NForce2 Setup Grief

[TheBoyBlunder]

Specs:
Athlon XP 2600+, Asus A7N8X Regular, 2x 256mb of Kingston Hyper-X PC2700 Ram, Quantum Fireball AS 40gb, Maxtor 92048U8 20gb, Lite-On 48x CD-RW, NEC 16x DVD-Rom, BFG Tech 4600, Promise Ultra TX2, Pinnacle PCTV Pro, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Antec PP412x PSU.
Not Plugged in, but possibly will be added: Quantum Fireball LP 30gb, Iomega 100mb ATA Zip, WD 40gb (model number available on request).

Drivers: Nvidia 1.16 Nforce 2 Drivers from asus. Detonator 43.45's. Generic everything else (no chance to install anything else yet).

Ok...the new components in the mess are the 2600+, the A7N8X, and the memory. I plugged everything in, andmade sure all the contacts and jumpers were set. I had the memory in dimm slots #2 and #3. I booted my system and saw my processor show up at 1.2ghz. I went into the bios and bumped the fsb to 166mhz, and did not adjust any other memory settings.
I then turned off the integrated sound but left the integrated network card active. I forgot to adjust the boot device order and got a horrible looking "massive hard drive failure" error screen. I was shocked for a second but adjusted the boot order to CD, Floppy, HD. I then proceeded to install Windows XP Pro without Service Pack 1 onto the WD 40gb. I managed to get it installed, and then installed Service Pack 1. I then installed the NForce Drivers from Asus (version 1.16). I restarted, and got a BSOD:

Stop: 0x0000008E, (0xC0000005, 0xBF84B819, 0xEE54FC04, 0x00000000)

Win32k.sys - Address BF84B8L9 base at BF800000, Datestamp 3d6de5e5

I thought to myself "gee, that was strange", so I restarted. Just after my computer got past the initial XP load screen, it restarted itself. I got upset at this point, but I thought "I'll try flashing the bios to the latest version, then try reinstalling". So I downloaded the 1004 bios to a floppy, successfully flashed the bios, and tried to reinstall. Again, I got a series of BSODs and decided to try it with my memory in dimm slots #1 and #3. This did not work, as windows would get appx. 90% installed and I would get an IRQL bsod.
I replaced my memory in dimm slots #2 and #3. I then made a windows xp cd with service pack one integrated, and installed off of that. This did not work either, as I got several BSODs, most of them flashed by too fast for me to even recognize any of them (I had not had a chance to turn off auto-restart). I then decided to try a different hard drive.
I plugged in the maxtor 20gb (the quantum 40gb is full and not an option) and attempted to install to that. I had to install twice to get windows to be stable enough for even light use, but right now it works. As it stands, my computer is stable as long as I don't do anything too intensive. If I try to run 3d mark 2k1 se, my computer restarts after the first three tests. I'm unwilling to try a game or anything of the sort because I doubt this computer is stable enough to bother right now. I'm very confused as to what could possibly be wrong with it.

1) Bad ram. I'm going to run memtest86 (with one dimm in slot one at a time) and hope it comes up clean. If it doesn't, rma time.
2) Bad HD (the WD 40gb). Run the diagnostics if the memory comes up clean, and hope that comes up clean.
3) After that, I have no idea as to what else could be wrong. I also can't test for much else. I have no other computer that runs ddr, nor another socket A motherboard. I would greatly appreciate any helpful suggestions as to what could be wrong and how I can test it (without buying anything expensive to test it with).

 

[arcenite]

Anytime I've gotten a BSOD in WinXP/2000 it's always because of one of the two:

Overclocking Hardware
Bad Hardware

I would say your memory is the stick in the drain.

Edit: Though it's strange, because HyperX is good quality. I would say that your HD is probably NOT the problem though.

Bill

 

[wtfiwwm]

Originally posted by: TheBoyBlunder


I went into the bios and bumped the fsb to 166mhz, and did not adjust any other memory settings.

I thought the xp 2600+ was a 133mhz chip, if so you have to turn up the Vcore to get it stable at 166mhz. Or lower the multiplier so the cpu runs at a more normal speed.

edit: there is two different xp 2600+ chips one with 133mhz and another with 166mhz fsb. which one do you have?

 

[Novgrod]

first rule of overclocking (at least if you're a newb like myself):

get everything perfectly stable first.

THEN start overclocking. Hope it works out for you.

 

[snidy1]

Try resetting bios and load windows with default settings, then go in and change it. XP1700 should be set at 133 not 166 by the way.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

It's the ram, Adjust all your memory settings manually even if using defaults and if that doesn't do the trick try 1 stick at a time.

 

[pelikan]

If yours is a Rev 2 board then is not compatible with HyperX.

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Originally posted by: pelikan
If yours is a Rev 2 board then is not compatible with HyperX.

Huh? Yes, it is a revision 2 board...but still...huh?

And right now it is looking like bad ram. I ran memtest 86 and one dimm is showing up as faulty, the other one looks fine. I also have a 166 fsb chip, it says "Now with 333mhz fsb" on the package, that's why I figured I could bump the fsb to 166mhz without problem.

 

[pelikan]

Kingston has stated that their HyperX is not compatible with the new rev. Nvidia nforce2 chipset and is working with Nvidia to fix the problem.

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Originally posted by: pelikan
Kingston has stated that their HyperX is not compatible with the new rev. Nvidia nforce2 chipset and is working with Nvidia to fix the problem.

:Q Where does it say this?! And do you have any suggestions as to what I should tell newegg?

//edit do you also have a suggestion for a different brand of memory that actually works with the rev. 2? Would the corsair xms pc2700 be a suitable choice? or should I try to exchange this memory for pc3000 hyper-x?

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: pelikan
Kingston has stated that their HyperX is not compatible with the new rev. Nvidia nforce2 chipset and is working with Nvidia to fix the problem.

I'm sorry, but I don't buy it. I rarely miss news items, especially ones like that. Plus, I just went to Kingston's site and foung nothing about it.

 

[pelikan]

This HyperX info was in an email from Kingston tech support that was posted at AMDMB, and user experience can be found here at Anandtech and at other forums.
I am very satisfied my HyperX on my A7N8X rev. 1.04, so I'm not knocking the memory at all.

Some of the high-performance memory that has been found to work well with the Rev. 2 boards includes Twinmoss with Winbond chips and Corsair. Here is a memory compatiblity chart from Asus.

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

:| Figures it's the memory. I just pulled the ddr from my parent's oem p4 system and windows just installed flawlessly. Oh well, guess I'll return the hyper-x and just get some plain vanilla crucial from crucial.com (no, I'm not going to o/c).

 

[pelikan]

I'm glad to hear the problem is solved.

 

[ElFenix]

NO! FSCKING KINGSTON!

<--- already has two sticks of hyper-x and an a7n8x coming today

:disgust:

 

[ElFenix]

it says revision 1.06 on the board am i in the clear?

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
it says revision 1.06 on the board am i in the clear?

Yes, you are in the clear.