Asus P2B-DS motherboard - auto reboot problem

[Quist]

Hello,
I have a problem with my Asus P2B-DS motherboard (2xP2-300 processors), the problem is that my computer reboots automaticly sometimes, it's a hardware reboot, not a software reboot, doesn't matter which OS I use, the same happens even before boot up sometimes. I had this problem for a long time now and I've tried most of the things you can try like deconnecting hardrives, changing graphicscards, networkscards, removing SDRAMs, opening the box in case it's to hot in the box, upgrading the BIOS, disconnecting the motherboard from the box in case it's a short circuit, etc but nothing has helped, I'm left with the motherboard. Sometimes the rebooting occurrs 10 times per day, sometimes the computer stays up for weeks. Sometimes the computer hangs after reboot with the screen black and with 1 second long noices/peeps in 1 second intervals which to me means that there's something terribly wrong, after I press the reset button it boots up normally. It's this peeping noise that I hoped that you can help me with and tell me what it means, or if you have any other ideas on how to find the error. I havent found any troubleshooting documentation about the P2B-DS motherboard?

Desperate for help...

Best Regards
Goran

 

[malden]

you're probably right: the mobo is bad.

Are the two cpu's exaclly the same? Stepping? Manufacturing location? etc? If you read the top, it will tell you that info. That is the only other thing that I can think of.

You can run some diagnostic software to stress test the board. I have a great one that I use. If you post back to here, we can figure out a way to get that to you.

hope that helps.

 

[Quist]

thanks for your answer.

Yepp, the two CPUs are the same, 300Mhz. Don't know about the stepping, or how to see that.
This is the info that's on the box:
- Intel 440BX AGPset
- 100Mhz frontside bus
- Support PC100 SDRAM (I use PC-133 too but if I removed and only used the PC100 SDRAMs the rebootproblem still existed so I dont think that's the cause of the problem)
- Made In Taiwan

This is the answer I got from Asus:
>Dear valued Customer,
>Thanks for Contacting ASUSTeK.
>
>Please change another power supply to see if it can help.
>please clear cmos to have a try .
>Or please enter bios setup and load setup default .
>Please check if your MB is overclocking .its standard fsb is 100M.

It could be the power supply so I'm gonna try that.
That diagnostic software that you have, do you have a link where I can download it perhaps? Thanks for your help...

 

[CitrixEngineer]

If the CPUs are the same, you shouldn't have to worry about stepping - that was a big issue with Pentium Pros.

PSU sounds most likely - 2x processors require 350W or better.

Opening the box will not help cool the processors - think of it like opening the windows in a building or train with air-conditioning. Maybe an additional case fan or two could help here.

Or it could be a resource conflict (behind the scenes with IRQ sharing). Moving cards to different slots can cure a number of ills. From your description of the beeps, however, this seems unlikely, and I'd suspect the PSU or heat.

I looked around and found nothing but good reviews of this board, and praise for its stability. If you've been running it for a while, it should be OK - motherboards tend to settle down with age or die young. You could be unlucky, of course :-(

The only consistent complaint I found was to do with the on-board SCSI. Try disabling it and using an Adaptec 2940 (or similar) instead. I picked up 2 2940s very cheaply on e-Bay - and nearly every O/S under the sun supports these natively.

Hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[Quist]

Thanks, great info about the PSU
I only have 250W so that could be the problem.
Gonna try that.

I already bought me a Adaptec 19160 Ultra160 card and disabled the onboard SCSI because it just didn't work with some devices...