P3B-F Lock-ups... Help!!

[The Dismantler!]

I am trying to resurrect a P3B-F with PII-400, get solid lockups when
attempting to run heavy programs.
Tried different memory, hard drive, both WIN98SE and Windows2000, disabling
Level 2 cache, even another P3B-F mobo that behaves exactly the same.
several other ideas passed onto me from friends.
I'm stumped.

Any suggestions?

Thanx...

 

[BigBadger]

Sure the CPU cooling is up to scratch??? Is there any thermal paste between
the heatsink and the heat speader plate? The other thing that springs to
mind is memory...are you sure it's good? Try 'by SPD' memory timings.

 

[Stephan Grossklass]

I am trying to resurrect a P3B-F with PII-400, get solid lockups when
attempting to run heavy programs.
Tried different memory, hard drive, both WIN98SE and Windows2000, disabling
Level 2 cache, even another P3B-F mobo that behaves exactly the same.
several other ideas passed onto me from friends.
I'm stumped.

Any suggestions?

If it's not the cooling, maybe the PSU is faulty. Which board revision
do you have?

Stephan

 

[Roy Coorne]

I am trying to resurrect a P3B-F ...

Did you flash the latest BIOS - which is 1008-04:

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Slot_I/INTEL_Chipset/i440BX/P3B-F/

during the resurrection process?

Roy

 

[Nikolaos Tampakis]

I am trying to resurrect a P3B-F with PII-400, get solid lockups when
attempting to run heavy programs.
Tried different memory, hard drive, both WIN98SE and Windows2000, disabling
Level 2 cache, even another P3B-F mobo that behaves exactly the same.
several other ideas passed onto me from friends.
I'm stumped.

Any suggestions?

Thanx...

What exactly do you mean by 'heavy programs' ?
At least a production portion of the P3B-F's was known to easily crash under
some Photoshop MMX plugins - it was said that those heavy I/O routines used
caused excessive noise on the CPU bus thus leading to crashing. Possibly
other software could also exhibit the same behaviour.
I don't know what happened since - maybe it was fixed for all boards with
some later BIOS, maybe some other trick could do the job (a person here back
those days suggested that increasing the AGP aperture size to 256 MB fixed
all his problems), maybe only certain revisions had this problem, maybe it
only occured with certain CPU speeds/models, finally maybe your problems are
totally unrelated but still you should check that possibility too.

Regards
Nikos

 

[The Dismantler!]

Thanx to all of you who replied, I have tried yours and other suggestions
but have yet to conquer the beast. I will beat this one, for spite if no
other reason, and I will share my findings when I do!

Cheers!

 

[daytripper]

Thanx to all of you who replied, I have tried yours and other suggestions
but have yet to conquer the beast. I will beat this one, for spite if no
other reason, and I will share my findings when I do!

Google "P3B-F Photoshop Bug"

Or just start here....

http://members.ams.chello.nl/mgherard/html/photoshop.html

/daytripper

 

[The Dismantler!]

Actually, it doesn't even take PS, just hitting Microsoft's Win98 Update
site will do it, or opening Windows Media Player.
I found some references to the sound card I am using (Sound Blaster ISA
card), picked up a PCI sound card at a flea market today, will swap in the
next couple of days. I have a feeling...