Onboard Audio causes crash

[volrath]

My friend has a computer with the following specs:
Power Magic 550W PS (really light, but can power my large computer)
Syntax SV400 Mobo (what a piece, you have never heard of it.)
AXP2600+ T-bred
512MB Corsair PC2700
Geforce FX5600XT
1x hd 1x cd-rw

Soooo the computer reboots randomly. It does it in 2000 and in a fresh install of XP. I tried using another mobo, but it seems to be bad so we can't rule that out. The power supply seems good even though it is really light. The ram is good, we have swapped that out. The graphics card is good, we have swapped that out. The processor should be good... so either the processor or the mobo are bad, I think.

It is not overheating, I have checked. Although, it does seem to crash more often as time goes on, IE as it gets warmer. Also, it might be related to sound drivers, but we are quite unsure.

Help. What do I do?

 

[volrath]

Hmm... the network, display, and usb adapters all have IRQ 11. The audio controller and second usb controller both have IRQ 10. Is this a problem? I don't know how IRQ works. Those numbers are from the startup screen, in windows they show different. The computer always crashes when audio is enabled. We just discovered that now. After a lot of troubleshooting.

How do IRQs work?

 

[imported_Phil]

IRQ sharing under XP/2000 is perfectly normal; I wouldn't worry about it.

Try removing all the PCI cards, and anything other than what you need to boot Windows. This includes CD drives.
Using the back of a finger, check the heatsink temperature- if it's stone cold, then it's not making proper contact with the CPU core. If it's warm, it's usually fine, and if it's really hot, then it's overheating. You can also check the CPU temperature in the BIOS. Anything over 50-55C is getting a touch too warm.

Can you try a different PSU? If it's anything other than a decent named-brand, then it's likely to be the culprit. Decent brands include Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, Antec Truepower, and a few more that I can't remember right now.

 

[volrath]

I said, it's not overheating. It runs 38-48. I took the light PSU, it powered 2x hd, 1x dvd-rw, A64, FX5950U, several PCI cards, P95, UT2k4. I also ran it with my thermaltake. It doesn't matter.

It appears to be directly related to the onboard sound being enabled. XP upgrade would fail when it got to audio drivers. XP now fails when audio is enabled.

Furthermore, the NIC just failed. It was working earlier in the night, now the LED to indicate link does not light, yet XP still sees it and can tell when the cable is unplugged. The router gets a link light. But it doesn't get an ip. I have no idea what to make of that.

Edit: so now he says lan works somewhere else. Two bad wires? Weird. I'm bringing him a new sound card.

 

[volrath]

Yeah, installed a new sound card and all was well for about 2 days with the onboard sound disabled, and the onboard lan somehow working.

Now it reboots again? I don't know what to do.

 

[iamthegroodest]

I'm having the same problem i think. A fresh install of windows xp works fine with the SV400 until i run the driver install cd. Some driver is making it crash and I can't get the sound to work. I'm about to try reformating and then install the drivers one at a time.

Note to all who read this: DO NOT BUY A Syntax SV400, the extra $10 for a better motherboard will be the best $10 you ever spent.

 

[iamthegroodest]

I did a another fresh install of xp and everything autodetected except the audio. So... i went to the syntax website and i downloaded the audio driver for the SV266M_v1.1/SV266MA_V1.1 board installed it and it seems to be working fine. No crashes yet n_n

Good luck to ya volrath if u still having problems.