8KHA+ constantly dying

[theprophecy]

I have an EPoX Ep-8KHA+, running a T'Bird 1.4, 768MB RAM (3x256 Crucial), GeForce 2 MX 400, NIC, 40GB drive, Zip, CD, DVD, CD-RW. Windows 2000 SP2. Every patch applied, all drivers updated to the latest official ones, latest BIOS, latest 4in1s.

Whenever the computer does anything remotely stressful (i.e., play Quake, Armada II, benchmarking) it dies, and usually very quickly. It attempts to reboot.

It doesn't ACTUALLY reboot; it's more like it's trying to. The box shuts down, and the power and HDD lights come on solid. The lights on the CD drives come on but won't open. It sits this way for more than two minutes, whereupon it beings a normal boot process.

If I put any more cards in it whatsoever, be it a sound card, raid card, anything, it dies under no load whatsoever.

I'm fed up with not being able to play Elite Force on my new box. Has ANYONE had a similar experience, anyone who might know how to fix this?

 

[gdawson6]

could be a cheap/bad power supply...what kind do you have?

 

[Ionizer86]

If your PSU doesn't have at least 170W or so combined 3.3v and 5v wattage, it's time to ditch it for a better PSU. The 8KHA+ likes to have good quality PSUs powering it

 

[RustyNale]

Sounds like you need a new psu, go here to AMD's site to find one. Ionizer86 is correct, the 8KHA+ is <U>ver</U>y fussy about wanting a good psu, I'd recommend at least a 340W one.

 

[Mem]

It does sound like it`s a PSU problem so you might as well go for a 400w Antec, Sparkle or Enermax 431w PSU,yes the Epox 8KHA+ does like a good PSU especially if you`ve lots of hardware but it will pay you back tenfold.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

I'd get a 350+ watt Antec PS and I'd flash the BIOS to the newest version to get rid of the 8KHA+'s cold and random reboot problems.

 

[theprophecy]

I have a 400W FuturePower supply in it... would a 350W by another brand be that much better???

 

[tommydn]

I guess if it's a 400W then it's not a problem unless it is defected..

Ok Next Guess is:
1. CPU got too hot bios decided to restart on it own, check cpu temp.
Possible poblem: 1) bad cooling (did you go shy on cpu-fan?) 2) bad heatsink/fan mount.

Next if that is not the problem:
1) Check for hardware conflict... (shouldn't be since your hardware setup seem to just contain basic stuff)
2) Check ram slot. I've built many computer and occasionally i get motherboard that have bad ram slot that neither wont work or too loose. You can try with one 256meg chip in a slot, if that dont work, move it around see which one is defective if it is defective at all. This is related to memory speed also, too little power to memory slot or memory rated speed too low or speed setting too high can cause random restart...

Goodluck...

 

[DoubleL]

I would also check the memory I had a stick of corsair go bad and it made the computer do all kinds of crazy things

 

[AA0]

you may have the same problem I do... I'm guessing more people do but just don't know it. The power supply inside your house isn't very good, it flucuates, and at random times when your cpu is demanding the most, it can't keep up.
Solution is to get a line interactive ups.

 

[Cosmo3]

Even though you have a 400W power supply it may not have a high enough 12V-5V amps rating. It is nice to have a rating of 200 or more on the 12V-5V lines. You might also try it with just one stick of memory and see what happens, I had to raise my DDR memory voltage when I went to more than 1 stick of memory, you can do that in the bios. The last thing is CPU temps check to see what yours is running, use motherboard monitor to check the temps while you are running your system and if they seem high you may need better case or cpu cooling.

 

[gplracer]

An interactive ups? That is not the solution. The solution would be to borrow a power supply from someone and try that. Or you could purchase one. It might not be the power supply but it sure sounds like it. My 8kha+ with a AMD XP 1700+ (140fsb) and a antec 300 watt power supply is rock solid. Good luck!

 

[gplracer]

You do have a lot of drives. Have you tried it with only the cdrw and hd hooked up? Unhook the other drives and see if that helps. Then you would know it is the power supply.

 

[theprophecy]

Thx all.

I'll up the DDR voltage a little and unplug some drives tonight... see if either has an effect.

 

[theprophecy]

Upping the voltage on the memory sticks did not help - in fact, it worsened the problem. I went up +.020 and my machine locked while still in the BIOS watching the PC Health screen at one point.

Removing all but one drive did not help either.

I've read over and over about how important power supplies are to the box, which is why I got a 400W. I also recognize that pure wattage is like MHz, doesn't tell the whole story. My 5V rail is reading at 4.9V, and the 12V is fluctuating between 12.3 and 12.4. Are these within normal tolerances?

I've about exhausted all my options here... time to get a Soyo?

 

[AA0]

Seeing your voltages its not your power supply. It could be the board, or what I said earlier. I know quite a few people whos house power is poor, when we used to have normal lights here, if the dryer came on, the lights would dip a bit. Thats a major change, it takes very little to throw a computer off.

 

[Bovinicus]

The problem could possibly be heat related. What kind of case/CPU temps are you getting?

Try changing your CMOS settings to fail safe defaults. If that works change all of your settings back to normal one at a time. Test your system after each change. This way you can determine which one is the problem.

Try a different PSU. It is possible the one you have is defective. I highly doubt it because your voltage readings are good. It is still possible however.

 

[mrpuck]

I had a very similiar problem just last week with my Epox board. I wound up changing my DDR ram out with another stick and never had the problem since. Gotta luv Crucials great customer support, they had me out a new one crossshipped overnight.
So be sure to check the memory as well.... Good Luck...