AMD64 computer crashing when loading OS

[Venom087]

Here are the specs on the problem computer:

CPU: Amd Athlon 64 3200+
Motherboard: aBit KV8-MAX3 socket 754
RAM: 2X Corsair ValueSelect PC3200 512MB
Video card: radeon 9600XT
Power supply: Thermaltake 480W

I have a legal copy of Windows XP sp1 with a legal, never been used serial number. When installing Windows the computer will crash at a seemingly random spot, displaying a blue screen with an error message which gives virtually no information except for the fact that it crashed. I've had a number of people helping me work on this problem with no success, any ideas you may have would be extremely helpful.

 

[paparazi]

Venom087
Set bios to low performing "fail safe" settings and try one stick of ram at a time.
The memory timings may be set too aggresively for this Value ram and or one stick might be faulty.
Martin

Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.

 

[happydownloader]

One of the problems is Windows XP with SP1 was not designed for 64bit CPU's
There is a 64bit version of XP out for those newer processers!

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/

 

[Venom087]

I'll work on testing the ram like that as soon as I get a chance. Also about the 64bit version of WindowsXP, I have read reviews about it not being very good and I know a number of people (including the people on techTV) that say WinXP 32bit version works fine on the 64bit processor.

 

[AnalogAnomaly]

Yes, the 32 bit winblows xp works just fine on the athlon 64, but why did you purchase and amd athlon 64 if you're going to just use it for 32 bit processing? You'll notice that 32 bit applications(including games) have about a 25-26 perecent increase in performance when merely ported to the 64 bit architecture without any optimizations. The 64 bit version of windows xp has some very annoying features that i reccomend turning off. Like the checking and use of the execute bit, which to spite claims made by amd, would not have stopped click-happy OCD users and serves as only an annoyace to users like myself. "Do you want to run this?" no.. no.. i only ran it from the command line with arguements for the heck of it.. i don't want to run this. (note the sarcasm.) and why not use the 64 bit versions of linux available? The athlon xp 64 has many great features and one annoying one. I honestly wouldn't reccomend installing windows XP at all. horrible pice of crap that it is, though some users refuse to live without it. I've run the 32 bit version of xp on an athlon 64 without problem, though again, why would you invest money in something you don't intend to use? the athlon 64 has some great features like dedicated lines to the ram and io ports due to the onboard io controller thus eliminating the bottlenecks of an external io controller for negotiating the shared path from ram and io to the cpu. this also increases performance capacities of multi-processor solutions. as for the ram.. boot to a knoppix or gnoppix cd and run the ramtest to see if it can detect any problems. if it does go claim your warranty replacement, take it back and test it again, rinse and repeat until you get two matching and working sticks of ram.


PMSing today. My appologies if i come accross as rude

 

[Venom087]

I've tried booting from knoppix 3.1 (maybe it was 3.2), with very odd results. It _sometimes_ boots sucessfuly, only to imidiately shut itself down upon completion of loading xwindows. Sometimes it boots in some strange format where it doesn't think it has enough ram to run xwindows and is virtualy unusable. Maybe the version of knoppix I have simply doesn't support the 64 bit architecture? If so it shouldn't be a problem, the CPU is supposed to switch to 32 bit. And yes I know that I am not getting the full use out of the CPU using 32bit Windows, but I wanted to wait until the 64bit version is better. And the reason I insist on Windows and not linux for this computer is that this is my gaming machine, I have redhat on my server.

 

[franklin97355]

You have a hardware problem. Take out everything but the floppy and video and try booting.

 

[Venom087]

bump

sorry but I'm getting desperate, this computer is a $1000 hunk of useless wires right now

 

[franklin97355]

Did you build this system yourself? If so take it out of the case and start it up with video and a floppy only. get yourself some testing software and test memory and CPU. Then you can add back the HD and try to install xp. let us know what you find.