xp loading problems

[bbyemployee]

ok i got all my parts in for my pc and here they are
MSI K7N2 Delta-L
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (recognizes as 3200+)
kingston 512 pc 2700 ddr ram
ATI 9600 PRO
TDK burner
Pioneer tray DVD
300 watt power supply

now the first few hundred times we tried to load windows it would run ass slow and finally get to the setup is configuring hardaware screen then it would just sit there. so we finally set the jumper on the hard drive to cable select. well it would load the files and start to partition the hard drive when we got an error screen that told us to restart in failsafe mode or turn off all shadowing and cache. well we did that but the same thing kept occuring. so we finally turned on the DMA in the bios and everything booted up and we got to install windows.

well i get it home and pop in a dvd and everything is going fine untill i try to adjust my volume and right when the volume bars came up it restarted on its own. so i tried again and im watchin the movie and it just stoped and went to the desktop for no reason.

any idea of why this happened or is still happening? could it be the powersupply?

thanks

 

[kinetic_tw]

Why does your 2500 recognize as a 3200? Doesnt that hint at a problem to you? I dont know why on earth you'd use cable select on your HDD. It sounds to me like you may have some seriously whacky BIOS settings.

Your power supply could be an issue if it's a generic piece (they're usually over-rated and under-powered); However I doubt it's causing your problem.

What kind of HDD are you using? Could you list the rest of your parts?

 

[bbyemployee]

it only recognizes as 3200+ when i clock the fsb to 200 mghz. i am using an antec true power 300 watt powersupply and a western digital 80 gig with 8 meg cache

 

[DaveP]

Assuming that your PSU is OK (and I think it is):
It could be a heat problem. Next time it reboots, go into the BIOS, and check the tempurature. Some motherboards restart the system automatically if the CPU gets too hot. But, I'm not familiar with your motherboard, so I don't know if it does or not.
Also, you might set your BIOS to recognize your CPU as 2500 instead of 3200. Overclocking causes extra heat, as well as instability.
If that doesn't help, you should check your memory:

<A HREF="http://www.memtest86.com/" target="_new">Memtest86</A>



My Daddy used to tell me:
<b>It's better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're stupid,
then it is to open your mouth and prove it.</b>
I never was good at taking advice!

 

[Codesmith]

1st don't try to overclock until you have your system running 100% stable. You should have set your CPU's FSB to 166 (333) when installing windows. Then once you are certain your system is working fine you try overclocking it to 200 (400).

2nd I don't think a 300 watt powersuplly would be adequate even if you were not overclocking. If you were not overclocking I would recommend a 350-360 watt. For what you are doing I would suggest a 500 watt powersupply.

Remember the closer you are the powersupplies limit the more the power quality degrades. Which is why having a 500 watt powersupply is better than a 300 watt. You are not worried about blowing a fuse, but rather having the quality degrade to the point that it makes your system ustable.

 

[bbyemployee]

i dont overclock my system and it is running fine now but i think i am going to upgrade the processor. the only reason i got the 300 is because this case was given to me for free. it is an antec performance somthing or other and it came with a 300 watt so i could always upgrade later. thanks for the advise though. it really helped and saved me some headaches

 

[Codesmith]

Sorry I missread. I thought you were keeping the FSB at 400.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Codesmith on 07/14/03 01:29 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[bbyemployee]

ok ill sayit more clearly this time. my computer is not overclocked. my fsb is at 166. i only bumped it to 200 because i wanted to see what it would do. im not tryting to overclock the cpu. system is still running fine and at a cool 41 degrees celcius under a full load. amd the stock heat sink works great and is very quiet. and this motherboard boots like a champ! but imnot trying to overclock my cpu just did it for kicks and giggles and was surprised by the end result. thanks for the advice on the power supplu though i think im going to bump up to a 430 antec true power.

 

[pat]

I'm running my 2500+ @200MHz FSB with my soltek mobo. I had to boost the cpu voltage @1.7v because since my 300W is pretty loaded, it help to maintain an "in spec" voltage when my graphic board is crunching in game. You see, my Antec 300W has to drive my mobo/cpu/ram and 3 HDD, my All in Wonder 8500DV, my DVD burner, my CD burner, cpu fan, mobo fan, chipset fan, video board fan and 2 fan inside my case. And dont forget some USB device that draw current like ATI remote receiver and logitech wireless joystick receiver. quite amazing that this thing is running stable as rock!

Maybe if you increase your voltage, you may be able to have XP running stable @ 200MHz FSB

Pat

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!