PLEASE HELP! new Soyo Dragon Plus system keeps freezing up

[compuser]

I finally got the parts from newegg and mushkin to build the following system 2 days ago:

Soyo Dragon Plus (original bios: k7vxa2ba1)
XP 1800+
Thermaltake Volcano 6 Cu
512MB 2.5-3-3 Mushkin value ram (1 stick)
ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Pro (PCI) 16MB
Western Digital 60GB 7200rpm HDD
Liteon 24/10/40 retail
Actiontek 56k hardware modem (Lucent chip)
Enhance PSU (ENP -730) & Chieftec case
2x Enermax Thermal Control case fans (80mm)

I have been spending over 15-18 hours each day since then to try to get this system running stably under win2k at nominal frequency (fsb=133, mem clk=133). just having a modem connection, I couldn't download larger benchmark suites/quake timedemo etc. so I have used SETI@home, prime95, ATI's video capture at full res (640x480, 22k-8bit audio) and last but not least BurnInTest. BurnInTest - by the way - is one of the best synthetic benchmarks i have seen to date. check it out to see how well it can stress a system as a whole.

below are my actions and findings summarized from past 2 days:

1. upgraded the bios to k7xva2ba2. some of the important BIOS settings were as follows:
cpu freqnecy select = 133
spread spectrum = disabled
system performance = normal
dram clock = 133 (even tried "dectect using SPD" option)
dram timing = manual --> the rest of the items in DRAM menu were left as they were (CAS=2.5/bank interleave=disabled/prechg to active(Trp)=3T/active to prechg(Tras)= 6T/active to CMD(Trcd) = 3T/DRAM queue depth=2 level/write recovery time=2T/dram cmd rate=2T cmd/dram dqs length = default

with this setup, the system posted, win2k was installed successfully, most of the relavent drivers were installed including via and the mother board components' drivers, ATI etc. no problem surfing the net, downloading and such daily multi-apps running. if i recall correctly, the system was also able to run sandra mem/cpu benchmarks at 133/133 and ran SETI@home without a glitch for over 10 minutes. however, come time for real stress test using BurnInTest, the system would freeze within less than 5 minutes (often within a minute) at max load and almost all benchmarks turned on. it also would freeze at times during video caputure using ATI and viewing the captured scene. it had a few random freezes aswell.

2. based on what a lot of people said in some posts at amdmb.com, i went ahead and downgraded my bios back to its shipped version (k7vxa2ba1) since the complain was that this was a lot more stable bios than the newer one.

with this bios, again the same behavior: system worked fine but would freeze when running the BurnInTest benchmark.

3. downgraded the fsb freq and dram clk to 100 each. ==> now the benchmark passed for the first time! though at 100MHz.


at this point, after wasting so much time after just getting a system stable, i am verymuch leaning toward RMAing the system board first thing mon/tuesday morning. this setup (unlike my ASUS setups in the past) has given me the worst nightmares yet.

NOTE: the system has never BSODed on me as yet! (interesting...) all i see is freezes/hangups.

can someone please comment on the BIOS settings/any tweaks I can do to the system to see if it has any chance of becoming stable??!! PLEASE, need some hints/clues as to why a perfectly good config would not be able to hold up for than just minutes under heavy load. i hope that based on some of your experiences and settings in BIOS/OS, i can make the system stable and prove that it's not the system board/bios.

thanks a lot for any help you can provide.

 

[Maggotry]

Is the burn in test the only thing it faults on? SETI is a pretty good test of system stability. Don't discount it! Maybe it's a problem with the burn in test and not your system. Hmm? Try re-installing the burn in test from safe mode or diagnostic mode in the case of win2k. What kind of temps is your cpu getting?

BTW, Feynman is one of my favorite minds of all time.

 

[Dim]

Sounds like it freezes when you have high CPU utilization. What is your CPU temp running? Check your heatsink and fan for proper installation if temp is high.

 

[compuser]

maggotry and dim, thanks for the feedbacks! and yes, i second that maggtory: Feynman it is (of course, so are others)!

maggtory:

no, i have not discounted SETI@home but it doesn't seem to stress a large portion of the memory. anyway, i don't know if this is a respectable duration but i ran SETI without crashing or freezup for over 10-12 minutes. also, what is the reason/benifit of reinstalling BurnInTest from safe mode? does it not load the VIA 4-in-1 drivers etc. when running the benchmark? i'll try that.

maggtory, dim:
now specific to CPU temp, i ran that temp/fan speed utility that comes with the soyo board (no, i don't load at startup... just run it when i need to check temp.). it reports case temp around 22c and shows CPU temp usually around 31-32c (33-34c during/after high load).

is this an accurate reading or could this be messed up? i touched the side of the volcano HS and it "seemed" cool to luke-warm.

i am concerned about removing and reseating HS/fan though, since there have been complains of XP CPUs being not so sturdy and cracking at times. however, i will also take a look at that.

any other suggestions someone can think of?

 

[Maggotry]

I was thinking that maybe the burinintest install may have gotten corrupted by something running in the background and installing it from safe mode would by-pass any interferring programs. The problem sounds more like memory than the mobo. Or maybe a driver/IRQ conflict. How are your IRQ's? Anything sharing?

 

[billyjak]

I would bet it's win2k, I installed it on my Abit KR7A Raid board and the same symptems, I took it off and went back to win9x
My video capture program would lock, different system utilities would not work.
I'm waiting for service pack 3 to fix the 800 flaws in win2k, they say at least 800 of them will be fixed.
No problems in win9x, everything works and works well.

 

[compuser]

as a matter of fact, while no conflicts here, IRQ 11 is everyone's friend right now

it's got AIW, modem, cmedia sound, via 10/100 AND via usb host controller. seems like the goodol win2k is back to its behavior.

speaking of which, billyjak, i'd rather return the board than to have to give up win2k.

meanwhile, here is somthing i have found about BIOS settings for memory - the "optimized settings" for soyo mb at amdmb.

unfortunately it sounds like they claim it to be a "one-for-all" solution (and i've posted as such regarding that over there)

i tried the settings mentioned in there but i have value ram so i have a feeling this will change things for my settings.

any suggestions for this? does anyone know what my 2.5-3-3 translates to as compared to their bios wordings?

thanks for all the tips i have gotten from you all! AT community just plain rocks!

 

[compuser]

wow! maggotry! i wouldn't have thought of that and it actually worked!!!

i was able to run burnintest for the full 15 minutes in safe mode WHILE palying with mouse, loading IE/OE/explorer window/palying with task manager/moving the 8-10 benchmark windwos every now and then!

thanks a lot for that tip! i am going to rerun this test again for about an hour followed by prime95 and seti together for an hour. if that goes thorugh, then can i assume that the hardware is capale but the drivers/directx etc. are not? (i wasn't able to run the 3d benchmark in safe mode so i don't know if that failed to generate the additional PCI traffic to cause any failures.

i'll keep you all posted how things work out and if it all goes well, i'll post the exact memory bios settings for other troubled souls like me to make potential use of.

wish me luck!

 

[Maggotry]

Great! You won't be able to do any 3D benchmarking from safe mode. Safe mode disables all of your drivers. You won't get any 3D, sound, print, etc. But since it runs in safe mode, that certainly gives you some ammo! In msconfig, try to enable things 1 at a time until you find the culprit causing your crash. That may help too.

 

[compuser]

well, it still freezes with the current bios settings in normal win2k.

i am still guessing it could be HW because i think in safe mode (due to lack of drivers for say the VIA UDMA option etc), there is probably not enough stress on the system. actually, the writes to HDD were very slowgoing as well and the CPU related ops (math/mmx/sse).

next thing will be to reinstall windows and run test before installing the VIA drivers and one after.