Motherboard problem

Baelzeden · TweakNOOB Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 2

Howdy all, I'm new here.
I recently upgraded my system to an
Albatron K8 SLI mobo
Amd Athlon 64 3500+
Radeon x 800 GT 256 meg
1gig Kingmax ddr 400 ram
Windows Xp pro
I'm having a problem with the motherboard, firstly in the bios settings if I go to the hardware monitor for the cpu temp. etc. it locks the system and I have to reboot, secondly I'm having a lot trouble installing some games and programs from disc, I get the blue windows error screen during installation and have to reboot. I need to know if these problems are hardware or software as the store I bought it from are saying software so they avoid fixing it or replacing it under warrenty.
Any help anyone can give me would be helpful..:)

Thank you.

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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:55 pm Post subject:

what is the code that you are getting on the blue error screen??
To me it sounds like its hardware related. I really don't think the software will affect the bios.

One thing to check first is the memory. Find and download MemTest86+ and either burn it to cd or to floppy. And test the memory.

Could you also list:
voltages for:
-vcore (cpu voltage)
-vdimm (memory voltage)
- +3.3v
- +5v
- +12v
the last three are the power rails of your power supply. And speaking of which, what kind of power supply do you have? and what wattage?
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2old2care · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:56 pm Post subject:

Welcome....
First off if you read many reviews you will find that, that motherboard is not highly thought of, and a bit "quirky." You may need to update BIOS version, depending on the current version.
Secondly, it really has problems with the radeon series of cards, and Albatron itself says not compatable with the x300.
But, you are correct that it is a hardware problem. Particularly the BIOS crashing. (so don't flash the bios yourself, at least until you get it stable)
You may want to double check your memory to processor ratio and timings. It kinda sounds like it's puking on memory/cpu settings.
Likewise you may want to read a couple stickies around here on setting up a new system. Particularly running a memory test for a while, to make sure your systems stable before wasting your time loading OS and apps.
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2old2care · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:59 pm Post subject:

oh crap... we posted nearly the same time weaZ.

He may only be able to give voltage settings, since it crashes in the "hardware monitor" screen.

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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:04 pm Post subject:

DOH!

yeah settings will help some. But knowing the rail voltages will be helpful as well. Because if these are unstable it will cause all kinds of problems.
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Hardware problem, definitely. BIOS crashing can only be caused by (really) one thing...........a bad motherboard. True, hardware issues can cause a crash, but not at that low a level............the drivers for the hardware aren't even loaded yet.

I'd be replacing the motherboard before I did anything else, myself.
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Baelzeden · TweakNOOB Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 2

Thanks for the replies. I put the computer into the store, they had it for 9 days and gave it back claiming all my problems are from a bad install of Windows, reinstall and my problems will go away. I told them I reinstalled 3 times but that hasn't changed thier opinion.
I got the voltage info, not sure if thier the ones you want.
V core- 1.41
+5- 5.21
+12- 11.98
+3.3- 3.41
+5{SB}- 5.12
+3{Bat}- 3.15
As for my memory, it was well tested with Memtest +86 and not a single error message. So I'm still trying to force these bastards to replace the motherboard.

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Wait......so you brought the machine in, and they determined it was a bad Windows install? How would they test that without reinstalling Windows?

RMA it right through Albatron, don't mess with the vendor.
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