XP Install restarts

[bobritter]

ABIT SG-80DC MB, 1 gig memory, SATA RAID 1 array. We bought several of these MBs and they are killing me. XP install proceeds routinely until 6-9 minutes to go. Sytem reboots and install restarts at 39 minutes to go. Tried reseating/replacing memory, reseating/removing all cards, chanting mantra and swearing a blue streak and nothing seems to work. Then for no apparent reason, on the 5th, 10th, 20th or Nth restart it completes the install and all is well. Once we get past the install the system seems to be stable. This has happened on 4 out of 4 of these MBs.
I'm at a total loss. HELP!!!

 

[muckshifter]

oops

You bought several, and everyone is doing the same thing ... must be a design fault. That is not that unusual from the likes of Abit. Try adjusting, or at least checking, the BIOS for wrong memory timings


I would RMA all of 'em and either get me money back or get an alternative MB from a different manufacturer.

I had a similar "experience" from ECS when XP first appeared on the scene (2000/01), to be expected I suppose, but it required a BIOS update to fix ... actually, you needed to update the BIOS every week to get them buggers to work.

I believe ECS have "cured" that problem, but I ain't gonna try another board from them.

Have you contacted Abit or the supplier of the MBs ?

 

[bobritter]

I have email and forum posts into ABIT. Calls to their tech support yields an indefinite wait. I waited 20 minutes and gave up.

 

[bobritter]

Thanks to all.
A closer search on the ABIT site did reveal a compatability chart that indicates this processor/MOBO not supported or at least not yet tested by ABIT. As always find the answer in the LAST place you look. Of course I should have looked there first. I believed the book that came with the MOBO that indicated support for ALL PD8xx processors with 800/533 FSB. Silly me. Again thanks to all.

 

[muckshifter]

Thanks for the update ... sorry it wasn't what you hoped for.