ASUS P4T533 Woes

[Marine]

I've had a stable system built on a P4T533 mobo running a 3.06 for about six months. I decided to add an EIDE RAID to my SCSI-based machine to increase storage. I enabled the RAID with the jumper and created a RAID 0 array without problem and installed WinXP Pro. Toward the end of the install, the machine spontaneously shut down. No problem, I turned it back on and the install continued without problems.

I began to update the install with SP1 and about 20 min later, the machine shut down again. Hmm.... This pattern continued to worsen until now, I turn on the computer and it shuts down within 20 seconds, before loading Windows. I tried disabling the RAID to boot to my SCSI array, but same problem. I tried disconnecting the new hard drives, same problem. I disconnected all my drives -- same problem.

I apparently have fried my mobo, but have no idea how or what happened. I thought that another two drives might be too much for the power supply, even though it is a 530W Vantec, so I put in a new PS. Same problem. Machine shuts down after 20-45 seconds.

Any ideas at all what might be happening? I've swapped out the video card, unplugged everything, including floppy and optical drives, no joy.

So, I'm stuck with a Gig of 32 bit 232 pin Rambus RDRAM. Any suggestions on a mobo that can use this RAM? What a nightmare! Any help appreciated.

 

[Thor86]

Before you decide to throw away your motherboard, I would check the onboard battery, and try and replace it. Also, clear your bios/cmos (look in the manual) and run default settings, and see if it still shuts down. Just try and remember all the settings otherwise again, look in the manual for best settings. If it still shuts down after all of this, then I would agree with you that it may be the end of life for your P4T. You can always try and find another one second hand in the ForSale forums.

 

[Megatomic]

The ASUS P4T533-C is still for sale new and retail from NewEgg.com, they're in stock right now if you need one.

 

[squirrel dog]

I was going to say , clear your bios and start over.

 

[Marine]

Megatomic,
Thanks but this is the P4T533 that uses the 32 bit RDRAM RAmBus, and the C model doesn't. I have tried everything that folks suggested but it is DOA. Must have been a weak point of failure on the board somewhere and when I enabled the ATAPI RAID it snapped.
Thanks to all for responding. I sure appreciate the help!
Unfortunately, since I bought a Gig of 32 bit RamBus, I have to buy another P4T533 as I believe it is the only baseboard that supports this unique RDRAM. If I'm wrong and there is another choice, please let me know! Best!