Can someone help me troubleshoot this problem?

[Guest]

Okay, I recently put together a new computer with the sole purpose of having a machine that could sufficiently run EverQuest, a pretty intense 3D on-line game. I had been playing it on a 400 MHz Celeron, 384 MB RAM, GeForce 2 platform, and the graphics were nice, but it was slow. I was running it on Win2k, and the graphics and play were fine, just slow.

So, I purchased a 1GHz Athlon processor, put it in a FIC 266 MHz FSB motherboard (ATX), and bought a new 40 GB Seagate HD. Also, got a AGP version of my GeForce2 GTS/Pro 64 MB.

I stuck it all together, and tried installing Win2k... and it was hell. It was freezing and crashing and RESTARTING all the time. The problem, it seemed, was that win2k was tryin' to put my AGP video card, modem, sound card, and network card ALL on IRQ 11. I had no ability to change the IRQ settings. I went into the BIOS and changed my IRQ settings to be set manually, and still it wouldn't let me change IRQs. WEll, i leaned about ACPI, and also learned that win2k likes to stick stuff on the same IRQ... so I re-installed Win2k with the ACPI disabled. Set the IRQs to manual, and it STILL wouldn't let me change the IRQs. And it still put all my peripherals on IRQ 11.

SO, i decided to try win98. Win98 was a little more friendly with the IRQs, but it still wouldn't let me change the IRQ assignments. However, it didn't place all my peripherals on IRQ 11; it spaced them out over all my available IRQS, and it generally ran fine. The only problem i had was that in EverQuest only, my system would occasionally freeze. I had an idea to disable my on-board sound card, and viola! no sound, but everything else ran great for about 3 weeks.

WEll, at this point, my brand new power supply up and decides to blow up, and i had to buy a new one.

I replaced the power supply, and started the machine up, and Win98 was totally fried. All kinds of errors were displayed when it tried to start up, and it was just bad.

So, i attempted to repair the OS install. It wouldn't even let me. When I attempted to run setup for win98, it would say "Setup has detected a compressed disk or a disk cache utility on your system's drive. Please remove and re-try setup." I don't have a compressed drive, and i don't know what the heck a disk cache utility is....

so i just flat-out removed the partition, re-created a new partition, and typed my favorite line, format c:. Even after this, win98 setup would not continue, telling me the same "disk compression/disk cache" error. so i said screw it, and decided to re-attempt a win2000 install.

Got it on there fine, did all the updates to the OS, to IE, to directX, and loaded all the latest drivers for everything. The only difference from this win2k install from the FIRST win2k install was i had my on-board sound disabled, so it wouldn't take up an IRQ.

It seemed to be running fine, great actually, but then it started up doin' the crashing, freezing, restarting thing all over again. It does this at any time, and without warning. There's no pattern to the crashes. It can crash while i'm just staring at the desktop, or it can crash while I'm playing the system-pushing EverQuest, or anywhere in between.

IT'S STARTING TO BECOME HIGHLY FRUSTRATING, if you can understand that.

So, basically, I wanna know why win98 seems to run fine (when I can get it installed), but win2000 doesn't. I also wanna know WHY I can't change my IRQ assignments, in ANY operating system. AND, I wanna know why I can't install win98 on my harddrive (two partitions). And, I wanna know why my machine is just freezing randomly, or just up and restarting all on its own. It does these things at any time... i can be cruising the net, playing a 3D game, playing a 2D game, using Microsoft Word, playing solitaire, or just sitting at my desktop.

Hell, a couple times, I simply just refreshed my desktop, and it RESTARTED!!!!

I've had a few people tell me that it's an IRQ thing, a few others have said it sounds like bad hardware, and others still think it's a BIOS issue. I've tried a whole hell of a lot (I haven't told ya everything I've tried in this post), and I've had many people look at it, and no one can figure it out.

I'm 'bout to try a new idea: throw it out my window.

I paid a lot of money for this thing, and I want it to work, dammit!!!

Appreciated any ideas, if you think you know what it is.

Thanks

 

[FUGGER]

First off, grats on your POS AMD.

Try this, turn of "plug and play os" make sure its set to no.

Get a bios update.

Install OS with just video card installed then install patches. Make sure you istall motherboard updates before any new cards.

Install video drivers and directx8, once all the drivers are loaded with just video card installed. Install 1 card at a time and load drivers. once all cards are back in do a defrag and pray.

What you are going thru is typical of owning a AMD, your not alone. Basicly your finding out AMD is not 100% intel compatable. Everything is built to Intel standard not AMD. AMD sucks for problems like this. Im sure the money you saved is now wasted in lost time and aggravation. Will you buy AMD again?

If you still have problems, RMA your hardware and buy a real Intel machine and you would never have had any problems.

 

[Yahiko81]

you would never have had any problems.

Yeah, except starving to death because you had to pay out the ass for a sub par system that doesn't perform as well as it's AMD counterpart.

Where do you get off thinking it's a processor problem? Most random reboot problems are memory related. He didn't tell us what kind of memory he had. Also his system worked fine until he changed his powersupply? Maybe his old power supply screwed up the board. He might need to get another board.

What is the brand and wattage of the new powersupply you bought. Go ahead and give us a run down of all the components in your system.

Nice <b><font color=green>Lizards</b></font color=green> <b>crunch</b> Trolls cookies....... Yummy!!

 

[Kelledin]

Sorry about FUGGER, the extent of his troubleshooting knowledge is "Is it an AMD? That's the problem!" I imagine he tries to troubleshoot ordinary household appliances in the same fashion...

It sounds a lot like a power supply issue, honestly--especially seeing as the power supply blew itself out. An Athlon 1GHz will require considerably more power than a Celeron 400. Trying to run an Athlon 1GHz on a 250W-or-less power supply is just asking for trouble.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[FUGGER]

"Yeah, except starving to death because you had to pay out the ass for a sub par system that doesn't perform as well as it's AMD counterpart" HAHAHAHAHAHA, um reread his post notice he is asking for help on his POS system that is not working now and when it did work it had even more problems. - GG on that brilliant observation.

Now that I pulled your foot from your ass, PSU just blow up all the time huh? had nothing to do with the load from the system requirements? what a moron you are.

I doubt its his memory based upon the overwelming number of posts like this daily here. Its amazing people still buy AMD after countless problems like this.

 

[FUGGER]

Keledin, you obviously didnt read what I posted, notice I gave instructions on how to get a better load onto HD in case he missed a step or was doing something out of order. replacing PSU is a given.

Do you have problem with the order in witch I put things in? please critique.

 

[Guest]

My first power supply was a cheapie $10 one i got off the Net. It was 300W. My new one is also 300W, but i was in a pinch, and ended up paying a ridiculous amount for it at a local PC shop.

Yes, the memory thing is a good idea. I'll try that. That's about the 4th time today someone has said they thought it was a memory problem, so it's at least something to go on.
I had 3 mem cards: a 128MB, a 256 MB, and a 512 MB card. Stupidly enough, I had the smallest card in the first slot, and the largest card in the last slot. Someone told me to get rid of the two smaller cards, and put the 512 in my first memory slot. I'll try that also.

Also, I don't think it's power supply related because it was doing this with BOTH power supplies that i've had. The first one blew after only 3 weeks since buying it... i wouldn't be surprised to see this new one go, too.... it kinda baffled me why a 3 week old power supply would blow like that... I had JUST turned it on when it blew up, too....

Anyway, would there be any problems with win2k putting all my peripherals on IRQ 11? Some say it would make a difference, while others have said that win2k can handle it...

Would memory problems also cause my system to freeze and exit applications randomly?

 

[Yahiko81]

You need to make sure and get an amd approved powersupply. For you are wanting to do 300 is fine most would recommend a 350 or above. I would try running Win2k and see if you get any conflicts or lockups. Have you tried moving your cards into different slots? Some motherboards only allow certain IRQ's to be shared in certain pci slots. Read in your motherboard manual to see if you can find anything out about that. Try running your system with different memory configurations. When you first power on a system that's when it uses the most energy. Yes, memory problems will cause random lockups and reboots. It sounds like you are on a budget so I wouldn't do anything rash and I would just get some more opinions before I started to buy anything new (besides an approved powersupply).

Nice <b><font color=green>Lizards</b></font color=green> <b>crunch</b> Trolls cookies....... Yummy!!

 

[Lucol]

Usually, when Win2K freezes, it's usually either memory, and/or heat. If you've got a factory HSF with your processor, you should be fine, but if you've got a generic HSF, then that might also be part of the problem. If you've got a motherboard monitor, or anything like that to check the temp of the processor, it might be a good idea. I believe if it's over 60C, (could be mistaken, someone correct me if I'm wrong), but if it is, then it might be running too hot and causing instability.

 

[khha4113]

If your mobo has voltage adjustment ability, try to increase your CPU's voltage a little.

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[Guest]

Okay, guys, I got it fixed.

It was my memory. Did some re-arrangin' and now it's working just fine. I evidently had a screwed up memory module that was throwin' everything for a loop.

Guess FUGGER was wrong about my AMD

 

[Yahiko81]

Guess FUGGER was wrong about my AMD

That's a given.

Nice <b><font color=green>Lizards</b></font color=green> <b>crunch</b> Trolls cookies....... Yummy!!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

LoL

hahahaha

now u see why every village needs an idiot? the amusment factor lol

about PSU's though... a little while ago my fister fiance got a athlon 14 system, i think i did a post about it.

had a 350W psu that just DIED last nite... took it out and it a COGEN brand, extreemly cheap and nasty.
he is now actually running temporarily on a 250W! and it goes reasonably well!

same thing with my system. slaped in a Beautiful enermax unit which weighed nearly 3 times more than the flimsy light generic 300W unit it had. cant believe that they can sell system with such cheap & nasty PSU's in them

Religious wars are 2 groups of people fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.