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Thread ID: 50161	2004-10-12 07:14:00	Asus p4s800d-e, Radeon 9800XT, misery	Mercenary (6268)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
280552	2004-10-12 07:14:00	I built my first computer about 2 months ago, it worked fine for a while and then there started to develop some problems . Its an Asys case not sure on the PSU wattage 300+ for sure maybe 400+ I'll check it if you deem neccessary . Pentium 4, 3 . 2 ghz I believe, the aforementioned motherboard and graphics card, seagate 160 gb SATA HD; I think that's everything important . Anyways there are a few problems . It started out as the computer crashing, from the desktop, from in games, from any place really, the crashes were of 2 sorts . First I got the message that windows xp had temporarily lost contact with or was unable to read my harddrive . These were not frequent enough to warrant my doing something about them . Happening more frequently, however, were crashes where the screen would get weird vertical banding and the computer would shut down . Sometimes when I rebooted it, it cited the radeon card as the cause of the troubles, I downloaded the new drivers and it seemed to help for a week and a half and then the problem started again, and increased in frequency to the point of intolerability . Now to the reason I'm here . I opened up the case and reseated some stuff, made sure the video card was in tight (it had come loose before), reseated the RAM, ensured the connection to the HD was tight, made sure the power cords were tight . But the problems were much worse after that . Now its at the point that, if the computer starts, and thats a big if, it tries to run chkdsk . Now if I run chkdsk, it crashes on the index checking section, usually after 30 to 40% if that holds any significance . If I skip chkdsk, it maybe makes it to the windows login screen and then crashes . I won't bias you with my opinions on what it might be until such time as they may prove neccessary . Thanks in advance for any help you provide .	Mercenary (6268)
280553	2004-10-12 07:26:00	Hi Mercenary, welcome to PF1. I'll keep you entertained until the real hardware peeps happen by. Find out the voltage of the PSU, what peripherals do you have attached to your machine, printer, scanner, USB hub, etc,? What sort of heat are you producing and what sort of cooling do you have? Anti-static precautions taken> BIOS and mother board driver versions? Were all the parts new or were some 2nd hand/reused (don't forget to consider cables)? Do you have the Seagate Disk Wizard and Seatools utility to test the drive. XP version and SP status. Antivirus and firewall status? Cheers Murray P	Murray P (44)
280554	2004-10-12 07:52:00	Did you plug in the 9800XT's extra power connector? It would be a good idea to find out what brand of PSU and what its wattage is, a cheap 300-400w PSU probably wont cut the mustard and would cause instability problems . Is your P4 a Northwood or Prescott? Prescott are notoriously hot, if you havent installed the HSF properly or have insuffcient case cooling it could be overheating and cause instability . From what i can tell from the limited infomation on the ASUS website your motherboard's SATA support is provided by a third party controller, these are notoriously dodgy, causing more problems than i have socks . Try updating your SATA drivers to the latest version . I'd be willing to bet that your problems are caused by a crappy PSU and immature SATA drivers .	Pete O'Neil (250)
280555	2004-10-12 08:19:00	hi .as pete says try not to use any asus software as its usually full of bugs.go to the ati web site for drivers latest cat is 4.9 i have heard the 9800 xt is a bit power hungry ,you do need a good psu.	ferrite (4221)
280556	2004-10-12 21:15:00	Its a Northwood. Not sure on winxp version, service pack 2 I believe. But before we get to any of that the main thing right now is getting the computer started so I can actually download/install the various neccessary drivers. I power it on and it powers off within seconds. What is that about?	Mercenary (6268)
280557	2004-10-12 21:26:00	It could possibly be overheating, the P4's turn themselves off if they get too hot . Did you install the CPU yourself or did someone do it for you? Are you using the stock cooler? The easist thing to do when a PC wont boot is take it all out of the case and put it on the bench . And try to get the system to boot with the bare minimum hardware e . g CPU, Mobo, RAM, PSU, KB, mouse and screen . Then slowly start adding in things like HDD's and CD-ROM's . Once youve got it out of the case make sure there nothing that could be causing the mobo to short . Alot of cases use small brass standoffs to keep the case from touch the mobo, if one of these is installed in the wrong place it could be causing problems .	Pete O'Neil (250)
280558	2004-10-12 23:50:00	Cant believe I almost forgot one of the most serious problems amid all the other myriad difficulties. Sometimes when it crashes it does a voice post "System failed CPU test" I looked it up on the internet but didn't find anything applicable to my situation, any thoughts?	Mercenary (6268)
280559	2004-10-13 00:22:00	Ok I unplugged the HD and that caused the computer to start correctly and I was able to use the bios for a while . I then checked the voltages to see that they were normal (they are), I also noted my PSU is 450w . Funny thing is, i replugged the HD and I am at this moment using the offending computer . Is it now safe to conclude its software issues and I should just get drivers . Or is the hardware still suspect? I doubt its a heat issue as I actually suspected that earlier, went and bought thermal paste (cuz i didn't remember applying any in the first place) and found there to be thermal paste, correctly applied, between my chip and the heatsink; the fan is correctly attached and runs etc . Also I have MBM5 and checked using BIOS and the heat lvls for video card as well as mobo and case are all fine . I'm kind of anxious about downloading yet more drivers because I had a friend who downloaded the wrong drivers and was in for seriously bad times . From ATI the catalyst 4 . 9 is all I need? No additional asus drivers or anything? I'm also terrified to run chkdsk because it crashes so frequently on that before . Thanks a lot for the help so far .	Mercenary (6268)
280560	2004-10-13 00:37:00	It does sounds as if you HDD is slowly dying, but if everythings working then it would be a good idea to upgrade your drivers . Go to the SiS website and get the latest drivers for your chipset (655TX), and get the latest Catalyst from the ATi site . Im not the biggest fan of the 4 . 9's i prefer the 4 . 7's or 4 . 8's, but it doesnt really mattter which ones you get . What SATA ports are you using for your HDD? Are you using the SATA ports provided by the SIS 964 south bridge? or the ports provided by the SiS 180 SATA controller? What brand of PSU do you have? I dont care what the wattage is, a good brand 350w is far far better than a crap brand 450w .	Pete O'Neil (250)
280561	2004-10-13 00:46:00	Lets see here is what catalyst says I have software wise: Driver Packaging Version 8 . 051-040825a-017633C CATALYST™ Version 04 . 9 Provider ATI Technologies Inc . 2D Driver Version 6 . 14 . 10 . 6476 2D Driver File Path System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{CF13C320-F64A-4F3E-BB05-3E22BF1CCC72}\0000 Direct3D Version 6 . 14 . 10 . 0257 OpenGL Version 6 . 14 . 10 . 4582 CATALYST™ Control Center Version 1 . 0 . 1698 . 24142 Hopefully that's current, they are the only ones ATI has under graphics drivers for XP section . Not sure if I should also download from them their motherboard/IGP drivers or not . I have no idea about where the HDD is plugged in, its in a port called SATA 1 (or 2 possibly, i forget now I've moved it around so much), very close to the video card, next to a circular silver object (god I wish I knew more about mobos ><), that has KTS inscribed on it . The PSU is Asys brand and I'm sure it was very cheap .	Mercenary (6268)
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