HELP ME PLZ

[royalk4]

Hey, This is my first post on this site. I am trying to build my
first computer and am having some difficulty. I am running an AMD
Barton 2600+ with 120gig HD, 512 DDR2700 ram, nvidia mx-440, on a ASUS
A7N8X deluxe motherboard.
I am having roughly 3 problems. The major problem being that it
freezes at any given moment. It freezes when I try to download
acrobat reader, or it just now froze when I tried to update my video
driver. It will also freeze when I start it up sometime. I am
completely lost and wish it would work because it is so much less ROME
TW time.

Problem 2 Also when I boot up it says:

64.0 mb RAM
nvidia...
....


Primary Drive not found
Secondary Drive not found

I have both a cd-rw and a dvd rom installed and one set to primary
master and one set to secondary.
I also cannot acces the SATA Raid, or the AWDFLASH utility from my
motherboard at the very beginning of start up. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Royalk4

p.s. I am a huge newb so the easier/ more complete the prescription
the better. Thanks again

 

[Simon Bussey]

Hi,

It seems you have a serious stability issue. As this is your first built PC
i'm guessing it may have something to do with how you built it. Here are a
few suggestions to have a look at.

1) Check the CPU/Heatsink were correctly fitted and that you used a thermal
compound between the two surfaces. Also make sure there wasn't a film or
pad that should of been peeled off before installing the heatsink. Your CPU
could be overheating, check the temp in the bios. Anything in the 50's or
higher is too hot!

2) Check that the motherboard and cards were all installed 'cleanly' make
sure that any screws into the board arn't shorting with any tracks and that
everything is insulated from the metal pc case.

3) Check that things which should be making contact with the case are.
Proper grounding is important. Make sure you put in the metal plate that
fits in the back around all the ports and it makes a good connection
between the motherboard ports and the metal case.

4) Make sure all other cable/leads are all securely fitted. Check the memory
modules are securly fitted, IDE cables are well pushed in etc..

You could also get a friend who has build several pc's to have a quick look
inside. It is of course possible that one of the components is/are faulty.
If you have another cpu/ram you could try swapping them in.

Hope this is of some help.

Simon

 

[Matt]

I am running an AMD
Barton 2600+ with 120gig HD, 512 DDR2700 ram, nvidia mx-440, on a ASUS
A7N8X deluxe motherboard.

The problem is that you are trying to run your computer without a power
supply.

You may find that all your problems vanish once you install a name-brand
supply of at least 300W, preferably 350W.

 

[Mac Cool]

royalk4:

The major problem being that it freezes at any given moment. It
freezes when I try to download acrobat reader, or it just now froze
when I tried to update my video driver. It will also freeze when I
start it up sometime. I am completely lost and wish it would work
because it is so much less ROME TW time.

If your drives aren't being recognized, how did you install an OS?
What am I missing? Anyway... truly random lock ups could be anything,
hardware or software; but most lock ups aren't really random, it just
might take you a while to figure out the pattern.

Does it freeze...
after a certain amount of time, regardless of what you are doing?
when you are accessing the hard drives?
when you are accessing memory?
something else?

Problem 2 Also when I boot up it says:

64.0 mb RAM
nvidia...
....

Might be a clue to number one.

Does Windows recognize the card?
Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager | Display Adaptors

Turn off the machine, remove and carefully reinstall the video card. If
that doesn't fix the problem I would return or RMA the video card. If
the new card isn't recognized then return/RMA the motherboard.

Primary Drive not found
Secondary Drive not found

I have both a cd-rw and a dvd rom installed and one set to primary
master and one set to secondary.

While you are inside the machine reinstalling the video card, double
check your jumpers, remove and reinsert your cables. When you start the
machine enter your bios and check the settings. Use your motherboard
manual, it should walk you through the bios options.

I also cannot acces the SATA Raid, or the AWDFLASH utility from my
motherboard at the very beginning of start up. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Can't help you there. I don't see any advantages for home users to use
RAID and I don't build servers so I don't know much about it.

 

[tom]

Problem 2 Also when I boot up it says:

64.0 mb RAM
nvidia...

This is normal behavior...it's the video BIOS posting.....you'll go nuts
trying to eliminate this!

 

[Al]

Hey, This is my first post on this site. I am trying to build my
first computer and am having some difficulty. I am running an AMD
Barton 2600+ with 120gig HD, 512 DDR2700 ram, nvidia mx-440, on a ASUS
A7N8X deluxe motherboard.
I am having roughly 3 problems. The major problem being that it
freezes at any given moment. It freezes when I try to download
acrobat reader, or it just now froze when I tried to update my video
driver. It will also freeze when I start it up sometime. I am
completely lost and wish it would work because it is so much less ROME
TW time.

=== trim


The best place to start is by bringing your computer down to the
minimum configuration: video card, hard disk and floppy.

Then, go into the BIOS and look for "Load Failsafe Settings." This
should set your memory to more tolerant values also. Running the long
memory test is a good idea, or memtest86.

The third thing is to go into the BIOS and turn off LAN, Serial,
Parallel and any other integrated peripherals except the primary drive
controller. Disable the USB if you can use your mouse in the PS/2
port.

When Windows sees to many devices at once it can cause problems. It
needs to assign an interrupt to each device and conflicts in
interrupts can cause lockups. If the devices such as USB and LAN are
turned on one at a time the Plug and Play finds them and does a better
job of assigning interrupts to them.

It could still be a hardware problem - carefully re-seat the
connectors and memory.

Good luck!

 

[Mac Cool]

tom:

This is normal behavior...it's the video BIOS posting.....you'll go
nuts trying to eliminate this!

I guess I misread his post then, I thought he was saying that his video
card wasn't being recognized. It should say more than 64MB Nvidia when it
posts.