Really need help with my Abit KT7-Raid board

[jfall]

Amd Thunderbird 800mhz @ 800mhz
A-Bit KT7-Raid
256 SDram PC133
Sound Blaster Live Value
IBM Desktart 75GXP
Asus v7700 Geforce 2 GTS 64
Windows XP Professional


Hey, my computer was working fine.. then one day it decided not to post.. so I took it to a local computer shop and they told me that the motherboard was dead. So, they sent it back on RMA and got another one. Once I got the board back, I flashed the BIOS to A9 and did a fresh install of Windows XP Professional.

Everything appears to be working fine, but I have two problems.. and I would consider them pretty major. First problem. Now, for some reason.. this problem only happens when I start the computer after it has been off for a while. I boot it up, but just before it gets to the windows login screen, I get a blue screen and the computer restarts itself.. it goes too fast for me to catch the message, but it has something to do with HIVE. If I let it reboot, sometimes it will let me get to the login screen, after 5-10 attempts. If while im in windows, it's fine.. if I restart, or shutdown and restart it will go back into windows every time.. but this problem only seems to happen when I first start it up in the morning.

Second problem is with video. I have Return to Castle Wolfenstein installed and it seems to be working fine. However, I have installed the Unreal 2003 demo, Battelfield 1942 and 3dMark 2001se and they all have the same problem which is when I start them up the menu is all over the place, some parts of it aren't where they are suppose to be and they are flashing and moving. The games are unplayable because I can't even get through any of the menus. I thought this was a problem with my drivers, so I tried Det 29, Det 30 and Det 40's and they all did the same thing.

I thought this might of been a bad install, so I formatted my drive and re-installed XP.. I didn't install anything.. just the Det 29 drivers so nothing else would get in the way and the same problem is happening.. also the blue screen on startup is still happening after a fresh install yesterday.

There has got to be something wrong with this board I received back on RMA.. what do you guys think? Maybe it could have something to do with the BIOS?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. I have no idea what to do from this point on.

Thanks,

 

[Buz2b]

Just to kind of kick off the discussion, I'd say it wasn't your MB. What is the PS you are using? Have you tried different RAM? Does your video card have any active cooling (fan) on it? What kind of temps are you getting on the CPU and system?
Have you tried running Unreal 2003 demo, Battelfield 1942 and 3dMark 2001se immediatly upon your first bootup of the day?

EDIT: Do a google search for "hive error" and it turns up a lot of info. Most relate to and have similar "fixes" as decribed in this link. Could very well be RAID related.

 

[jfall]

PSU is 300watt AMD Approved.. same one that I used with the old mobo and worked just fine.

I am running a Themeraltake Dual Super ORB on the CPU, runs around 38 degress.

Have not tried different ram, don't have any to try .

The video card has the factory heatsink/fan on it, and it is not overclocked.

I have tried the games that do not work right upon startup but it doesn't seem to make a difference.


I have searched for HIVE in the past and have read through the link that you posted.. I believe that is assuming that there is corrupted files.. It was happening with my last fresh install of XP.. and I just did a fresh install yesterday and it is still happening.. I find it hard to believe that renaming some files and extracting ones made from a restore point are going to make any difference.

Alothough this board has raid capibilities, I am not using Raid. However, my hard drive is connected to the ATA100 controller and is controled by the seperate Raid BIOS.. which I have not updated. So I could give that a try at least.

The only things that I can think of that are different from my setup now to the setup I had before the board was rma'ed is I didn't have the superorb fan on, I have both of the fans connected to the motherboard.. there is a possibility that it could be drawing too much power, so if I can get the connector, I should at least hook one fan up to the power supply. And I haven't flashed the Highpoint raid bios either. Other then that, I can't think of anything that would of changed.

Also, I have ran IBM's drive fitness test and everything seems to be fine, didn't report any bad sectors on the drive or anything.. I have also ran an up to date virus scanner.. didn't come up with anything either.

 

[Buz2b]

It was happening with my last fresh install of XP.. and I just did a fresh install yesterday and it is still happening.. I find it hard to believe that renaming some files and extracting ones made from a restore point are going to make any difference

That would also be my first reaction, however, re-reading the KB article shows this....."This issue typically occurs during the Windows 2000 installation process." (assuming XP instead of W2K). So it would seem that it CAN and does happen during the installation process.
Keeping in mind that this "hive" issue and your other troubles might be separate issues, I'd focus in on the RAID and/or RAM. Have you tried putting the HD on the standard IDE port; not the controller port? Also, one or more of the numerous places I read concerning this hive issue mentioned RAM or the possibility that it was responsible. Might be time to beg/borrow/"steal" some from a friend, etc. If for nothing else, just as a test w/ a fresh install.

 

[jfall]

Ok, thanks for the information so far. Maybe I should try installing Windows 2000 and see what happens with that.. just incase there is a problem with my XP CD for some reason.. I know it isn't in the greatest shape. Still not really sure on the video problem though. I installed Asus Smartdoctor and it says the video card is running fine, the temperature and fan speeds are normal. Wouldn't doubt if there could be an AGP issue. Not sure why wolfenstein runs fine though.

I'll see what I can do about the ram.. it was fine before.. but something could of happened to it when it was being switched to the new board, never know.

Keep any suggestions coming.. I really want to try Unreal 2003 and bf1942

 

[Buz2b]

Bump for some others to give suggestions; I'm running out!