Help with an Asus P5A-B, please

I just got Asus P5A-B motherboard today (used obviously). I'm having some trouble with it. I replaced my old socket7 board with this one. I had to try the ram in a bunch of different combinations of slots and sizes before it would POST. Now it won't load Windows Server 2003(bluescreens as soon as loading starts). It won't load FreeBSD, it gets an error during initialization. Also it crashed a few times when I put in the windows CD and tried to boot off that. I pulled out all the ram except one 256mb stick of PC133. Windows and FreeBSD still won't load but I can get into the setup on the Windows CD.

In the BIOS in Power Management the 3.3v line is coming up with an error. It's reading "4.0v [Err]". I'm thinking maybe this board isn't controlling power to the ram and anything else on the 3.3v line properly. The previous owner said he had an AGP card die while in this board (AGP runs off 3.3v right?), could be related?

I'm not sure if it saying 4.0v is acurate. The jumper is set for 3.5v which is the lowest possible setting. I switched it to 3.6v to see if that made any difference but all it did was lock up in the BIOS.
I've been trying everything I can think of for about 3 hours but I'm really running out of ideas. Sometimes the board won't post at all, then I let it sit for a few minutes and it posts when I try it then.

Any suggestions would be awesome
Thanks in advance

Seems like a bad MOBO to me.

A few things you could/should do/try:

1) Look and smell for any damage (Burned/cut traces, leaking capacitors, that kinda stuff).

2) Flash the BIOS (Use DrDOS, can be found on bootdisk.com).

3) If you're using an AGP card try a PCI or ISA card (If you have any ).

4) Try a different memory slot and/or different RAM (If you haven't already).

Yes, the AGP card runs off 3.3V and it could be related to your problems, all I know is that it's not recommended to run a Asus V3800 Ultra (TNT2) on MOBO's with an ALi chipset (Not sure if it's just the V3800 Ultra or all TNT2 cards, or if it's related to the TNT2 cards or the ALi chipset).

What kinda V-card did the previous owner use? it could be that the voltage regulator couldn't handle that much power (Just a wild guess).

That's all I can come up with for now.

BTW: I've had an Asus P5A??? (AT style with both AT and ATX Power connector) which worked fine for several years, and I've had an Asus P5A??? (ATX) with which I've had nothing but problems, so I returned it after 7 days.

I've read repeatedly that the K6-2+ and K6-3+ will not work in the P5A if it is a Rev 1.05 or later.
http://compatlist.k6plus.com/

This may be true for a K6-3 as well. I'm guessing that is what you are trying from your sig.

If it is a 1.04, that shouldn't be the problem, and it very well could be related to poor voltage regulation

KILLorBE said:

Seems like a bad MOBO to me.

A few things you could/should do/try:

1) Look and smell for any damage (Burned/cut traces, leaking capacitors, that kinda stuff).

2) Flash the BIOS (Use DrDOS, can be found on bootdisk.com).

3) If you're using an AGP card try a PCI or ISA card (If you have any ).

4) Try a different memory slot and/or different RAM (If you haven't already).

Yes, the AGP card runs off 3.3V and it could be related to your problems, all I know is that it's not recommended to run a Asus V3800 Ultra (TNT2) on MOBO's with an ALi chipset (Not sure if it's just the V3800 Ultra or all TNT2 cards, or if it's related to the TNT2 cards or the ALi chipset).

What kinda V-card did the previous owner use? it could be that the voltage regulator couldn't handle that much power (Just a wild guess).

That's all I can come up with for now.

BTW: I've had an Asus P5A??? (AT style with both AT and ATX Power connector) which worked fine for several years, and I've had an Asus P5A??? (ATX) with which I've had nothing but problems, so I returned it after 7 days.

Click to expand...

1) Just checked, there's no visible or smellable damage to the board.

2) I'll give a new BIOS a try later tonight.

3) I'm using an old PCI video card.

4) I've tried all sorts of combinations of slots and the three sticks of ram I have. So far the 256mb of PC133 seems to make it the furthest without crashing.

I've read that this board doesn't like "high end" video cards. Good to know but for now all I have is a S3 Virge PCI card so that's not a problem.

This is an Asus P5A-B and has both the AT and ATX connectors (AT style board)

repo man11 said:

I've read repeatedly that the K6-2+ and K6-3+ will not work in the P5A if it is a Rev 1.05 or later.
http://compatlist.k6plus.com/

This may be true for a K6-3 as well. I'm guessing that is what you are trying from your sig.

If it is a 1.04, that shouldn't be the problem, and it very well could be related to poor voltage regulation

Click to expand...

The board is rev. 1.04. And yeah, it's the K6-3 I'm trying to use. I do have a K6-2 400 around that I could try in it. Seems unlikely though since it's posting(or not) seems to have something to do with the ram.

Now I went to try flashing the BIOS and the machine won't even turn on. The CPU fan doesn't even spin. It moves like an 1/8th of a turn when I hit the power and stops. I haven't changed anything since the last time I turned it on. It just stopped working for no apparent reason.

I've run out of ideas here, anyone else have any?