HELP: Serious problem w/P4C800-E

[G. Constantine]

Sorry if this is a bit long-winded. Recently I upgraded to a P4C800-E
Dlx and a P4-3.2C processor. Over the last few days I've had some
strange problems...

First off starting about yesterday when I powered the computer on
Windows would take a long time to load, and when it did the screen
would update VERY slowly. (ie. if I right-clicked on, say, an icon
the pop-up menu would slowly layer in and take about 4 - 7 seconds to
become operable.) At one point I got an error message saying the
hardware acceleration on my ATI 9800Pro 128 locked and it was running
in software mode. This has never happened before. I turned off the
comp, opened it up and took out then replaced the video card to make
sure it was seated properly. When I powered on the system after that
it worked fine. Then this morning I needed to do something on the
comp before work and when I powered it on it did the same thing. I
checked what I needed to check then shut the comp off.

Then when I got home I went to turn the system on only to find it
wouldn't boot. All the fans came on but it never posted. After
plugging some headphones in to the board's sound jack I heard it say
the CPU failed due to overclocking. I don't overclock anything. All
the jumpers are in the default positions as are all the settings in
the BIOS. Hell, I don't even have 'turbo' enabled.

I tried the same thing I did the night before (re-seating the vid
card, plus I reset the CMOS with the jumpers) and this time when I
turned it back on nothing happened. All the fans came on as did the
HD LED, but it didn't even give a post error message. It just sat
there not booting.

So as a last resort I popped the CPU out and put in my old 2Gz chip to
see if there was anything possibly wrong with the mobo and it booted
up fine. Then for the hell of it I put the 3.2Gz chip back in and low
and behold, it worked.

Any thoughts? A few days ago I flashed to the 1014 version of the
BIOS, but it worked error free for a couple days before this started.
Also I noted the VCore is running at a constant 1.6V, could this be a
problem as on the CPU packaging it says it should run at 1.55?

Core System Specs:
Asus P4C800-E Dlx (NON-OVERCLOCKED, everything default)
P4-3,2C (According to Asus Probe running ~40C unloaded/55C loaded)
1Gb PC2100 mem
ATI 9800PRO 128Mb (NON-OVERCLOCKED)
Windows XP Home w/all patches

Thanks!

 

[Philip Callan]

G. Constantine wrote:

Thanks!

Sounds like for some reason its choking on APM or something.

I would suggest 'reset to defaults' in bios, save and exit, press F8 or
something to stop it from loading windows right away after finishing a
post, then go through the steps to clear the RTC/CMOS, listed in the manual.

Takes about 5 minutes, turn it on and setup your settings, save them,
reboot.

If you flashed recently, and your computer is being wonky, its the first
suspect.

Why does everyone flash to the latest if they dont have problems? What
prompted you to update, the USB beeps?

 

[Derek Hawkins]

1Gb PC2100 mem

How many sticks?

 

[Noozer]

Sorry if this is a bit long-winded. Recently I upgraded to a P4C800-E
Dlx and a P4-3.2C processor. Over the last few days I've had some
strange problems...

First off starting about yesterday when I powered the computer on
Windows would take a long time to load, and when it did the screen
would update VERY slowly. (ie. if I right-clicked on, say, an icon
the pop-up menu would slowly layer in and take about 4 - 7 seconds to
become operable.)

I had this happen to me right after flashing my BIOS to 1015. When the PC is
running slowly the TaskManager (Ctrl-Alt-Del) would only show 1 CPU under
the performance tab. When the PC was running normally the TaksManager would
show 2 CPU's, as it should.

I finally flashed back to 1014 and all is fine again.

 

[G. Constantine]

How many sticks?

3 at the moment (2x256 1x512), but I have 2 sticks 512 (PC3200) on the
way.

 

[G. Constantine]

G. Constantine wrote:


Sounds like for some reason its choking on APM or something.

I would suggest 'reset to defaults' in bios, save and exit, press F8 or
something to stop it from loading windows right away after finishing a
post, then go through the steps to clear the RTC/CMOS, listed in the manual.

Takes about 5 minutes, turn it on and setup your settings, save them,
reboot.

If you flashed recently, and your computer is being wonky, its the first
suspect.

Why does everyone flash to the latest if they dont have problems? What
prompted you to update, the USB beeps?

I'll be honest, the only reason I upgraded the BIOS was because the
board came with 1011 and I wanted to have the latest (stable) BIOS
ver. I read many bad things about 1015, but people seemed happy with
1014 so I went with it.

Plus I'm planning on getting a SATA drive (not going RAID, just want a
3rd HD along with the two CD drives) and I read somewhere I should
have 1014 for the SATA connections to be stable. That could have been
BS for all I know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time to avoid
any conflicts in the future.

But like I said the comp was running stable for about 4 days after I
upped the BIOS, so I don't think it's likely to be the cause.

 

[G. Constantine]

I had this happen to me right after flashing my BIOS to 1015. When the PC is
running slowly the TaskManager (Ctrl-Alt-Del) would only show 1 CPU under
the performance tab. When the PC was running normally the TaksManager would
show 2 CPU's, as it should.

I finally flashed back to 1014 and all is fine again.

The task manager is showing 2 CPUs, so that's fine.

Looks like every time I completely power off the system, when I start
it back up my BIOS tells me the system failed due to CPU overclocking.
What can cause this? Like I said before, I'm not O/Cing anything!!
Could it be a bad CPU? I find that unlikely because I've already
replaced one because of this and the 2nd is doing the exact same
thing...

 

[Adam Pickford]

I am having the same problem. I have not flashed any bios or changed
any of the overclocking settings.

All I did was unplugged it and re-plugged it back in, and now it just
does not initialise the Graphics card and just see a blank screen.
Fans start up, Keyboard flashes its lights. I have reseated the
graphics card, and ram, changed graphics cards, tested monitor with
seperate computer and end up leaving hoping it would boot up and after
5 minutes I got a voice message and a message of the screen about over
clocking has failed and to press keys to change the settings, but the
keyboard wasn;t responding. Since then I haven't had any sucess in any
bootup or a voice or any message on the screen.

Is this just a crap Motherboard and needs to be taken back under
warranty ?? I have used this as a new computer for less than 30 hours
of running time since I have bought it 3 weeks ago.

Its a Asus P4C800-E Deluce with a Antec 1080 Case (430W Real Power
PSU), 250 Gig Serial ATA WD HDD, 512 MB KingMax DDR single channel.
Graphics card is a G4 5200FX as its not a gaming machine (its for a
work machine).

I have not cleared the CMOS using the jumper, as the manual states
that you shouldn't need to do this for overclocking locking up, but
the system doesn't even boot up, to get into the bios...