System not Stable?!?!?

[Incrdblhulk7]

I just bought a new computer :

Athlon64 3500 130nm
MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum 939 - latest Bios 1.03
Corsiar TwinX CAS2 512x2
Radeon 9800 Pro
Enermax NoiseTaker 470W
Maxtor 200Gb SATA

There have been seemingly random errors occuring since putting this rig together.

1) Old monitor crapped out (smells burnt) as I was building the new computer - so I bought a new 19" one. The wierd thing is that every once in a while the monitor refuses to turn on when the PC is running? I have also tested this with an old 15" monitor and it does the same. Occasionally I smell the same burning smell as before - but it might be my imagination. I found that when monitor will not turn on - I must turn off computer, turn on Monitor, and then turn on computer! It is not that it is a faulty video card (as I have tried an extra Radeon 8500 too) - pushing the power button on the monitor DOES NOTHING! Could I be drawing too much power with the PC? To eliminate this possibility - I plugged the monitor and PC into different breaker-controlled outlets (but that was this morning - so it hasnt occured in this setup).

2) NO PCI devices are found or initialized. Occasionally, they are detected, but when windows loads the drivers and tries to initialize the card - the OS locks up and I am forced to reboot. Upon reboot, the PCI card is not found. I am not doing any kind of Overclocking (to my knowledge). The two cards I have been testing the PCI stuff with are an Adaptec 2930CU SCSI controller card and a Generic FireWire Card. So - seems like the PCI bus is being moody.

3) I have the MSI k8N NEO2 Platinum. It is supposed to have the addtional Gigabit LAN and FireWire port built into motherboard. According to the MoBo manual - these are optional features and it shows a page in the BIOS with them listed. But, when I goto the same page in my Bios - I do not get these options??? I do remember seeing the 1394 option during one of my boots - but now it is gone? What would cuase those features not to be listed in my system?

So if I neglect the PCI/1394/GigaBitLan and Monitor issues - the computer boots up and runs WinXP.

What could be causing such problems - is it a bad Mobo or PSU?

Any comments are greatly appreciated - as this is plenty frustrating!!!

 

[beatle]

I'm guessing the mb has issues, especially since it's not recognizing any of your PCI cards. PSU issues usually manifest themselves under load or refusal to boot.

Welcome to the forum, btw.

 

[Incrdblhulk7]

I agree that the PCI problems seem motherboard related.

The "monitor power-on" problem is a huge mystery. I just cant understnad how having the PC ON restricts the monitor from functioning? Wondering if faulty PSU has resulted in damage to Motherboard???

 

[Incrdblhulk7]

Probably will have to RMA the Motherboard.

Just called ZipZoomFly about their return policy. Look like I will have to wait 7-10 buisness days after they receive the bad parts for them to issue the new ones! That sucks!

Anybody have any ohter suggestions/ideas? I really dont want to have to wait another 10-15 days!

 

[Incrdblhulk7]

Any ideas on what would make the motherboard LAN and firewire disappear?

 

[oobe]

have you resolved this issue?

 

[Incrdblhulk7]

Yes, I resolved the issue.

The cause of all my troubles was a BAD power strip (not PSU). It fried the monitor, PSU, and cellphone charger that were plugged into it!

After replacing all of the above - everything works fine. Seems the MoBo was just starved for power - and that is why PCI would not work.