IS this a motherboard issue????

[PLow]

ABIT KT7A
Thunderbird 1.1Ghz
Maxtor 40Gb Hard drive
Pioneer 16X DVD
Geforce 2 GTS
1 stick of Micron 256 PC133
ANTEC KS282/300W power supply

Ok here's the problem.... The system boots and recognizes everything fine. I am able to fdisk and format the hard drive. Also I am able to copy from the CD to the hard drive in DOS. However, when I go to install windows (both windows98 and ME) it either freezes, or I get strange errors, such as outside MS-DOS Extender, Windows requires so much space on the hard drive please remove any disks. Sometimes it will get to scan disk and half way through start giving me real funky errors such as stack overflow, or something about MATH116 (I'm not sure if it is really the number 116, that's just an example). One time the computer started beeping and spitting nonsense characters all over the screen, like smiley faces, clubs, and a mishmash of letters. Now I'm not sure, but I think it is a heat issue. It came with a pretty week heatsink and fan, and when I go into the bios I watch the temperature quickly rise to 52*C. I did order a new heatsink and fan (FOP32), but I'm not all together sure that is the problem. Anyones help is greatly appreciated!

 

[jamesbond007]

Now, I'm not so sure as what could be the problem, but try getting a new BIOS from Abit. I don't use Abit at all and I'm a hardcore Asus fan. A new BIOS could very well solve your problem. Usually, motherboards that are fairly new have a cruddy BIOS that ships with them. Try it out and let us know how it works for ya. Good luck!

 

[Jiggz]

I'm on the presumption you were not able to install windows yet. I'm gearing towards the HD to be the culprit or the CPU overheating and finally a bad motherboard. Since the mobo boots there's a good chance it works. Since you can copy in DOS it could also be good the HD is good. So only the CPU is left. You can try running the system with case open and direct a fan at it. If the problem is still the same. FDisk the HD and partition it to no more than 8.2 Gb each partition. Also you might have to get rid of the HD overlay used by Maxtor. Check maxtor page on how to get rid of this. Try again and if the system is still the same, it's the mobo!

 

[Pederv]

Use the jumper on the motherboard to reset the bios. Then go into the bios and into the softmenu3 (where you set the cpu information) and set the cpu frequency to the same as your chip.