dragon + need help

[01gts]

Well i have had my system up for a while now, mostly just running gnome at home for about 2 weeks until i could afford a monitor for it. i have:

dragon plus
xp1700+
radeon 7500 all in wonder
768mb crucial/micron 2100
thermalright sk6 with delta 38cfm fan
seagate 40gb no raid
teac dvd drive
thats all i can think of.

my problem.
prime 95 wont get past about the 4th line without erroring out. i get random sysetem restarts, no error messages or blue screens. I get random error messages when i try to play microsoft flight simulator. I have gotten a few memory error messages, saying problem reading memory at such and such a location. UGH. i have reinstalled xp 2 times, removed all programs from the hard drive, checked voltages and temps through mbm5, all looks good. I did have it overclocked for a while to 1600mhz, even then the temps never went above 45. i dropped it back to normal speeds and same things are happening, total lack of stability. i am a newbie, and dont know what else to do. all drivers are up to date, i have been checking them everyday for the last week. i have the 2ba2 bios, the latest one came installed when i got the board. any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. thanks.

 

[kartoffel]

Have you tried running with just one stick of memory and then run with just the other stick. Maybe one is bad and that brings down the whole system. Or maybe one isn't seated properly.

That's my guess.

Jeff

 

[01gts]

i just tried updating the bios, then i checked all the memory, took it out, and put it back in. it took a little longer for prime to find an error, but none the less it still did. any other suggestions? thanks

 

[mbigna]

I believe that kartoffel was trying to tell you was to use only ONE stick of memory at a time and see if you get the same errors with all three of them. I'm assuming that you have three because 3 X 256 MB makes 768 MB. If the error only happens with one of the sticks, there you go. If you get the errors with ALL THREE of the individual sticks, you have another problem. I would check your PSU first. The Dragon+ needs good, steady juice to power all the onboard peripherals.

You BIOS should be the 2BA2 version.

 

[01gts]

so you are saying that i should reflash back to the 2ba2 version of the bios. i have an enermax 300w powersupply. i am in the process of testing the sticks of memory one by one as stated above, i also tried runing doc mem, the program that runs in dos, everythign was fine with all sticks. thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Bull]

The new updated bios is the 2ba3 bios. They just posted it today at soyo's sight. I have flashed mine and intend to do some tests to see if it's better. LoneGuard is the one who updated me about it.

Daniel

 

[01gts]

how would i go about checking the powersupply? something tells me that is the problem, i turned off all my fans but the one on the sk6, unplugged my dvd drive unplugged all my usb devices, turned them off in the bios, and it seems to take longer for prime 95 to find a hardware issue. is this coincidence or could this really be a powersupply issue. when i look at health in the bios. everything was pretty stable voltage wise, though.

 

[mbigna]

The new updated bios is the 2ba3 bios. They just posted it today at soyo's sight. I have flashed mine and intend to do some tests to see if it's better. LoneGuard is the one who updated me about it.

Daniel

Let us know how the new BIOS is working. I'm not having any problems with 2BA2, so I'm not too concerned, but I'm always up for a performance boost. Perhaps they fix the quirky deal with disabling USB when switching to turbo-mode.

01gts -- One other thing about memory and O/S's: WinXP (like Win2000) is much less forgiving of 'shaky' memory. Where Win9x would just ignore some minor CRC errors, WinXP will almost always throw an exception--usually resulting in a reboot. BSOD's and other error messages may pop up as well, though. There is also the possibility of a heat problem cropping up somewhere. Are you sure that you northbridge fan is seated properly on the chipset?

As far as checking your PSU goes--whip out your digital multimeter and check your 5V and 12V rails under load. Motherboard monitors aren't always so accurate. Enermax is a well-respected name around here, however 300W would be a bare minimum. I'm using an Antec 400W PSU very successfully running RAID-0 and several CD-ROM/RW's and 3 case fans.

BTW--there is a hack to turn your Promise FastTrack LITE controller into a full-fledged Promise FastTrack 100 controller that will allow you to change your block size from 64K (where you are locked with the LITE controller) to any size ranging from 1 - 1024K. I'll find the thread for you if you want...

 

[01gts]

mbinga- thanks for the help. i am gonna reboot now to see if that usb thing is fixed that annoyed me too, so i just put it at normal. i really havent noticed any other improvements, since i have this little dilema. i saw that hack around here, i only have one drive at this time, a seagate barracuda, which as i hear now doesnt like raid 0 too much anyways. the north bridge fan should be seated properly, i took it off and put some thermal paste under it before i installed the mobo in the case, and i know i put it back the same way i got it. hmmmm. something else to look into, you guys are great. i really appreciate the help. i am gettin a bad feeling about the wireless keyboard/mouse i have, perhaps it may be drawing a lot of power from the keyboard mouse ports? there are no batteries in the reciever. i am gonna try a normal keyboard/mouse combo tommorrow.


UPDATE: i just tried restarting, setting to turbo, all usb enabled, saved changes.... let it boot to the xp logon screen, restarted, checked bios, turbo enabled, all usb enabled!!!!! looks like they fixed the turbo problem in 2ba3

 

[Bull]

My computer is completely stable at 155 FSB. All memory tests I did passed without a problem. I believe they got it fixed with the 2ba3 bios.

 

[LiquidConfusion]

155? I just got this board about 2 weeks ago and havent really tried overclocking much is everyone able to get these kind of results or is it just better with the new bios?

 

[knack4it]

As per the original question, I have read a lot of peoples comments on memory. Most I have seen have obviously had a problem that yours may not, but they state that the dragon does not like 3 stix of memory. Only two. So perhaps your board might act as theirs?

I personally have two Crucial ddr 2100 unbuff. 256mb stix. The first ones I got were both bad. It caused me a lot of headhurts. I ended up returning them, and got new ones in 4 days. Crucial at least treats you right. Anyway, you might consider downloading a dos based memory tester, like either memtest86 or docmem. Either makes a bootable floppy that will test your ram. That is how I determined my memory was bad. That would be my first place to look.

Later.

 

[Bull]

LiquidConfusion, I could get the FSB up to 155 with the older bios but the memory test on Sandra would always reset the computer. Now that I put the new bios in the mem test goes thru without a problem. I have tested this several times and get the same result. My memory is DDR crucial 2100 2 256mb sticks. I had it in my Asus a7a266 and it would do 160 stable so I knew my memory wasnt the problem. Maybe I have got lucky with this memory but I believe Crucial makes some of the best memory.

 

[LiquidConfusion]

so your point was simply this bios revision has stability than the old one right?

 

[01gts]

update on my original problem...

went home for easter, picked up a powered usb hub, and an antec pp403x (400watt) powersupply from compusa, just installed it and have been running prime95 for about an hour now and no problems. looks like the good ol enlight 300 that came with the case wasnt throwing out enough power. thanks for all your help guys.