need help with new ASUS A7V8X-X

[Laugher]

have installed the new mobo, processor and ram as listed in the sig into a system which had and A7S333 and xp1800+ chip . It ran without a hitch.
I cannot get the new setup to run stable. Had lots f crashes but now a bit more stable with the SP1 and updates. I have tried in other forums. Have tried the latest drivers. Am running a 4x winfast 170 th DR vid card. The mobo is supposed to be backwards compatible. The bios is the latest 1005.006 an it has no selection for 8x agp in the settings, only AUTO, 1x, 2x, and 4x. Also the Aperature size only goes to 256mb instead of 512 and 1024 mg as is listed in the manual. Does the bios auto select its options with different items installed into the mobo, cause I thought that the bios was stock standard setup in each mobo of the same model
Hope you can help:confused:

[bushmaster]

As a 4X card your not going to see 8X settings and how much memory do you have ? The board is not going to allow you to reserve all 512MB's of ram for the vid card if all you have installed is 512MB's.

[smeg]

I have never yet been able to upgrade the M/B & CPU without a clean install of windows at the same time, and believe me I have tried.
My advice, dont waste any more time trying to fiddle with it, just bite the bullit and format/clean install.

If you have already done this then give more details of the instability.
:t

[Laugher]

To respnd to all.
I have tried two fresh installs with windows XP pro. I had a lot of instability running a lot of basic programs within windows (windows explorer, outlook express, internet explorer, windows pinball, etc). I installed the SP1 and all the updated from microsoft. Had the basic programs stabilise to the point that I could use them without them shutting down and wanting to send error reports. At times I had the system shut down completely then restart. No errors or blue screen that stayed to tell me the prob. Just a restart. Now it has stabilized. But I'm trying to run power dvd and it tells me an error code FFFFFFFFF and return to castle wolfenstein comes up with the following.


Wolf 1.0.0 win-x86 Nov 13 2001
----- FS_Startup -----
Current search path:
C:\PROGRA~1\RETURN~1\main\sp_pak2.pk3 (232 files)
C:\PROGRA~1\RETURN~1\main\sp_pak1.pk3 (1342 files)
C:\PROGRA~1\RETURN~1\main\pak0.pk3 (4775 files)
C:\PROGRA~1\RETURN~1/main

----------------------
6349 files in pk3 files
execing default.cfg
couldn't exec language.cfg
execing wolfconfig.cfg
execing autoexec.cfg
Hunk_Clear: reset the hunk ok
...detecting CPU, found AMD w/ 3DNow!
Bypassing CD checks
----- Client Initialization -----
Cmd_AddCommand: map_restart already defined
----- Initializing Renderer ----
-------------------------------
----- Client Initialization Complete -----
----- R_Init -----
Initializing OpenGL subsystem
...initializing QGL
...calling LoadLibrary( 'C:\WINDOWS\System32\opengl32.dll' ): succeeded
...setting mode 3: 640 480 FS
...using colorsbits of 32
...calling CDS: ok
...registered window class
...created window@0,0 (640x480)
Initializing OpenGL driver
...getting DC: succeeded
...GLW_ChoosePFD( 32, 24, 8 )
...50 PFDs found
...hardware acceleration found
...PIXELFORMAT 8 selected
...creating GL context: failed
...failed hard
...restoring display settings
...WARNING: could not set the given mode (3)
...setting mode 3: 640 480 FS
...using colorsbits of 16
...calling CDS: ok
...created window@0,0 (640x480)
Initializing OpenGL driver
----- CL_Shutdown -----
RE_Shutdown( 1 )
Shutting down OpenGL subsystem
...wglMakeCurrent( NULL, NULL ): failed
...releasing DC: failed
...destroying window
...resetting display
...shutting down QGL
...unloading OpenGL DLL
-----------------------
Q_strncpyz: NULL src


I have 2x 512mb sticks of pc2700 RAM by Elixer
and I have allowed the bios keep all the cpu and fequency settings to Auto.
I am running the system at 2083 Mhz and the CPU temp stays below 40oC.
I have the AGP Capability mode set on Auto and have tried it on 1x and 4x also. No difference.
I have the AGP aperature size set as default - 64Mb and have tried the 128Mg with no change.
Also I had a Herculese 5.1 Muse Gamesurround card installed but I took it out to see if that would help but the onboard drivers won't load now so I can't even load basic games that need an audio system to run them.
Hope I have answered the extra info needed. Thanks very much for your responses.
It is much appreciated.

[lptech]

Laugher-

Have you tried to setup the BIOS to default settings and then install the OS? By the way, it is pointless to change the aperture size since it is not needed since you have more than enough RAM onboard the AGP card! In actual practice, if you set the aperture size to other than default, it would probably slow down the video portion of your system since it would have to wait for the memory on the motherboard which doesn't run as fast as the AGP card's onboard memory.

Hope that the info helps. Good luck.:)

LPTECH

[nh3com]

whats your spec cant see your sig

[Laugher]

Ok got some good news.
IPTECH thanks for your advice the learning curve is good.
I have restarted the system with the onboard audio disabled so that the device manager got rid of any stuff from the audio. Then I reinstalled the Hercules Gamesurround Muse 5.1 DVD sound card into slot 5. It installed properly.
I then uninstalled Return To Castle Wolfenstein and Power Dvd. Restarted and did a fresh install of both programs. Power DVD now runs perfect but Castle wOLFENSTEIN AND qUAKE iii aRENA WONT RUN AND COME UP WITH ALMOST IDENTICAL ERRORS. (sorry caps lock).
I just got an email from ASUS support and they tell me that I should do a fresh install with a bare bones system (Mobo, Processor, RAM, Vid Card) I'm supposed to install the VIA 4in1 drivers first then the vid card drivers. Is this normal with other systems? Then add the other stuff later with the sound card being last.
well here we go again.
It's not so bad if you can get all microsoft's updates saved to disk but in a country village where you get only around 3kps download rates, fresh installs take a fair while.
Thanks for your help. Will keep pluging away.

[smeg]

Yep, always install M/B drivers first, then Video.
1st up though, reset your CPU to default settings, before you install windows. The time for overclocking comes later when you have a stable system to relate to.
After M.B and Vid drivers I suggest you go the SP1 install, before you load anything else.

BTW, cant see your specs, no sig showing??

:t

[Laugher]

Well Smeg I tried the suggestions from ASUS and the same situation. After service pak 1 install I had more stability. Now I can't even load Castle Wolfenstein. Crashes as soon as the music starts to play in the install.
The system specs are as follows and I don't know how to edit my user details.
XP2600+ chip
ASUS A7V8X-X board
Hercules Gamsurround Muse 5.1 DVD Sound Card
Bios Defaults
Latest Via 4in1 drivers installed first then Vid Card Drivers
Latest Nvidia Drivers
Leadtek - Winfast 170 th DDR (Nvidia Gforce4 mx 440) vid Card
Carp 56k modem
Seagate Barracudda IV 7200 80 Gig Hdd
430 Watt Antec Power Supply
Zalman full Copper cooler w/92mm fan
(Cpu running between 36 and 43oC)
Sony 16x DVD
Creative 40-16-10 CD/RW
2x Enermax 80mm Fans
Panasonic floppy

Hope the specs might tell you something
I'm going to try and get an 8x AGP card and see how that goes.
Keep the suggestions coming
Thanks

[smeg]

Have you disabled the onboard sound in the BIOS??
What settings in Bios for your ram??
Make sure all IRQ settings are on auto in BIOS.

Sounds to me like an resource conflict of some kind, probably with your sound card,
Or a ram prob, either overclocked or perhaps 1 stick faulty. try memtest.
When removing a card (say modem or sound) first uninstall the device in control panel, shut the computer down and then remove the card.
I woud do this with both modem and sound. Then restart, go into BIOS and enable on board sound.
When windows restarts install the sound drivers from the asus disk and try your system again.

Have fun,

:t

[Laugher]

Sorry for bothering you all so much. Have finally got the remedy.
I went and got a Gigabyte Radeon 9200 vid card and installed it in the system, even without uninstalling the other Gforce 4 MX 440 vid adapter or drivers. The new 128Mg 8x AGP card went straight in no worries.
I don't know what the prob was with the old card but the backwards compatibility must not be as great as ASUS originally thought.
Thanks to all for your efforts.:t :)

[smeg]

Good to hear Laugher.
Thanx for posting your end result. (lots don't bother)

:t