Seagat ST38410A + SOYO K7VME Issues

aknj

Junior Member
Aug 23, 2004
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:confused::frown:

Hello

1. I bought the SOYO K7VME as part of the barebones kit From TigerDirect. I have installed a AMD AXP 2800+ in it. I got it as a boxed processor and it did not have the tape on the bottom of the heatsink protecting the off-white thermal compound. Calld Fry's and was told that it was OK to use.
On installing it works and the CPU temp is 45C. Is this too high? Is using the heatsink that did not have the tape on the bottom OK?

2. I am trying to install WinXP Home on the Seagat ST38410A drive I have. I used the Seagate DiskWizard tool to create a win98 and a NTFS partition on the entire drive (separately) using another PC with a floppy drive.
Each time when I boot WinXP CD and try to install it, the WinXP setup cannot see the NTFS or Win98 partition. It reports x MB as unformatted space and prompts to create a partition but on pressing C, it does not do anything and returns to the X MB unformatted space display.

I wonder if this is a defective drive or a bad MoBo BIOS. Also, even if I don't set the FDD as one of the boot devices, the MoBo tries to boot from there and stops.

Please help.

Thanks
 

trexpesto

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2004
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Wasn't t the thermal grease protected by a clear plastic tray? Was there anything wrong with the grease? Tape is usually to protect the surface of a non-retail heatsink that has no grease.
That temp sounds about normal considering that the heatsink is half hidden by the power supply, the case is poorly vented, and you are on stock cooling. I underclocked and undervolted mine and it got to 42C, 43C under load. Might be able to shave a few degrees by putting in a rear fan, using AS5, and lapping your HS base.

Good luck with #2. Those mobos are not the greatest. You may have noticed the lack of a real manual - there ain't one.
Maybe try FAT? Why did you put on win98 and then XP? Was it an upgrade-to-XP thing? After installing 98, did you check to see that it would work or just shut down and pull it?
Can you just delete the partition without creating one?
I am not an expert on these issues, hopeully someone can help.
 

aknj

Junior Member
Aug 23, 2004
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Originally posted by: trexpesto
Wasn't t the thermal grease protected by a clear plastic tray? Was there anything wrong with the grease? Tape is usually to protect the surface of a non-retail heatsink that has no grease.
That temp sounds about normal considering that the heatsink is half hidden by the power supply, the case is poorly vented, and you are on stock cooling. I underclocked and undervolted mine and it got to 42C, 43C under load. Might be able to shave a few degrees by putting in a rear fan, using AS5, and lapping your HS base.

Good luck with #2. Those mobos are not the greatest. You may have noticed the lack of a real manual - there ain't one.
Maybe try FAT? Why did you put on win98 and then XP? Was it an upgrade-to-XP thing? After installing 98, did you check to see that it would work or just shut down and pull it?
Can you just delete the partition without creating one?
I am not an expert on these issues, hopeully someone can help.


Yes, it was protected by the clear tray packaging, but that is not airtight, if the tape was to insure exclusion of air. AMD docs refer to it as a phase change compound and indicate that once the tape is removed it is not good to wait too long.

I did not try win98, I just created a FAT partition for win98.

Will try a new HD that I am getting tomorrow. Have d/l the latest BIOS, too and will consider flashing if needed. I could not delete the partition as it detected as unpartitioned space.

Thanks anyway.
 

trexpesto

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2004
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If you want to try some other fans, I made a list of the ones I found that would fit. LINK
TR2-m2 is what I bought, has a rough bottom and my fan died so I am RMA'ing it today.
 

trexpesto

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2004
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I know it's not just the fan, but you were worried about temps?

I hope it's just a HD issue, that ST38410A is pretty old, and a new 8MB cache drive will do you right. :)
I replaced that mobo with a Shuttle AN35N - $58 from newegg, OOS for now.
 

aknj

Junior Member
Aug 23, 2004
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Yes, I forgot about the temp. among other major stuff.
I just wanted to know what is the normal temp people experience. AMD has the max temp in the 80s. So, I should be OK.

I have determined that the Seagate is a defective drive.
I put a brand new WD 120GB drive and the MB was reporting it as a 8GB drive. Finally, after much juggling with jumpers on the existing CD and the HD, I got them to work. It seems that the onboard IDE controllers are very retarded and if it recognized the HD, it said that the CD-ROM was not a ATAPI CD-ROM and if it recog. the CD correctly it messed up on the drive.

I proceeded to install WinXP home, SP1 and now halfway thru the install WinXP reports that it cannot load the installer for pretty much every device (display, HD, network, etc.) and stops with fatal error and DOS like screen. On restarting it stops at the same place and advises that I should contact the HW manufacturer.

Wonder what I should do now.
 

trexpesto

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2004
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That's weird.
Is it now showing the new drive at correct size, besides just working?
Could be something is still not quite right there..

The cable goes from the mobo, first to the HD, then to the CD?
Jumpers dont work on auto...

Floppy cable is not upside down?

It is set to boot fron CD in the BIOS?
You may want to flash to the latest BIOS if it doesn't already have it, if still can't get it to work.

So you deleted the partitions and did a clean install? Just checking.

Maybe try 98 again, to eliminate the XP Home as a factor. Shouldn't be.
 

aknj

Junior Member
Aug 23, 2004
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Yes, it is weird.
I wanted to use XP if I can, as Win98 has no built in fax via modem.

The drive is identified with the correct model #. I have to make it a master on IDE 1 and CD as slave on IDE 0 or something like that (the machine is at home).

I started from 2 clean NTFS partitions create dusing WS software. Then let WinXP do it again.
I may delete the partitions and do another try before going to Win98.
 

trexpesto

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2004
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There is a manual supposedly on the CD.

Did you see the thing at the end of the quickstart guide, page 29 about WD drives?
And Cable select and Single did not work?

Master and slave pretty much apply when you are using the same cable for 2 drives, right?

Sounds like you are using 2 cables...

Maybe for troubleshooting, try a single cable from IDE 1 (or whatever the lowest number - the blue one)
From the mobo, to the HD, then to the CD, with all jumpers on cable select. Then with HD master, CD slave.
 

aknj

Junior Member
Aug 23, 2004
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Finally I have got WinXP Home installed. Looks like it boils down to a retarded IDE. If i make 2 partitions on the WS 120G drive, I could not even see the CD when Win98 startup floppy was done loading and created a RAM disk. I could see drives C, D and E but not the CD drive F.

WinXP Home failed to install device drivers, each and every one of them, when I had 2 partitions.
Only when I created a single partition, WinXP install worked.