UNSTABLE System!

I believe my video card is screwing up but not sure
Here is the story:
Under normal condition (i.e. nothing overclocked) running my windows XP I installed Nimo Pack which has bunch of video and audio codecs and my videos weren't working right so i took it off and still wasn't working ok so i updated windows and had the nVidia drivers updates so I done so and life turned miserable! every time i try to run an MPG my system freezes not just any freeze i mean totally even keyboard dies! (Num Lock LED can't be turned on or off)
well restart windows same problem happens! I tried different MPGs and had no luck so I tried to use my windows 2000 instead eee get stuck in startup can't start it up in any mode!

I decided to Reformat and install XP with SP2 RC1 with all updates avaliable and yea same problem again

Now I'm really ****ed off so i should try knoppix and guess what it froze when i tried to access the HD so i decided to move my files on the network and format the whole HD not the partition installed windows xp again no with no updates and guess what i got the freeze up agin

and today I tired to install win2000 and yea can;t even install it! even without almost any hardware just video card, HD and CDROM!

I forgot to mention that I suspected the RAM gone bad but i checked with memorytest-86 v3.1

so I'm saying it's the damn video card can i check the RAM on the video card and how can I flash the BIOS of the video card? and where can I find the BIOS for video card
again it's a stupid PowerColour nVidia GeForce 2 MX400 64MB SDRAM

Try only putting the basic items in your computer, use a new cable for your hard drive and and CD drive.

Done that no luck i tried different HPT drivers by High Point and Microsoft no luck I had luck with DivX files for 1/2 hour then frooze better than MPEG that freeze up on the 1st minuter!
I'm disabling every feature on mobo BIOS and I'm gona try it

Are you having any temp problems (cpu? agp? nb?)? Try swapping out parts with other/older parts and run knoppix and see if it runs stable.

Temps
CPU 44C
System 27C
For video card i have a huge 12mm fat fan blowing on the HDs and Video card (i got it from Power Supply from a very old giant IBM machine) before startup and after shutdown

I just disabled AGP 4x bridge from BIOS still nothing
I ran dxdiag and test it for 3D Hardware and it worked no freeze up

I'm gona try to play a game and if freeze up I'm gona try turbo 64 PCI card! (so freaking old)

oops

Here are the updates:

Installed Quake3 intro video ran fan soon i tried to play BAM dead

so I tried my ATI Mact64 PCI card and worked slowly but fine played MPEGs and no problems

Now I need a good ROM BIOS for my GeForce2MX400 I'm contacting nVidia but I think they'll ignore or i have to wait for few weeks!
so please help me out

Mine is doing a similar thing. Mine doesn't lock up like you say. Mine goes to a blue screen, each time saying something else cause the errors. Tomorrow I am going to buy new RAM. I will let you know if that works. I can't begin to tell you the night mares I have had. I have RMA'd just about everything from this computer I have Built. I broke down and called ASUS tech (for the 10th time), and went to raisng hell. They put a manager on the phone that walked me through my BIOS and told me what to set what where. He then told me I needed to call Kingston to find out what to put my timeing at. I called them. I gave them the hardware specs I have and the Kingston Techs exact words were, "Who recommended that ram". "That ram in not for your system".

OMG 2 months of fighting this stuff, and it is the good RAM all this time? Will let you know tomorrow.
BTW Memtest ran perfect on my ram for 6 loops on each stick. That doesn't mean it will work. I have the basic Kingston 512 PC3200. I now know there are only 30 different kinds of Kingston 512 PC3200.

i have 2 sticks of RAM one is Micron PC133 512MB 100% compatible with my board and other one is lo density Xerox 256MB
i tried to use one at a time still had hell but at least you getting the blue screen I wish I'm getting the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) total hardware freezeup is not fun!

Here is some tips about BSODs you should check with Miorosoft for error codes if you cant read it fast enough then
right click on "My Computer" hit properties switch to the "Advanced Tab" and click on Startup and Recovery's Settings you have 2 few options
1. You can switch to Complete Dump of memory and that would buy some time or
2.uncheck automatically restart
3. you can do both!

Here are some tips for win2k and XP
in BIOS
Disable BIOS & Video Shadow and Cache!
look in RAM settings for output strength is set to hi set to lo
check around for bandwidth settings! and if you running win2k pro
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q270/7/15.ASP&NoWebContent=1

Ladies and Gentlemen I'm an idiot it's not the video card actually i have no idea yet i got test every stupid part of my PC!
There is a possibility of HD file corruption because I tried a file from CD and ran ok I tried to access my just formatted HD
right now I bared the machine with just 2hds and 1cdrom and Im gona do the test without even the CDrom and gona take 1 hd off
just a TI4800, RAM and HD if fails I'm switchin my HD to IDE1 instead of IDE3 and hopefully something would happen
I just wished my video card was dead or dying but no i gota do tons of other stuff just to find out what the hell wrong with my junk

I crancked my old video into another machine it did fine!

Flashed BIOS back to 900MHz 100 x 9 instead of 133 x 9 and my system working fine but slower aaaaaaaaaah i tried to get back to 133 nope same problem comes back so what's wrong with my system?

1. is it processor?
2. is it VIA686b chip?
3. something else?

More Updates!
I got it running 1150MHz on 11.5x100 tried 12x100 = freeze up
tried 8x150 = freezeup 10x100 = good, 9x120 = no boot

heh after years now it rejected my 256MB RAM and started acting weirder and no OS can be installed on it, i was able to run Knoppix 5 but not that great so decided to get different system & found out my rejected RAM which I thought burnt out actually works pretty well so yea my Abit KT7A-Raid rev1.1 mobo has finally retired "stupid JUNK"
I don't think I will ever buy Abit anymore I was never happy with my motherboard ever and my newer Giga-byte never gave me any troubles and most of my friends use Giga-byte never had any problems! also Asus is not that great i found many burnt out motherbaords too bah we'll see what I will build when I get done with school my rig is too old to play Crysis LOL

fadirocks said:

heh after years now it rejected my 256MB RAM and started acting weirder and no OS can be installed on it, i was able to run Knoppix 5 but not that great so decided to get different system & found out my rejected RAM which I thought burnt out actually works pretty well so yea my Abit KT7A-Raid rev1.1 mobo has finally retired "stupid JUNK"

Click to expand...

Sounds like likely bad caps.

Please check out this Web site:

http://badcaps.net

site is dead!!!!

fadirocks said:

site is dead!!!!

Click to expand...

No, it's not.

1) Please use the "Edit" button to append onto your previous posts rather than posting additional, back-to-back replies.

2) Do not press <ENTER> at the end of each line. (pet peeve )

3) Please tell me the exact hardware configuration you are running, including stock volts and freqs.

when I checked last time it was dead, I guess now site is back to life

From what I read on the site well I don't recall any of these findings but it can be good suspect because of the bad design of the motherboard and many of these capacitors are sitting next to each so close and close to the heatsink!!! I seriously had hard time to put on the heatsink because of lack of space check this pic



what the heck site died out again
now back to normal again!!! this site is unstable like my mobo hehe

Anyways,

3) Please tell me the exact hardware configuration you are running, including stock volts and freqs.

Click to expand...

well my mobo is 1000km away so can't look at it directly but from what i remmeber:

Abit KT7A-Raid Rev1.1 (nope XP chip wouldn't work)
200FSB for Duron 266FSB for Athlon
check this http://www.uabit.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=48&page=2&model=89

Voltage: i can't remember that well but something like 1.75V and 3.3V (I played with that and it actually helped tons but still wasn't as stable as I want and had to just drop the clock)

CPU: AMD 1200Mhz 266FSB first time running it, from first day my abit wasn't recognizing it and had to update the BIOS to fully recognize

RAM: both sticks are tested and fully compatible by Abit specs, I can't even remember their brands but one 512MB and other 256MB I didn't million memtest and they were perfect eventhough my motherboard started rejecting them other mobos worked perfectly

VidCard: it's nVidia GF2MX400 64MB AGP 4x lately this got rejected too but then worked again but still i tested it out on different mobo and it kicked A$$

Power: CodeGen 350W (tested out on other system and was working perfectly)

You may say the bad capacitors but i think it's the VIA KT133A chip because its fan stopped once before but many don't even have fans but i still think that what happened

My other friend had some issues with his Abit KT7A-Raid but his Rev1.3! there was such a big fuss about this motherboard but I seriously would never buy an Abit and going to stick with Giga-byte so far 3 motherboards and no problems!!!

If you want the motherboard let me know I've put it back in its original box!!

Captain Newbie said:

No, it's not.
1) Please use the "Edit" button to append onto your previous posts rather than posting additional, back-to-back replies.

Click to expand...

look at the time frame!!!(that was in umm 2004 and not even sure we were allowed to edit our own posts back then)