Help Please! ECS KN1 lite... PROBLEM SOLVED... ITS BEEN RETURNED LOL!

[dantonic]

I just picked up an ECS KN1 Lite and an Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4Ghz

I've put it into my old case, installed it, put in my old 512 MB 333 Mhz Memory and my old DVD roms and hard drive.

The system starts, I am able to get into the bios.
Once the system starts to boot, it gets to the screen asking me if I want to boot into windows in safe mode or normal config.

Watever option I pick it Gives me a blue screen for a split second, not even enough time to read what it says, and then it reboots.

I have a 350W PSU that I used to use with my old P4 2.6Ghz

Also the PSU only has a 20 pin connector, but I dont think that should be a problem.

I've also tried substituting the ram with my friends 1GB 400Mhz Pqi, and same result. I've tried a different video card as well, same result.

I dont know what else to add, please help if you can, I'm getting desperate.

Thank you

 

[Markbnj]

Well, since you're getting through POST and BIOS config the hardware seems to be put together correctly. You don't say where that copy of Windows came from. Was it on the drive in another system? Might be having a problem living with the new hardware for some reason. Can you try a reinstall so that it detects everything from scratch?

 

[dantonic]

Yes it was previously installed OS on the old hard drive I didnt format. It worked up until a couple of hours ago with my old mobo and CPU

 

[dantonic]

I mean could that cause one of those blue screens? In my experience that has only happened when I've had a problem with my memory or cpu... not really the software.

I really dont want to format my hard drive if I dont have to... I'll see if I can borrow a hard drive from someone though and try that.

Please any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[jackschmittusa]

Do a fresh install of windows. Bad drivers can produce your problem. You do have backups of everything important, right?

 

[dantonic]

I am going to try that by using an old hard drive.
I do have most of my stuff backed up on my second partition, but not everything.

 

[dantonic]

would repairing windows be sufficient? or dO I have to reinstall it completely?

 

[dantonic]

ok so I put in windows -- setup -- formatted --
it started to copy files. got stuck at 11% for 30 mintues.

I a m now attempting again... this time I'm gonna do a quick format though.

ok now I quick formatted, once it started to copy files gave me a hanging blue screen it says:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your comp.

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

paraphrasing now: blah blah restart your computer.
if it happens again check your hardware installation, or contact your software manufacturer for updates... disable memory options such as caching or shadowing...

Technical Info:
*** STOP: 0x0000000A (0x8aa82e88, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x8080082f)
"

any input?
thx

 

[dantonic]

ok I tried it again. this time full format.

got past that 11%, at about 18%
blue screen again.

What gives??
Please help any ideas?
thanks

 

[dantonic]

bump
btw I also tried a different copy of windows

 

[CKXP]

are you still using one stick of memory? if so try using it in different slots...sounds like a memory issue to me.

 

[dantonic]

yes I am, I have now completely disabled all cache, L2, internal/external

it seems to be installing I'm at 25% I hope it keeps going.

PS do you know if there is a way of installing the motherboard drivers before installing windows xp?? Maybe that could solve it.

NOPE: Blue Screen of Death once again... sigh!

 

[bamacre]

Nope, you need windows installed before you install the motherboard drivers.

 

[AMCRambler]

Check the voltages on the rails in the bios or with a multi meter if you've got one. Check the board to make sure the capacitors are good(should be if it's a new board). Reseat your processor and make sure the heat sink is on snug. If the heatsink isn't fully pressed against the chip, you could start seeing something like this happen where after a few minutes the chip overheats and the bios shuts down the pc automatically. You've obviously got another pc handy since you're posting here. Grab a floppy and make a Memtest disk and run Memtest and see if the stick checks out. Remove any extraneous peripherals, cards, etc hooked up to the pc. Do the installation of Windows with just the bare essentials. Video card, cpu, optical drive, hard disk and memory.

 

[Markbnj]

I guess now it sounds like a problem with the IDE interface, or something associated with it. That's another area that doesn't get used in BIOS POST and configuration. I would clear the CMOS settings, reboot, and then make sure in the BIOS setup that it is correctly detecting the drive parameters.

 

[dantonic]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
Check the voltages on the rails in the bios or with a multi meter if you've got one. Check the board to make sure the capacitors are good(should be if it's a new board). Reseat your processor and make sure the heat sink is on snug. If the heatsink isn't fully pressed against the chip, you could start seeing something like this happen where after a few minutes the chip overheats and the bios shuts down the pc automatically. You've obviously got another pc handy since you're posting here. Grab a floppy and make a Memtest disk and run Memtest and see if the stick checks out. Remove any extraneous peripherals, cards, etc hooked up to the pc. Do the installation of Windows with just the bare essentials. Video card, cpu, optical drive, hard disk and memory.

Ok I'm not sure what you mean when saying check the voltages on the "rails" and I do not have a multi meter.

I will try re-installing the cpu, but I'm not sure that could be the problem... right after the comp restarts or potentially "overheats" I go into bios and the cpu temp is always at a steady 30C this lead me to believe it is not overheating.

regarding memtest... I am using my laptop right now, but I do not have a floppy drive on it and neighter do I on the computer I'm working on. Can memtest be used from a CD? I could burn it on one if that is possible.

oh and btw I have already tried using my friends stick of memory... no luckwith that either

Thanks

 

[bamacre]

Try a different optical drive. Also a different EIDE cable.

 

[dantonic]

I have just tried a different cable, I have tried my second optical drive...

I have now hooked up my original hard drive, and it now goes a step further... after I tell it to boot in normal mode or last good known config it hangs for a few seconds, then shows the windows xp loading screen.
At this point the loading seems to be very much slowed down, and after a few more seconds it just goes to Blue screen and then immediately reboots

 

[dantonic]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
Check the voltages on the rails in the bios or with a multi meter if you've got one. Check the board to make sure the capacitors are good(should be if it's a new board). Reseat your processor and make sure the heat sink is on snug. If the heatsink isn't fully pressed against the chip, you could start seeing something like this happen where after a few minutes the chip overheats and the bios shuts down the pc automatically. You've obviously got another pc handy since you're posting here. Grab a floppy and make a Memtest disk and run Memtest and see if the stick checks out. Remove any extraneous peripherals, cards, etc hooked up to the pc. Do the installation of Windows with just the bare essentials. Video card, cpu, optical drive, hard disk and memory.

i cleared cmos and rebooted... same thing. I also think it is an ide issue. what the heck!

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: dantonic

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
Check the voltages on the rails in the bios or with a multi meter if you've got one. Check the board to make sure the capacitors are good(should be if it's a new board). Reseat your processor and make sure the heat sink is on snug. If the heatsink isn't fully pressed against the chip, you could start seeing something like this happen where after a few minutes the chip overheats and the bios shuts down the pc automatically. You've obviously got another pc handy since you're posting here. Grab a floppy and make a Memtest disk and run Memtest and see if the stick checks out. Remove any extraneous peripherals, cards, etc hooked up to the pc. Do the installation of Windows with just the bare essentials. Video card, cpu, optical drive, hard disk and memory.

i cleared cmos and rebooted... same thing. I also think it is an ide issue. what the heck!

Ok nevermind the multi meter. If you go into your bios you should be able to find a section on Health/Monitoring or something similar. Usually where the temperature readout in the bios can be found. Below there, you'll see readouts on the voltages. On each line there is one number that will be the actual reading, you'll see it fluctuating a little, and the second number is what it's supposed to be at. You should see a 3.3V reading, a 5v reading and a 12v reading. Those are the power rails in the power supply. If the readout on any of those is significantly less than the accepted number then you're power supply is having problems. Anything from .75 volts below the 3.3v, 5v or 12v is questionable and could very well be causing the random blue screens. If the readings are higher, that's fine. If you're noticing a drop in these values, you might want to try another power supply if you have one available.

 

[dantonic]

Ok nevermind the multi meter. If you go into your bios you should be able to find a section on Health/Monitoring or something similar. Usually where the temperature readout in the bios can be found. Below there, you'll see readouts on the voltages. On each line there is one number that will be the actual reading, you'll see it fluctuating a little, and the second number is what it's supposed to be at. You should see a 3.3V reading, a 5v reading and a 12v reading. Those are the power rails in the power supply. If the readout on any of those is significantly less than the accepted number then you're power supply is having problems. Anything from .75 volts below the 3.3v, 5v or 12v is questionable and could very well be causing the random blue screens. If the readings are higher, that's fine. If you're noticing a drop in these values, you might want to try another power supply if you have one available.

Ok, thanks for that input.

All the voltages are within .1 of each other the only one that is slightly off is the 12V reading which reads at approximately 11.5

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: dantonic
I just picked up an ECS KN1 Lite and an Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4Ghz

I've put it into my old case, installed it, put in my old 512 MB 333 Mhz Memory and my old DVD roms and hard drive.

The system starts, I am able to get into the bios.
Once the system starts to boot, it gets to the screen asking me if I want to boot into windows in safe mode or normal config.

Watever option I pick it Gives me a blue screen for a split second, not even enough time to read what it says, and then it reboots.

I have a 350W PSU that I used to use with my old P4 2.6Ghz

Also the PSU only has a 20 pin connector, but I dont think that should be a problem.

I've also tried substituting the ram with my friends 1GB 400Mhz Pqi, and same result. I've tried a different video card as well, same result.

I dont know what else to add, please help if you can, I'm getting desperate.

Thank you

I just went and looked at the ECS site. Your motherboard requires the extra 4 pin connector from the power supply. From page 1-7 of the manual:

"This connector supplies the CPU operation voltage (Vcore). Don?t
forget to connect the 4-pin ATX 12V connector, otherwise the
system cannot boot up."

I'm positive that's why it's not running right(I knew it was a friggin' power issue). Does your friend have a power supply with the 4 pin connector that you can try?

 

[themisfit610]

Well, that means that you need to connect the standard ATX power connector (20 or 24 pin - usually doesn't matter), and the auxiliary ATX12v/P4 power connector, which is a separate cable that supplies power to the CPU. If your PSU doesn't have the 4 pin connector, then you definitely need a new one. If it does have the 4 pin, and an "older style" 20 pin main ATX connector (like mine) then don't worry. That's never been proven to be a cause of problems. I used to have a KN1 SLI Extreme, and it worked fine with my 20 pin ATX with the auxiliary 4 pin ATX12V connector.

Assuming you were confused about 20 pin / 24 pin / 4 pin:

You are experiencing issues that could be
1) Bad IDE Controller
2) Bad Hard Drive - you said it was an old one
3) Bad Installation Media
4) Bad RAM
5) Goofed up BIOS
6) Bad PSU

First, do some research and find out exactly what the proper RAM timings are for your memory - including voltages. Apply these timings manually in the BIOS. Also, I would say update the BIOS while you are at it. Floppies are a mess. Boot CDs can be made pretty easily. There is a bootable ISO image available for memtest86+. Google is your friend.

Run memtest86+, at least 2-3 loops. If there are no errors, move on. BTW, there is no need to disable cache in the BIOS. Caching the BIOS itself is generally not a good idea, but disabling the L2 cache is a terrible idea!

If you have successfully completed memtest and your power supply is good (from your description it's fine), then run a hard drive diagnostic. This is available from the hard drive manufacturer's website. Do the full test, it takes a couple hours most likely. If you pass all these tests, then try installing Windows. It could be your Windows CD causing the problem. Burn a fresh copy from the ISO image you hopefully made when you bought it

Let's get the fracking problem fixed! We will help you!

~MiSfit

 

[dantonic]

Thank you so much for the responses guys I truly appreciate it.

I will try this stuff over the next couple of days... I will let you know what happens.

Again thank you

Rambler, although I do not have the manual with me at the moment, I remember reading on it that it takes either a 24 pin or a 20 pin by itself. I remember reading that there should not be a problem with the 20 pin. I'll see if I can scrounge up a PSU regardless and maybe fix the problem I may just buy one.
thanks

Man troubleshooting this stuff is a lot of work... do you guys do this for a living or for hobby?

 

[themisfit610]

I looked at the manual myself. It's just as I suspected - 20/24 pin, and a 4 pin ATX12V - so you should be allright. Never hurts to try another PSU though!

Let us know how it goes!