New computer setup constantly freezing

[Yohhan]

Hey all,

I just got a new computer with a soyo p4vda motherboard, 2 ghz pentium 4, 512 megs of PC3200 ddr ram, a 7200 rpm 60 gig IBM deskstar HD, geforce 3 all in a case with a 400 watt power supply. I'm getting this wierd problem where I can turn on the computer just fine and use the bios. It detects all my components and does a memory check on my RAM which displays fine. However, I am trying to install winxp professional and I notice when it's loading up the installation it freezes up at random points of the setup program. The temperature of my CPU stays at a constant 48 degrees celcius cooled by a Thermaltake P4 Dragon 478 (part no. A1258). The system temperature also stays at a constant 34 degrees celcius... anyone got any ideas on why my system might be randomly locking up?

thanks ahead for all the help!

I can be contacted at rmouradi@usc.edu -- I was unable to register for my own account since the register page seems to not be working at the moment

 

[GAZZA]

Doesn't that sound just a little bit too warm to say your just in the bios ?

I do know there are some motherboards that seem to register very higher temps than normal.

Are you o/c your cpu or mem ? If so you might want to back down to default fsb and voltage.

Also check to make sure that all your peripherals are seated correctly in their respective slots/sockets and that all your cables are attached properly.

If your still having the same issues then I suggest removing every thing bar cpu,mem,vid card and try installing again , it is possible you may have a netork card, sound card etc that is stopping you from installing your OS.

 

[Yohhan]

The only the video card, hard drive, and cd drive are hooked up at the moment. No other cards or devices. The graphics card has already been tested and the memory is currently running at 2.5 CAS at 266 MHz. If I can get into BIOS okay, what parts can I rule out as potentially not working?

 

[GAZZA]

Do you have another set of IDE cables to try ?

Are the cdrom and hard drive connected to the same IDE cable ? if so you might want to make each on it's own cable set to master.

 

[Yohhan]

they're connected to their own IDE cables and set as master. I've already tried another set of IDE cables, same problem. Any other ideas?

 

[DaiShan]

Which version of the via 4 in 1's are you using? Have you tried the latest? Also are you using any usb devices? You might try either using a powered hub, or go to www.usbman.com and download the via usb filter driver. Either reply to this thread or pm me if you need any help with that.

 

[daveqb]

i have had freezing during install of XP on three different systems, happened everytime that i could not get the OS loaded,...

the first one ended up being the guy put way too much paste on the CPU, it went way off the core (Athlon)

the second time it was the HDD, i did scan of it thru the XP CD and it had bad sectors, it was an old Seagate 6 gig though

and the third time it was my own system, bought a new MoBo(KT333), CPU and RAM (Samsung PC2700)

the ended up being the RAM couldnt handle PC2700 (333) well one module couldnt i found,
and it installed A ok with it backed down to 266

just my experience, hope you find it useful in some way ..

 

[rmouradi]

thanks for the tips on that I'll be sure to test that out tonight and let you know of the results. when I get home I'm going to attempt to reapply the thermal grease and see if that perhaps was causing anything, and also try to mess with some of the BIOS settings for all the system timings and give very conservative values... I certainly hope nothing is broken!

 

[daveqb]

hey ur changing names!?!

no worries mate!!
and if it is something faulty, being new, you can RMA though hey?

 

[GAZZA]

daveqb "hey ur changing names!?!"

Yohhan
I can be contacted at rmouradi@usc.edu -- I was unable to register for my own account since the register page seems to not be working at the moment

Have you reset your bios to default settings or fail safe settings ?

Might be worth a try just incase you accidentally turned something on/off .

 

[daveqb]

ahhh oops!

hey i just woke up

 

[SemperFi]

I have the dragon+ board and it doesn't like having cards in any slots except the for the last 2. Try removing all cards except for the video then install xp. Then add one card at a time.

I had a network card in my third slot and i had numerous crashes until I moved it. Although I did get xp installed with it in slot 3.

 

[Fireman]

I think semperFi may be on to something. I always install the OS with just the bare minimum onboard.
Also try going into your BIOS and selecting "Fail safe defaults" before you try loading the OS. I had an MSI board that gave me fits on install because of that.

 

[daveqb]

i thik he has tried that guys...

Yohhan
The only the video card, hard drive, and cd drive are hooked up at the moment. No other cards or devices. The graphics card has already been tested and the memory is currently running at 2.5 CAS at 266 MHz. If I can get into BIOS okay, what parts can I rule out as potentially not working?

 

[Fireman]

OK fair enough. I would still try going to Fail Safe Defaults in the BIOS though.
You can always try and tweak it later after you get the OS installed.

 

[daveqb]

agreed

 

[crisp82]

I have had this problem during an XP install, and it will freeze at different points through an install, but after a re-start or 2 it seems to work.

Chris

 

[rmouradi]

Hooray! the problem is fixed... turns out to have something to do with the thermal grease... I guess the CPU just didn't like running at 49 degrees celcius. I reapplied the thermal grease and put a lot more on and now it's running at a cool 42 degrees and I have been running winxp for almost 8 hours now. . . thanks a lot for all the help guys! now the only thing I got to figure out is why it's only detecting 32 gigs of my 60 gig HD... is that a winxp limitation or a motherboard limitation?

 

[daveqb]

hmm maybe a file system thing,
or actually, maybe the 28 gigs is still raw , inpartitioned??

not sure

glad ya other problem is fixed though