Finally got my Athlon system working

[Mark R]

Well, it seems to be working - but it was quite an effort:

Original configuration:
CPU: Athlon 1000
MB: KT7-RAID
Graphics: S3 ViRGE PCI 4 MB
PSU: Astec 200W ATX

This worked, in fact it worked well, but the graphics performance was somewhat lacklustre. To solve this bottleneck I decided to swap the ViRGE out for a Geforce 2.

That's when the trouble started - frequent reboots, crashes and occasional failure to POST.

Power, I think, so take the 300 W supply from my Celeron system. Slap it in. The system powers up, then the fans slowly coast down to a very low speed, and the PSU starts making worrying squealing noises. 300W? Damn liars!

So, off I go to a computer fair in London and pick up a new Case with 'Athlon compatible' 300W PSU. [I asked for AMD approved but not a single vendor had any, nor could they get any. I believe them too, I've not seen any major reseller in the UK offer ATX cases with AMD approved PSUs].

Plug in the new PSU - no POST, but at least it doesn't make funny noises. Reset it, and it boots. Well, it's obvious that this isn't going to cut it - finally I trace a reseller who offers AMD approved PSUs, what's more they stock the Enermax 430W PSU - good, now I just need to wait for it to appear on their today only bargains page because there's no way I'm paying the full price of £100.

In the meantime, the system is configured with the Athlon running at 500 MHz @ 1.35 V to save power. It works wonderfully too. It hasn't crashed (well, I thought it had crashed while typing an earlier draft of this post, but I had just managed to unplug the monitor cable with my foot).

As if this wasn't difficult enough, I find that one of the RAM modules is defective - just to test stability I decide to run a memory testing program. I was most surprised to see it find a single defective bit (even more interesting, programs that only test memory by using a pseudo-random test sequence don't find the error!).

 

[lumpyhed2]

Scan do CWT 300W AMD Approved PSU's for about 30 quid. Got one in my system right now

 

[Mark R]

Yes, you're right - I had noticed that.

But they also do Enermax 430s.

However, I've given up on 300 W supplies (AMD approved or not) given that neither were better than my old 200 W, and 1 one was just flat out appalling.

 

[I'm Typing]

I have a Duron system with a 300W PS, and have no problems with the PS. I suspect that you might have something else drawing down the current on the PS. It is possible that a fan, or a light, or other component is drawing far too much current for the PS to run correctly. I would put the old celeron system supply in, and disconnect everything but the mobo, power up, and see if it does the same thing. If the PS fan coasts to a stop, then it is harder to troubleshoot. If the PS works fine with just the mobo hooked up, then start adding peripheral cards to the mobo and see if any one of them drags down the PS.

Finally, hook up the fans, then the HDD. I feel that at one point, you are going to find something that drags the PS down. Once you have localized the one component, remove it, power up the unit with all the other components installed, and see how it works.

It is important that you do this because you may have a situation that will cause you a lot more problems down the line. Excess current equals excess heat. Excess heat equals premature failure of parts.

Good luck.

 

[Mark R]

I certainly tried my old celeron supply with an absolute bare-bones system.

I put the board on a piece of paper, installed the CPU and a stick of RAM. The system failed to start (I would have expected some error beeps), and the fans failed to run, even with no expansion cards, no fans and no lights.

I think that celeron supply is useless - the 200 W supply runs the complete system with great stabilty (as long as the power hungry GeForce is replaced with the more conservative Virge).

 

[XeonTux]

I put the board on a piece of paper...

A peice of paper will not properly ground the board at the mounting holes. Many boards require being properly grounded to get any kind of a response, including the PS fans spinning up.