PC locks after mobo/cpu swap

[meckeard]

OK, here is the story.

I swapped my mobo & cpu on my test PC last night and it now locks up during the booting process.

I bought a new MSI 6330 lite and Athlon XP 1800+ and swapped out the old Soyo mobo & duron cpu. The new board did not have onboard video like the Soyo one, so I dug out a Vodoo3 video card I had laying around.

Anyhow, after I swapped the mobo & cpu, it booted the first few times with no problems. I loaded the Via 4-in-1 driver set from the MSI website. But immediately afterwards, it started locking right after windows loads.

I decided to format the c drive, leaving the D drive intact (the drive is partitioned with Windows 2000 Server (C) & Red Hat Linux 9 (D)). I reinstalled windows 2000 server with little trouble.

It still locks up on me. Sometime's I can't even get windows to fully load before it freezes. And I didn't even get to the point where I could even load the any drivers!

I booted up in Linux to see if it would freeze. But it didn't. I did have some strange display issues within a browser, so I was thinking maybe the video card was bad.

Does anyone have any ideas for the cause of the problem? I will swap the video card tonight after work, remove the NIC. If that doesn't work, I will move to the heatsink/fan. But is there anything else that I should be aware of?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Krosus]

Sounds like you static'd one of your pieces most likely the ram try taking a stick out at a time and try.

 

[ceh4702]

This is an operating system problem from the sound of it. Hope you backed up all your data.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[bowfonz]

Check the motherboard mounts. If one of those little metal posts is touching something it shouldn't you will get symptoms like what you are describing.

 

[meckeard]

ceh4702 - I did back up all my data.

After I started experiencing the problems, I formatted the drive & reinstalled the operating system. It didn't help.

bowfonz - I will check my mounts.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[cdogg]

meckeard,

Try removing all peripheral devices (modems, sound cards, CD-ROMs, etc), until all you have is the primary hard drive, video card, motherboard, CPU, and RAM connected. Remove any drivers that might be lingering in Device Manager and reboot.

If the problem still occurs and you have more than one stick of RAM, remove all but one. If it still locks up, shutdown and install the other RAM stick instead.

If that's not it, then it could be:
1) Overheating
2) Improper FSB speed or memory bus speed set in the BIOS which is overclocking either your CPU or RAM
3) Via 4-in-1 driver version that you loaded. See if you can remove the current ones installed and use a different version (may have to reformat).
4) Faulty power supply
5) Or as others have mentioned, one of your components could have been damaged from a static discharge (ESD). Remember, you don't have to feel the shock for it to do damage.


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[meckeard]

cdogg,

Since I reformatted and reinstalled Windows 2k server, I have not installed any drivers. I couldn't, as it freezes before I can even do that.

I will start removing my devices. It was too late to even try it last night.

RAM -- The PC has 3 sticks (512, 256, 256 sdram). All 3 were fine prior to this, but I will still removing them for testing.

Overheating -- It's an AMD, so that's always a possibility! I have had many AMD's and heat is always a concern. And I did get a new heatsink/fan, so that's another area to check.

Power supply -- Worked fine right before the swap, so it's at the bottom of the list.

ESD -- How can I test for this?

After saying (or typing) all of this, the one thing that confuses me about any potential issue is that almost everything works fine on the Linux side. I did notice that web pages looked a little funny and did not always repaint themselves after being minimized. But I was able to successfully boot to Linux with no issues at all.

With that said, wouldn't the same problems occur on both Windows and Linux if there was a peripheral device issue?

Mark

 

[meckeard]

OK, I think I found the problem.

I got the mobo from a friend. He told me it was for CPU's with a 266 FSB. It's not. It's for 200 FSB.

Now, the cpu that I bought was an Athlon XP 1800+, which is a 266 FSB. So I assume that's the issue.

Is there any way that the mobo and CPU are OK? I would like to sell them to recoup my money, but not if they are messed up.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[meckeard]

Opps, I was wrong. The mobo is a 200/266 fsb.

OK, back to square 1.

I swapped everything except the case & power supply. And that's only because I don't have another of either of these.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this problem? I am pretty deperate at this point!

Thanks,
Mark

 

[onrdbandit]

Howdy,

Can you not even boot into Safe Mode, or do a Step by Step Boot? It seems to take quite a problem to prevent a Safe Mode boot, software wise anyways...

Have you checked that the BIOS is configured properly? Maybe try disabling onboad components (LAN, sound, etc.) and try it.

Have you tried running Check Disk to make sure the hard disk isnt damaged?

You may also want to try a bootable hardware troubleshooter disk, running a "burn in" test on the hardware, and trying to make something "break".

Just a few off the top of my head.

Good luck,
onrdbandit

No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

 

[cdogg]

With that said, wouldn't the same problems occur on both Windows and Linux if there was a peripheral device issue?

You're absolutely right. It completely overlooked that statement in your original post about it not freezing in Linux.

Here's what doesn't match up. You claim that the problem started immediately after installing the Via 4-in-1 drivers and rebooting. Before that, it had booted up fine a couple times. On top of that, you state that since then you've formatted/reinstalled Win2K without installing any new drivers but still have the problem. That just doesn't make sense unless it's hardware related.

I'm going to place my money on "overheating". It doesn't freeze in Linux, but that could be because the OS is not stressing the system as much as Win2K Server. Monitor the temps in the BIOS under both OS's, especially immediately after it freezes.

Finally, it still wouldn't hurt to try removing unnecessary devices while you troubleshoot the issue (there could be a compatibility issue between one of them and the OS). And don't rule out memory yet either! One module could be on its way out the door, but just hasn't failed yet. That would explain intermittent issues regardless of what OS you were in.


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[cdogg]

Apologize for adding more to an already lengthy thread, but I wanted to see if you used any thermal grease/paste when applying the heatsink to the CPU? If so, what brand or type?

 

[meckeard]

cdoog -- I used artic silver.

I even switched to an existing heatsink/fan combo that I had. Reseated the CPU. Swapped/disconnected everything but the power supply. All to no avail.

onrdbandit suggested a few things that I will try. I never tried safe mode. Since that's all I have to go on, I will try that next and let you know how it goes.

Mark

 

[meckeard]

One thing has jumped out at me.

I have an Athlon 1800+ cpu (1.53 ghz). But all the info that I have found states that my mobo can only take up to a 1.4 ghz cpu.

My mobo is an MSI-6330 light. The company that sold it stated it could go up to the 1800+. But was I misled?
Could this be the cause of the problems that I am having?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[cdogg]

Well, MSI's site lists several versions of the MSI 6330. From what I could tell, the K7T Turbo Lite3 was the only "lite" listing. Go to this page to look yours up:

http://www.msicomputer.com/support/bios_result.asp

It states under version 3.0 of the BIOS: "[blue]Only K7T Turbo 2 supports Athlon XP 1800+ CPU and above[/blue]"

Assuming that your mobo meets that requirement, you should have no problems running that Athlon on your system with the latest BIOS revision installed.

Not sure if that helps or not, but it's a start.


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[meckeard]

Before I begin my next post, let me give thanks to all those that posted help. Without your input, I would probably have throw my PC out on the curb for the trash man.

My previous post was incorrect. My motherbaord is not the lite version, but the company that sent it shipped the wrong manual with it. Hence my confusion.

Now to the good part. I have successfully booted my PC!!!!
As a matter of fact, I am on it now.

The problem seemed to be the video cards I was trying to use. I guess both were incompatible with some of my other hardware and/or Win2k server.

In any case, I pulled out my GForce 4 out of my gaming PC and it booted right up. Of course, I now have 1 video card to share between the two PC's until I can get another card. Probably a low-end one, as it's a server and does not require anything more.

My only outstanding issue is the speed of the CPU that the mobo recognizes. As soon as I power up, the screen says I have an Athlon XP at 1.15 ghz. But it's supposed to be 1.53 ghz. And that's too much of a difference to ignore.

I will be googling the problem in hopes of finding a resolution. But in the meantime, if anyone knows what's causing this and the solution, please let me know.

Again, thanks to everyone for your help.

Mark

 

[meckeard]

Ahh, there was a jumper on the mobo. I removed it and viola!

Again, supper thanx to all.

Mark