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Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Can anyone recommend a descent motherboard. It must have SATA RAID
functionality, USB 2, Firewire & be able to cope with DDR 400 (PC3200).

I have been using a Gigabyte GA-SINXP1394 but think it is stuffed. I have a
Connect3d 9700 graphics card & 1gb ram. but my PC constantly crashes,
especially whilst playing games (medal of honor is the worst). I have tried
swapping the graphics card and ram with another PC but the problem stays
with mine. I am running Windows XP pro SP2 (probably a big mistake in
itself) and have downloaded the latest ATI drivers for the graphics card.
The ram is a type recommended in the Gigabyte manual.

I have emailed Gigabyte but they were no help at all, so over to the people
who really know .............. you.
 
J

jad

Distinguished
Mar 30, 2004
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Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

any asus board that fits whatever your cpu is along with your secret
identity ram.

1gb ram. but my PC constantly crashes

Cmos thoughts:
video aperture is set too high
shadowing enabled


"John Wescott" <j.wescott@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:cr2062$192$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
> Can anyone recommend a descent motherboard. It must have SATA RAID
> functionality, USB 2, Firewire & be able to cope with DDR 400
(PC3200).
>
> I have been using a Gigabyte GA-SINXP1394 but think it is stuffed. I
have a
> Connect3d 9700 graphics card & 1gb ram. but my PC constantly
crashes,
> especially whilst playing games (medal of honor is the worst). I
have tried
> swapping the graphics card and ram with another PC but the problem
stays
> with mine. I am running Windows XP pro SP2 (probably a big mistake
in
> itself) and have downloaded the latest ATI drivers for the graphics
card.
> The ram is a type recommended in the Gigabyte manual.
>
> I have emailed Gigabyte but they were no help at all, so over to the
people
> who really know .............. you.
>
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I'd highly recommend the Asus P4C800E-Deluxe. Well built, stable, and not
too highly priced.

--
DaveW



"John Wescott" <j.wescott@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:cr2062$192$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
> Can anyone recommend a descent motherboard. It must have SATA RAID
> functionality, USB 2, Firewire & be able to cope with DDR 400 (PC3200).
>
> I have been using a Gigabyte GA-SINXP1394 but think it is stuffed. I have
> a Connect3d 9700 graphics card & 1gb ram. but my PC constantly crashes,
> especially whilst playing games (medal of honor is the worst). I have
> tried swapping the graphics card and ram with another PC but the problem
> stays with mine. I am running Windows XP pro SP2 (probably a big mistake
> in itself) and have downloaded the latest ATI drivers for the graphics
> card. The ram is a type recommended in the Gigabyte manual.
>
> I have emailed Gigabyte but they were no help at all, so over to the
> people who really know .............. you.
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

John Wescott:

> Can anyone recommend a descent motherboard. It must have SATA RAID
> functionality, USB 2, Firewire & be able to cope with DDR 400
> (PC3200).
>
> I have been using a Gigabyte GA-SINXP1394 but think it is stuffed. I
> have a Connect3d 9700 graphics card & 1gb ram. but my PC constantly
> crashes, especially whilst playing games (medal of honor is the
> worst). I have tried swapping the graphics card and ram with another
> PC but the problem stays with mine. I am running Windows XP pro SP2
> (probably a big mistake in itself) and have downloaded the latest ATI
> drivers for the graphics card. The ram is a type recommended in the
> Gigabyte manual.

It could also be generic memory, a cheap or underperforming power
supply, heat, a driver issue, etc. Does it only crash when the CPU is
stressed (playing games)? Does it seem random? Have you made any
hardware or software changes that coincide with the problem? What exact
error messages are you getting? Is it 'crashing' to a blue screen or
just exiting the program or does it freeze?

Something to take a look at:

Issues with some memory
http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11587

Bad revision
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-53303.html

You don't seem alone with your problems.
--
Mac Cool
 
J

JohnS

Distinguished
Apr 2, 2004
314
0
18,780
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Read my post just below this. I don't think the problem
is BIOS, revisions, etc. I think the problem is that the
ram slots are not "standard", and some vendors ram
simply does not fit in the slots. I can take the Kingston
ram I just bought, and no matter how I try, I cannot
seat it properly in the slot. It seems to click in, but then
I can take one end and easily pull it out of the slot,
and the end connectors don't move at all. Somebody
is not meeting the right standards of fit. And from
experience I had with 3 other Gigabyte VIA chipset
mobos for the AMD64, I could get them to work
sometimes, but then they would be flakey in games
like you are seeing. I noticed on all of those mobos
that the ram was very difficult to seat in the slots. I
am convinced that it did not fit, and I am also convinced
that forcing the fit was eventually cracking the mobo,
or the connectors. Those mobos would just start
beeping steady at boot like an overheat does. Gigabyte
thought it must be a short somewhere. I'm pretty sure
it was a short in the ram slots caused by poor fit.
I'm having good luck with the mobo mentioned in my
post .. Nvidia chipset. I absolutely do not recommend
any of the Gigabyte mobos using the VIA chipset. They
are just not compatible with much of anything ... cdrw,
iomega zip, sata, all of them run flakey at sometime,
and even simple BIOS settings on the mobo will cause
total failure ... like "system defaults". Personally, I think
these Chinese guys are not giving us tested products.
They are just poring stuff out their doors, and that is
tough if it doesn't work. We need a certifying agency
out here in the real World who will test their products,
and send them back on a slow boat if they don't pass.

johns
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

> It could also be generic memory, a cheap or underperforming power
> supply, heat, a driver issue, etc. Does it only crash when the CPU is
> stressed (playing games)? Does it seem random? Have you made any
> hardware or software changes that coincide with the problem? What exact
> error messages are you getting? Is it 'crashing' to a blue screen or
> just exiting the program or does it freeze?
>
> Something to take a look at:
>
> Issues with some memory
> http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11587
>
> Bad revision
> http://www.abxzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-53303.html
>
> You don't seem alone with your problems.
> --
> Mac Cool

Thanks for your replies.

I have a 350 watt power supply, do you think this is underpowered? (I have a
P4 2.GHz CPU). The crashes are completely random but more so when the CPU is
under pressure i.e. when I'm playing games. I don't always get a blue screen
either but on the rare occasions I have they have pointed to an 'unknown
device' as being the problem. When I'm playing games (normally Flight Sim
2004, Halo, Medal of honour, call of duty etc) the PC will either freeze so
that my only option is to press the reset button, or the PC freezes and then
reboots itself, or the game crashes back to the desktop and continues to do
so until I reboot. I have tried loading the latest drivers for my Connect3D
9700 graphics card but every time I power on the PC the screen is illegible
with black horizontal lines down the screen. they clear after several
reboots but I thought there must be a problem with the driver, (I have
downloaded several copies in case one was corrupt). Also (and this is why I
think the problem lies with the motherboard) when I reboot the PC the BIOS
screens are illegible aswell. But I have tried the graphics card in another
PC and it works fine.

Thanks in advance

John Wescott
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"johns" <johns123xxx@xxxmoscow.com> wrote in message
news:cr4676$12vl$1@news.fsr.net...
> Read my post just below this. I don't think the problem
> is BIOS, revisions, etc. I think the problem is that the
> ram slots are not "standard", and some vendors ram
> simply does not fit in the slots. I can take the Kingston
> ram I just bought, and no matter how I try, I cannot
> seat it properly in the slot. It seems to click in, but then
> I can take one end and easily pull it out of the slot,
> and the end connectors don't move at all. Somebody
> is not meeting the right standards of fit. And from
> experience I had with 3 other Gigabyte VIA chipset
> mobos for the AMD64, I could get them to work
> sometimes, but then they would be flakey in games
> like you are seeing. I noticed on all of those mobos
> that the ram was very difficult to seat in the slots. I
> am convinced that it did not fit, and I am also convinced
> that forcing the fit was eventually cracking the mobo,
> or the connectors. Those mobos would just start
> beeping steady at boot like an overheat does. Gigabyte
> thought it must be a short somewhere. I'm pretty sure
> it was a short in the ram slots caused by poor fit.
> I'm having good luck with the mobo mentioned in my
> post .. Nvidia chipset. I absolutely do not recommend
> any of the Gigabyte mobos using the VIA chipset. They
> are just not compatible with much of anything ... cdrw,
> iomega zip, sata, all of them run flakey at sometime,
> and even simple BIOS settings on the mobo will cause
> total failure ... like "system defaults". Personally, I think
> these Chinese guys are not giving us tested products.
> They are just poring stuff out their doors, and that is
> tough if it doesn't work. We need a certifying agency
> out here in the real World who will test their products,
> and send them back on a slow boat if they don't pass.
>
> johns

Thanks for the tip mate. My first thought was memory due to how erratic the
crashes are and even downloaded Microsoft's memory test program (mind you
I'm not sure how reliable it is ;-) ) which shows no problems. After reading
your reply I checked my RAM (Kingston PC3200/DDR400) and seems to be seated
securely, however I did remove it and reseat it to be sure and it looks and
feels okay. Mind you my mobo has an SiS chipset not VIA, but that shouldn't
make a difference to the build quality though. I totally agree about having
a certifying agency, my guess is until now they have been relying too
heavily on us to discover the flaws. Thanks again.

John Wescott
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

> Thanks for your replies.
>
> I have a 350 watt power supply, do you think this is underpowered?

Since you didn't mention what brand it is, there is a 90% probability that
your real problem lies right there. If I was running your hardware with a
generic 350, I would expect, well, exactly the problems you reported in the
OP. -Dave
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

John Wescott:

> I have a 350 watt power supply, do you think this is underpowered?

In general, no. But it depends if it is a quality supply and if it is
functioning properly or not. Start here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=844691

> The crashes are completely random but more so
> when the CPU is under pressure i.e. when I'm playing games.

Crashes are really never random, something is triggering them. You just
have to figure out what it is. Sometimes it can be a combination of
events.

If you test the PS and it seems ok...

I realize you have already swapped memory and the video card and the
problem remains. I'm still concerned that your board may be picky about
memory. I know that you stated the memory was compatible, but what does
that mean? Memory sticks can sometimes seem identical to casual
observation or specs, but I recommend using one of the memory
configurators at Crucial, Kingston, or whoever you buy from. If the
board is picky, then switching alone will not determine if you have a
memory problem.

> I don't always get a blue screen either but on the rare occasions I
> have they have pointed to an 'unknown device' as being the problem.

It may be helpful to type the exact error message into google and see
what comes up.

> I have tried loading the latest drivers for my Connect3D 9700
> graphics card but every time I power on the PC the screen is
> illegible with black horizontal lines down the screen. they clear
> after several reboots but I thought there must be a problem with the
> driver, (I have downloaded several copies in case one was corrupt).
> Also (and this is why I think the problem lies with the motherboard)
> when I reboot the PC the BIOS screens are illegible aswell. But I
> have tried the graphics card in another PC and it works fine.

IMO, the motherboard is less likely to be your problem than the video
card, memory or power supply. I wouldn't rule anything out, but
personally, I wouldn't replace the motherboard until I had tested the PS
and was certain the memory was compatible.
--
Mac Cool
 
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