Tons of problems after upgrades, PLEASE help :)

[316]

Hello everyone, I'm feeling helpless right now and cannot find answers anywhere online. Could anyone PLEASE give me a hand? THANKS!

One thing to know about me. This is the first motherboard/cpu i've ever installed. I've always felt comfortable around computers, and been able to swap ram, hard drives, etc, but never built a system. I'm definately not a techie and I get confused when you start talking all the numbers.

I just upgraded my computer. I put in:

AMD Athlon 64bit 3400+ (venice core)
A8V Motherboard

What it already had:

1 Gig DDR 266MHz ram
Maxtor Harddrive
Dvd-rom
Radeon 9600XT

When I put the new hardware in, I also did a full reinstall of windows, just to start off fresh.

Well, after all the MS updates, driver updates, bios update etc. The stupid thing is having TONS of issues. I also installed java and flash. Also I installed the network driver that came with the motherboard.

I keep getting mss32.dll, mshtml.dll, kernal32.dll errors. Internet Explorer 7.0 crashes so often it's almost unusable (I'm posting this from work). Mozilla crashes almost the instant I open it (sometimes it will let me go to a website for 2 seconds, then crash).

I can't find any solid answers online and I'm going crazy.

The computer also sometimes will just completely reset, no error, just a hard reset.

I had no problems playing Lord of the Rings 2 at max graphics.

However when I tried Heroes of might and magic V (much less graphic intense) the game would crash every time. Granted sometimes it runs for 10 minutes before crashing and sometimes 5 minutes. This makes NO sense to me.

My uncle purchased knights of the old republic yesterday -an older game. And I figured I'd see if that ran ok. With that I get another error (something to do with my display driver). I have heard this is a known issue for that game so I'm sure it's not related to the other issues i'm having.

I just want to be able to use this stupid computer and I'm so confused. Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

Also I have read that SP2 can cause problems for these cpu's? I have a hard time believing everyone that has a similar cpu doesn't run SP2 though...?

 

[Wgfalcon]

it kinda of sounds like a ram problem to me. run memtest and see if you get any errors also check in the bios and make sure you ram has been properly detected(speed & voltage)

 

[elbert]

You need to make sure you have the latest bios and driver updates for you motherboard. All the those things happening sounds to me like an under power condition where your power supply is being over taxed by your system. What is your Power supply watt rating? The 9600xt requires like a 300watt power supply. If you dont have atleast a 300watt PSU the power supply is the first place you should be looking.

 

[316]

I tried doing memtest yesterday, but it's my understanding that you need a boot disk or cd-rom to do it?

I don't have a floppy drive or a cd-rw.

Are there any downloadable programs I can just run once windows is booted?

 

[316]

Thanks for the responses so far guys, I hate asking people for help since I'm not giving anything back.

I had the video card in my other computer which was running an OLD motherboard from 2000. I don't know the model of the motherboard, but it had a socket A 1.1GHz cpu in it. It ran fine then with the video card.

My friend told me that the motherboard I was using was only able to run the video card at 4x, instead of 8x like the A8V that is now in the system?

I don't know anything about my power supply, a family member fried my other one awhile back and gave me one from a 2.2GHz intel p4 that had next to zero ram and a very outdated video card. How can I check what my current power supply is providing and whether or not I need a new one?

The ram itself is older too, I believe it was the first 266 DDR ram, but a friend told me it was compatible with this motherboard -however it was the lowest possible ram that was compatible.

Lastly, aside from going to asus and downloading the 0229 bios update and using asus update to flash my bios, is there anything else I'm suppose to do to update the bios/motherboard? I also installed the via hyperion package per a friend's suggestion. It was the most recent version.

I installed the drivers on the cd the motherboard came with too.

I know I'm just a stranger asking for help, but I can't begin to tell you how appreciative I am for the help. I am beyond lost and definately in over my head.

Thanks!

 

[jaguarskx]

I tried doing memtest yesterday, but it's my understanding that you need a boot disk or cd-rom to do it?

I don't have a floppy drive or a cd-rw.

Are there any downloadable programs I can just run once windows is booted?

You probably found the link to Memtest86.

You should use Memtest instead:

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

 

[jaguarskx]

I don't know anything about my power supply, a family member fried my other one awhile back and gave me one from a 2.2GHz intel p4 that had next to zero ram and a very outdated video card. How can I check what my current power supply is providing and whether or not I need a new one?
Thanks!

Look at the sticker on the power supply. It should tell you how many watts the PSU is rated for. The sticker should also tell you how many amps are on the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v rails. Of the three the 12v rail is the most important because the CPU, video card, hard drive and optical drives draws power from that line. Fans too.

 

[316]

I don't know anything about my power supply, a family member fried my other one awhile back and gave me one from a 2.2GHz intel p4 that had next to zero ram and a very outdated video card. How can I check what my current power supply is providing and whether or not I need a new one?
Thanks!

Look at the sticker on the power supply. It should tell you how many watts the PSU is rated for. The sticker should also tell you how many amps are on the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v rails. Of the three the 12v rail is the most important because the CPU, video card, hard drive and optical drives draws power from that line. Fans too.

Ok, and what is the minimum I'll need to have for the above listed components?

I'll be running the memtest when I get home this evening (if IE will not crash haha)

 

[elbert]

I don't know anything about my power supply, a family member fried my other one awhile back and gave me one from a 2.2GHz intel p4 that had next to zero ram and a very outdated video card. How can I check what my current power supply is providing and whether or not I need a new one?
Thanks!

Look at the sticker on the power supply. It should tell you how many watts the PSU is rated for. The sticker should also tell you how many amps are on the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v rails. Of the three the 12v rail is the most important because the CPU, video card, hard drive and optical drives draws power from that line. Fans too.

Ok, and what is the minimum I'll need to have for the above listed components?

I'll be running the memtest when I get home this evening (if IE will not crash haha)
At the bottom of the page is an example of the spec's on a zalman PSU. You PSU should have something alike on it's side. AT 300watts you may need a new PSU as many PSU's dont even perform as stated.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2003/06/09/high_power_for_power_users/page10.html
Note the total power 400w which your psu may not clearly state the totals but should have 250w, 300w, 350w, ect... on its side.