anyone help.

 

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What about trying it with one stick of RAM instead of all three, just thinking it may be a faulty stick of RAM.

 

yeah check the ram and also check the CPU settings in the bios, make sure its not being overclocked
also monitor its heat, make sure its not overheating and buggering everything up

 

Thanks guys but I've done both and no luck. The CPU is running at around 36°C and at 1150 MHz (safe mode). I've also checked all 3 sticks and they all look ok. BIOS auto detects everything.

 

have you tried to perform said feats with just one stick? often faulty memory reports fine but causes problems when something is recalled from that memory address space (usually not much problem inputting it)

 

I agree with Phoenix, Nugg. I think cos you have 3 sticks I have noticed that on most Mobo's you have four slots but two of different colours and I think unless I may be wrong they relate to the different types of memory you can have. in other words two of them may take upto PC2700 and the other two can take PC3200. like I said I am only thinking off the top of me head without looking. other than that I take it everything else in order? U say your running the CPU in Safe Mode what speed is it going at in normal mode? also I know you cant really overclock the Athlon XP 2600 but only the 2500 cos thats the one i have and its going at the same speed as the 3200 which is 2.2GHz with a hi temp of 41 degrees celsius. then again it does have five fans around it including its own which makes 6 not to mention the fan on the mobo. so a total of 7.

 

Actually the two different colours (really should only be visable on old EDO motherboards, RAMBUS motherboards and new Dual Channel motherboars signify dual channel/matched pair memory requirements


Memory banks need to be installed on say

Banks 0 and Baks 2 not 0 and 1, especially the higher power consumption memory as the first two and last two banks run off of seperate capacitors

I believe the mobo nugget has consists of three slots anyway, and no duel channel
but he can only use 2 slots @ PC 3200, but all 3 at PC 2700 (which he has)
id still stick to just trying a memory in slot 0 and seeing how far you get
you can always add the rest later if it works and see which module is causing you headaches

 

OK, in safe mode it's running at 1150MHz with a high of 1917MHz. Also with the RAM, this MoBo supports 3 banks of PC2700 RAM (why I got it).

 

i think the suggestion was the ram might be faulty mate not the motherboard not supporting it

 

yeah I would go with that one too Phoenix...

 

OK, time for a little update.

I checked all 3 banks in all 3 slots, 1 at a time. It wouldn't boot at all with 1 bank (which happens to be a double bank) but with the other 2 it seemed to be ok. I was then able to start installing an OS , but, it then kept hanging with an error code "Cannot load filename, the error code is 4". No matter which OS I tried (XP, Win2K Pro and server and W2K3 server) they all hung or BSOD'd.

It seemed the BIOS detected only half of the 120GB HDD on auto detect. I checked with the manufacturer's website and it's stated that large HDD's (over 137GB) are supported since BIOS rev 1001, mine was rev 1008. I ran the Maxtor disk utilities and everything seems physically ok except it was reported that it failed BIOS Extension Support (for large HDD's) and that I should update my BIOS, which I did to rev 1011. Ran it again and it still failed.

I also tried all the above with a 60GB HDD which I know is good and I still had the same problems.

Could the MoBo also have a problem?

 

Well I think you hve answered the question urself there Nugg mate...sounds like it could well be the Mobo....

 

check support for large disks is actually enabled! lol
its all well and good it having it, but check its enabled, and if poss change to manual setup of disks not automatic

 

OK another update, I'M STILL HAVING PROBLEMS . I took it to the shop to see what they could do. They replaced the RAM and for them it seemed to work ok. They loaded up an OS (not fully so it seems) which still needed the setup cd when I booted it.

Right from the first time I tried installing anything it starts hanging with various BSOD stop error's. This happens at various time points, during the install and after the OS is fully installed. When it happens during the install I reboot and it then continues with the setup (until the next BSOD) and so on. This also happens at various points after installation. No matter what I use for an OS this happens.

I've done all the previous checking again with cables, hd's and cd rom's and nothing makes a difference. Also fiddling with the BIOS settings is no good. As mentioned above I have an Asus A7V8X-X motherboard and have read on the web of many people with similar problems.

So, I think I will get another mobo and see if that makes a difference as it's the only thing I haven't 'changed' . This guy has similar problems to mine.

I think I will also take the recommendations in this thread about mobo's and look at the MSI K7N2 Delta and the AsusA7N8X-E Deluxe. Any thoughts?

Also does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations about differences between the VIA and nForce 2 chipsets?

Thanks for any help possible.

 

Well there's no doubt about it Nugget...the Mobo is FUBARD to the max...I would definitely recommend MSI especially the one I use K7N2 Delta-ILSR of course there are newer models but that one is my baby and now whenever I build a PC for someone I always choose MSI you cant go wrong with them and in terms of chipsets...mine has nForce 2 but when I build PCs for people only needing it for internet and other simple tasks I go for VIA altho if you're using BT Voyager modems you may have conflicts so will need to update the chipsets but so far somone who I built a PC with a VIA chipset and has BT Voyager modem for ADSL has had no problems at all so I am impressed. the only reason I chose nForce2 for my mobo was cos I got an AGP card also from MSI that was using nForce2 so it made sense really to get the same ones. all in all Nugget check out www.msi.com.tw and go to the UK site and check out the goods there...I regularly go there to see whats new and what drivers are out so I can do some updates altho I think I have done enough updates on my AGP and Mobo. HTH good luck mate. oh one more thing altho u live in Swiss if you go to www.ebuyer.co.uk I am not sure but I think they deliver overseas if not..well I am sure you know where to go.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to go and pick one up now. Hopefully I'll have time tonight to install it.

 

I'm a little late in the game here, but I had some similar problems with my laptop a few months back and it was the laptop. It was still under warranty so I shipped it back to Dell and they replaced it. I still had problems after I got it back but I managed to reinstall the OS and the drivers and she's performing like a champ now.

 

Isnt it nice when women actually do as they are told?

 

i would send the mobo BACK to whoever you bought it from and get a different asus model, go for the nforce2 if possibly
i dont really reccomend athlons ever, so i couldnt give you the low down on what product to buy
stick with Asus though, best mobo manufacturer on the planet

 

You really want the women techs here to punish you, don't you?