A7V8X Question

[Bob Horton]

Hi,

I have an A7V8X board which I recently upgraded to a Sempron 2800+ chip. To
get the board to properly recognize the chip, I flashed the BIOS to
1015.003. Whereas before the flash the board thought the chip was an Athlon
2400+, it now recognizes the chip as the Sempron 2800+. Everything seems to
work fine except for XP shutdown (XP Pro SP2, fully patched). The machine
apparently goes through the process of closing all applications, etc. but it
stops at the "Windows is shutting down" screen. There are no errors
generated in the error log. It appears that everything is shut down inside
Windows but the power isn't cycled. The machine will sit like this for a
day or longer if you let it (ask me how I know). Everything reboots
properly if you use the power switch. The problem didn't exist before the
BIOS change. I have tried every setting in the BIOS power options with no
joy. I have tried all the MS KB articles and groups with no leads either.
Any suggestions? I hate to do a clean XP install for this, especially when
I'm not at all sure that it will fix the problem.

Also, is it just me or are the current ASUS BIOS update files hard to find?
If you go the A7V8X download pages and look for BIOS updates, it doesn't
show a date later than 2004 for BIOS files (1014). Yet when you go to the
CPU compatibility page, it links you to the 1015-003 BIOS dated January
2005, which is needed for the Sempron compatibility. Seems screwy to me.

Anyway, TIA.

 

[dino]

when you flashed your BIOS did you set it all back up?? Maybe you are
missing something or have a hardware conflict happening due to the flash

 

[Bob Horton]

when you flashed your BIOS did you set it all back up?? Maybe you are
missing something or have a hardware conflict happening due to the flash

Not sure exactly what you're asking on "did I set it all back up". If you
mean did I duplicate the previous BIOS settings, then the answer is yes,
that was my baseline. From there I played with the power settings in the
BIOS, but honestly there doesn't seem to be anything in there that should
impact this (nor did anything I did seem to have any impact).

 

[dino]

go into your BIOS and disable anything you do not use..COM ports..LPT if you
run USB printer..if that does not work am not sure..according to Microsoft
data base sounds like a hardware conflict. Go there and search it till you
find your syptoms

 

[Bob Horton]

go into your BIOS and disable anything you do not use..COM ports..LPT if
you
run USB printer..if that does not work am not sure..according to Microsoft
data base sounds like a hardware conflict. Go there and search it till you
find your syptoms

Thanks Dino. Already put a few weeks into trying that route (I've been in
the MS Knowledge base ad nauseum!). There's no apparent conflict, at least
that I can find. There is no error being generated in any error log, which
should not be the case if a device driver isn't unloading. I have
uninstalled any hidden device drivers. I have completely uninstalled and
"rebuilt" all the VIA drivers (which are notorious, as you probably know).
I have reverted to the built-in XP video drivers rather than the ATI
drivers. I have even shut down from safe mode with the same result. It
appears that everything is actually shut down when the "windows is shutting
down" splash screen "freezes", but the power is not cycled (the HDD is busy
for 10-20 seconds shutting things down while the "windows is shutting down"
message is first displayed, then all activity ceases). Everything
functioned OK before the BIOS flash. I would just go back to the old BIOS
but according to Sandra all my performance indices improved substantially
after the BIOS flash (with the processor being recognized properly). I
tried doing system restore points going back to before the flash, but it
seems that the flashing process effectively renders them useless (something
that others might note for future reference, as it seems from my research
that this is not unusual; to get them working again, you have to go through
the process of shutting down the restore service, which erases all the old
restore points, reboot, turn the service back on, reboot again, then it
establishes a new initial restore point).

Anyway, thanks again for your suggestion. Any other ideas gratefully
welcomed.

 

[dino]

have you tried booting into Safe Mode with minimal drivers running?.try all
different safe mode boot options to see if it makes a difference..what other
devices do you have??...how much ram??..have you googgled it?..

also try here

http://forums.pcper.com/

 

[Bob Horton]

have you tried booting into Safe Mode with minimal drivers running?.try
all
different safe mode boot options to see if it makes a difference..what
other
devices do you have??...how much ram??..have you googgled it?..

also try here

http://forums.pcper.com/

I'll check out the link, thanks. I have a gig of ram. As I said before,
safe mode made no difference. I started with Google a month ago

 

[Bob Horton]

I'll check out the link, thanks. I have a gig of ram. As I said before,
safe mode made no difference. I started with Google a month ago

In the "truth is stranger than fiction" department, I went back to the
aforementioned machine tonight to start troubleshooting again. I installed
the latest XP update, which required a reboot. I did absolutely nothing
else to the machine and the damn thing restarted itself perfectly. Maybe
something in the latest MS patch rerouted a registry entry or something. I
don't have a guess as to what happened, but it's functioning normally now.
Thanks for the suggestions

 

[dino]

good..that is why it is called WIN-DOHS!!