Flashing BIOS on my Asus motherboard, help.

[FluxCap]

Ok, here is the problem:

My new Radeon 9000 is rebooting my system while playing games. (Earth&Beyond, Nightfire, Aquanox). The TI4400 I had did the same thing and some said it was the power draw on the AGP slot and to get another PSU. Well, I got tired of trying to figure it out and sold the card. Well I got the Radeon and now it is doing it. I have read the instructions on the Asus website and they don't make me comfortable with flashing. Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated. The only thing that really worries me is that this will either A)mess up my system or B)not help the situation. But I need to try something /

 

[DieHardware]

Flashing an ASUS MB is pretty straight forward, but what are the specs of your power supply?(3.3v & 5v and combined power).

 

[FluxCap]

It says:

Model No.: PP-303x 300w
Switching Power Supply
+5V and +3.3V Combined
Output: 150watts combined

 

[mechBgon]

I'm a believer in strong PSU's and it could be a good idea to upgrade. Most good-quality 300W PSU's now put out 200-220W on the 3.3V + 5V lines. However, I also found an informative item at Asus' site, assuming it's your K7M that's having the problem:

Q: My ASUS K7M motherboard seems to have compatibility problems with nVidia GeForce-based AGP VGA adapter. It crashes on me intermittently. What can I do?

Answer: From the QA Testing, we have observed potential issues when nVidia GeForce-based AGP VGA adapters are installed in an AMD K7 motherboard with Athlon processor and AMD-750 core logic chipset. This chipset cannot run AGP 2X/4X with command and data in the same cycle, which is one of the functions featured in nVidia's GeForce 256. To solve this problem, it is recommended to use driver 3.62 or newer available on ASUS website. The driver will detect the AMD 750 chipset and set the AGP bus to 1X.

(From here)

I would assume the 751agp files near the bottom of this page are the ones they mean, being versions 4.45 and higher.

 

[FluxCap]

Thanks for the informative post but alas I already have that AGP driver installed. To add to the confusion I can play America's Army and Age of Mythology for hours on end with 0 crashes but when I play NWN and Earth and Beyond it crashes anywhere from 3 seconds to 10 minutes(not in the menus but in the actual game world) This is complicated.

 

[DieHardware]

What drivers are you using with the Radeon?(Catalyst 2.5?) And what ASUS AGP BIOS settings? Maybe there is an updated BIOS for the 9000.

 

[FluxCap]

I am using the Catalyst 2.5 drivers. What AGP settings? Am I missing something in the BIOS?

 

[crisscross]

OT: I was just wondering. Why is it so important to have a high quality PSU?

 

[o1die]

The 5v and 12v rails of the power supply must remain near spec under load, or you may get random reboots or lock ups. My p4s533 will bark out "cpu not installed" if the 12v rail falls below 11.7. I just found an L&C 350 watt ps at dealsonic for only $17.95 shipped, and it's very quiet, and the readings are excellent.