Fixed!! System freezes about 10 seconds after post. Any Help?

[spyzdope]

Alright, I just bought one of those Shuttle SV24 (anandtech article at http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1572&p=1 ) barebones systems and assembled it with a celeron 1.1 FCPGA (not FCPGA2), arctic silver 3 compound, the included shuttle heatsink and fan, 64MB of Atlas Precision ram, a brand new Maxtor 40gig 7200 rpm hdd, and a floppy drive that I know is in working order.

When I boot up it beeps once, and posts that the cpu and ram are OK, but it freezes within about 10 seconds every time.

-If I start hitting delete as soon as I turn it on, I can get into the bios but I don't have time to change anything before it locks up, then the arrow keys/escape do nothing and I have to kill the power.

-If I try to use a boot disk, it freezes at verifying DMI pool data.

-Or if I have the Maxtor HDD fdisk/partition floppy disk inserted it sometimes starts to load Dos, but then it freezes again.

After I experienced this problem a few times, I cleared the CMOS with the Jumper a couple of times, but I still get the same problem.

I've got no clue what could be causing this. I've only got about 5 days left to return it to newegg if it's defective so I've gotta figure it out quick. Does anyone have any info on what might be causing this? Thanks in advance, -Anthony

 

[Harvey]

First, be sure you have all jumpers or other mechanical settings correct according to the manual. Then, try reseating your RAM and vid card.

In a brand new system, it could be any number of things including, power supply to RAM, and CPU. Try booting from a floppy to see if that will let you get to the CMOS. If so, you could have a bad Windows installation. If you can get to the CMOS, set it up, and try booting again.

If you can't get it up, tonight, call New Egg tech support, first thing tomorrow (Monday), and get their help. All of the above steps will be helpful info when you call them. If anything is defective, you want to start the RMA process ASAP.

Good luck.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

It sounds like either the heatsink isn't seated right and it's a heat related lock-up or the ram is faulty or incompatable, 3rd guess would be PSU is faulty.

 

[HelzBelz]

Originally posted by: Harvey
... try reseating your RAM and vid card... If anything is defective, you want to start the RMA process ASAP...

Good luck.

I've got to agree with the others here :

Since you seem to have tried almost everything on the software side, then the hardware is probably at fault.

Try reseating one part at a time : try your RAM stick in different slots. Also, try reseating your CPU (re-applying a fresh thin AS3 coat). Try to get another stick of RAM (one that you know works in another system, to rule out bad RAM).

If all else fails, you might just have had the bad luck of receiving a faulty motherboard.

One last suggestion : find the latest BIOS from Shuttle for your rig, and flash the CMOS... systems often ship with a barely stable BIOS (just to be out in the market sooner). I never run the BIOS that came with my mobos... there's always a newer version available.

Again, good luck !

 

[LiLithTecH]

There are a few other things you can try.

Remove everything but the Ram and CPU from the motherboard and then try booting.

Load the FAIL-Safe Defaults in the BIOS.
If that works, then try Load Optimized Defaults.

If it dosen't boot with everything removed I would have to guess you would be RMA'ing it to Newegg.

 

[Peacekeeper100]

It sounds a lot like the heatsink isn't on right and the CPU freezes from being over heated.

 

[spyzdope]

Thanks. You guys called it... the heatsink wasn't seated properly. It turns out that since it's a low profile heatsink, it is asymetrical and you cannot install it 180 degrees off, or it will interfere with the cpu socket, and cause a small gap. That interference made it incredibly difficult to install the clip, and I think I just didn't want to believe that I might have to take it off and install it again. Of course once I installed it correctly, the clip went on relatively easily.

Thanks for all the help, -Anthony