Motherboard options for AGP

[vigilante212]

Im thinking I might have to change out my motherboard its acting really wierd. After boot it fails to load keyboard even though num lock light remains lit, and my usb mouse will become inactive and the usb will have to recconect it every now and then, and last but not least failure to post or boot sometimes.

Now I have a ASUS A7V600 mb with a athlon xp 2800, if I could I would like to just replace the MB and use the same chip. I like asus also, but I know my mb was discontinued and the XP chips are discontinued.

So it would probably be more cost effective for me to upgrade to a socket 939, but It would need to be AGP not PCI-E. Since I dont want to have to buy another graphics card just yet.

Keep in mind this comp will only be temprorary until I can build a new machine on the A2 platform.

So if you have any suggestions of boards or links to sites with socket A boards that you trust lemme know.

 

[DevilJaw00]

i was in a similar situation recently, i had a XP 2500 and a ABIT NF7-S 2.0 board and the board's SATA controller finally gave out.

i was just going to get a new replacement board i orginally bought the board new for $110 a few years ago, but now that same board is around $70-90 new, so the only option being to try to find one off ebay for a decent price.

to get a similar performing board with similar features is very difficult at the time and even now, for me as i had a very nice performing nforce2 board i just wanted to replace.

so in the end i just saved up a little and purchased a new 939 system, was going to go am2 but i already had 2gb of some nice corsair modules, so i carried it over to the new system, that and at the time i didnt have much of a good selection of am2 mobos.

if you are really in need, the only company i have seen that sells new boards is http://www.pcprogress.com, although some of the good socket a boards are at a high price.

so stick with the via kt600, kt880 or nvidia nforce2 ultra chipsets to have similar performace to what you have now.

so you really got three options,

1. try to find a similar board off ebay
2. buy new from very few companies(wasting money)
3. save up and build new system

 

[13thmonkey]

Its not strictly an answer to your question, but have you tried using a USB PCI card to give you more usb sockets whilst bypassing the onboard ones which appear to be dead?

Asrock do some AGP & PCI-E boards for various processors but not socket A. I'm about to use the Dual775 VSTA to go conroe from a 3200+ barton.

 

[Pain]

Or before that, possibly reloading windows to see if a clean install will fix it. You have to reload anyway, so see if it works before you put out any cash.

 

[13thmonkey]

If its not booting, its unlikely to be a windows issue, but the definition of 'not loading' varied so much from person to person, could be a damaged HD, so an install with a format might do it some good.

Worth a try..

 

[Oldguy]

Had the exact same problem with a family member machine yesterday. checked it out and decided time that it would take to diagnose and or fix longer than and inexpensive rebuild....for about $160 you can get 3500+ and Asus AGP 939 mb or can go a little cheaper with some of the MSI small form factor boards - depending on how many drives and pci cards you are using. short term not too bad and you can keep the old one as an emergency stash after the new build. New Egg and Zipzoomfly within a couple of dollars plus or minus shipped.

 

[vigilante212]

I do have a usb 2.0 card in the computer, I just havent gotten around to loading the drivers for it.

This is a fresh format as of friday last week, since this problem was keeping me from playing any games, and the keyboard issue started happening just before the reformatt and its still happening, but only once and awhile. If I restart the comp it will work again.

I checked the hd not too long ago seemed to be fine no errors detected, when it fails to load my bios popup says my comp hung for an improper cpu speed setting. it was set at 1666 and I just changed it to 2083 mhz, and I havent had it fail to load since, but thats not my default bios setting so its wierd.

Also these new boards your reccomending to they support pc 3200 ddr ram? I just bought some of that would hate to buy some more newer ram.

 

[13thmonkey]

Depends on the specific board but some of them support DDR and if they do they support 3200.

Have you tried doing a cmos reset? its starting to sound like an OC gone slightly wrong and the board not recovering well from it. NOt sure if you have been OC'ing.

 

[o1die]

I just ordered an nforce2 refurbished board from newegg for $18.99. It's made by biostar and should arrive today. I'm using it for a spare system I'll build this weekend. Newegg has similar deals on Friday night, when many new listings are posted in the returns section.

 

[vigilante212]

no i wasnt overclocking it. As for the CMOs thats beyond my ability or understanding with computers atm . Im sure if I read up on it I could figure it out.


Thx oldie ill look into that.

 

[13thmonkey]

If you have the mobo manual resetting the bios should be easy, there'll be a battery which you ahve to remove. Possibly some jumoers to change whilst battery is out. Check in your manual for CMOS reset or similar and it should tell you what to do, do it and you 'll need to reset some of your bios options, but if it is a problem it'll get you working. If it doesn't work then you are no worse off than you are now.

I think it is bios because the problem are happening so early, i.e. during Boot.