a7m266,re-booting

[Guest]

I have finally put together my dream machine but dark clouds are starting to gather and it is turning into a nightmare.My problem is as follows.This is the first time I have put together a system and I must admit It has been pretty easy but now it is getting hard and I hope some of you very ta.lented guys can help me out.My a7m266 powered system will re-boot itself from time to time.I have tried all the solutions that I have seen in this community such as making sure the vio and vio1 jumpers set correct,removing vio1 jumper completely,removing one of the ram sticks and other solutions I can`t think of now.The only way I can get any sort of stability is to set fsb to 100mhz or less.Trying to get help from asus is near impossible as they won`t answer e-mails and thier website is a shocker.I am aware other people are having similar problems and I feel for them.The strange thing is that the problem is as if something may be getting to hot as everthing works great long enough for me to experiance the amd power but sooner or later trouble comes along.I am running in jumper free mode and I have checked and double checked everything and can never see anything wrong.I envy you guys that have a stable system and I will love to be in your shoes.Any help would be greatly appreciated,and many thanks in advance.My system is as follows: amd 1.2 266mhz,a7m266 with 1003 bios,512 crucial ddr ram,voodo 5500 agp,soundblaster live,vapochill case.

 

[Guest]

sounds like your chip is overheating....have you monitored your system temp while running. my money is on the heatsink/fan not being installed properly. asus has a utility called asusprobe for their mobo's thatmonitor heat. check it out and let us know. good luck

ignore everything i say

 

[macodi]

Does it always reboot after the same amount of time? If you let it boot to the OS and don't use any apps, does it stay up longer than if you use a 3D app? I'd lean toward heat as a problem too. Maybe the vapochill isn't working.

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Just like Beggars canyon back home

 

[dwwnole1]

Sorry, but I don't have any suggestions that might help you out, but I too have ordered a system very similar to yours and can't wait to put it together. I've just been fearing problems that could possibly arrive, which I'm sure they will. But whenever you fix your problem please let us know what you did just in the event myself or someone else encounters the same problem. I hope you get it worked out.

 

[Guest]

I have to agree with Antivirus. I would check for heat problems. There is free software on the net to monitor your motherboard. One I like (but requires tweaking) is MBProbe at http://web.bham.ac.uk/jst829/mbprobe/download.html.

You shouldn't be running higher than 130 degrees F. I have a K7 thunderbird 1000 that doesn't go over 120 but I also have high speed fans inside the case.

If you are running Windows 2000, be sure and uncheck "Automatically reboot on System errors" in the Control Panel, System under Advanced tab then click Startup and Recovery. (if that makes sense) Then you can see the error in the blue screen.

 

[kanute]

I didn't see your power supply listed under your system listing. With all the hardware you have, I would hope you were in the 400 watt range. I had the same problem you were having when I first built my system. The thing would just all of a sudden reboot for no apparent reason. I had a cheap 300 watt PS in it then. I have since replaced that with a 431 watt enermax power supply and have not had the problem occur since. The fact that it will run at 100 Mhz or less FSB suggests that it is stable when the system is drawing less power, which would lead me to believe your problem may be power related.

That oughta void your warrenty!

 

[macodi]

I don't have a vapochill, but from what I've read, your processor should be cooler than a cucumber if it's working correctly. I believe it comes with a hefty power supply.

 

[kanute]

I just wandered over to the vapochill website and the only power supply I see as an option is a "High Quality 300W." So if you got this one, I'd say the problem is your power supply. You got alot of hardware in there, and 300 watts just isn't gonna cut it. I had alot less then you and had problems with 300 watts. I'd suggest looking into a high quality 400 watt+ power supply from enermax.

That oughta void your warrenty!

 

[Guest]

It's not the first time it happens to me, so it could be happening to you:

Some computer's cases comes with faulty on/off switch. Try to use other case from a friend or so, and verify this!!

It seems like a joke, but I can assure you it's a nightmare until you take care of it!!!


[red]MiKiMoNo[/red]
[blue]...and Bill said: '¿Why don't you format your hard disk?' [blue][cool]

 

[dhlucke]

restarting randomly etc usually implies a bad powersupply, or possibly a short on the motherboard. Make sure your powersupply is good first and if that's not it take the back of a pencil and tap lightly all over the motherboard with the eraser to see if you can induce a restart.

<font color=red>Amd or Intel? Who cares?? Not me...</font color=red>

 

[Guest]

I use the Vapochill as well and have no direct heat related problems, not at 1.63 anyway.

I suppose you are aware that the Vapochill will cut the power if it reaches it's level1 setting? This would give the exact same symptoms that you have..

Run the computer for a while, heat building up, Vapochill hits it's level1 and cuts the power...


-What are the temprature of the Vapochill when it reboots?
(I belive the default level1 setting is at -5C)
-What are you running you CPU at?
-VCORE Voltage? (If overclocked)
-What PSU are you using? I got a Enermax 531W but I do have a LOT of fans in my case as well.. A PSU problem often manifests itself by cutting the power once the Vapochill let's the power to the cpu on. Eg; reacing it's level1 setting.

Alignment of the evaporator in the Vapochill is EXREMELY important. Check, double check and then check it again. It's also very important that you bend the hose in 90 degreees so that the PSU doesn't push on the evaporator.


Good luck!


/R

TBIRD 1.33@1.63
Asus A7M266
Vapochill
Elsa Geforce3
Apacer 256MB DDR266
Seagate X15