A7V with athlon 750 Mhz can't boot windows

[Guest]

Hi
Please help!! I think I'm going crazy... ;-)

My problem is that every time I try to boot windows either from the HD or from a floppy, I get complaints of corrupt files or something like that. Most of the time the system just shuts down and reboots when coming to the windows splash screen (winME). But when disbling the L1 and L2 cache on the CPU everything seems to work, then it's possible to boot windows but it's still a bit unstable...

My system spec.

ASUS A7V rev 1.02 bios ver. 1004c
AMD athlon 750 Mhz
128 meg DIMM pc133 running at 100 Mhz..
ATI graphics card (pci)
HD - reformatted on this board..with winME
LS-120 drive
that's all...

My temps are stable at around 44 degrees on the cpu and 30 on the MB, so that doesn't seems to be a problem...

Any suggestions??

Regards Johan

 

[Guest]

I had the identical problem during Windows setup. Make sure your cdrom drive is hooked up the the Secondary IDE controller - not the primary controller.

This should solve the corrupt cab file proble. But your next problem will be finding the c: drive on the Promise controller. Your best bet is to install windows with your hard drive hooked up to you Primary IDE controller (i.e. NOT the ATA100 controller). After Windows installs successfully, you can switch the drive over to the ATA100 controller.

After all that's completed, you may wish to install the Build 33 Promise drivers and the 1005e Award bios.

PS: If you do install the 1005e bios, ignore the BOOT SECTOR NOT FOUND message - just hit enter and your system will boot. Remember first though, to load setup defaults right after you install the new bios.

 

[Guest]

I attached my HD from the beginning to the IDE-bus not the ATA-100 bus. I've also tried to switch between the primary and secondary IDEcontroller but there is no difference...
I have also removed my CD, so it's really a clean system.

I think I have tried everything but installing a newer biosversion, should that be necessary..
/Johan

 

[Guest]

I've got news, unfortunately it's bad. I've come upon several others with this exact same problem, and it all comes down with you receiving a bad processor chip. You see, the Level 1 cache is on the CPU itself, and by using it, it errors out of windows setup/boot. It has nothing to do with the way you install your IDE cables and such...that is a separate issue. What you need to do is send the CPU back to whomever you received it from and get an exchange. AMD may have put out a bunch of faulty CPU's without knowing it, and it seems you and I have been the lucky recipients of these. Hopefully your 30 day warranty with the company you purchased from hasn't ran out yet, else you'll have to send directly to AMD. There shouldn't be a problem either way. It's just the aggravation that it's caused...I understand completely. Good luck to you, and you can email me at wilcox@uwplatt.edu if you have any further questions.

P.S. I'm still waiting for my CPU exchange, but the few with our same problem that have already changed have said that their computers are now fully functional with the caches enabled. There is hope!

 

[Guest]

I exchanged my cpu right away - unfortunately the problems persisted. I have a working KT7 and the cpu wouldn't boot. So I figured it's got to be the cpu. Well I tried another and the story was the same. You see it's not the cpu - it was simply use the "reset" button and you'll post and get into the bios or whatever. So after that trick my cpu worked fine in the KT7 so I knew it's not the cpu. But I kept getting "cab file corrupt" error message during windows setup. So I RTFM'd again and it specifically RECOMMENDS that the cdrom be put on the SECONDARY controller - see item #9 first paragraph on p. 36. After I did that there were no more "cab file corrupt" messages during install and the setup went OK.

I really don't believe the amd cpus are bad as much as there were maybe a bunch of faulty a7v's. Certainly that was the case in my experience.

My a7v would crash every time I did any work on the pc. So it's already got the second cpu and it's still crashing. The cpu temperature is between 39 and 49 degrees celsius. I was ready to give up until member "magento" suggested using bios 1005a. I've done that and the damn board is stable - no more crashes.

Therefore, I am not ready to discount the cpu just quite yet. It is more likely that there is a problem with the board, cabling, bios or power supply.

 

[Guest]

Ok...it sounds like you have NOT in fact had this exact problem (meaning gorenc). The problem the original poster mentioned is that by enabling Level 1 cache, the computer is then unable to run or setup windows. Once disabled, windows runs stable, as does the setup for it (though quite slowly). This pinpoints the problem directly to the cache, which lies on the CPU. It's not the motherboard, IDE connections, etc. It seems like you, gorenc, were indeed having a problem booting also, and rightfully so because as I stated previously, the A7V has OTHER problems. I too flashed BIOS to 1005a, but this didn't solve the problem as you suggest. The problem lies within the CPU for this particular poster. Take my original advice, and get a new CPU. It'll fix your faulty cache portion right up and you can move onto other problems...hehe. For a lot of help concerning the A7V and issues, consult mainly the ASUS A7V troubleshooting page located at http://members.tripod.de/Juggernaut/index.htm

You can read a post concerning this very issue and the fact that it IS the CPU at http://pub26.ezboard.com/fjuggernautshardwarefrm1.showMessage?topicID=850.topic

Hope this helps.

 

[Guest]

You're right. The guy should try a new cpu.