Yes I have seen many "haunted" OS installations, once replaced you might not ever figure out what it was (or care!) So good luck, you have done very good/thorough troubleshoot to this point... Regards
Horrible News! I re-installed windows from boot-up and formatted the drive. I had set the Bios settings to default. I ran the installation and all was fine. I loaded the mobo drivers, installed norton firewall, got on the net and ran windows update. All was looking good and I was about 2/3rd's through and then............. the machine powered down. I started up again and had decided that I was going to disable the windows update and continue to install the machine. If it worked fine during that stage and worked fine when I tested the music apps I would leave it like that and never run the windows update............. but there was a slight hitch....... when I re-booted the machine after it had powered down......... Nothing Happened!?!?! i just got a blank screen. I can get into the Bios but the machine doesn't boot up. The monitor stays on but there is just a blank screen! I then re-installed windows from boot and re-formatted the drive!! Then when I was 95% through this fresh installation the machine powered down What Now!?!? Could it be the mobo is faulty. I realy am stumped now.....
Yes bad hardware or ? Don't worry bro' You will pin it down. Sounds funny but could be Video problem (Windows update could be scanning for hardware driver updates when event is triggered) Seems far-fetched but... We have determined you are not overheated, have we not? And you have tried memory one stick at a time in single-channel mode? Attended to good suggestions from weasle.o? Yeesh! A real bag-twister... Dunno. Praetor?
I haven't tried the machine with single memory sticks. The reason is because I want the machine fully with both sticks. If I get it working and run all the install's with only 1 chip without problems, how can I be confident it will run with no problems if I then install the second stick?? This machine is not for me btw! The guy I'm doing it for is a novice on the PC building/maintenance side of things so he needs it to be stable...
This is just to troubleshoot methodically. What if it worked miraculously with the one stick but not with the other: bingo! You always strip everything to basics; no soundboard, modem, NIC, anything PCI: Radeon (AGP) only. If/when you get it going, you can add things back in one at a time, paying attention to shared IRQs (PnP OS set in BIOS to "no"). Do not use PCI slot #1 (next to AGP). Sure you want dual-channel RAM, just like you want a soundboard! But let's diagnose first. I know (makes you feel sick), it's a nightmare and makes you wish you didn't get involved, but you will sort it out and learn from it.
OK, I think we can pretty much rule out temperature, next thing to check is the memory - This is evidently going to be one of those problems that is only going to be fixed by trial and error so first things first, Double check that all memory is seated properly, ie press the sticks firmly into place, and while you are doing that, check that all your expansion cards are seated fully as well. It is often the most common things which are overlooked! (presuming you have 2 x 512MB sticks) remove each of the sticks individually and try installing Windows - If you still get restarts with either stick out, we can pretty much rule out the memory as well as the temp issue. After carrying out this, test the power supply; If a power supply dips the voltage supplied for as little as a fraction of a second and to a low enough voltage, your computer will automatically restart. The power levels in the cables exiting the power supply should be +3.3, +5.0, -5.0, +12.0 & -12.0; these can all be measured using a voltmeter/multimeter. If you cant be bothered with all of that, try connecting up another power supply and trying again. Its all very long winded I know, but its going to irritate you even more if you cant get the matter resolved!
There has been a steady stream of BIOS updates for these motherboards, almost 1/month! http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P4C800&Type=Latest There are three models of this mboard I think, make sure you get the exact, deluxe or whatever. Get a nice win98 bootdisk (with no autoexec.bat or config.sys) and flash that sucker to v1016. Bust all partitions out of your harddisk. Run Fdisk, do not allow FAT32. Create largest partition possible, make active. Will create 2GB FAT16 sytem partition, perfect. (You can now dual-boot XP and Linux or whatever and use NTFS from now on.) Format c: /u/s/v:SYSTEMDISK Copy your startup files to get up and booting from C:\ Autoexec.bat and config.sys, just like 1998. CD-Rom drivers and smartdrv! Trust me. This is a professional setup that, anytime you hear about your buddy not being able to get at his boot.ini file, will make you smile. Create i386 directory, copy i386 from CD. Remove CD and put away, you will never need it again. Reboot. DOS6.2 runs pretty good on a 3.2GHz eh? Remember: the boot files are on the system partition and the system files are on the boot partition. Winnt.exe is in c:\i386 (and it will complain if you have no smartdrv). Windows likes unclaimed space (virgin territory). You have 118GB for it; sweet. Most people boot from OS CD and don't know DOS, so if you're an Old Timer don't mind this. Tell me what BIOS your board shipped with and check that out definitely. A flurry of BIOSs indicates a lot of recent issues and I'm going to go back to Asus and look at what each one fixes specifically. Soon you will be making music.
OK. Thanks. I'm gonna remove all of the PCI cards and then start again with 1 stick of Ram. I'll delete the partitions on the drive and re-format it again. The start with a fresh install and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted guys.
I would reccomend you drop down to "hardcore debuggin mode" and only use the minimum of everything (and test it on other computers if possible). I.e., when you are struggling to get your computer to work -- do you really need that soundcard? No. Just install the basics: VGA, HDD, MOBO, PROC, RAM, NIC and try that: if it works, start adding stuff back
Update: I have been in contact with the tech support team at Asus. They are as confused as we are! I tried re-instaling windows again and go through with no problems and ran the windows update without a probelm at all........... but I was using only only 1 of my sticks of Ram. I had the guys at Asus on the phone at the time and we came to the conclusion that the memory controller on the motherboard must be faulty - so I'm sending the board back. It'll take at least a week before I get the replacement, but I'll be back to keep you posted...............
Yes. Well as sure as I can be I have run the mem test on both sticks plenty of times and they pass every time with no errors. And this is also the second set of memory I have used. I already sent back and got the first lot replaced! That's why I beleive it's the memory controller on the mobo??!
FINAL UPDATE Just to let you guys know............ It was the mobo! I got the replacement and it installed first time with no probs at all. I also noticed that after I ran the windows update and re-booted the machine and set hyper-thread to 'on'. When the machine re-booted it automatically installed and driver for multi processing - something the previous mobo never did and after a re-start it runs perfect. Once again thanks for all the help and input. Chat soon. And someone back me up on the Intel side of things in the 'ultimate dream machine' thread!! All you AMD nutters. LOL bye..
