PC Doesn't always boot..

[ChipDeath]

I have recently built a new PC :

ASUS A7V333 RAID (PCB Rev. 1.01 / BIOS Rev. 1004)
Athlon XP2000+
256Mb DDR RAM (corsair XMS2700)
Geforce 4 Ti4600 (Leadtek)
SB Audigy
Win98SE (Yes Yes, but I like it, it's fast, and I'm too broke to buy 2000, and I won't consider XP until they stop having to release bloody Service packs/Critical Updates every five minutes)
300W PSU

It all works Quite well, but booting from cold it sometimes doesn't get into the OS. It POSTS happily, then just as it's getting to the 'Starting Windows' message, the monitor goes off, as if there is no video signal. If I just press the reset button, it then always boots OK. Any thoughts on what might be causing this problem?
My guess is power supply, although it never dies when I'm playing UT, or during 3DMark2001SE...


<font color=blue><i>Your</i> PC may be quieter, but <i>my</i> PC makes a better hairdryer!</font color=blue>

 

[Jake75]

Like you said, the powersupply.

With a system like yours you will need at least a 350w PSU.


This is my new sig.

 

[ChipDeath]

Thanks for replying!

That is what I suspected, <i>but</i> I would have expected some other stability issues, whereas I don't appear to really have any....

I've always found that people seem to go nutty with the PSU that's required for AMD systems - my OLD PC:
Athlon 800(T-Bird, 200FSB)
Abit KT7,
Geforce 2 Ultra,
512Mb PC133
30Gb HDD,
CD-ROM, DVD ROM/CD-Writer,
LS120 Drive,
SB Live! 1024,
Floppy,
Linksys NIC,
PROMISE IDE Controller (NOT RAID, just more IDE channels)
and that is stable as a rock, <font color=red>ALL running off a 230W PSU</font color=red> - I always thought t-birds& Geforce 2Ultras were more power hungry than the newer stuff too.

Anyways, Any suggestions for a replacement PSU?



<font color=blue><i>Your</i> PC may be quieter, but <i>my</i> PC makes a better hairdryer!</font color=blue>

 

[Smokey]

Tom's just did a review of some, but I couldn't find the article. I believe they recommended Antec and Enermax, but just stick with the quality brands and you should be fine.

Life's a hole...dig it. - Joe Dirt

 

[Jake75]

Well, I have a 350w Enermax and I am more than satisfied with it.
There are a couple of other brands that are equally good but I don´t remember what brands.


This is my new sig.

 

[Jake75]

Oh, how exiting...a double post.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by JAKE75 on 05/30/02 03:14 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Xaos]

By the sounds of it, you have a similar system to mine and I've experienced a lot of heartache over the last month or so with the A7V333. I personally have an Enermax 350 PS. Though it very well may be the PS, I would not rule out your motherboard as a culprit--the A7V333 is developing a bad reputation amongst many. Be that as it may, I would suggest you flash the BIOS to 1007 before anything--although that might be risky with the boot problems.

Give me Convenience or Give me Death!

 

[BoBBoB]

I wouldn't expect a power supply to be bad. It's odd that it would hang at that exact moment consistentlly. If the powersupply where bad I would think you would have intermitent power outages, persistent boot failures, etc. I say this because the most intense period for the psu is when the pc first boots and has to power all the fans and drives kicking on for the first time. I takes more energy to get a fan or motor moving than it does to keep them moving. One possibility could be antivirus software running dos based scans?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by BoBBoB on 05/30/02 08:08 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[ChipDeath]

I wouldn't expect a power supply to be bad. It's odd that it would hang at that exact moment consistentlly. If the powersupply where bad I would think you would have intermitent power outages, persistent boot failures, etc.

That's exactly what I thought, as I don't really have many other problems once I get it running, and like I said, it's only an intermittent problem.

That said, last night I checked out my voltages during a run of 3DMark2001SE, and my +12V rail <i>never</i> goes below 13V - varies between 13.0XX and 13.2XX - Is this particularly bad? Or is it only if the Voltage is low that there's a problem? The other rails seem ok.

<font color=blue><i>Your</i> PC may be quieter, but <i>my</i> PC makes a better hairdryer!</font color=blue>