A7N8X dlx blue screen of death

[freeflap]

please help!!
Just put together this rig:

Athlon XP 2700+
Asus A7N8X delux
ATI radeon 9700 Pro
WD 200 gb JB
Antec True Power 430
Corsair 333 DDR 512 CL 2 x 2 sticks (slots 1 and 3)
Chieftec tower case (love the door. keeps little fingers out)
XP home

I have had a variety of problems, I don't know where to begin. The computer reboots suddenly, regardless of what I am doing, It flashes the blue screen of death with errors like:
"stop 0x0000008e
win 32k.sys address BF81BEEE
address BF81A7C6
address BF87CF41

under hardware, it says everything is great. I am running BIOS 1001G.
When I run 3d Mark SE, the program says " microsoft C++ received an unexpected terminate or end request... and the program stops running during the high res truck scene or low res dragon scene.

what do these mean? I have never seen this with XP before. I just put a athlon 2000+, Gigabyte 7VAXP, WD 180, Geforce Ti 4200 for the wife and kids, and that went without a hitch. This thing is driving me crazy. Please help!!

 

[mechBgon]

First of all, good job getting a quality PSU and RAM, that helps eliminate a couple of cans of worms right away One really quick thing to check, if you haven't: make sure the PSU's red slide-switch is set to the correct voltage (110V or 220V). Also, I know it's too obvious, but you have the R9700Pro's auxiliary power plug hooked up, right?

How about start by going into the BIOS and manually setting the RAM timings. I'll throw numbers in parentheses to indicate the pages of the A7N8X manual I'm looking at here...

• (50) Hit the Advanced menu and go into the Advanced Chipset Features menu from there
• (55) In Advanced Chipset Features, set System Performance to User Defined or Expert, whichever it really calls it
• Set the memory so it's running at "Sync" with the CPU and check the "resulting speed" to confirm it
• For the memory timings, manually set them to something like 5-2-2-2

The idea here is to take control of the memory timings rather than trusting the motherboard to get them right.

It sounds like the 1001G BIOS is crummy, check chizow's info in this thread for more about the memory timings and where to get the 1002.001 beta BIOS. You can put it on a good floppy diskette and hit Alt + F2 at powerup to get into the built-in flash utility (why did it take them so many years to develop that...?).

 

[freeflap]

thanks for the suggestions. Actually, when I purchased the components, the chieftec came with an Austin 420 w ps. I thought that it was the reason for the problems. So yesterday I replaced it with the Antec. It wasn't the problem. It was still crashing with the Antec. I reversed the BIOS back to 1001.E and flashed the CMOS. Next, I disabled the APIC. Then reinstalled Win XP fresh.
everything seems to work now. Even Madonion 3d Mark SE works without crashing. Whew! Could it be something so simple as the BIOS switch and disabling the APIC?

How do I see if the RAM is set correctly to dual channel? I have the two sticks in the 1 and 3 position according to the manual. I just ran 3dmark and only scored a 12200. Seems low for this set up. Now that everything seems to be working, what are the best (reliable) settings in the BIOS?
AGP apeture, Cache Video ram? etc.

BTW, who makes CompUSA's own brand powersupplies? When I was there, the Antec and COMPUSA PS looked identical. Even to the type of screws and fan guard. Do they simply rebrand the Antec's?

Thank you

 

[Audiofight]

I have read that the 1001G bios is junk!

It isn't only here that I have read that either, Hardforums have some threads regarding it too.

I, too, would like to congragulate you on purchasing high quality hardware. If the problems are gone, then it was most likely the bios. Maybe.....somehow.....you managed to corrupt WinXP on the install. I have done that once before. For whatever reason, it just lost a file or two and wouldn't run at all. Another try on the fresh install and she took off.

Good luck with the setup.

Oh, drop me a PM with your thoughts on this system. I am looking at an almost identical rig next week (same mobo, 2100+, GF4, etc)

 

[chizow]

Heh yes, something as simple as a BIOS can cause all kinds of problems, particularly with this board.

Your scores are probably about right with that set-up non-OC'd. Hmm 2700+ looks like it only comes in 166/333mhz flavors, so that can't be the cause of the low 3dmark scores unless they are improperly set. Double-check your BIOS and make sure everything there is properly set. Your default settings should be 13 x 166mhz = 2.17ghz. If it isn't set it accordingly (you're not overclocking, just compensating for the board's shortcomings). Also, set your RAM timings and CPU interface to "aggressive" and your Mem frequency to "sync" or "100%". If you start having problems, set RAM timings and CPU interface to "optimal". There's no reason for your memory not to run at 166 cas 2 5-2-2 though, that's quality stuff.

You probably shouldn't have disabled APIC, as WinXP uses it to allocate resources. You should however, disable anything under "integrated peripherals" that you are not using, such as serial, parallel, onboard sound, LAN, firewire, etc. AGP settings should be pretty much left alone. If you think its your video card crashing, you may want to disable fast writes and if that doesn't help, then disable 8x AGP. IIRC early revisions of the Radeon 9700 pros had some problems with 8X AGP. Oh yah, after modifying your BIOS, make sure to "save" before you "save and exit", or your changes may not take and you might actually lock, forcing you to cold boot.

Run a search on A7N8X and you'll get some more ideas, I know I haven't hit on all of them.

Chiz

 

[freeflap]

Thanks for the suggestions.
Yes, I am running FSB at 166 (333)
I have settings as optimal.
video cache is disabled
BIOS cache is disabled
I disabled APIC b/c I read that it caused problems with this MOBO at XP. Is that not true? Now what will happen?
Everything seems to be working well. Should I enable APIC? I'm afraid to since everything seems to be good now.

Again, with these settings, my radeon 9700 pro isn't crashing anymore.

Eventhough it wasn't the ps, I am glad I bought the Antec. It has lot's of extra connectors, including two for case fans, and a mobo ps fan monitor. However, I love the fact that it is almost silent. That alone is reason enough to buy it.

Another plus with this case, is the cooling. At stock settings, this processor at 2700+ runs cooler than my wife's athlon 2000+ with a generic enermax case. Neither processor is OC'd. Granted she doesn't have the two extra case fans. Weird thing is that the two rear case fans blow air IN to the case. I thought that they should exhaust them. Should I have them reversed?

athlon 2000+ runs at 48C
athlon 2700+ runs at 43C

thanks

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: freeflap
Thanks for the suggestions.
Yes, I am running FSB at 166 (333)
I have settings as optimal.
video cache is disabled
BIOS cache is disabled
I disabled APIC b/c I read that it caused problems with this MOBO at XP. Is that not true? Now what will happen?
Everything seems to be working well. Should I enable APIC? I'm afraid to since everything seems to be good now.

Again, with these settings, my radeon 9700 pro isn't crashing anymore.

Eventhough it wasn't the ps, I am glad I bought the Antec. It has lot's of extra connectors, including two for case fans, and a mobo ps fan monitor. However, I love the fact that it is almost silent. That alone is reason enough to buy it.

Another plus with this case, is the cooling. At stock settings, this processor at 2700+ runs cooler than my wife's athlon 2000+ with a generic enermax case. Neither processor is OC'd. Granted she doesn't have the two extra case fans. Weird thing is that the two rear case fans blow air IN to the case. I thought that they should exhaust them. Should I have them reversed?

athlon 2000+ runs at 48C
athlon 2700+ runs at 43C

thanks

Are those CPU or system temps? If they are CPU temps, I'd attribute it more to the T-bred vs. Palomino core, although the extra case fans certainly help. As for the two rear fan orientation, you might want to switch it if it seems like the rest of the fans are causing airflow problems. Most people intake through the front and side, exhaust through the rear, top and PSU for best results.

As for disabling APIC, I'm not so sure it was an issue with APIC as much as it was with that BIOS. There's a nice faq here on AT that describes APIC better than I ever could (unless I cut and pasted ), so I'd check that out. I've never disabled it and then re-enabled it, so I can't comment on the potential repercussions.

The TruePower line is awesome though..picked up a TrueBlue 480W on Friday and it rocks Upgraded from a 400W Antec that couldn't handle a 2nd CC I installed. Try updating your drivers to see if you benchies don't improve. Otherwise, if everything is running fine and you don't feel like you are running slower than you should be, I wouldn't worry about 3dmarks too much.

Chiz

 

[freeflap]

Yes, they are CPU temps. I just ran PCMark 2002:
CPU: 6506
Memory: 4974
Hard Drive: 1260

Are these scores ballpark for my rig? all stock, no OC.
how do you check the memory to see if you are functioning under dual channel? I have the two sticks in 1 and 3 slots according to the manual.

 

[klein297]

Might find some answers here.