Hello everyone!
I've been having problems with my comp for the last 2 weeks..
After a Bios flash failed, I bought myself a new PCI-E motherboard and a graphic card to go with it.
Since then, I had nothing but trouble. I reinstalled Windows XP Pro a few times and each time had problems with very long loading times and such (which I finally found was because of the nforce 4 IDE drivers).
Now I can load XP correctly, and it's pretty stable as long as I don't run a game or a benchmark.
But, when I launch Guild Wars for instance, the game crashes after between 10 seconds and a minute or 2. It even crashes if I leave the game idle in the menu just after launching the game. It crashes wether the game is in background or the active window (Full screen or in a window doesn't change anything).
I was able to play Prince of Persia - The Two Thrones tho, it only crashes every hour or so (same type of crash, image freezes, and sound loops or screeches).
Need for Speed Most Wanted didn't seem to crash at all (tho I only tried for about 2 hours)
3DMark 2003 seems to crash mostly during Game Test 3 (Troll's Lair) or any CPU tests.
3DMark 2001 crashes during CPU tests too.
3DMark 2005 crashes during Game Test 2 (not always tho) or CPU Tests (always).
I also crashed once during a HD video playback (Quicktime 7 trailer 720p), but that was the only time.
Sometimes (rarely tho), after I had such crashes, when I reset, I hear 5 short beeps and then a few seconds later a normal beep but no video. I can reset as many times as I can after that, it beeps normally but no video. The only way to boot normally is to turn off my computer completely and turn it back on.
Ok, now here's what I've done so far :
I've trying removing my IDE disks and DVDs (I have windows and games on my SATA), my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (+ drivers) and my network card, disabled everything I could on the motherboard, and it still crashes.
Increasing the memory voltage to 2.70v, or graphic card voltages doesn't seem to change anything.
I already exchanged my X1800 XL, but that wasn't the problem.
Memtest86 didn't find any problems after running for 10 hours, Prime95 and different burn in tests didn't crash at all.
I tried installing video drivers from 5.6 to 5.12, nforce4 drivers 6.66 and 6.70 (only SM Bus and ethernet without the firewall).
I tried a few different drivers for my Audigy 2 (but since it still crashes when I remove it and remove all drivers, I doubt that's the problem).
My memory timings are now 3-3-3-8 (very conservative), I didn't overclock anything from the start, disabled PEG Link mode and PEG Root in Bios (tried with them on as well).
The voltages on my PSU are good, the CPU is about 40 to 45° during load, GPU goes to around 62-65° during load (seems pretty normal).
Of course this is a fresh Windows install (reinstalled about 10 times to find out the different problems).
I'm thinking of trying with Windows XP 64 but I don't want to run into compatibility problems afterwards...
I hope I'm not forgetting anything.. if I am, I'll post it.
Thanks in advance for your help, I'm running out of ideas
Here are my specs :
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Newcastle)
Asus K8N4-E Deluxe (Nforce 4-4x socket 754, PCI Express)
HIS ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256Mb
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
1Gb Corsair XMS 400Mhz
PSU : Antec TruePower 2 TrueControl 2 550W
Maxtor 300Gb SATA Diamondmax 10
Western Digital 120Gb 7200
Western Digital 200Gb 7200
If you need anymore info, please tell me so.
Mithrandir
I've been having problems with my comp for the last 2 weeks..
After a Bios flash failed, I bought myself a new PCI-E motherboard and a graphic card to go with it.
Since then, I had nothing but trouble. I reinstalled Windows XP Pro a few times and each time had problems with very long loading times and such (which I finally found was because of the nforce 4 IDE drivers).
Now I can load XP correctly, and it's pretty stable as long as I don't run a game or a benchmark.
But, when I launch Guild Wars for instance, the game crashes after between 10 seconds and a minute or 2. It even crashes if I leave the game idle in the menu just after launching the game. It crashes wether the game is in background or the active window (Full screen or in a window doesn't change anything).
I was able to play Prince of Persia - The Two Thrones tho, it only crashes every hour or so (same type of crash, image freezes, and sound loops or screeches).
Need for Speed Most Wanted didn't seem to crash at all (tho I only tried for about 2 hours)
3DMark 2003 seems to crash mostly during Game Test 3 (Troll's Lair) or any CPU tests.
3DMark 2001 crashes during CPU tests too.
3DMark 2005 crashes during Game Test 2 (not always tho) or CPU Tests (always).
I also crashed once during a HD video playback (Quicktime 7 trailer 720p), but that was the only time.
Sometimes (rarely tho), after I had such crashes, when I reset, I hear 5 short beeps and then a few seconds later a normal beep but no video. I can reset as many times as I can after that, it beeps normally but no video. The only way to boot normally is to turn off my computer completely and turn it back on.
Ok, now here's what I've done so far :
I've trying removing my IDE disks and DVDs (I have windows and games on my SATA), my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (+ drivers) and my network card, disabled everything I could on the motherboard, and it still crashes.
Increasing the memory voltage to 2.70v, or graphic card voltages doesn't seem to change anything.
I already exchanged my X1800 XL, but that wasn't the problem.
Memtest86 didn't find any problems after running for 10 hours, Prime95 and different burn in tests didn't crash at all.
I tried installing video drivers from 5.6 to 5.12, nforce4 drivers 6.66 and 6.70 (only SM Bus and ethernet without the firewall).
I tried a few different drivers for my Audigy 2 (but since it still crashes when I remove it and remove all drivers, I doubt that's the problem).
My memory timings are now 3-3-3-8 (very conservative), I didn't overclock anything from the start, disabled PEG Link mode and PEG Root in Bios (tried with them on as well).
The voltages on my PSU are good, the CPU is about 40 to 45° during load, GPU goes to around 62-65° during load (seems pretty normal).
Of course this is a fresh Windows install (reinstalled about 10 times to find out the different problems).
I'm thinking of trying with Windows XP 64 but I don't want to run into compatibility problems afterwards...
I hope I'm not forgetting anything.. if I am, I'll post it.
Thanks in advance for your help, I'm running out of ideas
Here are my specs :
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Newcastle)
Asus K8N4-E Deluxe (Nforce 4-4x socket 754, PCI Express)
HIS ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256Mb
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
1Gb Corsair XMS 400Mhz
PSU : Antec TruePower 2 TrueControl 2 550W
Maxtor 300Gb SATA Diamondmax 10
Western Digital 120Gb 7200
Western Digital 200Gb 7200
If you need anymore info, please tell me so.
Mithrandir
