ASUS P4R800-VM not booting

[NMK]

Hi,
Other people in the NG have also encountered similar problems as me with
this damn Motherboard, but noone has posted a solution.

So, here is the delima:

I've setup a completely new system with ASUS P4R800-VM (ATI IGP 9100
chipset), Cel 2.4, 128MB KByte memory in an Ahanix eXtreme case.


When I first set it up, it ran fine. I ran it overnight with no issues.

The next day, no response. The MB LED was on, I could see the keyboard LEDs
powering, all FANS were all working, but the HD was NOT spinning. No video
and no booting.
BTW, if I unplug the IDE, the HD spins. Again, no response from the unit.

Gave up eventually.
The next day, it worked fine. As if nothing had happened.

Again, came back after work, it didn't work. The cycle has repeated several
times, one day it works, one day it doesn't. Quite moody I'd say.

During the short periods that it worked, I installed the latest BIOS too
(v1003) , but the symptoms still come back.
I also changed the memory to a PC2700/PC2100 Kbyte 256 memory (both of my
memory modules were brand new)

Interestingly, I also installed W2K from scratch, and after several
successful rebootings, suddendly W2K driver files got corrupted. I had to
reinstall. But now, I can't get the damn thing to startup again, due to the
infamous blank screen.


Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[floppy]

maybe your computer was confused about weather you have 128Mb of ram or
128Kb or 128Gb of ram.......even i don't understand what 128Mb Kb memory
is......lol

however, have you tried to move your HD to the secondary controller and
install your O/S of choice from there? did you setup your BIOS properly?
cpu frenqency, bus speed, blah blah.....

flop

 

[Paul]

Hi,
Other people in the NG have also encountered similar problems as me with
this damn Motherboard, but noone has posted a solution.

So, here is the delima:

I've setup a completely new system with ASUS P4R800-VM (ATI IGP 9100
chipset), Cel 2.4, 128MB KByte memory in an Ahanix eXtreme case.


When I first set it up, it ran fine. I ran it overnight with no issues.

The next day, no response. The MB LED was on, I could see the keyboard LEDs
powering, all FANS were all working, but the HD was NOT spinning. No video
and no booting.
BTW, if I unplug the IDE, the HD spins. Again, no response from the unit.

Gave up eventually.
The next day, it worked fine. As if nothing had happened.

Again, came back after work, it didn't work. The cycle has repeated several
times, one day it works, one day it doesn't. Quite moody I'd say.

During the short periods that it worked, I installed the latest BIOS too
(v1003) , but the symptoms still come back.
I also changed the memory to a PC2700/PC2100 Kbyte 256 memory (both of my
memory modules were brand new)

Interestingly, I also installed W2K from scratch, and after several
successful rebootings, suddendly W2K driver files got corrupted. I had to
reinstall. But now, I can't get the damn thing to startup again, due to the
infamous blank screen.


Any ideas?

Thanks

It sounds like two problems. First, you should get a copy of memtest+
from memtest.org and test the memory. You may need to manually adjust
memory timing parameters, to get an error free memory subsystem. You
should not install/run an OS unless the memory has been tested as
being completely error free.

The second problem sounds like an ACPI/power management problem. You
have your machine set to go into a lower power state after some
interval of time, and it is not recovering from that state. Get
a copy of "dumppo.exe" and see what it says about which states are
currently supported by your motherboard. Otherwise, try disabling
all options to suspend to RAM etc in Windows. It could be that some
driver is incompatible with ACPI, hard to say.

(I am assuming here, from your description, that when the screen is
blank, you left the machine running overnight, and we are not talking
about turning on the power first thing in the morning...)

HTH,
Paul

 

[NMK]

Thanks for the replies.

Just to clarify,
The lack of response always comes after a power-on when the system was off
for several hours.
If the system comes on, it seems to run fine. If I turn it off, then, say
leave it overnight and go back to it the next day, depending on its mood, it
may choose to respond or not!

I will run memtest the next time the system comes on!! So far, since a
couple of days ago, it has refused to come back on!!

As far as the settings go, there is not much I can set on this motherboard.
The CPU frequency is autodetected, the memory settings is for onboard video
and slow/fast CAS. I have set these to different parameters and the problem
still persists. Also, it is not related to the HD controller. During the
time that it is not responding, it will do so irrespective of whether an HD
is connected or not. If the HD is connected, it won't spin.

thanks again.

 

[David Shorthouse]

Sounds to me like a power supply issue- either over-loaded or poorly
implemented. I have this board in an Antec Minuet and have not had any of
your described symptoms. STR works flawlessly. The only gripe I have is that
the WOL management for the onboard NIC is poor.

Relevant Specs:

2.6GHz Celeron
2X 256MB generic PC2100 in dual channel
30GB HDD
DVD-ROM

I would hesitate putting PC3200 in this board because there doesn't seem
to be any way to adjust RAM voltage.

Dave

 

[Paul]

Thanks for the replies.

Just to clarify,
The lack of response always comes after a power-on when the system was off
for several hours.
If the system comes on, it seems to run fine. If I turn it off, then, say
leave it overnight and go back to it the next day, depending on its mood, it
may choose to respond or not!

I will run memtest the next time the system comes on!! So far, since a
couple of days ago, it has refused to come back on!!

As far as the settings go, there is not much I can set on this motherboard.
The CPU frequency is autodetected, the memory settings is for onboard video
and slow/fast CAS. I have set these to different parameters and the problem
still persists. Also, it is not related to the HD controller. During the
time that it is not responding, it will do so irrespective of whether an HD
is connected or not. If the HD is connected, it won't spin.

thanks again.

There have been other Asus motherboards with cold boot problems.
The problem never seems to get fixed on some of them.

One obscure problem had to do with leakage current flowing down
the monitor cable and into the PC. This is because part of the
monitor circuitry is powered at all times, and there are logic
levels on the VGA cable. (Serial clock and data carrying monitor
characteristics, as far as I know.)

If the monitor cable was disconnected for a while, and then the
computer powered up, it would boot. That is a pretty lousy work
around, but in that case there isn't much else you could do.

If the fans spin up, then chances are the PS isn't completely
dead.

I don't know what else to suggest, unless this has something
to do with some unusual peripheral or PCI device you have
plugged in.

Paul

 

[NMK]

Please see comments inline:

There have been other Asus motherboards with cold boot problems.
The problem never seems to get fixed on some of them.

Have these been recent mother boards (i.e, even with P4R800 series) or some
older ones?
This is an interesting problem. Unfortunately, I don't have the system with
me anymore.
I got so frustrated that I thought I'd take it back to the dealer and let
them try it out.
The irony is that, obviously, when you take it there, the problem never
happens, so
I left it there so they could give it a try a few times and maybe its
moodiness would come back.

Now, the VGA power leak sounds very plausible. I can't remember whether I
had always
disconnected the monitor cable each and every time.
If the cable is connected with the monitor power off, would the VGA pins
still leak power?
Or does the monitor have to be unplugged, or the VGA cable be unplugged for
it it happen?

Thanks again,

 

[Sept1967]

I have a P4R800-VM (using onboard Radeon video) and have never had a problem
cold booting.
Mine is powering a P4 2.8GHz (800MHz FSB) 2 Gb PC2700 dual channel (4x512
sticks), 160Gb WD HD, Zip250 IDE, 4x DVD+/- , floppy, with an Enermax 365
power supply.

What is the power supply with this Ahanix eXtreme case? This is a
Flex/MicroATX case right?
The included power supply just might be too weak.

 

[Paul]

Please see comments inline:




Have these been recent mother boards (i.e, even with P4R800 series)
or some older ones? This is an interesting problem. Unfortunately,
I don't have the system with me anymore. I got so frustrated that I
thought I'd take it back to the dealer and let them try it out.
The irony is that, obviously, when you take it there, the problem
never happens, so I left it there so they could give it a try a few
times and maybe its moodiness would come back.

Now, the VGA power leak sounds very plausible. I can't remember
whether I had always disconnected the monitor cable each and every
time. If the cable is connected with the monitor power off, would
the VGA pins still leak power? Or does the monitor have to be
unplugged, or the VGA cable be unplugged for it it happen?

Thanks again,

<<snip>>

The P4PE has a cold boot problem, and I think the affected boards
still have the problem. But the P4PE problem might have to do with
startup sequence (i.e. how FSB/Vcore is set up when the reset
vector executes). This post suggests a couple of other models
that might have monitor leakage issues of some sort.

http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

I notice the Asus FAQ makes no mention of these problems, and
maybe that suggests they think it is the fault of the video
card or some other part of the system.

Searching abxzone.com will usually dig up some references too:

P4PE Cold Boot:
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=37995

More monitor leakage fun:
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=30767

HTH,
Paul