- Joined
- Jan 10, 2003
- Location
- London, U.K
I have a strange boot problem and I wonder if anyone has come across an instance such as this one.
Let me firstly say that my system did not exhibit this symptom at all until I upgraded my CPU & memory.
Below is the system that I had which was working perfectly prior to recent upgrade:
Winglobal case
MSI KT3 Ultra2 –R
XP2000+ Palomino (133 FSB)
Evercool CUD 725 - all copper cooler > plugged into mobo (low wattage)
2 Enermax adjustable 80mm case fans > plugged into to mobo (low wattage)
Leadtek Ge4 Ti4400 128Mb My Vivo (det 44.03)
512 Mb PC 2100 Crucial > slots 1 & 3, 256 in each (this as 1&3 are separate channel)
Audigy
Liteon DVD Rom > IDE 1 >Master
Liteone CDRW > IDE 1 >Slave
Pioneer CDRW > IDE 2 >Master
Floppy Drive
Seagate Barracuda 60Gb (7200) (The HDDs are using the controller from the raid
Seagate Barracuda 40Gb (7200) but are set up as 2 independent & separate drives)
Enermax 431W> 3.3v 38A, 5v 44A, 12v 20A. Max 3.3v & 5V rails 220W
My Voltages readings are as follows: 3.31-3.36v, 4.92-4.97v, 11.94-12.15v
Win98SE
My temp readings are:
CPU: idle 43C. Load 49-50C after a few hours of gaming
CASE: idle 36C. Load 39C. These are a bit high since the sensor is close to AGP card and receives hot air. Known issue.
Bios 5.7. My bios settings are not really tweaked, some of the main settings are as follows: SDRam settings 2.5,3,6,3 and I am running Fast Command as normal
Ok. The above runs with NO issues whatsoever and very stable. A few months ago, I upgraded the CPU to an XP3000+ (333) and changed my memory from PC2100 to PC2700. NO other changes. The Memory was Crucial and again I got 2x 256Mb sticks same slots.
After I upgraded cpu & mem, I firstly booted into bios to change FSB and check mem speed to HCLK saved and exited and the system booted correctly. To all intents and purposes the system was working without ANY issues whatsoever.
Now a month or so later (this is how I noticed this problem), I wanted to upgraded my case fans so, I powered off and disconnected the power supply. After I reconnected everything, the system powered up when through POST screen (gave single beep, D-bracket lights all green), then raid bios initialised and then the o/s system started booting. I had the Windows 98 logo screen firstly, which was followed by a dos page (all normal so far). Then after that instead of the o/s continuing to load opening to the desktop, the process just stops and displays a ‘little red square’ in the top left hand side of the screen.
Ok, I hope that I have explained this clearly so far.
At that point the system does nothing and can only be rebooted by way of the reset switch, which I do. This time the boot process stops as windows says that there was a problem last time and I should boot into safe mode. Whether I boot into safe mode or normal at that point the end result is the same ultimately, in that when I boot back into ‘normal’ windows the o/s is using 640x480 in 256 colours. The vga drivers for my card have not loaded. They are listed in device manager though.
Now to restore system, I have to do this. Reboot & go to bios set FSB to 133 and mem to Hclk ie 1:1. Boot to windows (still running 640x480, etc) then load the windows standard vga drivers, uninstall the 44.03 (use detonator destroyer) then reboot and reinstall the correct vga drivers, ie I carry out the same procedure that one uses for updating nvidia driver.
Having done all this, if I reboot (still with 133 FSB & mem) then system will boot correctly to desktop. Obviously, my XP3000+ is running at 133 and equally my PC2700 mem also slower.
The way to return the system to 166 is to firstly shut down the o/s then switch off power supply completely ie by way of the switch on the back of the psu. Leave system like this for about 15mins. Next, flick power switch on the back of psu to ‘on’ and also leave for some 15mins. After I boot, go into bios and reset FSB to 166 and mem also. After that, the system will boot to windows correctly with 166 fsb and mem in the normal way. Now, Just to be absolutely clear, if I now shutdown o/s (but do not switch off power at psu) and reboot (ie coldboot) then ‘no’ problems.
So in essence, if I want to work on my pc and disconnect it form the power supply, I need to go to bios reduce fsb and mem to 133 reboot then power off and then when I have finished, do what I described above to get back to 166.
So the problem is non existent if I boot and shutdown o/s but if I turn power switch off at psu then it reappears.
I have tried memtest on the memory but it passed. I even changed my modules from doubled sided to single sided just in case, no. Tried it with one mem stick. Tried a XP2600+ T’Bred (333). All to no avail. I also tried to disconnect some of the 12v items ie DVD, CDRW, HDD, in case the poor old Enermax was at fault. Tried remounting the HSF. Nothing helps.
Sorry for this long post, but has anybody ever run across something like this before. I would like to find a solution. This mobo can run the XP3000+ with PC2700 mem no probs, what am I doing wrong.
Many thanks for any help or insight which you can provide.
Let me firstly say that my system did not exhibit this symptom at all until I upgraded my CPU & memory.
Below is the system that I had which was working perfectly prior to recent upgrade:
Winglobal case
MSI KT3 Ultra2 –R
XP2000+ Palomino (133 FSB)
Evercool CUD 725 - all copper cooler > plugged into mobo (low wattage)
2 Enermax adjustable 80mm case fans > plugged into to mobo (low wattage)
Leadtek Ge4 Ti4400 128Mb My Vivo (det 44.03)
512 Mb PC 2100 Crucial > slots 1 & 3, 256 in each (this as 1&3 are separate channel)
Audigy
Liteon DVD Rom > IDE 1 >Master
Liteone CDRW > IDE 1 >Slave
Pioneer CDRW > IDE 2 >Master
Floppy Drive
Seagate Barracuda 60Gb (7200) (The HDDs are using the controller from the raid
Seagate Barracuda 40Gb (7200) but are set up as 2 independent & separate drives)
Enermax 431W> 3.3v 38A, 5v 44A, 12v 20A. Max 3.3v & 5V rails 220W
My Voltages readings are as follows: 3.31-3.36v, 4.92-4.97v, 11.94-12.15v
Win98SE
My temp readings are:
CPU: idle 43C. Load 49-50C after a few hours of gaming
CASE: idle 36C. Load 39C. These are a bit high since the sensor is close to AGP card and receives hot air. Known issue.
Bios 5.7. My bios settings are not really tweaked, some of the main settings are as follows: SDRam settings 2.5,3,6,3 and I am running Fast Command as normal
Ok. The above runs with NO issues whatsoever and very stable. A few months ago, I upgraded the CPU to an XP3000+ (333) and changed my memory from PC2100 to PC2700. NO other changes. The Memory was Crucial and again I got 2x 256Mb sticks same slots.
After I upgraded cpu & mem, I firstly booted into bios to change FSB and check mem speed to HCLK saved and exited and the system booted correctly. To all intents and purposes the system was working without ANY issues whatsoever.
Now a month or so later (this is how I noticed this problem), I wanted to upgraded my case fans so, I powered off and disconnected the power supply. After I reconnected everything, the system powered up when through POST screen (gave single beep, D-bracket lights all green), then raid bios initialised and then the o/s system started booting. I had the Windows 98 logo screen firstly, which was followed by a dos page (all normal so far). Then after that instead of the o/s continuing to load opening to the desktop, the process just stops and displays a ‘little red square’ in the top left hand side of the screen.
Ok, I hope that I have explained this clearly so far.
At that point the system does nothing and can only be rebooted by way of the reset switch, which I do. This time the boot process stops as windows says that there was a problem last time and I should boot into safe mode. Whether I boot into safe mode or normal at that point the end result is the same ultimately, in that when I boot back into ‘normal’ windows the o/s is using 640x480 in 256 colours. The vga drivers for my card have not loaded. They are listed in device manager though.
Now to restore system, I have to do this. Reboot & go to bios set FSB to 133 and mem to Hclk ie 1:1. Boot to windows (still running 640x480, etc) then load the windows standard vga drivers, uninstall the 44.03 (use detonator destroyer) then reboot and reinstall the correct vga drivers, ie I carry out the same procedure that one uses for updating nvidia driver.
Having done all this, if I reboot (still with 133 FSB & mem) then system will boot correctly to desktop. Obviously, my XP3000+ is running at 133 and equally my PC2700 mem also slower.
The way to return the system to 166 is to firstly shut down the o/s then switch off power supply completely ie by way of the switch on the back of the psu. Leave system like this for about 15mins. Next, flick power switch on the back of psu to ‘on’ and also leave for some 15mins. After I boot, go into bios and reset FSB to 166 and mem also. After that, the system will boot to windows correctly with 166 fsb and mem in the normal way. Now, Just to be absolutely clear, if I now shutdown o/s (but do not switch off power at psu) and reboot (ie coldboot) then ‘no’ problems.
So in essence, if I want to work on my pc and disconnect it form the power supply, I need to go to bios reduce fsb and mem to 133 reboot then power off and then when I have finished, do what I described above to get back to 166.
So the problem is non existent if I boot and shutdown o/s but if I turn power switch off at psu then it reappears.
I have tried memtest on the memory but it passed. I even changed my modules from doubled sided to single sided just in case, no. Tried it with one mem stick. Tried a XP2600+ T’Bred (333). All to no avail. I also tried to disconnect some of the 12v items ie DVD, CDRW, HDD, in case the poor old Enermax was at fault. Tried remounting the HSF. Nothing helps.
Sorry for this long post, but has anybody ever run across something like this before. I would like to find a solution. This mobo can run the XP3000+ with PC2700 mem no probs, what am I doing wrong.
Many thanks for any help or insight which you can provide.
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