Hi,300w Power supply is as follows 5v @ 25A, 3.3V @ 6A, 12V @ 10A
Pcprobe reports back everything ok. On my latest re-boot, initially
the processor was detected by bios as 1100Mhz and not the 2200Mhz
(AMD 3200+). So i re-boot and it thendetected the processor correctly.
Beginnging to think the processor might be on its way out! Took about
8 times today before system detected everything ok.
I've been looking at a picture of the motherboard for a few minutes,
and I cannot tell if the processor vcore switching regulator uses
+5V or +12V. Now, logically speaking, it would be pretty stupid
to power a high end AthlonXP processor via a single +12V pin, so
that means Asus likely uses +5V there. Your power supply has
the rating I would look for, namely 25 amps on +5V, to comfortably
run a good video card and a 3200+, with some dual channel memory.
(The 12V @ 10A would not be good for a P4 processor, so that power
supply is truly "AthlonXP only ready".)
In terms of your symptoms, the operation at 1100MHz, was the
BIOS recovering from a crash. The BIOS uses safe settings if
it thinks the computer crashed during the previous session.
So, it might be easy to explain a startup at 1100MHz. That
would be the fixed multiplier of 11x, combined with a clock
choice of 100MHz.
Your problem description reads like a power supply problem.
Maybe the power supply got fried by the loading of playing
BF2, or perhaps it was the combination of that load, plus
not enough air moving through the PSU. I tend to think
PSUs have gone a bit too far, reducing the fan speed, to
keep noise low, and the elevated temperature does not help
component life inside the PSU.
Try the following experiment (as I'm running out of things to
suggest). Download and install Asus Probe. Go to support.asus.com,
click download, type in "tools" as the name of the motherboard,
and you can get the latest version from the software listed 2.24.10.
Start up Asus Probe. Read and record the +3.3V, +5V, and +12V.
They should not dip more than 5%. The lowest acceptable voltages
would be 3.14V, 4.75V, and 11.4V. One output will have more loading
than the other two, and that might indicate which rail is used
to power the processor.
Now, download a copy of Prime95 from mersenne.org . Install and
select "torture test" from the options. (You could also use CPUburn
or a similar 100% CPU loading program, if they are easier to use.)
When the program starts to run, have a look at Asus Probe again.
Have any of the voltages gone out of spec ? One rail should really
be getting hammered at this point - but it must pass the voltage
spec.
What I'm trying to do here, is collect some evidence the power
supply is defective. If the PSU simply refuses to fall over
with this kind of testing, and yet you have startup problems,
it could be a bad motherboard. But the odds say, motherboards
are way more reliable than power supplies, so suspect the power
supply first. If you have a spare ATX PSU, by all means swap it
in, even if only to prove that the computer can be started into
the BIOS without a problem. I don't really want to send you to the
store, just blindly replacing the power supply, unless you can find
some kind of proof that it really needs to be replaced. Building
your own computer isn't a lot of fun, if you have to buy two
of everything - ask me how I know that :-(
Paul
