Problem with new 64bit system

[Gigamer]

I just built a computer with a new AMD athlon 64 chip for my dad. I made sure to use good quality components and I've built several computers before, but this computer has given me nothing but trouble.

I'll list out the symptoms from beginning to end in case anyone notices something I did wrong:

Here are the specs for the computer:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (brand new)
Asus A8V motherboard (brand new)
Corsair TWINXMS DDR 400 Dual Channel kit (1gb) (brand new)
Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480watt (used and works)
Geforce 5700 Ultra 128mb AGP 8X (used and works)
On-board Sound (Realtech)
On-board Gigabit LAN (Marvell)
WD 120GB 7200rpm 8mb cache IDE hard drive (used and works)
Sony DVD burner (used and works)

System runs very cool, has four fans, heat is not an issue.

- First time I got the components installed and turned on power to the motherboard I got no video. The videocard came from another system that has performed flawlessly for about a year. There is no on-board video for the motherboard, lights and fans came on, hard-drive spinning...no video.

- Called ASUS tech support, they said motherboard may be shorting on the screws (eventhough I used the paper washers). Before hanging up he says, "oh yeah the manual has a typo...for Dual channel sticks use slots A2 and B2, instead of the logical A1 and A2". So I switch the memory to A2 and B2 and put electrical tape over all the screws holding the motherboard to the case.

- Powered on and I got Video. Yippiee I don't have to RMA the board! but was it the memory or a short? Maybe both, who cares it's running. Begin installing Windows XP Pro. Everything seems to be working fine except when I get to the part where windows setup is "REGISTERING COMPONENTS". System dosen't move for 45 minutes, the load bar is 3/4 of the way colored and it just stops.

-Restart! Setup is restarting..have to do it all over again but this time the system dosen't get stuck. hmm, oh well.

- Proceed to install the drivers. The motherboard uses a VIA 4 in 1 driver, the LAN and audio use seperate drivers. Everything seems to be running ok. I continue installing video drivers and the RAID drivers but there are no RAID or SATA devices on the computer, it uses an IDE hard drive and CDROM.

- I install about 30GB worth of games and misc data on the computer thinking everything is fine and dandy. I play several games, tweak the video settings, try to get the best play/performance...4 out of 5 games crash the system and it reboots after approx 10 minutes of play. Normal windows use has no visible problems.

-I flash the bios to the latest version, and download all the latest drivers for the motherboard from their site. This fixes nothing.

- Call back ASUS tech support for a reason why all my software is crashing. Tech support says I installed the drivers in a bad order. So I take the time to wipe the entire system and reinstall windows XP (complete fresh install). I made sure not to repair, I deleted the entire partition and repartitioned and installed.

-Guess what! Stalls again at the "registering components" part of windows install. Learning from last time; I restart and setup continues to install...this time I make sure to install the drivers in the order tech support told me. Direct X, VIA 4in1, Display, Lan, Sound. This time computer crashes the moment I try to install the VIA drivers. It crashes 3 more time before I finish the driver installation. The only thing that seems different is the Videocard went from 2500 3D marks (3D mark 2003) to 4000 3D marks, which is good. Games are no longer crashing but windows has constant errors in desktop. The problem seems to have reversed itself, no more crashing in games, but now crashing in windows. I get pop ups that tell me windows has encountered a serious error and will restart.

So that's where I'm at. Windows is very unstable, crashes all the time. Even after installing all the windows updates the system is unstable. The only thing that is working well is the videocard with games. It crashes when downloading from the internet, crashes when loading applications, crashes when installing new programs, and crashes when sitting idle. This has DRIVER ISSUES written all over it but I've installed all the latest and greatest drivers in the order ASUS themselves gave me. I've never had a problem like this before with Windows XP, even using some of the same components. Dunno what else to do.

Finally we get to my questions.... Is this a Windows XP thing? Is it having trouble because I'm using 32bit windows XP pro with a new 64bit processor?

Why does it hang when "Registering Components"?
Would buying Windows XP 64bit help with any of these issues?

Or is it just a bad motherboard?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to be thourough

[Google]

[smith.p.sean]

hm... well first of all welcome to TN. We can rule out the vid card and hard drive. If they worked in the previuos system then ur good. I would attempt to run with one stick of memory and see if your still getting problems, if one does try the other. That way we can rule out the memory. Second thing, im not shure what the power rating on the proc is but with the proc, mobo, and vid card, the 480 might be pushing it. Thats the same power supply that i have and when i turn on and off lights in my computer, it sometimes shutsdown because of lack of power. So it might be the power supply making things kinda buggy. Id rule out windows at this point in time seeing as ur using new components and focus more on them. so first things first, try memory one at a time or attempt to run memtest. Then post back with the results. Again, welcome to TN and more information is always better than less so dont hesitate with long posts.

[Gigamer]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm actually a returning member but I post about as much as I go to church, about once a year. I just don't have much time to browse but TN is always my first resource when I need some help, and I'm am very grateful for that.

I will try the memory as you've suggested, the thought did cross my mind as well. I'll let you know how that goes.

As for the power supply, now that you mention the lights, the one thing different about this system that I didn't do on others is it's got lighted IDE cables, and two Lighted Fans as well as lighted gauges for the case....that is alot of power consumption...hmmm. I will check into this and get back.

THanks again!

[fussnfeathers]

Do everything Frenchy suggested, but also look hard at the mobo. If there's a problem at the mobo level, it'll corrupt the Windows install (which is what's apparently happening), and cause random lockups and crashes.

Check your BIOS carefully to verify that the RAM timings, FSB speed, PCI/AGP speeds and so forth are accurate.

On the mobo side, you said that initially you got no video........did you get a POST beep? If not, it's not the vid card, but a mobo issue or a proc issue. I've had similar issues in the past with a processor that was borderline. It would start fine 8 times out of 10 or so, the other times it wouldn't even reach POST stage.

If you can, try the proc in another machine, just to rule that out. If it works fine, then try another mobo in the new setup. Alot of work, I know, but you gotta rule out the two main components.
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[meobius]

for the board shorting, the asus rep meant that there may be a riser in the wrong place, causing a short.
Try running the ram at 333mhz
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[[KoG]^weaZel]

first things first, when you are building a system the first thing you want to do after getting the parts put together is run Memtest86+. You want to do this even before installing windows. Because if you have a fault in the memory it will b0rk your Windows install faster than you can say b0rk. To me, this whole issue is crying "my memory is messed up, please increase the voltage by a tenth of a volt and then test me"
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