Shuttle SN41G2 randomly restarts under XP

[patman1337]

I recently assembled a new Shuttle SN41G2 SFF PC with the following components:

Athlon XP 2600+
512 MB 2700 DDR Crucial RAM
160 GB MAXTOR 6Y160P0 8 MB Cache (Partitioned into 6, 120, and 5 gig partitions)
48x/24x/48x/16x SM-348B Samsung CD-RW/DVD Drive
Generic Floppy Drive
Wireless Intellimouse Explorer
Generic PS/2 Keyboard

Installed Windows XP Professional onto the first partition, set up everything nicely.
Put in the driver CD for the computer, it notified me that I had to download Windows XP SP1 in order to enable USB 2.0 functionality. So, I downloaded the service pack. Proceeded to cause my computer to restart everytime it was started up, stopping in the boot sequence at a file named mup.sys (a problem I've researched throroughly). Tried to re-install XP to see if it would fix the problem; it did. Downloaded and successfully installed Windows XP SP1. Still had problems with the computer re-booting. Went to Windows Update and installed all of the highly recommended items listed there.
Proceeded to Install Microsoft XP Plus! just for kicks.

Since doing all of this, Windows has systematically restarted randomly over a period of a half hour to just a few minutes after start up. Usually after restarting, it will ask me to send an error report to Microsoft. I have stopped doing so, as it was just getting annoying. However, I did check to see what it was sending. Most of the time, it came across as a driver conflict.

Downloaded the most recent drivers from Shuttle's website, as well as the most recent nForce2 board drivers from nvidia.com. After installing, the problem solidified for a while, but has since re-surfaced.

Most of the time the problem appears to occur whenever an intensive task is occuring. For instance, copying large files, playing a video game, or just plain net surfing. I just sat down to do an install of Windows 2000 Professional Edition to see if it would resolve the problem at all, and the computer blue-screened twice on install (once for a 'page fault out of area' and the second time for an IDE conflict of some sort).

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why this is happening, and short of wiping everything and starting over, I'm not very sure what I can do. Suggestions are most welcome at this point!

 

[mechBgon]

If possible, you should install SP1 before installing your nVidia drivers. Can you stash the whole SP1 executable on one of your other partitions, then do a fresh install of Windows, then SP1, and then the nVidia drivers, or is that what you did already?

When you do install the nVidia drivers, watch the prompts. Say No when it asks if you want to install the "SW" IDE driver, and that will cause it to install the CDRW-friendly WHQL IDE driver instead, which is what you want. In fact, if you wanted to try something now, before starting over, you might try that. Looking over your IDE cables for damage wouldn't hurt either

The other thing that comes to mind is to try reducing the electrical load on the system to see what happens, as a fact-finding step. Maybe underclock your CPU and memory to the 133MHz bus, and unplug your optical and floppy drives, to see what happens in that scenario. Good luck!

 

[patman1337]

Just downloaded and attempted to install SP3 for Windows 2000, same results. Computer restarted in the middle of the install.

A thought just occured; I've never heard the fan go on in the computer; I will try setting the activation temperature lower and see if that helps (left it at default factory setting).

Will also try the other suggestions and see if they help out.

When originally installing the components, I had indeed installed the drivers from the CD before installing XP SP1. I do have SP1 on my HD, so will try installing it first before installing the drivers and see if it helps.

Will also try underclocking memory to see if it results in any changes.

Thanks!

 

[patman1337]

Removed FDD, CD-RW/DVD drive. Downed fan temperature to 40 degrees C. Downed clock speed to 133 MHz.

Computer now runs like a charm under Windows 2000 Professional. Plugged back in the CD-RW/DVD drive, continues to run with no problems. Able to download and install updates without random restarts.

Will do the re-install of XP later on and post again with results.

Dang...computer just restarted after going back into Win 2K with the CD-DVD/RW Drive installed. Removed CD-RW/DVD, reconnected floppy.

Computer continues to run fine again. Will bump back up memory speed. Beginning to suspect more and more that it's the CD-RW/DVD drivers as you suspected.

More as it develops.

 

[mechBgon]

Dang! I don't know for sure whether the power supply has a standard 20-pin ATX pinout, but if it does, you might want to try a quality-name full-sized power supply (Antec, Enermax, Sparkle Power) as a troubleshooting step. If it runs ok with a heftier power supply, then maybe it just doesn't quite have enough oomph for all your goodies at once.

I was also thinking about the cooling setup. Maybe when the cooling fan finally does kick in, it's the straw that breaks the camel's back and the system reboots as a result of the starting draw on the 12V line. Just a speculation. Hope it works out for you!

 

[Mday]

I think this is a powersupply problem as well. you'll be hard set to find a replacement though. So leave out the non essentials for now.

 

[AtomicDude512]

According to Nvidia you have to install SP1 on WIndows XP before you install Nvidia's platform drivers otherwise it will crash.

 

[patman1337]

finally got XP SP1 on a CD so that I can install it w/out having to install the network drivers to download it. kind of a roundabout way to go about doing things, but it's the only option left.

i will also try a different PSU and see if it solves the problem at all.

 

[ugh]

Perhaps you could try this forums instead:

http://forums.sudhian.com

They've got one whole section dedicated for XPC/SFF discussions.

 

[rg486]

I had a similar experience to patman1337 with a similarly configured sn41g2. Instabilities went away when I installed an AGP video card. After searching through a few discussion groups it appears that the sn41g2 may be sensitive to the brand/model of memory used with the integrated graphics processor (which uses shared memory). NVidia has a memory compatibility matrix,

http://www.nvidia.com/content/nForceMemoryCompatability/lstnForceMemoryCompatibility.asp

and the Kingston 333 DDR memory I have is compatible with SPP but not IGP. I suppose it is possible that the memory is bad, however it works fine so far with the AGP video card (which obviously uses its own superfast memory).

Is anyone using IGP graphics successfully (no blue screens, spontaneous reboots, error reports)? If so, which brand/model of memory are you using?

rg486