GA-7VRXP Reboot/Stability Problems

[Nevermor34]

Here's my current setup:
Gigabyte GA-7VRXP Ver 1.1 (lastest BIOS)
Athlon XP 2200+ w/approved fan/heat sink
512 MB Corsair PC2700 DDR
Enermax 431W PS
3D Prophet DDR GeForce
Santa Cruz Turtle Beach 5.1
Windows 2000 Professional SP3

I've had two sets of problems here. First, before I got a new PS, I was getting random reboots about 2 mins after 2k completely loads. With the Enermax, I was stable up until I loaded the latest Flash player, at which point I started getting random reboots again. This is my main cause for concern. My first impression is a power issue, but before I go messing with core voltages, I wanted a more informed opinion.

Secondly, whenever I load the 4in1 mobo driver pack provided by Gigabyte or VIA (take your pick), my system locks up before I can get random reboots. I expect nothing less from VIA, but this still sucks.

I'm about at wit's end. If anyone has any suggestions I'd gladly take them.

 

[Epik]

- Are you using the RAID drive? If not, you should disable it from the BIOS menu.
- Are you overclocking? If not, you should try with 133 fsb.
- Are you using the sound onboard from this mobo? If you already have another sound card, try to disable it from the BIOS menu.
- Load the normal mode option from BIOS, if it doesn't work try the optimized mode (note: if you change this option you should check the others like RAID, sound, LAN, etc. in case they are change as well)
- Consult with the computer store technician where you bought this mobo.
- 431 watt PS should be more than enough, I only use 300 watt and it works fine with this mobo.

Note: Ga-7vrxp had a small problem with geforce4 series.

 

[AntiAMD]

Nervermor34; If your board is anything like mine (we both have the rev 1.1) you might be able to make it more stable by using the default bios setup. I found that if i disabled the onboard sound and raid, the system was more unstable, especially the sound, the minute I disabled that, I could barely get it to boot. End result? Get yourself a new board, Gigabyte released a lemon with the rev 1.1 (And a big ThankYou to the reviews for NOT pointing this out

 

[Nevermor34]

Epik, I called up the tech, and I had a better idea about the problem than he did. I hate guys that just go down a list of problems and can't suggest any novel solutions. I've actually done all that you suggested. I've had these problems before with previous boards, and it never seems to be a general solution. It's always a little thing that someone out there has run into. Thanks for the help...

 

[Nevermor34]

Anyone have any comments or help?

 

[Cadaver]

Increase the core voltage on the CPU. Try just a small boost and see how that goes.
This seems to fix many people's crashing problems. Appears that some of the 1.0 and 1.1 boards have poor voltage regulation to the CPU and/or RAM.
I run my 2000+ at 1.7V with no increase in temp, and it's very stable.

 

[Epik]

Actually I'm a little bit disappoint with this mobo at first, it's very unstable with my geforce4 (I tried with mx440 & ti 4200).. but after I load the full optimized mode in the BIOS menu everything is going well... perhaps this option increase the voltage also, i'm going to check that.

 

[Nevermor34]

Originally posted by: Cadaver
Increase the core voltage on the CPU. Try just a small boost and see how that goes.
This seems to fix many people's crashing problems. Appears that some of the 1.0 and 1.1 boards have poor voltage regulation to the CPU and/or RAM.
I run my 2000+ at 1.7V with no increase in temp, and it's very stable.

I've tried running the core voltage up to +7.5% (about 1.72V) and I still get reboots. I'm to the point that I'm just going to return this board. Any suggestions on a decent replacement? I'm looking at a Soyo Dragon because it has all the on-board options that the GA-7VRXP has with greater stability.