Boot problems 250GB

[jesper4711]

Hi!

 

Just moved from a perfectly working setup using MSI K8TNeo (VIA chipset) to a new Lanparty NF3 UT 250 GB board. Not using any RAID setup or SATA disks. System otherwise as in sig.

 

When booting into windows I get reboots/freezes. Trying to boot in safe mode will render me a system freeze. Booting into freebsd 5.2.1 I sometimes manage until starting X server (graphics) when I get a freeze-up. About to try a minimal config with one HDD and 1x512 stick o' memory and no firewire/usb/whatnot connected but I get the feeling there's something else the matter.

 

Any tips would be gratefully recepted!

 

ps oh yes, I running everything at stock speed.

[Angry_Games]

Load Optimized Defaults in teh bios first thing (after clearing CMOS properly as per the critical info sticky)

 

make sure heatsink is properly mounted and not overheating cpu

 

I would remove the creative card and use onboard sound. The onboard sound is better than the Creative Live 5.1, on par with the Audigy, not better than the Audigy2. Creative drivers/cards are known to be pain in the you know what

 

try a single stick of RAM in all the different slots.

 

try upping the chipset voltage a little, the AGP voltage a little

 

make sure the FX card is getting proper power from the power supply if it has a power connector. Make sure this power connector is not linked with any other device if possible (ie it isnt also powering a hdd or some other power hungry device)

[jesper4711]

Thank you very much for a quick response!

 

*Optimized* defaults? I loaded safe settings in BIOS, sure, I could try optimized...?

 

Have cleared CMOS and removed creative (is the AC'97 really better? interesting!)

 

Am running single stick of RAM in slot 1 will try the other slots.

 

The geforce is getting a non-shared molex directly from PSU (Antec Sonata 380W).

 

CPU temp is slightly below 50C and fan is working properly and attached as it should be.

 

Any other tips? (Will get back to you if switching RAM slots or upping voltages helps)

[Angry_Games]

the onboard audio is indeed better than anything but hte Audigy/Audigy2

 

i would carefully monitor your psu...380w Antec should be enough, but A64 systems are very power hungry. Minimal booting is a good idea to see if you can boot and have no problems, then add devices back onto the power chain and see if it locks up again.

 

CPU temp is a bit high...i would take a look at that (and go for an aftermarket cpu cooler for sure, THermalright SLK-948U if you can find one, Thermalright XP-90 if you cant find the 948U)

 

edit: i see you have a Zalman...thats a really good cooler and your temps are too high for a 3000+ and a Zalman...I would remove it, clean the bottom of the sink and the top heatspreader of the cpu with 95% or better rubbing alcohol, then re-apply the thermal grease and try again

[jesper4711]

Minimal config made no difference (still using it) but I discovered that I can boot into freebsd using safe settings (not sure about the difference to normal boot). Windows do not want to play at all.

 

Just to test I ran benchmarks in matlab (in freebsd) and videocard is actually performing better than ever (may be due to AGP and core voltage .1 increase). Still, normal boot won't work.

 

You are right about the heatspreader, I actually did not apply new thermal grease when changing mobo (for testing), will buy some tomorrow and see if that helps but is 46-47 degrees celsius (bios-readings) really so bad (as to cause freezes?).

 

Thanks for the help and if you think of anything else I'd be most happy! This online service is the best one I've had yet to experience!

[Mekrel]

Is the 27/8 bios the one shipped with the board? If so I think it does have a temp read error, as my CPU was rated at being 40 idle which I thought was high being as the A64 are supposed to give less heat out than the Bartons which my old barton idled at 35 on a pants cooler. Flashed to 01/28 bios and temps idle around 27/30 now. So the fixed bios if it follows the same pattern yours should be around 40 which still is abit high. How much TIM are you putting ontop of the heatspreader? You only need a fine layer to fill in the small bumps on the heatsink surface/CPU surface.

 

Probably sound like im teaching grandad to suck eggs but just trying to help

 

When booting into windows I get reboots/freezes

 

I take you havent even had chance to load drivers yet then? If you have loaded any chipset drives try not loading the Nforce IDE drivers, they are known to be problematic and the windows ones fit the bill anyway.

[jesper4711]

Ok, so could the problem actually be me be foolish enough to not apply thermal grease? I feel slightly stupid and will apply some asap.

 

I guess possibly the added strain of graphics makes temps rocket beyond 47C. I feel content enough with that and go to sleep and dream of arctic silver paste.

 

ps) yes i am using default bios

 

ps again) thnx for teaching grandad to suck eggs.....

[Mekrel]

Well I would have said temps (even though they are high for an a64) would have made a problem like the one you are experiencing. Antec are known for making some nice PSU's and I take it the Sonata is the one which comes with the Sonata case?

 

Well for that case to be priced how it is, surely they have not put a brilliant PSU in it (logical guess, could be wrong I admint). With that freebsd you can boot into, is there a program that can read the ratings of each of the psu lines? Mind you I think you can get that from looking in the bios IIRC.

 

Might be clutching at straws here but at least we can eliminate the PSU, and high temperatures and get to the problem somehow in the end.

 

Good luck

[jesper4711]

Tried to apply some arctic silver thermal paste today.

 

No such luck....I feel somewhat at a loss here actually, the only thing that is changed apart from the motherboard is the thermal paste (and this new paste is good).

 

I really do not think the PSU is the problems since everything was rock-solid with my MSI Neo with a full array of peripherals at 10% FSB overclock.

 

I did look at the ratings of the PSU in the BIOS and although I do not have them in front of me right now they did not seem out of the ordinarily (ok it is not really top of the line PSU but should be plenty enough for a bare-bones setup running at stock speed).

 

I also tried swapping memory to a Ram-bo CL 2.5 512 stick with no difference.

 

I am not far from taking the board back to the store right now, don't know if they'll let me but....whats a poor boy to do?

[jesper4711]

Oh, another thingy....did some googling on what this "safe mode" in freebsd means.

What I got was this: it disables ACPI, APIC, ATA DMA, ATAPI DMA, ATA Write Cache, and EISA.

 

Going to try to tweak the BIOS for these settings tomorrow (dont have access to the computer right now). The Google match I found was about someone having trouble with ACPI. Don't know the exact settings to try, guess I'll manage, but if someone has a bright one - hit me...

[psy^]

Hi!

 

Just moved from a perfectly working setup using MSI K8TNeo (VIA chipset) to a new Lanparty NF3 UT 250 GB board. Not using any RAID setup or SATA disks. System otherwise as in sig.

 

When booting into windows I get reboots/freezes.

 

Sounds like you've just replaced the mobo in a working rig without reinstalling OS or anything .. you know you're going from a VIA chipset to an nForce3 chipset right?

 

I'd be surprised if you *didn't* get problems doing things that way. A clean install should produce a more useful system

[jesper4711]

Ok,

 

I was sorta expecting somebody to throw this in my face together with a "doh, n00b" at once (I *did* point out the VIA->Nforce transition in the 1st post) but as nobody did I was thinking ok well I *am* a n00b what do I know:)

 

Just trying to save face here, but really, *thanks* everybody for helping me out here and sorry for being the proverbial n00b. Now I just gotta dig out the installation disks from somewhere...