Iwill XP333-R instability - *PLEASE* help a newbie!

[whip]

Hi all-

I have recently purchased an Iwill XP333-R v2.0 motherboard, and am having serious instability issues. The system randomly crashes often, and each time generates a bugcheck (Win2k Pro/SP2) with a different code each time, usually a "stop 0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL ntoskrnl.exe" or a "stop 0x0000001E KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED win32k.sys"; sometimes it's something totally new.

I've basically assembled an entire new system from scratch, piece by piece, so i have *no* idea which component might be to blame. Is this common for a new system? I get ~5 unexpected blue screens a day, and often programs quit because they generated errors and then won't restart. Pretty soon everything starts generating errors (from winamp to IE to explorer.exe) and I have to *manually* reboot. My system consists of:


Iwill XP333-R v2.0 MoBo (1/16BIOS update, all BIOS settings at defaults, FSB running at 133... though i've tried all of the BIOS versions)
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (locked, no mods)
2x256MB OCZ PC2700 RAM (2.50V)
ATI Radeon 8500 (w2k_radeon_5_13_01_3276 driver)
Maxtor ATA/133 80GB HD
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM (DMA enabled)
ThermalTake Volcano 7
Enermax 350W Power Supply
Several case fans
ALI AGP 1.81 Patch (although 1.82 has the same issues)


Help! I'm not sure where to go from here. Do I need a new MoBo? New ram? Different drivers? I'm a newbie, so this is especially frustrating (particularly because I'm having to redo this post since my system just crashed on me... aaaargh!).

For the record, Iwill technical support has been TOTALLY unresponsive, so I'm kinda in the dark here.


Thank you for *any* help,
Darren

 

[Slatz]

I would start by replacing the RAM. Sudden reboots and BSOD's are a good sign that your RAM may be defective. If the RAM is new, take it to the store that you bought it, and ask them to test it for you.

 

[cleverhandle]

Yeah, errors that frequent and varied do sound a lot like RAM problems. But since you've got 2 sticks, test em one a time to find out before you bother exchanging it.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

I agree with Slatz, although it could also be a driver conflict or issue. Since the fault keeps changing on you, I would suspect an issue with RAM over software. Try reseating your stick or using it in another DIMM. If that doesn't work, get another stick and see how that affects system stability.

 

[classico]

I have a similar setup, no problems. It's pretty complex, maybe you should have chosen a not so tall mountain to climb your first time up. You do realize the Maxtor ATA133 is bleeding edge, right? Not yet industry standard, not well proven. You do realize that PC2700 is bleeding edge, right.... I admire your hutzpah, but you are venturing into unknown territory with both of those fairly new technologies.

From your description there is not enough information to diagnose anything. You don't know if your problem is the processor, memory, an I/O card, operating system, disk drive, a virus, whatever? This is a vague, tough symptom to start with. So let's cut it down - a lot.

It really helps to verify each part in a known good system. I wish you had another known good system you could move each piece to in order to test it alone, like the memory, hard drive, DVD, video card. Can your dealer do that for you? Lacking that, you need to verify things from the bottom up -- processor, memory, I/O, disk drives, and so on, one at a time.

Start with the slowest, simplest configuration that will run. First, make sure the CPU is well seated, the heatsink is properly installed with thermal compound, and the memory is well seated. (I would use a better heatsink, honestly, either the Alpha 8045 with the Delta SH fan, or the Swiftech 462X with the fast Delta -- yeah I know the Volcano 7 is good, these are better... OK I'm an Alpha bigot!) Re-seat all your I/O cards, and replug all cables. We're trying to make absolutely sure it's not a bad contact, cable or other bonehead hardware problem.

Remove all but one memory DIMM, disconnect the IDE drives, boot from your boot floppy disks. Clear CMOS, then in the BIOS, choose the safest defaults -- let it choose. Get this running solid first, then add things one at a time until one thing added causes a crash. Stay in a real low resolution video mode, 640x480 and everything else as plain vanilla as possible. Don't use DMA mode 6, stay with mode 5 if you can. Jumper the board for 100 MHz bus clock, memory at 2.5v, vcore at 1.75. Be a wimp, slow is beautiful at this stage if it is reliable. Once you are sure that this simple configuration will run at least overnight without crashing, I'd start loading more software and plug in the IDE cables.

I would advise re-partitioning and re-formatting the hard drive now. I really trust Windows 2000, but you could still have a flakey new driver, or even a virus from an old floppy disk. Load and use Anti-virus software at this stage too. (This was the problem with my daughter's system at a university, bizarre crashes on a system I knew was good. Turned out viruses were rampant on shared floppies, so I'm a believer now). You need to get Windows installed completely solid, with almost no applications. That done, I would start enabling hardware performance features like faster bus clock, DMA mode 6 on the Maxtor, and maybe bumping vcore to 1.8 if you have great cooling. Do these one at a time, and run the system for a while. You want to get to the point where you add the one thing that causes your crashes, then you've localized it.

I can't enumerate all the possibilities at each stage, but you get the idea. Start simple, add things until it breaks, and you should have it. It's hard work, but if you get through it you will have learned a lot and have one hell of a great system.

 

[InsaneMorphius]

I do believe that I've read others that had this problem, cleared right up once they raised the ram voltage to 2.7-2.8..... worth a shot!