D
Dogbert Dilbert
Dear All,
I've been struggling to install WinXP Pro-SP1 on a brand-new ASUS
A7N8X.
System: A7N8X deluxe
CPU: Athlon 2600
RAM: 512 Mb PC3200 (from Crucial)
Video card: Radeon 9500 Pro
HDD: 60 Gb fujitsu (I think) set as primary master
CD-DVD-ROM set as secondary slave
I tried assembling the system. POST seems to work OK (at least that's
what the nice lady says), get into the XP boot loader and it
bluescreens with something about the ntldr.
Tried to reboot into safe mode, and again after choosing safe mode, it
bluescreens at Mup.sys.
I try a completely fresh install of XP on a different disk, and while
the install procedure starts ok from the CD, and copies files to the
disk, at the point where it wants to reboot from the HDD it
bluescreens on reboot.
I try a different video card in case there's some AGP problem (a
Geforce 4): same result. I install XP on the new HDD on another
machine (works fine). Put this HDD onto the A7N8X and it bluescreens.
Boot from safemode again fails at Mup.sys. Search internet to find
that in new installs, Win2000 and XP often bluescreen at Mup.sys -
great - this must be the problem! I try ERD commander to switch off
Mup.sys, and while it boots OK from ERD commander and I can inactivate
Mup.sys, when ASUS tries to boot from the HDD it bluescreens somewhere
else.
I've tried changing the BIOS to disable AGP 8-speed, fast writes,
onboard LAN, USB-2 support (all suggested as cures on the newsgroups):
none of this works. Occasionally get reports from the nice lady that
the memory test has failed. Try re-seating the memory in slots 1,2, or
3. Doesn't seem to fix it. I notice that my Athlon chip is reported as
being at 1.26GHz, which isn't what I'd really expected from an Athlon
2600: - WTF?
I get desperate and install Mandrake LINUX onto yet another HDD. This
seems to work OK in text mode, and will boot OK from the HDD but I
can't get Xwindows to run because none of the settings seem compatible
with (either) graphics card. So I have a great machine for running Vi
or emacs.
I'm now close to the point where I try to send this board back and
never buy an ASUS board again. I'm not exactly a novice at system
construction, but this has been possible the most dismal experience
I've had yet.
Any ideas gratefully received. I'm at the stage where I can't even
decide if it's a mobo problem, an AGP problem, a memory problem, or
whether there's a chip problem.
TIA
Dogbertd
I've been struggling to install WinXP Pro-SP1 on a brand-new ASUS
A7N8X.
System: A7N8X deluxe
CPU: Athlon 2600
RAM: 512 Mb PC3200 (from Crucial)
Video card: Radeon 9500 Pro
HDD: 60 Gb fujitsu (I think) set as primary master
CD-DVD-ROM set as secondary slave
I tried assembling the system. POST seems to work OK (at least that's
what the nice lady says), get into the XP boot loader and it
bluescreens with something about the ntldr.
Tried to reboot into safe mode, and again after choosing safe mode, it
bluescreens at Mup.sys.
I try a completely fresh install of XP on a different disk, and while
the install procedure starts ok from the CD, and copies files to the
disk, at the point where it wants to reboot from the HDD it
bluescreens on reboot.
I try a different video card in case there's some AGP problem (a
Geforce 4): same result. I install XP on the new HDD on another
machine (works fine). Put this HDD onto the A7N8X and it bluescreens.
Boot from safemode again fails at Mup.sys. Search internet to find
that in new installs, Win2000 and XP often bluescreen at Mup.sys -
great - this must be the problem! I try ERD commander to switch off
Mup.sys, and while it boots OK from ERD commander and I can inactivate
Mup.sys, when ASUS tries to boot from the HDD it bluescreens somewhere
else.
I've tried changing the BIOS to disable AGP 8-speed, fast writes,
onboard LAN, USB-2 support (all suggested as cures on the newsgroups):
none of this works. Occasionally get reports from the nice lady that
the memory test has failed. Try re-seating the memory in slots 1,2, or
3. Doesn't seem to fix it. I notice that my Athlon chip is reported as
being at 1.26GHz, which isn't what I'd really expected from an Athlon
2600: - WTF?
I get desperate and install Mandrake LINUX onto yet another HDD. This
seems to work OK in text mode, and will boot OK from the HDD but I
can't get Xwindows to run because none of the settings seem compatible
with (either) graphics card. So I have a great machine for running Vi
or emacs.
I'm now close to the point where I try to send this board back and
never buy an ASUS board again. I'm not exactly a novice at system
construction, but this has been possible the most dismal experience
I've had yet.
Any ideas gratefully received. I'm at the stage where I can't even
decide if it's a mobo problem, an AGP problem, a memory problem, or
whether there's a chip problem.
TIA
Dogbertd