A7N8X Deluxe/Win XP stability problems

[dosulliv91]

I've just built a new rig using an Asus A7N8X Deluxe MB and I'm having major stability problems in Windows XP. Specifically, everytime I goto to play any game, the machine hangs and then shuts itself down in short order. I'm also experiencing the same problem intermittently when trying to use my CD-ROM drive to install software (Ironically, this happens when I'm trying to install the Asus Probe utility from the supplied cdrom to diagnose the problem).

The machine appears to be stable when I'm not doing anything too intensive (Such as browsing the web). But as soon as I fire up any 3d game, it dies within 30 seconds.

I have an Athlon XP 2700+ processor and two sticks of 512 MB Crucial 2700 memory installed. I have the timing settings set to 'optimal' in the bios and am not attempting to overclock the processor in any way. My case is an Inwin IW-S508 with a 300W power supply. Hard drive is a Maxtor 80GB 7200 RPM ATA 133 drive and I have a Samsung CD-RW/DVD combo drive. The hard drive and CD-Burner are set as master devices on the primary and secondary IDE channels respectively.

I also using bios revision 1001G and am using all the latest drivers (including the NForce 2.0 unified driver package). As a side note, I also have the SATA software installed even though I do not have any SATA drives and have disabled SATA on the mobo with the relevant jumper. I'm going to uninstall this today as I've just read on these boards that this may cause system instability

Aside from the SATA angle, anyone have any ideas where to begin troubleshooting this? I'd appreciate any input.

 

[mechBgon]

Asus did indeed have a warning about instability when the SATA software is installed without SATA drives present in the system. They seemed to imply it was a problem for Win98/ME users, but who knows.

Could be you're overworking your power supply too, and considering the system dies in several situations where power demands increase, I'm guessing that's a prime possibility. Get an Antec TruePower 430 or perhaps an SL400. Staples.com has the TP430 and if you're an astute observer shoppingcodes.com then you can figure out where to get a coupon code to bring the price down a bit. Might involve adding a box of paperclips to get the total purchase over $100...

Actually, I have a nice stable 1600+ system... maybe we should trade! Yeah! Welcome to the Forums by the way, nice rig you've got there.

 

[dosulliv91]

Yeah, I had considered the power supply angle myself. I have just upgraded from an Asus A7A266 based rig running a 1.33GHZ Athlon though, also with a 300W power supply, which I had absolutely no problems with. Given that my old rig had essentially the same hardware installed (Differences being, I've added an additional case fan and removed a hard drive in the new setup), I'm not sure why I'd have power issues with the new machine, unless the XP Athlons are a lot more power intensive. If that's the case, I'll run out and grab a new power supply this week.

Also forgot to mention that I'm using a Chaintech TI4200 64MB AGP card for video. This was also present in the old setup and worked like a charm.

Thanks for the feedback and the welcome though! Nice to goto a forum where people are friendly and helpful for once!

 

[mechBgon]

Glad you feel welcome, I had the opposite experience soon after joining, so I try to make a point to welcome the new members

Yeah, if it were a power problem, I'd have thought the 1.33GHz would have revealed it, like you say. The 1.33GHz CPU draws about the same amount of power as your 2700+, according to Sandpile.org.

How about this test: underclock the CPU and RAM down to the 133MHz bus, and remove one memory module (they suck as much as 15W each under load), and see if it behaves any better. If it's a software issue, it should still crash (just slower ). If it suddenly begins to run ok then maybe the power supply needs a boost.

The Powerman power supplies in the Inwins are not bad-quality units, but it looks from this picture that it has 200W on the 3.3V + 5V lines combined, which would make me want to go up to something bigger. The Antec TP430 has fully-independent 3.3V + 5V lines, but if they were combined they would total about 270W, a nice boost.

 

[dosulliv91]

mechBgon,

I'm going to try your suggestions this evening and see what happens. I'll post an update to this board with my results probably tomorrow morning.

 

[dosulliv91]

Well, I think I found the culprit. After uninstalling the SATA software and experiencing no joy, I went into the bios. There I found the CPU was running at a very toasty 98 degrees Celcius. The ASUS C.O.P was kicking in and shutting the system down as soon as I did anything remotely intensive.

Upon further inspection, I discovered that the fan on my Thermaltake cooler was installed backwards and wasn't blowing air away from, but sucking it onto, the CPU. I detached the fan and reinstalled it the right way around. I also gave the CPU another dose of Arctic Silver after removing the entire fan/heatsink, just to be sure.

CPU temperature is now reading 41 degrees in Asus PC Probe and system appears to be stable.

Thanks for the help

 

[mechBgon]

 

[chizow]

OMG!!! 98C!!!! You're lucky you didn't cook that thing! Yah I had some issues with the A7N8X but it was b/c I wasn't used to all the extra features in the BIOS (came from 8KHA+). Its been running beautifully since...excellent mobo, every option a tweaker can imagine (well...maybe not to the degree a tweaker could imagine).

Chiz