Trouble with Powerleap CPU adapter and Asus P2B rev 1.02: Please help!

[Alex Zambelli]

First of all, I sincerely apologize for the massive crosspost. I
realize it's bad netiquette, but I really need help on this one and
I'll gladly take any advice I can get.

This is my second attempt to upgrade my Asus P2B rev 1.02 to a
Tualatin CPU. About 6 months ago I attempted to upgrade it to a
Celeron 1.4GHz CPU using the Powerleap PL-iP3/T adapter but failed,
much to my dismay. I returned both items to Powerleap, got a full
refund, but then subsuquently read in newsgroups that the 1.4GHz Cel
had compatibility issues with the P2B board. It bugged me for a long
time so recently I decided to give it a second shot, this time with a
1.3Ghz Celeron.

A brief note to people unfamiliar with the Asus P2B rev 1.02: this
particular early version of the P2B mobo cannot produce voltage lower
than 1.8V. For this reason the Powerleap adaptor is the only slocket
adaptor capable of running new Tualatins on a P2B/1.02 (because it
provides its own voltage regulator).

Let me cut to the chase quickly, before I lose everyone who's reading
this. The problem is that after installing the new CPU (at 100 MHz
FSB, no overclocking, no funny stuff) my computer randomly locks up. I
troubleshot the system for days and concluded that the lock-ups were
NOT related to excessive heat or lack of voltage, the typical causes
of CPU instability. Here's why:

The computer literally locks up randomly. CPU usage and stress seem to
have little or no effect on the lockups. I can easily run Prime95 or
Hot CPU Tester for hours and hours without any crashes or lockups. I
can run the Sandra overall performance benchmark flawlessly. I can run
3DMark in loops without any problems. In fact, I've never had the
computer crash during CPU intensive benchmarks. And yet, it has locked
up in CPU-easy tasks such as reading web pages in IE, pulling dropdown
menus in applications, etc.

Another weird thing is that the system crashes don't always occur in
same form. I have counted 3 different kinds so far:
1) Total freeze. The mouse, the keyboard, the screen - everything
freezes. A hard reset is necessary.
2) Video mess. Suddently the video goes berserk and a big mesh of
color blocks is displayed on my screen. As far as I can tell, the
computer is frozen. A hard reset is necessary.
3) Computer reset. The system simply resets itself. I've noticed that
the self-induced reset is not very clean; I often have to reset the
machine again to get it into a state where it'll boot up normally.

I've searched Google Groups for days trying to find an answer. I think
I've tried every solution suggested to other users who (appeared to
have) experienced similar problems:

1) I've removed the plastic frame from the PL-iP3/T adapter.
2) I've raised the CPU voltage to 1.6V, even though I'm not
overclocking the CPU and 1.5V should be sufficient enough.
3) I've selected 100MHz FSB on both motherboard and slocket adapter.
4) I've tried raising the FSB to 112 MHz, just for the hell of it.
5) I've set "Halt On: No Errors" in the BIOS.
6) I've been running the latest 1014.3 bios (w/ HM) for at least 6
months now.
7) I've opened up the case to make sure there's enough airflow. CPU
temperature never goes above 42C anyway.

I'm really running out of answers here. This is totally confusing me.
If anyone can suggest a solution to my problem, I'd be most grateful.

Finally, here's my entire system configuration:

PSU: Enermax EG-301P-VB 300W power supply, with a 22A max current on
+12V rail
MB: Asus P2B rev 1.02
BIOS: 1014.3 with hardware monitoring
CPU: Celeron 1300 GHz - retail - SL6C7, made in Phillipines. Default
heatsink and fan.
RAM: 3 x 256MB PC133 SDRAM CL2 timing (2 Micron sticks, 1 noname)
Video: 3dfx Voodo3 3500TV
Audio: Creative SB PCI64 ES1370
ATA100 controller: Promise Ultra100
HDD1: Maxtor 54610H6 IDE 7200 rpm (ATA100)
HDD2: IBM/Hitachi IC35L120 AVV207-0 IDE 7200 rpm (ATA100)
DVD-RW: Sony DW-U14A (IDE)
CD-RW: Yamaha CRW4416E (IDE)
Network: 3Com Etherlink 10/100 PCI 3C905b-TX
NLE: Canopus DVRaptor
OS: Windows 2000 SP4 + all latest updates

Prior to the upgrade I was running a Pentium III 800 Mhz at 112 MHz
FSB. The only thing that was changed in the upgrade was the CPU,
everything else stayed the same.

 

[HamMan]

<snip>

Do you not think it would be eaisier to just gt a nice cheap socket 370 (?)
board off ebay?


Hamman

 

[JohnTheLuck]

First of all, I sincerely apologize for the massive crosspost. I
realize it's bad netiquette, but I really need help on this one and
I'll gladly take any advice I can get.

This is my second attempt to upgrade my Asus P2B rev 1.02 to a
Tualatin CPU. About 6 months ago I attempted to upgrade it to a
Celeron 1.4GHz CPU using the Powerleap PL-iP3/T adapter but failed,
much to my dismay. I returned both items to Powerleap, got a full
refund, but then subsuquently read in newsgroups that the 1.4GHz Cel
had compatibility issues with the P2B board. It bugged me for a long
time so recently I decided to give it a second shot, this time with a
1.3Ghz Celeron.

A brief note to people unfamiliar with the Asus P2B rev 1.02: this
particular early version of the P2B mobo cannot produce voltage lower
than 1.8V. For this reason the Powerleap adaptor is the only slocket
adaptor capable of running new Tualatins on a P2B/1.02 (because it
provides its own voltage regulator).

Let me cut to the chase quickly, before I lose everyone who's reading
this. The problem is that after installing the new CPU (at 100 MHz
FSB, no overclocking, no funny stuff) my computer randomly locks up. I
troubleshot the system for days and concluded that the lock-ups were
NOT related to excessive heat or lack of voltage, the typical causes
of CPU instability. Here's why:

The computer literally locks up randomly. CPU usage and stress seem to
have little or no effect on the lockups. I can easily run Prime95 or
Hot CPU Tester for hours and hours without any crashes or lockups. I
can run the Sandra overall performance benchmark flawlessly. I can run
3DMark in loops without any problems. In fact, I've never had the
computer crash during CPU intensive benchmarks. And yet, it has locked
up in CPU-easy tasks such as reading web pages in IE, pulling dropdown
menus in applications, etc.

Another weird thing is that the system crashes don't always occur in
same form. I have counted 3 different kinds so far:
1) Total freeze. The mouse, the keyboard, the screen - everything
freezes. A hard reset is necessary.
2) Video mess. Suddently the video goes berserk and a big mesh of
color blocks is displayed on my screen. As far as I can tell, the
computer is frozen. A hard reset is necessary.
3) Computer reset. The system simply resets itself. I've noticed that
the self-induced reset is not very clean; I often have to reset the
machine again to get it into a state where it'll boot up normally.

I've searched Google Groups for days trying to find an answer. I think
I've tried every solution suggested to other users who (appeared to
have) experienced similar problems:

1) I've removed the plastic frame from the PL-iP3/T adapter.
2) I've raised the CPU voltage to 1.6V, even though I'm not
overclocking the CPU and 1.5V should be sufficient enough.
3) I've selected 100MHz FSB on both motherboard and slocket adapter.
4) I've tried raising the FSB to 112 MHz, just for the hell of it.
5) I've set "Halt On: No Errors" in the BIOS.
6) I've been running the latest 1014.3 bios (w/ HM) for at least 6
months now.
7) I've opened up the case to make sure there's enough airflow. CPU
temperature never goes above 42C anyway.

I'm really running out of answers here. This is totally confusing me.
If anyone can suggest a solution to my problem, I'd be most grateful.

Finally, here's my entire system configuration:

PSU: Enermax EG-301P-VB 300W power supply, with a 22A max current on
+12V rail
MB: Asus P2B rev 1.02
BIOS: 1014.3 with hardware monitoring
CPU: Celeron 1300 GHz - retail - SL6C7, made in Phillipines. Default
heatsink and fan.
RAM: 3 x 256MB PC133 SDRAM CL2 timing (2 Micron sticks, 1 noname)
Video: 3dfx Voodo3 3500TV
Audio: Creative SB PCI64 ES1370
ATA100 controller: Promise Ultra100
HDD1: Maxtor 54610H6 IDE 7200 rpm (ATA100)
HDD2: IBM/Hitachi IC35L120 AVV207-0 IDE 7200 rpm (ATA100)
DVD-RW: Sony DW-U14A (IDE)
CD-RW: Yamaha CRW4416E (IDE)
Network: 3Com Etherlink 10/100 PCI 3C905b-TX
NLE: Canopus DVRaptor
OS: Windows 2000 SP4 + all latest updates

Prior to the upgrade I was running a Pentium III 800 Mhz at 112 MHz
FSB. The only thing that was changed in the upgrade was the CPU,
everything else stayed the same.

I am running a PowerLeap Pl-iP3/T 1.4Mhz on my ASUS P2B rev 1.2 with
BIOS 1014beta3 since 2 months. Its the complete kit already assembled
by PowerLeap. FSB is set at 100Mhz, default voltage settings. No
lockup or instability problems here. I installed it using the install
guide from PowerLeap, nothing else.

Before, I was running a Celeron 400Mhz with FSB at 66Mhz.

By looking at your system spec, you have a pretty loaded system. Could
it be something related to the power supply capacity ? I also have a
friend who experiences random lockup after adding some HW to his system
and solve it using an UPS. I seems that the voltage from the power grid
was not always stable.

Did you have any problem to make your HD recognized correctly with your
BIOS ? I am trying to install a 80GB Western Digital WD800JB as a
replacement for my 40GB Maxtore which gives me SMART warning. Jumper
settings are for single device, no size limitation (so no jumpers!!!).

The BIOS recognise the drive during auto-identification, but only as a
32GB. If I swap the drive for my old 40GB without changing anything
else it is recognized correctly as a 40GB, which is above the 32BG
limit sometimes seen with BIOS.

Any clues ?

JTL

 

[Tony Hill]

First of all, I sincerely apologize for the massive crosspost. I
realize it's bad netiquette, but I really need help on this one and
I'll gladly take any advice I can get.

Another weird thing is that the system crashes don't always occur in
same form. I have counted 3 different kinds so far:
1) Total freeze. The mouse, the keyboard, the screen - everything
freezes. A hard reset is necessary.
2) Video mess. Suddently the video goes berserk and a big mesh of
color blocks is displayed on my screen. As far as I can tell, the
computer is frozen. A hard reset is necessary.
3) Computer reset. The system simply resets itself. I've noticed that
the self-induced reset is not very clean; I often have to reset the
machine again to get it into a state where it'll boot up normally.

Well, the crashes seem to point to one of the two standard culprits of
hardware errors, either bad memory or a flaky power supply. The
Enermax power supply you list should be decent quality, and
considering the memory worked fine with your previous CPU at 112MHz,
it seems unlikely that either of these should be the problem, but the
symptoms you describe do tend to point to them.

A few things I would suggest though:

Do you have another video card to try, ideally a fairly low-end one?
The video card and the CPU draw their power from the same (3.3V and
5.0V) rails, and it could be that the slight increase in power
consumption for the new CPU+adapter is pushing it over the edge
slightly. The messed up video and hard lock-ups are things that can
happen with slightly flaky power being delivered to the video card.
I've seen this cause problems on my friends Asus P2B board, so I know
that this system is slightly prone to such problems.

Try pulling all except one stick of memory to see if that fixes
anything.

If all else fails, you can try pulling out just about everything in
the system and going with a very minimal config to see if you can
isolate the problem at all.

 

[BoB]

Well, the crashes seem to point to one of the two standard culprits of
hardware errors, either bad memory or a flaky power supply. The
Enermax power supply you list should be decent quality, and
considering the memory worked fine with your previous CPU at 112MHz,
it seems unlikely that either of these should be the problem, but the
symptoms you describe do tend to point to them.

A few things I would suggest though:

Do you have another video card to try, ideally a fairly low-end one?
The video card and the CPU draw their power from the same (3.3V and
5.0V) rails, and it could be that the slight increase in power
consumption for the new CPU+adapter is pushing it over the edge
slightly. The messed up video and hard lock-ups are things that can
happen with slightly flaky power being delivered to the video card.
I've seen this cause problems on my friends Asus P2B board, so I know
that this system is slightly prone to such problems.

Try pulling all except one stick of memory to see if that fixes
anything.

If all else fails, you can try pulling out just about everything in
the system and going with a very minimal config to see if you can
isolate the problem at all.

I was thinking memory myself, the new cpu pushes it harder!
Download ctspd, look at the cas values and errors on the noname stick!

 

[Guest]

On 28 Oct 2003 02:18:33 -0800, (e-mail address removed) (Alex
Zambelli) wrote:


Alex,

The only way to troubleshoot a problem like that is to get back to
basics. Strip it down to one module of ram and a video card. Then you
can swap out the psu, if possible. Swap out the RAM, change ram slots,
etc to try and duplicate the behaviour or see when it does NOT occur.

eric

 

[Chris]

(e-mail address removed) (Alex Zambelli) wrote in message

Prior to the upgrade I was running a Pentium III 800 Mhz at 112 MHz
FSB. The only thing that was changed in the upgrade was the CPU,
everything else stayed the same.

.... and that's your problem. As you can see at Asus' website, their
last BIOS update for your mobo was to support your Coppermine CPU.
Tualatin is not supported:
http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P2B&Type=Latest

Buy either a new socket 370 mobo, or get yourself a dirt cheap Athlon
system.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Walt]

Some thoughts...

Try upgrading to nothing faster than a 1.1GHz Celeron. BTW, *not*
a 1.1A (note the "A" suffix) Celeron. The 1.1GHz Celeron is the
fastest of one generation of technology. Whereas, the 1.1A and
above is another generation of technology which use a slightly
different socket and have different voltage requirements.

Don't try to over clock (ie, raising the FSB to 112 MHz) until you
have a stable system.

Just buy a new motherboard. While it is OK to upgrade one's CPU to
a faster CPU *if* your motherboard directly supports it, I would
never bother with adapters. Adapters cost too much, when compared
to simply buying a different motherboard, and bring along their
own set of problems and oddities.

 

[Alex Zambelli]

Do you not think it would be eaisier to just gt a nice cheap socket 370 (?)
board off ebay?

Why stop at a S370? Why not just buy a brand new P4 board?
Certainly, it's a much easier solution. Two reasons why I don't want
to do it:
1) My current system works. I've had the same installation of
Windows 2000 for about 3 years now. And guess what? It works
flawlessly. It's optimized, in top shape and I'd hate to have to
reinstall a whole new OS along with all the applications I've had for
years now when this system works so well.
2) I have to admit I get a kick from owning a 6-year old motherboard
and chipset that were designed so well in their time (my hat's off to
Intel for the 440BX series) that they can still compete against many
modern motherboards. Sure, I can't plug a 3.0 GHz Xeon into it, but
being able to run a fairly modern CPU at half that speed and with
768MB of RAM is quite satisfactory too. It's a little bit like owning
an old 1965 Aston Martin DB5 - sure, most modern sports cars will kick
its ass in every aspect of performance today, but it's still pretty
damn amazing how well the car runs 38 years after it was made. Why buy
a new Mazda when you can have a 1965 Aston Martin? I exaggerate, but I
think you get my point.

 

[Albright]

Prior to the upgrade I was running a Pentium III 800 Mhz at 112 MHz
FSB. The only thing that was changed in the upgrade was the CPU,
everything else stayed the same.

Sorry I can't help, but maybe you can help me

I thought the p3 800 were 1.65 volts - how can you run
this in old p2b? Thanks

 

[Ixnei]

Well, the crashes seem to point to one of the two standard culprits of
hardware errors, either bad memory or a flaky power supply. The
Enermax power supply you list should be decent quality, and
considering the memory worked fine with your previous CPU at 112MHz,
it seems unlikely that either of these should be the problem, but the
symptoms you describe do tend to point to them.

A few things I would suggest though:

Do you have another video card to try, ideally a fairly low-end one?
The video card and the CPU draw their power from the same (3.3V and
5.0V) rails, and it could be that the slight increase in power
consumption for the new CPU+adapter is pushing it over the edge
slightly. The messed up video and hard lock-ups are things that can
happen with slightly flaky power being delivered to the video card.
I've seen this cause problems on my friends Asus P2B board, so I know
that this system is slightly prone to such problems.

Try pulling all except one stick of memory to see if that fixes
anything.

If all else fails, you can try pulling out just about everything in
the system and going with a very minimal config to see if you can
isolate the problem at all.

I agree, sounds like PS or memory problem, or potentially something video
card related. Get memtest86, and run it for a couple hours to ensure no
memory errors. Also, If I were you, I'd look at getting something more
beefy than a voodoo3 with tv out - a gf1 ddr runs circles around that, and
a gf3 ti500 would be dreamy! IIRC, that voodoo3 was a major power hog.

There's also this guy in alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (I'll x-poast),
who goes by P2B. He has gotten these things to run dual P3 tuallies at
150MHz bus, and has swapped out voltage regulators on the older version
boards to supply lower than the 1.8V (so no need for powerleap). Perhaps
he has a suggestion...

--
We HAVE been at war with Iraq for 13 years now, bombing their
country on at least a weekly basis.
"U.S.-led sanctions have killed over a million Iraqi citizens,
according to UN studies" - James Jennings
3,000+ innocent Iraqi civilian casualties can't be "wrong"...

 

[Fishface]

The computer literally locks up randomly. CPU usage and stress seem to
have little or no effect on the lockups. I can easily run Prime95 or
Hot CPU Tester for hours and hours without any crashes or lockups. I
can run the Sandra overall performance benchmark flawlessly. I can run
3DMark in loops without any problems. In fact, I've never had the
computer crash during CPU intensive benchmarks. And yet, it has locked
up in CPU-easy tasks such as reading web pages in IE, pulling dropdown
menus in applications, etc. the same.

Have you ever heard of this modification?
http://locksmith.orcishweb.com/asusreworkguide.html

I had to do that to the back of a modified MSI Slocket to prevent freezes in
Photoshop, but with an Abit BF6. Might help, you never know. If you have
Photoshop, or download the trial (which doesn't entirely remove itself), clicking
on an empty (transparent) area with the magic wand will generally trigger the freeze.

 

[David Maynard]

(e-mail address removed) (Alex Zambelli) wrote in message



... and that's your problem. As you can see at Asus' website, their
last BIOS update for your mobo was to support your Coppermine CPU.
Tualatin is not supported:
http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P2B&Type=Latest

That's not a bad guess but virtually all slotket type upgrades involve
running a processor that the motherboard doesn't officially 'support'. For
example, there are NO 'coppermine celerons', all being FC-PGA, made for
slot-1 motherboards yet they run just fine with a slotket.

The key is whether the motherboard supports any flavor of 'P-III' and, if
so, then a tualatin celeron should look like a 'P-III' to his motherboard,
as they do on my Chaintech 6aja4 (VIA), Chaintech 6oiv2 (815), Abit BH6
(BX), and Asus P2B-VM (BX) motherboards; none of which officially 'support'
tualatin processors.

The hardware interface differences are taken care of by the slotket, or by
wire mods for those who do their own.

 

[David Maynard]

First of all, I sincerely apologize for the massive crosspost. I
realize it's bad netiquette, but I really need help on this one and
I'll gladly take any advice I can get.

This is my second attempt to upgrade my Asus P2B rev 1.02 to a
Tualatin CPU. About 6 months ago I attempted to upgrade it to a
Celeron 1.4GHz CPU using the Powerleap PL-iP3/T adapter but failed,
much to my dismay. I returned both items to Powerleap, got a full
refund, but then subsuquently read in newsgroups that the 1.4GHz Cel
had compatibility issues with the P2B board. It bugged me for a long
time so recently I decided to give it a second shot, this time with a
1.3Ghz Celeron.

A brief note to people unfamiliar with the Asus P2B rev 1.02: this
particular early version of the P2B mobo cannot produce voltage lower
than 1.8V. For this reason the Powerleap adaptor is the only slocket
adaptor capable of running new Tualatins on a P2B/1.02 (because it
provides its own voltage regulator).

Let me cut to the chase quickly, before I lose everyone who's reading
this. The problem is that after installing the new CPU (at 100 MHz
FSB, no overclocking, no funny stuff) my computer randomly locks up. I
troubleshot the system for days and concluded that the lock-ups were
NOT related to excessive heat or lack of voltage, the typical causes
of CPU instability. Here's why:

The computer literally locks up randomly. CPU usage and stress seem to
have little or no effect on the lockups. I can easily run Prime95 or
Hot CPU Tester for hours and hours without any crashes or lockups. I
can run the Sandra overall performance benchmark flawlessly. I can run
3DMark in loops without any problems. In fact, I've never had the
computer crash during CPU intensive benchmarks. And yet, it has locked
up in CPU-easy tasks such as reading web pages in IE, pulling dropdown
menus in applications, etc.

Another weird thing is that the system crashes don't always occur in
same form. I have counted 3 different kinds so far:
1) Total freeze. The mouse, the keyboard, the screen - everything
freezes. A hard reset is necessary.
2) Video mess. Suddently the video goes berserk and a big mesh of
color blocks is displayed on my screen. As far as I can tell, the
computer is frozen. A hard reset is necessary.
3) Computer reset. The system simply resets itself. I've noticed that
the self-induced reset is not very clean; I often have to reset the
machine again to get it into a state where it'll boot up normally.

I've searched Google Groups for days trying to find an answer. I think
I've tried every solution suggested to other users who (appeared to
have) experienced similar problems:

1) I've removed the plastic frame from the PL-iP3/T adapter.
2) I've raised the CPU voltage to 1.6V, even though I'm not
overclocking the CPU and 1.5V should be sufficient enough.
3) I've selected 100MHz FSB on both motherboard and slocket adapter.

A manual motherboard setting is going to over-ride anything set on the slotket.

4) I've tried raising the FSB to 112 MHz, just for the hell of it.
5) I've set "Halt On: No Errors" in the BIOS.

Those 'errors' are boot-up checks, like Keyboard, display card, etc. They
don't affect anything once it's running.

6) I've been running the latest 1014.3 bios (w/ HM) for at least 6
months now.
7) I've opened up the case to make sure there's enough airflow. CPU
temperature never goes above 42C anyway.

I'm really running out of answers here. This is totally confusing me.
If anyone can suggest a solution to my problem, I'd be most grateful.

Finally, here's my entire system configuration:

PSU: Enermax EG-301P-VB 300W power supply, with a 22A max current on
+12V rail
MB: Asus P2B rev 1.02
BIOS: 1014.3 with hardware monitoring
CPU: Celeron 1300 GHz - retail - SL6C7, made in Phillipines. Default
heatsink and fan.
RAM: 3 x 256MB PC133 SDRAM CL2 timing (2 Micron sticks, 1 noname)
Video: 3dfx Voodo3 3500TV
Audio: Creative SB PCI64 ES1370
ATA100 controller: Promise Ultra100
HDD1: Maxtor 54610H6 IDE 7200 rpm (ATA100)
HDD2: IBM/Hitachi IC35L120 AVV207-0 IDE 7200 rpm (ATA100)
DVD-RW: Sony DW-U14A (IDE)
CD-RW: Yamaha CRW4416E (IDE)
Network: 3Com Etherlink 10/100 PCI 3C905b-TX
NLE: Canopus DVRaptor
OS: Windows 2000 SP4 + all latest updates

Prior to the upgrade I was running a Pentium III 800 Mhz at 112 MHz
FSB. The only thing that was changed in the upgrade was the CPU,
everything else stayed the same.

You've got a lot of stuff in there so I'd try getting to a minimum
configuration to see if you're overloading the power supply; not that I
really think that's the problem but it's good to check.

The more likely problem is the RAM. Regardless of how 'good' the RAM is, I
have a heck of a time running at fast RAM settings with tualatins on BX
boards. Try moving them all to the slowest settings. If that doesn't do it,
try with just one stick as multiple sticks load up the memory bus and slow
timings as well.

This last item is a "I hope yours doesn't have this problem" but I've got
an old BH6 that was running fine up till 2 weeks ago (with a 1.3 gig
tualatin OC'd to 1.46, btw) when it started doing resets. The only thing
that fixes it is to apply pressure to the slotket so it increases contact
pressure in the slot-1 connector (sounds like a variation on the "removed
the plastic frame" problem you referenced above). Fortunately, I'm using a
modified slotket with a retention clip that has 'groves' in it so I can put
the top end of the slotket in a 'rear grove' on the clip to cock the card
backwards a bit and that cock applies the right amount of pressure to keep
it well seated on the contacts.

 

[P2B]

I agree, sounds like PS or memory problem, or potentially something video
card related. Get memtest86, and run it for a couple hours to ensure no
memory errors. Also, If I were you, I'd look at getting something more
beefy than a voodoo3 with tv out - a gf1 ddr runs circles around that, and
a gf3 ti500 would be dreamy! IIRC, that voodoo3 was a major power hog.

There's also this guy in alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (I'll x-poast),
who goes by P2B. He has gotten these things to run dual P3 tuallies at
150MHz bus, and has swapped out voltage regulators on the older version
boards to supply lower than the 1.8V (so no need for powerleap). Perhaps
he has a suggestion...

I fully agree with the suggestions so far, i.e. most likely to be power
or memory problems. I have two suggestions beyond those already made:

- Make sure the Powerleap adapter is on a dedicated feed from the power
supply, no other devices on the same cable run.

- Get memtest86, but run *all* tests, not just the standard ones, and
run it for at least 24 hours. If memtest finds errors, try backing off
to CL3 timing and/or remove the no-name stick and test with just the Micron.

HTH

P2B

 

[Alex Zambelli]

I am running a PowerLeap Pl-iP3/T 1.4Mhz on my ASUS P2B rev 1.2 with
BIOS 1014beta3 since 2 months. Its the complete kit already assembled
by PowerLeap. FSB is set at 100Mhz, default voltage settings. No
lockup or instability problems here. I installed it using the install
guide from PowerLeap, nothing else.

I'm jealous. It's stories like yours that give me hope that this
CAN work. I just need to figure out what the one thing that's causing
the instability is.

By looking at your system spec, you have a pretty loaded system. Could
it be something related to the power supply capacity ? I also have a
friend who experiences random lockup after adding some HW to his system
and solve it using an UPS. I seems that the voltage from the power grid
was not always stable.

Actually, funny enough, up until a month ago I was running this same
system (with PIII-800, though) on a generic 250W PSU! I upgraded to
the Enermax just recently in order to get more power on the +12V rail
in anticipation of a more powerful video card I plan to buy (ATI
Radeon 9500 Pro, namely). So this whole time not only did I have no
problem running all these peripherals on a 300W supply, but on a 250W
supply as well! I find it really hard to believe that the Powerleap
adapter would suck up so much additional power to make the system
unstable. If that were the case, Powerleap people would probably warn
about it since their product is aimed at really old systems anyway
that have no plans for PSU upgrades.

Did you have any problem to make your HD recognized correctly with your
BIOS ? I am trying to install a 80GB Western Digital WD800JB as a
replacement for my 40GB Maxtore which gives me SMART warning. Jumper
settings are for single device, no size limitation (so no jumpers!!!).

I avoided all HDD problems by installing a PCI-based Ultra100
controller. It's a very cheap but effective solution. The OS loader is
smart enough to recognize it and boot off the right drive when you
first start up the machine with the new controller. Just make sure you
install good firmware and drivers, those are surprisingly inconsistent
in quality.

 

[Alex Zambelli]

Well, the crashes seem to point to one of the two standard culprits of
hardware errors, either bad memory or a flaky power supply. The
Enermax power supply you list should be decent quality, and
considering the memory worked fine with your previous CPU at 112MHz,
it seems unlikely that either of these should be the problem, but the
symptoms you describe do tend to point to them.

Agreed. Thus my confusion.

Do you have another video card to try, ideally a fairly low-end one?
The video card and the CPU draw their power from the same (3.3V and
5.0V) rails, and it could be that the slight increase in power
consumption for the new CPU+adapter is pushing it over the edge
slightly. The messed up video and hard lock-ups are things that can
happen with slightly flaky power being delivered to the video card.
I've seen this cause problems on my friends Asus P2B board, so I know
that this system is slightly prone to such problems.

Actually, I think the Powerleap adapter (and thus the CPU) feeds
entirely on the 12V rail since that's what it's connected to. I even
made sure it wasn't sharing a cable with any other peripherals. My
plan is to upgrade to a Radeon 9500 Pro soon. I've gone back to the
PIII-800 temporarily and I plan do install the Radeon on this stable
system. The 9500 is known for being a power beast so if that doesn't
knock down my PSU, I think I can have faith that the PSU is strong
enough to supply a Powerleap adapter.
Good advice though. I'll see if I can experiment with a low-end
video card in the meantime while waiting for the 9500 to arrive.

Try pulling all except one stick of memory to see if that fixes
anything.

Good idea. I'll also try scaling back to CL3 just in case. I guess I
might as well try anything at this point.

If all else fails, you can try pulling out just about everything in
the system and going with a very minimal config to see if you can
isolate the problem at all.

That will be my last resort. I back up my entire OS disk with
Norton Ghost before doing any hardware upgrades so that should allow
me to play with a "crippled" system without worrying about possible
negative consequences (Windows tend to get cranky when you install and
uninstall a peripheral device a million times ).

 

[Alex Zambelli]

I was thinking memory myself, the new cpu pushes it harder!
Download ctspd, look at the cas values and errors on the noname stick!

What should I be looking for? How can I recognize a bad memory stick
based on CAS values?

 

[Alex Zambelli]

I agree, sounds like PS or memory problem, or potentially something video
card related. Get memtest86, and run it for a couple hours to ensure no
memory errors.

I'll try taking out the noname stick first, then setting the CAS to
CL3, and if that doesn't work, I'll run memtest86 for at least half a
day. Thanks for the tip.

Also, If I were you, I'd look at getting something more
beefy than a voodoo3 with tv out - a gf1 ddr runs circles around that, and
a gf3 ti500 would be dreamy!

Agreed! In fact, a Saphire ATI Radeon 9500 Pro is already on its
way!

IIRC, that voodoo3 was a major power hog.

The 9500 Pro should feel right at home then, LOL.

 

[Alex Zambelli]

A manual motherboard setting is going to over-ride anything set on the
slotket.

Some Powerleap users had reported that it made a difference, so I
tried.

Those 'errors' are boot-up checks, like Keyboard, display card, etc. They
don't affect anything once it's running.

Same as above. One guy claimed that this alone caused his computer
to crash randomly. I was hoping it would work for me too.

You've got a lot of stuff in there so I'd try getting to a minimum
configuration to see if you're overloading the power supply; not that I
really think that's the problem but it's good to check.
The more likely problem is the RAM. Regardless of how 'good' the RAM is, I
have a heck of a time running at fast RAM settings with tualatins on BX
boards. Try moving them all to the slowest settings. If that doesn't do it,
try with just one stick as multiple sticks load up the memory bus and slow
timings as well.

This is all good advice.

modified slotket with a retention clip that has 'groves' in it so I can put
the top end of the slotket in a 'rear grove' on the clip to cock the card
backwards a bit and that cock applies the right amount of pressure to keep
it well seated on the contacts.

I didn't notice a difference between running with and without the
plastic case, but it's entirely possible that this is the same case.
In fact, it could be that vibrations are causing the CPU to jiggle and
lose contact temporarily. I'll look into it.