A7N8X Dlx v2 Reboot When Cold

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter van der Goes
  • Start date Start date
P

Peter van der Goes

Subject system has developed the following symptom:
If the system is cold (off for more that a couple of hours), startup
proceeds to OS load (Dual boot, Win XP Pro Sp1a and Win 2000 Pro SP4) then
the OS appears to crash, then the system restarts and (after the boot drive
is scanned) boots normally.
This started a couple of weeks ago, no change to hardware or software. I'm
thinking hardware, as it happens with both OS's. I normally run the 2500+ at
3200+ speed with the FSB at 200MHZ, but backing off makes no difference.
Case/PSU is an 2 year old Antec SOHO tower with an Antec 350W PSU (not a
true power). Hardware:
3 HDD
DVD-+RW
DVD
1 Gig Geil PC3200
Zip drive
NVidia Ti 4200 video
USB Scanner (separate power)
I'm thinking about a new, more powerful PSU as a possible solution.

Any thoughts, opinions, insights much appreciated!
 
"Peter van der Goes" said:
Subject system has developed the following symptom:
If the system is cold (off for more that a couple of hours), startup
proceeds to OS load (Dual boot, Win XP Pro Sp1a and Win 2000 Pro SP4) then
the OS appears to crash, then the system restarts and (after the boot drive
is scanned) boots normally.
This started a couple of weeks ago, no change to hardware or software. I'm
thinking hardware, as it happens with both OS's. I normally run the 2500+ at
3200+ speed with the FSB at 200MHZ, but backing off makes no difference.
Case/PSU is an 2 year old Antec SOHO tower with an Antec 350W PSU (not a
true power). Hardware:
3 HDD
DVD-+RW
DVD
1 Gig Geil PC3200
Zip drive
NVidia Ti 4200 video
USB Scanner (separate power)
I'm thinking about a new, more powerful PSU as a possible solution.

Any thoughts, opinions, insights much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Have you tested parts of the system individually ? Memtest86 for the
memory, Prime95 to give the processor a workout etc ? While the Prime95
is running, or you are playing some 3D game, you might want to log
voltages using Motherboard Monitor or Asus Probe, to a text log file.
That will allow you to check how the PS is doing while there is a
heavy load on the system. The spec on the PS will usually be +/-
5% on the major (used) rails - you can, for the most part, ignore
-5V and -12V.

I'm guessing the reason the system stays up, is the BIOS is reverting
some settings on the second boot ? Maybe that is why it is staying
up ?

Have you bumped up Vcore a lot ? You might also try dialling in your
settings again on your overclock, as maybe you are using more Vcore
than is really necessary ?

When is the last time you did a virus scan ?

What you do really depends on how much cash you have to throw at
the problem. Buying all your components again and swapping them
one at a time, is an easy and expensive solution...

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul said:
Have you tested parts of the system individually ? Memtest86 for the
memory, Prime95 to give the processor a workout etc ? While the Prime95
is running, or you are playing some 3D game, you might want to log
voltages using Motherboard Monitor or Asus Probe, to a text log file.
That will allow you to check how the PS is doing while there is a
heavy load on the system. The spec on the PS will usually be +/-
5% on the major (used) rails - you can, for the most part, ignore
-5V and -12V.

I'm guessing the reason the system stays up, is the BIOS is reverting
some settings on the second boot ? Maybe that is why it is staying
up ?

Have you bumped up Vcore a lot ? You might also try dialling in your
settings again on your overclock, as maybe you are using more Vcore
than is really necessary ?

When is the last time you did a virus scan ?

What you do really depends on how much cash you have to throw at
the problem. Buying all your components again and swapping them
one at a time, is an easy and expensive solution...

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions, but this *only* occurs when starting from cold,
and occurs whether or not the system is overclocked, whether or not I up the
voltages to CPU and/or memory.
Once running, memory checks out fine, and I have *no* problems using the PC.
I don't play games, but I do use Visual Studio .NET 2003, Oracle 9i and the
Oracle developer suite without incident.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, but this *only* occurs when starting from cold,
and occurs whether or not the system is overclocked, whether or not I up the
voltages to CPU and/or memory.
Once running, memory checks out fine, and I have *no* problems using the PC.
I don't play games, but I do use Visual Studio .NET 2003, Oracle 9i and the
Oracle developer suite without incident.
Click to expand...
I believe the PSU is overloaded. The number one power draw is drives
starting up cold. Once they have spun up, the restart draws less
current. Removing a drive or two and starting up cold should prove or
disprove this theory.
_________________________
When your PC gives a little they give alot.
http://tinyurl.com/hhez
 
AJ said:
I believe the PSU is overloaded. The number one power draw is drives
starting up cold. Once they have spun up, the restart draws less
current. Removing a drive or two and starting up cold should prove or
disprove this theory.
_________________________
When your PC gives a little they give alot.
http://tinyurl.com/hhez
Click to expand...

Why in the world didn't I think of that? Doh!
I give it a try and report back.
Thanks, AJ!
 
AJ said:
I believe the PSU is overloaded. The number one power draw is drives
starting up cold. Once they have spun up, the restart draws less
current. Removing a drive or two and starting up cold should prove or
disprove this theory.
_________________________
When your PC gives a little they give alot.
http://tinyurl.com/hhez
Click to expand...

OK, here's a dumba** question for you. I figured I would just remove power
from the two SATA drives (boot drive in on primary IDE), but then the boot
process paused for a long time trying to detect drives on the RAID
controller (no RAID configuration, just using the controller for the two
extra HD's), then Win XP wouldn't boot. I figured I'd have to go into the
BIOS to disable the RAID controller, but I can't find an entry that seems
appropriate.
The one thing all this *did* accomplish is to further strengthen my
suspicion about the PSU, because, with everything attached, the PC boots
fine after I've been rooting around in the BIOS for a few minutes. This also
seems to corroborate your theory.
 
Peter van der Goes said:
Subject system has developed the following symptom:
If the system is cold (off for more that a couple of hours), startup
proceeds to OS load (Dual boot, Win XP Pro Sp1a and Win 2000 Pro SP4) then
the OS appears to crash, then the system restarts and (after the boot drive
is scanned) boots normally.
This started a couple of weeks ago, no change to hardware or software. I'm
thinking hardware, as it happens with both OS's. I normally run the 2500+ at
3200+ speed with the FSB at 200MHZ, but backing off makes no difference.
Case/PSU is an 2 year old Antec SOHO tower with an Antec 350W PSU (not a
true power). Hardware:
3 HDD
DVD-+RW
DVD
1 Gig Geil PC3200
Zip drive
NVidia Ti 4200 video
USB Scanner (separate power)
I'm thinking about a new, more powerful PSU as a possible solution.

Any thoughts, opinions, insights much appreciated!
Click to expand...
FWIW, I slapped an Allied 450W PSU in the box this morning, and all the cold
start problems have disappeared.
 
Back
Top