Athlon XP 2800+ Mobo?

[Defacil]

So I have this computer that's been messing up all the time. I think it's a poorly built system or a part is faulty or something. The specs are:

AMD Athlon XP 2800+
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
512MB Ram (forgot exactly what kind but memtest showed 0 errors)
ATI Radeon 9700+
Two Seagate SATA HDs (one 70gb and one 120gb)
Audio and Network are onboard.

So I format this pc and install a clean XP on it and everything installs smoothly. After installing the nforce2 drivers (from nvidia.com) and the video card drivers (latest from ati.com), everything is ok. Windows XP loads up fine, music playing, etc. all good.

I then install Quake 3, an old game and not too stressful on the pc... and the game crashes right when I try to play. It goes into a BSOD and the error was related to win32k.sys. After rebooting and googling it, people mentioned ram problems related to A7N8X so I memtest it and 0 errors. Well... after rebooting again... the mobo can't recognize my HDs. I can format the HD with the WinXP cd and redo the whole installation process but it always just crashes.

I have confirmed that the video card isn't faulty by switching it to another pc and playing Battlefield 2. Soo.. I'm thinking its the motherboard? Or maybe the HDs?

 

[nick1985]

what kind of power supply do you have?


have you run memtest 86?



have you run prime95?

 

[John P]

Do you have another stick of RAM you can try? I have had some problems on several of my machines including one of my kids NForce2 machines being finicky about RAM.

If you get a know good stick of RAM to substitute for the one you are using now and still get BSOD's I would say your mb is bad. (That is assuming you've tried the vid card in another machine and it works fine AND you've tried a different power supply just to make sure.)

 

[Defacil]

To the first poster: I have run memtest86 and no errors came up. I have not run prime95 (never heard of it). As for the power supply, I use a POWMAX 6100C 300W.

To the second poster: I actually switched RAM from a bad stick to a new stick and the same type of crashing occurs.

 

[madthumbs]

PSU. I ran an Antec True 430 on mine, and it was not sufficient for stability. Actually I could barely run the cpu at stock speeds (barton 2500+). It would not overclock with that psu.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: Defacil
To the first poster: ... As for the power supply, I use a POWMAX 6100C 300W..

You've answered your own question. Powmax sells a reasonably good case; they do not sell good power supplies. And anyone who had a bad Antec psu should've sent it back. Those are among the most reliable of psu's readily available at reasonable prices.


:frown:

 

[Defacil]

Figures... I never check the psu. Anyhow, I'm thinking about ordering three of these, what do you all think:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

 

[Defacil]

I just ordered the above psu but I have another question... I went to a wedding party type thing and met with a friend that works on computers and he says that since I constantly get the error: "Boot disk failed" everytime my pc crashes that my hard-drives may have gone to crap. Could he be right?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Defacil
I just ordered the above psu but I have another question... I went to a wedding party type thing and met with a friend that works on computers and he says that since I constantly get the error: "Boot disk failed" everytime my pc crashes that my hard-drives may have gone to crap. Could he be right?

He could be. If there's a corrupted block on your HD, and it just happens to house, say, win32k.sys - that could be the source of your woe right there.

Get the manufacturer's tool and do a scan for errors.

- M4H

 

[gnumantsc]

There is a 3D test to test your agp card to see if it is defective from ATi. I never knew my 8500 was defective all the time heh.

 

[JDCentral]

Yeah.. prime95 is good at detecting CPU/RAM/MB errors.

 

[Defacil]

"Get the manufacturer's tool and do a scan for errors. " <-- I did use the Seagate diagnostic tool and both hds failed the complete test but passed the quick test. The recommendation was seek professional help though :/