BSOD's for a KT400A based SFF

[xyyz]

here's the system:

ideq 210v

the specs are as follows:

sempron 2800
1gb pc3200
120gb WD sata HD
kworld atsc 100/310u
geforce 6200le/7600gs and radeon 9800pro/xt/x1300

the goal was to get it running as an HPTC with beyondtv 4.4

about 4 months later that's a pipe dream.

i tried win mce with little success, so i went to xp, with a little more, but not that much more success.

i initially, i couldn't get beyond tv to work because the system would freeze with the 9800pro/xt.

smart fan would cause the system to freeze unless the cpu was seriously underclocked.

i swapped the video card to a geforce 6200le, which while worked, had beyondtv working without video.

then came the serious issues. i swapped the 6200le for the 7600gs, which seemed to work. i needed to install some ximeta drivers to get the system to recognize my NDAS unit. so i drop the cd into the cdrom and i get a BSOD. i didn't get the chance to install anything that i could localize as the culprit.

it's been downhill ever since. the system would be in an endless reboot cycle. even safe mode would lock. i somehow managed to get the system restored to an earlier state, but no luck.

i finally decided to reinstall the OS in the hope that it would finally work. unfortunately, this was wishful thinking. winxp did install without and issues, but i get BSOD's when i try to run "windows update."

i'm at a complete loss on what to do here. i've tried testing the RAM with memtest, and it was running without much issue, so i left it, and when i came back, the system had shut itself off. worse it wouldn't power back on. i had to remove the plug from the PS, wait a few seconds, reconnect, and then it powered on.

at the moment i've just left the system in disgust.

any suggestions on how to deal with this?

personally, i've never had good luck with VIA based systems. i'm wondering if this is just a continuation of that back luck.

 

[xyyz]

incompetent tech support really pisses me off.

i emailed biostar's tech support to get some answers. i made it clear that i tried five different video cards, and here is the response i get from them:

"Have you tried the onboard graphics or a different video card to see if the BSOD may be related to the video"?

 

[JohnAn2112]

It shouldn't crash with Memtest. That could still mean it's a memory related issue. Try each stick individually with Memtest. Let it run a few loops on 1 stick before swapping it out with the other. Also, what are the specs on the PSU for the SFF?

 

[xyyz]

it's a 200W PS. that outta be enough for a x1300 and a TV card though, right?

 

[JohnAn2112]

Personally, I think that's kinda cutting it close. Try booting up with just the minimum required (CPU, 1 stick of memory, 1 hard drive, video card) and see if it's stable. If it is, then add in anything else you left out one at a time.

 

[xyyz]

well i got biostar to swap out the MB and the PS. let's see what happens.

although, according to the biostar tech, the system ran for 3 days without any problems before the hardware replacements.