Could be minor or major problem???

[alguzman]

I just finished building a new system . Here are the basic specs:

Motherboard: AsusA7V333
Processor: AMD Athlon™ XP Processor 1600
NVIDIA E-GeForce2MX400 64MB AGP
KingMax 256 DDR333 RAM
Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ATA133 HardDrive
Generic floppy drive
Lite-on 40X12X48 CD RW
Antec TruePower 330 Watt power supply
OS: Windows 2000 PRO

Now the problem :
First let me state that I left the motherboard's default settings and jumpers (did not try to Over Clock). When I booted up the computer it will give me a stop error message then restart. It restarts too fast for me to write down the error message. I tried loading in updated drivers for the video card and re-installed the 4-1 drivers for the motherboard. Did not fix. I then went to set up and disabled the level two cache. Restarted and it booted up fine with no errors. Ok, good, I then started to configure my desktop and it restarted again. It loaded up windows fine. I left the computer on for awhile to see if it is a heat issue and the computer stood on for a good two to three hours without restarting.

This rebooting seems to happen randomly. I wonder if my power supply is too weak or does it have something to do with the Level 2 cache?? Is it ok to leave the Level 2 Cache disabled??

Any help would be great.

OOOPPs, forgot to mention that win I tried to plya the pinball game in Win2K it seems to be sluggish, the game really did not seem to flow.

Again any help would be great. Thanks.

[AllGamer]

L2 cache always dissable is ok

the only draw back is that your PC will be slower, if you can live with that, then you can leave it dissable

but no to my knowledge PSU has no direct connection with a bad L2 cache

heck i use a 300 w only
and my PC is way overloaded with more powerful stuff that you have

so it might just be that the Mobo is simply bad, if you are refering to the L2 Cache on the mobo

else it might the CPU that is bad, if you are talking about the L2 cache on the CPU

[TARP2]

I would vote still to try and eliminate heat asathe problem. What are you using to seat the HS? Be sure the HS face is flat.
Try using a small house fan aimed in the case while running your apps. Just letting the comp run with no load, may be borderline heatwise, and with a small increase, cause a shutdown.

I'm running the same board with an 1800, and lots of drives w/300psu- no problem.

[alguzman]

I forget the name of the heatsink that I have on my CPU but it has the copper core, and a fan attached on top. I do have opening (missing slot cover) in the back of the case.

[TARP2]

OK well as long as you used either the thermal pad that came with the HS, or some arctic silver paste to seat it. pull one of the side panels off the case and aim that house fan right at the mobo while you are working, and see if it helps.

[alguzman]

If the heatSink doesn't have the thermal past. Can that cause it to over heat???

[TARP2]

Yes, that would be very noticeable, to the point where you could damage the cpu. Did you mount the cpu or did it come already attached to the mobo?

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

[alguzman]

I mounted it.

As you can tell this is my first system I built. To my understanding I thought that the copper core would do.

I hear that AMD runs hotter than Intel. Is that true?

[PacNW CE]

typically AMD runs hotter than intel. Did you buy the board retail or is it second hand?

[TARP2]

Yes amd will always run hotter. The hsf will typically come with a pad stuck to it. All you do is remove the protective paper covering the wax and then seat it on the cpu. Was therepad on the hs? If not , you must remove the hs and add some paste as described in the link.

The copper core is very efficient in removing heat, but first you must get the heat from the cpu chip to the hs via the pad or paste. You cannot run a n amd cpu without this method.