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Hey, I have a interesting problem with a Athlon XP I built. If you think you want to hear about it, reply. and I'll leave a detailed post. but it's wierd. nothing i've ever experienced before. To give a short description. I installed win2k on the thing. it bluescreened or something. and would never boot again, so i try to install it. and the installer just freezes on starting windows, the XP pro installer does too. wtf. do i have an incredably sketchy board here?

It's a Athlon XP 1700+ on a soyo SY-K7VTA Pro. it has 384Megs of SDRAM, a 30gig quantum hard drive, a Radeon 7000, and that's it. Just a cheap box for my friends to play lan games with me on.

 
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I had experiences like that and quite a few times exchanging the memory corrected the problem.

 
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Blue screens are the worst to fix!! 90% of the time it's a hardware problem. And yours does sound like it.

FYI, I had a DFI (mediocre name) for my XP 1700+ and it crashed regularly (blue screen) and was fixed when I got my MSI KT3-R (I love this board). It might be the chipset, as the AMD 760 chipset seems to hate the XP chips. But from the model yours sound like a VIA chipset.

You can also try different combinations of your RAM, as those will affect it too.

Just as a guess, is your blue screen message something about page file dump size? Keep posting, I'll help.

 
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MSOFT is correct, it definetely sounds like a hardware problem. Windows XP isn't the greatest OS to troubleshoot with, but if its all you got then stick with it, unless you can get Windows 2000. Anyways, what I would suggest is to go to the SOYO website and get the latest BIOS upgrade for your motherboard. This is something that would probably need to be done before you receive a new motherboard either from the store your purchased the PC or from SOYO. I would definetely start with that, and if you can get Windows 2000 I would flash the bios and then try to install W2K.. HOpe this helps..

 
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BIOS is possible but not likely. The newer boards are all designed and tested with XP in mind, so it wouldn't make sense for smthg like that to happen. Of course, with Microsoft anything is possible.

Definitely check the RAM, and update the BIOS if you wish. I am willing to bet it's the memory or the board.

 
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I'd rather install 2k for sure. I run it on my big box (Dual Athlon MP2000+) .

And always have. I find XP to crash a lot more, and it is missing small parts. example, My scsi card auto detects and works perfectly in win2k. i try it win winxp. it detects, but doesn't work. and i never managed to make it work. lol, i just installed 2k after an hour or so. I've also noticed lots of another little annoyances with XP. I wish i could find one of my bootable install cd's for a 9x kernal os. but that's not happening easily. anyone got an ISO they can send me?

haha. but anyway, i'll try flashing the bios. and pulling some of the memory. The thing i find wierd is that it's working, then it bluescreens, and the installer won't even work anymore, but it DID work initially.

 
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Just go back to 2k. Though I myself've been on XP at home since it was out, no problem ever.

Did you reformat the drive after the crash? It would be weird if the installer freezes even with the reformat... Then it definitely sounds like a RAM stick or a transistor on the mobo went bad during that.

One more thing, make sure you're running a good 300W p/s. Get one that's AMD approved!

 
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hmmm, i dunno how great my PS is. i know it's 300watt. but that's n00b stuff. haah. it's just the powersupply that came with the case i'm using for my duallie, but i upgraded that to a 450.. since it's dual.

 
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yeah, good call on the RAM.. Try taking each stick out, with 384MB of ram you prolly have 3 128's or 1 256 and 1 128 or whatever.. Try to take one stick out, and boot up. Then take out the other stick and see what happens. Ya know what I mean?

 
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I would put a good p/s on an Athlon XP system. Enermax or Sparkle are readily available in Canada. Don't trust those no namer 300Ws that come with $40 cases.

 
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bah, it's a box for my friends, not me. but the powersupply came in a decent case ($140, lol), and it has a AMD sticker on it. I just checked.

Surprisingly i got by with a no name 350 watt powersupply on my dual Morgan (Duron), with a tyan board. and I don't think i was supposed to run less than 400 with that board. but i agree, don't cheap out on power.

 
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Hmmm, then you're probably ok. BTW, $140 is a hella lot to pay for a case! Unless it's a server enclosure.

Good luck on the troubleshooting. Post here or PM me if you have any more problems. Of coz, if you need parts, lemme know.

 
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sorry to OT ur thread nitehawk.. but i also have a problem with my comp... it won't shut down completely... instead.. it would shut down to a black empty screen... [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/IMG]

changed power supply and checked my bios... no problems there... anyone experienced that before??? pls advise. thanks...

 
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what os?

 
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VC that's a weird problem you have there. Need to know your OS to know why.

 
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lol at the header "other geeks"

 
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blue screen could be your sound too =)
if you got an old sound card or an on board sound card. that could be a problem too

 
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That's less likely though, it'd much more be an video card error.

I just noticed, see how the MS banner is in blue? Blue screen = Micrsoft.

 
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VtecChronicle running on Window 2000...

 
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[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/IMG]

 
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definitely sounds like a RAM issue... as for Vtech, the problem is between the keyboard and the seat!! hahaha

 
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wtf?!?
the last time i saw it... it's still in nice and mint condition dude...

 
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VC, your problem might be with W2k's power settings. Check them, and install (or reinstall latest version if you already have them) chipset drivers for your board as the proper power management drivers are not included with W2k.

EDIT: In power settings, make sure APM is used if option available.

 
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HOW TO: Troubleshoot Shutdown Problems in Windows 2000

 
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These documents are way too generic. Won't help unless it's a very serious issue (like a system that just can't be shut down abnormally) but 99% of what they list won't really apply for home systems.

Anyway, good to know some people know how to access MS support too, as that's a big part of our work when troubleshooting things that are not evident to us...

 
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thnx for the link Toronto... but i couldn't find anything relative to my computer problem...

MSOFT.. i couldn't find the option for APM...

 
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Just an "if", don't worry APM is pretty much replaced by ACPI these days and it's automatically on.

Check for sure the chipset drivers. And do some MS updating too. SR-2 at least.