Building new system, nothing but problems.

[qp]

Hey folks. I'm trying to set up my new system and I'm beginning to lose my sanity. I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me before that happens. First of all, the hardware:

Asus A8V Deluxe mb (bios flashed to newest version, whatever that is, by Asus)
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
BFG GeForce 6800GT OC
1gb Kingston dual channel pc3200 ram
Western Digital 100gb hard drive
Ultra X-Connect 500W psu

Right now I'm trying to install Windows XP Pro for the 5th or 6th time. This last time I tried, I got a PFN_LIST_CORRUPT error, so right now my hard drive is being formatted in preparation for my next attempt while I type this on my laptop. I had previously gotten xp installed successfully, but that was brought to an end when the computer crashed during windows updates, thus corrupting the entire windows install. I checked Asus probe and the CPU temp was at 36 and the mb temp was 29. The voltages were 11.6+ on the +12v, 5+ on the +5v, and 3.4+ on the +3.3v. Why might it be that the system is crashing? All the hardware is brand new.

I don't know anything about bios settings, but I assume I'd have to mess around in there at least to fix the PFN_LIST_CORRUPT error. Like I said, it's the newest bios version as of this week.

If anyone can shed ANY light on ANY of the problems I'm having, it would be much appreciated as I'm really starting to get frustrated here.

If anyone would be willing to walk me through setting up this system from a completely fresh start I would be forever thankful. I've built one system before this one and it was a piece of cake compared. I really thought this would be as simple as hookin everything up and installing windows xp, but I was obviously mistaken.

Thanks much.

 

[blodhi74]

make sure every thing is hooked up and snug .... if so ... sounds like a memory issue .... take one stick out and runmemtest on both sticks

 

[mechBgon]

Can I suggest starting by raising the memory voltage to 2.7 volts. Make sure the RAM is in the blue slots too.

Also, if you have a less-power-hungry nVidia card like a GeForce2/3/4 that shares the same drivers as your 6800OC, I also suggest installing Windows with that, because the 6800OC card is fearsomely hungry for 12V power. I heard mixed reviews of the Ultra X-Connect power supply from people here who have one.

I admit to being an awful power-supply snob but here is my nominee for your rig: Enermax EG475AX-VE Enermax has earned a good reputation, this thing is both 20-pin and 24-pin compatible, and it has a PCIe-video power cable, so if you want forward-compatible, there you go. If I had your rig, with the expense in that card alone, I would switch PSUs. If it gives you more trouble despite the memory-voltage bump, that's something to think about.

Other possible hangups include PCI cards (Audigy 2, video capture, ???) having a chipset-IRQ clash with the AGP bus. If you have any PCI cards, add that info and I'll look at the IRQ table for that board when I'm home.

 

[qp]

Thanks for the replies guys. After a little more reading, and blodhi's reply I'm gonna start with the memory. They're in the blue slots, but I'm gonna try each stick individually and see what happens. But would a bad memory stick cause the spontaneous rebooting (that's what I meant to say.. not really crashing, no blue screen or error messages, just spontaneous rebooting)?

Unfortunately I don't have another video card to use for installing windows.

The psu was definately my first assumption, because my initial problems were just the random rebooting. I was gonna go with an Enermax 460W Whisper II and I regretted not doing that as soon as I submitted my order for the X-Connect. Something about it just wouldn't let me change my mind though, I guess I just figured it would WORK.

I have a 450W codegen (cheeeeapy) and a rosewill 400W that came with my case. Should I plop one of these in to test, or would that just be a greater risk?

Anyway, I'll start with the memory and thanks again for the replies.

oh and the only pci card in it is a network card.

 

[Phoebus]

Sorry for being somewhat off topic.

I recently got the A8V, BIOS was 1.005. After using the EZ flash to
upgrade to 1.008, the board was completely dead. Had to return
to vendor. Now with the new board, I'm actually scared to try the
upgrade again.

What did you use: the DOS utility or the built-in upgrade feature.

THX

 

[qp]

Phoebus, I didn't have the means to flash the bios myself, so I had to send it to Asus along with $5 (to cover return shipping) to have them flash it. If you'd like I could look up the address for you.

 

[mechBgon]

And make sure to bring the memory voltage up too, qp.

 

[qp]

Well I'm on another successful install of windows. This time I'm not going to try to update windows until I have the system stable, so tomorrow I'm gonna work on finding out the problem.

What would you suggest for the memory voltage? My options are Auto (default), 2.6v, 2.7v, 2.8v.

Also, what's the best way to test for bad ram? I haven't read up on memtest86, but I plan on it tomorrow. Is that what I want to do, or should I yank one stick out and see how the other does by itself? If that's the case how will I know as the crashes are random and it has gone for 12+ hours without crashing, so it could go for a week for all I know?

Thanks again.

 

[Phoebus]

Thanks! I'll either do it myself, if I get my courage up
or not do it at all. PC is running (although I COULD tell
stories about what it took to get it running) and taking
it out of service is not an option.

Did ANYONE flash the BIOS on this bord themselves
successfully?

 

[mechBgon]

qp: 2.7 volts is a good all-around setting. If the RAM is not "fancy" stuff, like their regular ValueRAM, then 2.6 may be all it needs to do its thing.

Since you mention the problems that you did, I want to direct you to this page. WinXP is vulnerable to worm attacks unless you have a firewall to protect it. I've made a routine that would get you through the vulnerable "newborn Windows" stage and also added suggestions for keeping it trouble-free.

I know it is a totally alien concept to home-computer enthusiasts, but take the recommendation of Limited accounts seriously. I went over to my mom & dad's house tonight and found that my use of Limited-class accounts had prevented the successful infection of the computer by Realspy, which Norton Antivirus has only been able to detect since the Dec. 1 Intelligent Updater. With the Dec. 2 update, it was able to finally "see" the Realspy installer file, which appears to have come in via my little sister's IM activity.

Moral of the story: the use of a Limited account stopped then-undetectable malware cold in its tracks :evil: Consider using this method of defense in addition to the usual ones like antivirus and firewalls.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Phoebus
Thanks! I'll either do it myself, if I get my courage up
or not do it at all. PC is running (although I COULD tell
stories about what it took to get it running) and taking
it out of service is not an option.

Did ANYONE flash the BIOS on this bord themselves
successfully?

Hi Phoebus, if you want a hand with the flash routine, I can help with that.

1) to reduce power consumption for maximum stability, temporarily unplug your hard drives and optical drives from the data and power cables.

2) if you have a need to, boost the memory voltage. You don't want the system deciding to freeze up halfway through the flash :Q

3) download the Zip file at the bottom of this page of mine: mech's page That contains two Seagate drive utilities that you probably don't need, but it also contains drdflash.exe, which is a utility that generates a bootable DR-DOS floppy for you Run it and now you have a bootable DOS floppy.

4) now download the BIOS file from Asus here. It'll arrive inside a Zip file. Extract the BIOS out of the Zip file onto your bootable DOS floppy and write down its full name, such as A8V1008.AMI.

5) also download the AFUDOS update utility from here. It is likewise inside a Zip file. Extract it out of the Zip file onto the bootable DOS floppy too.

6) now boot from your floppy diskette and run the command shown in Section 4.1.2 of your owner's manual.

Good luck, hope that helped

 

[qp]

I have a router, so a hardware firewall. I don't think a worm is my problem as it has happened in the middle of a windows installation.

Ok so today I was going to test the RAM, but last night it happened again. Only this time I wasn't installing or updating windows and it still managed to corrupt itself. Does this mean it's probably NOT the psu, since the crashes are causing corruption?

What happened this time was I installed Norton Systemworks, rebooted, updated via liveupdate, rebooted, but this time after the little Windows logo and loading bar it had a QUICK blue screen error page (way too quick to even think about reading) then rebooted. This boot it brought up the options to start Windows in safe mode, last settings, normally, yadda yadda and no matter what I choose it does the same thing. It's stuck in this cycle, crashing after the loading bar, never making it to Windows. I'm starting to think it's my hard drive, but it's the drive I've been using without problems for almost a year, a WD 100gb. I'll be trying to obtain a new hard drive, but usually buying locally = rip off, so I'd have to wait for one to be shipped to me, which is something I'm getting extremely tired of at this point.

Right now it's formatting again, but I dunno why I keep reinstalling. It's just going to commit suicide again and I'm getting nowhere. I NEED to find the faulty hardware, but don't know how. Right now I have 1 stick of ram in it, but I don't know what I'll learn from that.. and I upped the voltage to 2.7. Should I put the other stick of RAM back in and run the memtest86 (whatever that is, still have yet to read on it)? Is there any way to find out if my hd is bad? I'm thinking the problem is somewhere between the ram and the hard drive, but I could be way off. What else could it be? Help me, I'm starting to lose it here.

I really do appreciate all the help, I'd be even more lost without it.

 

[mechBgon]

Well, now that your OS is corrupted again, you raised your memory voltage. Too late, start over BTW, you can get Memtest86 from here: http://www.memtest86.com The downloaded file will create a boot floppy for you, or you can get the .ISO and burn it, that makes a bootable CD

 

[qp]

Yeah I raised the voltage knowing I was going to start over. I also enabled 2T command as suggested by a friend. Right now I have both sticks of ram in and memtest86 has been running for over an hour and has passed 3 tests with 0 errors. Will it just run forever unless I stop and if so how long should I let it run? What does it take to find out if my ram is bad with memtest86?

Is there any way to test my hard drive to see if it's bad?

 

[mechBgon]

Memtest86 loops forever. It has a whole cycle of tests in each loop, some nastier than others. You can run a hard-drive diagnostic from Western Digital's download page here if the drive is in question.

 

[qp]

You're fast mechBgon and you've been a big help, thanks. After 4 and a half tests with memtest and 0 errors I'm gonna assume the ram isn't my problem. I'll run the hard-drive diagnostic and see what that turns up.

Well it passed the extended test. According to the tests it's not the ram and it's not the hard drive. What's next, the motherboard? Anyway to test it for problems?

 

[qp]

Well hopefully this will be my last post to this thread.

After changing the voltages and enabling 2T command, this install has been completely stable. I'm on SP2, have windows fully updated, installed systemworks and have it fully updated, and have all my software installed and settings to how I want. Haven't had one crash or spontaneous reboot yet and I'm really hoping it stays that way.

Just wanted to say thanks to you's guys, especially mechBgon for all the help. Anyone else with similar problems and an A64 cpu, try enabling the 2T command. It cured my buddy of random blue screen errors and HOPEFULLY has cured my horrible problems.