Re: asus a7n8x- deluxe cmos ram failure
- From: glasshopper <glasshopper.1z34df@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 22:59:22 +0000
Paul Wrote:
> In article glasshopper.1yyhpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, glasshopper
> glasshopper.1yyhpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Daniel Wrote:
> Sounds like a BAD-Flash. I remember my Brother, always could flash a
> BIOS wrong.
>
> Look if your CMOS-Clear Jumper is set correctly! If you want to
> erase
> the CMOS, you may just short it for some seconds and then place it
> back
> for normal operation.
>
>
> I am quite satisfied that my bios flashed sucessfully.
> My cmos jumper settings are definitely correct. I will do it one more
> time to see what happens though.
>
>
>
> Paul Wrote:
> How do you know that the DOS 6.22 boot disk plus test program are
> compatible with the chipset ? Maybe your test program doesn't work
> on a known good A7N8X board either ?
>
>
> Paul could you recommend a more up to date hardware checker - the
> test
> I am running is a dos program called The Troubleshooter v4.062 1994,5
> - a little bit out of date.
> I like this util from dos - can you reccomend another dos
> alternative.
> It must be dos so I can rule the OS out of the equation.
>
> I've tried some computer test programs over the years. I like the
> program that used to come with Sun computers, for example. Some of
> the programs "try too hard", and include pointless tests, just so
> they can add to the total number of tests provided. I cannot think
> of one noteworthy program for the PC.
>
>
> Paul Wrote:
> I think I would start again with the symptoms of the problem.
> "After making some hardware changes" - elaborate on what exactly
> you did, to get to your current state. What are the exact
> error messages you are seeing ?
>
> Failure to detect IDE drives, could be a chipset issue, a bad
> cable, or a bad drive. A weak power supply could contribute to
> a drive not responding to probes from the motherboard. If you
> can get into the BIOS, have a look at the hardware monitor
> page, and see if the voltages are within 5% of their normal
> values. The A7N8X draws a lot of current from +5V, so finding
> the +5V output reading a bit low is OK. If it was 10% low,
> I'd be concerned.
>
>
>
> Okay - I will check the voltage reading- this problem is so
> intermittent it is annoying. The hardware changes were because
> red dropped out of my graphics card - so I bought a second hand
> one of the same model. I also bought some new RAM.
>
> I installed them one at a time and booted each go for test
> purposes. I then started recieving a number of indiscrimate beeps
> from the bios and blue screens.
> Stop 0x00000077: KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR
> Stop 0x0000007A: KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
>
> I have looked at : http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm with regards to
> these.
>
> After a crash I reset the machine and it can hang at ide detection
> for a long time. Generally a cold boot of a few minutes or more
> will bring it back. Then it will crash again.
>
> Strangely the machine started crashing at the end of the week - ran
> fine all weekend and then - started crashing again at the start
> of this week. But even with a brand new ide drive and nothing else
> connected I still get crashes - even swapping out the ram for one
> stick at a time - incidentally which is all rated the same and
> installed as per the manual.
>
> The only continual element here seems to be the graphics card - as
> a test I will swap it into a spare machine and vice versa and run
> both machines for some time to see what happens! The graphics card
> was bought as tested from ebay and I ran my troubleshooter on it
> also which seemed okay. [I copied your test data from the other post]
>
> My voltage readings are as follows.
> +3.3v Voltage 3.26v
> +5v Voltage 4.91v
> +12v Voltage 11.96v
>
> Now those are nice numbers. I was hoping to see something amiss
> there, because your symptoms suggest a voltage somewhere is
> marginal.
>
> You've had a video card failure, and with integrated DACs on the
> GPU, it sounds like the output of the GPU failed. (Most times
> when a color goes, it is a problem at the CRT end of things.)
>
> The second fault cluster, is the disk interface. Now, as far
> as I know, that interface uses 3.3V I/O pads on the Southbridge.
>
> There are a number of voltages on the motherboard that are
> not monitored, but I cannot think of a single one that would
> cause all the symptoms. There is the AGP supply, for example,
> and that is 1.5V for 4X/8X operation.
>
> There is also a chipset voltage supply, provided by a Champion
> Micro chip. A guy did a thermal imager picture of the
> A7N8X, and that chip was the hottest thing on the board. The
> imager said the chip temperature was 99C. That chip is a
> voltage regulator, capable of providing a few amps, and on
> the first A7N8X boards, it seems the chipset was drawing more
> current than expected.
>
> When I got my A7N8X-E, that was the first thing I checked. Mine
> was quite well behaved, and the voltage output seemed to be
> spot on (down to the millivolt level). I even did a volt mod,
> as there were claims that changing that voltage would improve
> the ability to overclock - I tested that, and didn't see
> more than 5-10MHz difference, if any at all. All the volt mod
> did, was make the chipset get hot.
>
> With all of those on-board unmonitored voltages, a stability
> problem could be unobservable by the user, unless the user
> breaks out the multimeter and checks them.
>
> So, if the chipset supply was on the low side, that would not
> have killed a video card.
>
> At this point, I don't have a convenient theory to fit all
> the symptoms. If your 3.3V had been out of spec, then we
> might have something to work with - I think 3.3V is used
> for the PATA interface pins on the Southbridge, and 3.3V
> can also be used on the video card. But your voltage
> measurement results don't indicate any problem with that
> supply.
>
>
> Paul Wrote:
> As for the BIOS chip, remember it is protected by a checksum,
> and if the processor was having trouble reading the BIOS, you
> would get a checksum error early in the POST when you start
> the machine. You can kinda tell the CMOS is working, if your
> settings are being maintained in the BIOS setup screens, from
> one startup of the computer, to the next.
>
>
>
> Yeah I do not think it is the BIOS or the CMOS battery cos
> it boots and the BIOS holds its settings fine.
>
> As for my cleaning of the motherboard - I removed it very
> carefully and using a dry lint free cloth cleaned off dust build
> ups - no spray - no compressed air and the only air that hit it
> came from my lips.
>
> Thanks for your time posting to this guys - I am going to keep
> going with my tests - I really hope I can find a solution to
> this and get back to trouble free running soon as this PC is
> my main work horse.
>
> GH-- glasshopper
>
> I think you are taking the right approach. Test the individual
> components in another computer, if you can. Simplify the bad
> system, as another means to eliminate the "not guilty"
> components. At this point, it still looks like the motherboard.
>
> Have you ever tried a stress test on the board ? I recommend
> something like Prime95 from mersenne.org - it has a "torture
> test" option, and that does a long computation with a known
> answer. It also makes the CPU get hot, and loads down the
> PSU. You might observe the PSU supply voltages, while that
> test runs, as you'll be able to see if the PSU can handle
> the system when it is running at 100% load. Asus Probe or
> MBM6 (mbm.livewiredev.com) are two programs that can
> monitor the voltages.
>
> Paul
Thanks Paul for your taking the time to provide your informed reply.
So far so good - I am pretty sure it was the hard drive - have been
video editing and running multiple apps on the machine and it seems
fine with the new hard drive. Have tested things one at a time - next
step the secondhand graphics card. I will try stress testing the board
soon - great forum thanks to everybody who helped.
--
glasshopper
.
- References:
- asus a7n8x- deluxe cmos ram failure
- From: glasshopper
- Re: asus a7n8x- deluxe cmos ram failure
- From: Paul
- Re: asus a7n8x- deluxe cmos ram failure
- From: glasshopper
- Re: asus a7n8x- deluxe cmos ram failure
- From: Paul
- asus a7n8x- deluxe cmos ram failure
- Prev by Date: Re: P2B-S Ram Problem
- Next by Date: Re: Performance Memory in A8N-VM CSM ?
- Previous by thread: Re: asus a7n8x- deluxe cmos ram failure
- Next by thread: someone have a case thermaltake xaserV 6000a ??
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
