A8V random reboots - Turn off BIOS "auto" settings?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
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Bill

Hello, I have an Asus A8V Deluxe with the AMD Athlon 64 3500 processor,
Win XP PRO SP-1, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card and it reboots at
random. Usually it happens when I am closing or opening a window in IE
v.6, a small box of garbage will open in the upper left corner of the
screen and without any further action from me the system reboots. It
usually happens within the first 15 minutes of use and may occur several
consecutive times until a stable set up is enabled. If I get past about
30 minutes, nothing I have run will crash the system. Therefore I don't
suspect heat. I have a Antec 430 w power supply so I don't think it is
lack of power.

I have done the obvious, pulled and reseat cards, memory and cables. I
ran system scans with Norton AV, AdAware, Spy Sweeper. I ran Memtest 86
overnight for 70+ passes without an error (One 512 mb stick of generic
pc-3200 memory). I installed the latest updates for MB BIOS, ATI Radeon
Driver and Win XP update. I put the Radeon card on it own power lead.
The Device manager shows no problems and the Radeon card is only device
on IRQ 16.

I have been making changes in the BIOS and may think I have the problem
solved when it reboots. I can't locate any solid information on what
the BIOS "auto" setting do in the AI Overclocking and Memory
configuration screens.

With AI Overclocking and Memory configurations set to "Auto" does each
reboot load a possibly different set of parameters? Thus sometimes the
system is unstable.

Is it possible to view the BIOS parameters that were loaded when using
the "auto" setting?

Should I turn off all "auto" setting and set all parameters manually?

Should I be looking at something other than BIOS settings?

Sorry for the long message but thanks for reading,
Bill Steininger
 
Therefore I don't suspect heat.
Click to expand...

The fact that the problem goes away after about 30 minutes or so
does make me suspect temperature to be part of the equation here.
After all that is the only parameter that changes over time.

In your particular case it sounds as if the problem is too low a
temperature (in contrast with the normal overheating issues). The
main two effects of hardware warming up is that chips get slower
(CPU, memory etc) and that you have some mechanical effects due
to expanding material.

Since you have already tried reseating various components the most
probable cause is a timing issue. With cold hardware something is
running too fast, but once things have warmed up the problem is
gone. Standard repair procedure in such a case is to get a can of
freeze spray and selectively cool down components until the error
occurs. However I am not sure if you can also do this with a PC.
Cooling down one part to -40 C while the rest is very hot will
cause great mechanical stress. And frosting will be an issue too.

Anybody here have any experience using freeze spray on a PC?

Kind regards,
Danny Sanders www
(o o)
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| This message is printed on 100% recycled electrons. |
`-----------------------------------------------------------------'
 
As an afterthought: it could also be a bad connection or solder joint.
Erratic contact while cold but good contact when warmed up. You could
try fiddling with various connectors or gently apply pressure to the
circuits boards to see if you can cause a reboot that way.

Regards,
Danny Sanders www
(o o)
,---------------------------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo-.
| This message is printed on 100% recycled electrons. |
`-----------------------------------------------------------------'
 
I got the same config here, except I got 1024 megs of ram and a X800.

Mine is stable form the start. What cooler do you use? Have you replugged
all power cords? Switch them over from one gadget to the next, change them.
I had one that would connect to the DVD correctly, but would work perfectly
with the hdd. Try that.
Otherwise: Get it back, thats not normal. I think it is the MB. Try to set
all bios values to auto and or default and do not overclock the system. If
it runs stable here we go. Does it happen on a clean install of XP? I once
had a programm that caused the crashes. Try running something like
powerquest PM in Dos mode with a mouse or better some Knoppix CD just to get
it working without windows. If it runs something is bad with your XP
install.

If it is a hardware failure it shoul dhappen on knoppix or dos, too. Try
reseating the 9800 again and firmly. Klicking a window could be related to
the GFX card.
 
Bill said:
I have done the obvious, pulled and reseat cards, memory and cables. I
ran system scans with Norton AV, AdAware, Spy Sweeper. I ran Memtest 86
overnight for 70+ passes without an error (One 512 mb stick of generic
pc-3200 memory).
Click to expand...

Generic RAM?!?!
Do you see generic listed anywhere in your mb's list?
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket939/a8v-d/overview.htm

Forget Memtest. If you really want to test, then run long
full system backups for a few nights, saving the backup file to
the hard-drive. RAM issues often come up very randomly,
especially under load, so I wouldn't rely on any single test.

First, reduce the vid card's acceleration to none, to rule
out the video card.

Then check the Windows Event log, to rule out any nasty
background application or service. Also, disable the
virus-scan to rule that out.

If those are fine, you could try fiddling with RAM, cache,
and speed settings in BIOS, which may resolve it. But I'd
replace the RAM with some Asus recommended ones
anyway, since I think that's the culprit here.


RayO
 
Ray,

"RAM issues often come up very randomly". That is exactly why one should use
memtest86. A process such as backup will not exercise all of ram randomly,
it will do repetitive tests to parts of ram only.

A better out of the box test is to create a scheduled task using the
shutdown command to initiate a restart. The task should start say 1 minute
after the system goes idle after boot so the system continuously boots.
Windows [XP] boot does thrash parts of the system, but is by no means any
kind of exhaustive test either.

- Tim
 
Tim said:
Ray,

"RAM issues often come up very randomly". That is exactly why one should use
memtest86. A process such as backup will not exercise all of ram randomly,
it will do repetitive tests to parts of ram only.

A better out of the box test is to create a scheduled task using the
shutdown command to initiate a restart. The task should start say 1 minute
after the system goes idle after boot so the system continuously boots.
Windows [XP] boot does thrash parts of the system, but is by no means any
kind of exhaustive test either.

- Tim
Click to expand...


Speaking from experience, I've had memory problems that memtest86 would NOT
reveal (running ALL tests), but would still lock up my system in Windows, so
I can see where Ray0 is coming from.
 
Ditto. Neither is perfect. I was not dismissing it completely. I suppose the
one test memtest86 does not have is the long boring repetitive task test...

- Tim



Bx.C said:
Tim said:
Ray,

"RAM issues often come up very randomly". That is exactly why one should use
memtest86. A process such as backup will not exercise all of ram
randomly,
it will do repetitive tests to parts of ram only.

A better out of the box test is to create a scheduled task using the
shutdown command to initiate a restart. The task should start say 1
minute
after the system goes idle after boot so the system continuously boots.
Windows [XP] boot does thrash parts of the system, but is by no means any
kind of exhaustive test either.

- Tim
Click to expand...


Speaking from experience, I've had memory problems that memtest86 would
NOT
reveal (running ALL tests), but would still lock up my system in Windows,
so
I can see where Ray0 is coming from.
Click to expand...
 
Should I be looking at something other than BIOS settings?
Click to expand...

Try setting you down from 8x to 4x and report back if it helps.

I have nearly the same system as you as it would do what you describe,
but only when i launched 3D games.

Lowering the AGP to 4x seems to have solved the problem for me.
 
Try setting you down from 8x to 4x and report back if it helps.

I have nearly the same system as you as it would do what you describe,
but only when i launched 3D games.

Lowering the AGP to 4x seems to have solved the problem for me.
Click to expand...
Going back to 4X was one of the first things I tried. It did not work
for me. What seems to be working is turning down hardware acceleration
from full to about the middle step. The latest Catalyst driver did not
improve the condition. I had turned on Microsoft error reporting and it
is reporting a driver failure. I am still researching different
solutions. Thanks for the response.

Has anyone set up a stable A8V with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Card?
Bill
 
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