Trouble with "new" 8RDA3+

After my mobo swap yesterday, everything seemed ok. Today I am having
trouble booting into Windows XP. I just had to restart about 5 times to
complete the boot process. It hangs on the BIOS opening screen. Sometimes
everything appears as normal, sometimes not everything displays (e.g., the
drives info). Sometimes I can hit delete and get into the BIOS setup, other
times the keyboard doesn't respond and I have to do the ctrl-alt-del to
restart. Since this never happened with the old 8KHA+, I have to assume
it's the mobo but once up and running, everything is fine.

Fyi, this is rev 3.3 of the mobo PCB and the latest BIOS (7-29-04). I don't
have any non-standard hardware.

Any ideas out there? Thanks.

Lee M. wrote:
> After my mobo swap yesterday, everything seemed ok. Today I am having
> trouble booting into Windows XP. I just had to restart about 5 times to
> complete the boot process. It hangs on the BIOS opening screen.
> Sometimes everything appears as normal, sometimes not everything
> displays (e.g., the drives info). Sometimes I can hit delete and get
> into the BIOS setup, other times the keyboard doesn't respond and I
> have to do the ctrl-alt-del to restart. Since this never happened with
> the old 8KHA+, I have to assume it's the mobo but once up and running,
> everything is fine.
>
> Fyi, this is rev 3.3 of the mobo PCB and the latest BIOS (7-29-04). I
> don't have any non-standard hardware.
>
> Any ideas out there? Thanks.

Down at the bottom of the main start up BIOS screen where the drives
log-in,
there is a display of voltages. temps and fanspeeds. Are any showing in
red?


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"Graham W" <> wrote in message
news:46899831$0$8727$...
>
>
> Lee M. wrote:
>> After my mobo swap yesterday, everything seemed ok. Today I am having
>> trouble booting into Windows XP. I just had to restart about 5 times to
>> complete the boot process. It hangs on the BIOS opening screen.
>> Sometimes everything appears as normal, sometimes not everything
>> displays (e.g., the drives info). Sometimes I can hit delete and get
>> into the BIOS setup, other times the keyboard doesn't respond and I
>> have to do the ctrl-alt-del to restart. Since this never happened with
>> the old 8KHA+, I have to assume it's the mobo but once up and running,
>> everything is fine.
>>
>> Fyi, this is rev 3.3 of the mobo PCB and the latest BIOS (7-29-04). I
>> don't have any non-standard hardware.
>>
>> Any ideas out there? Thanks.
>
> Down at the bottom of the main start up BIOS screen where the drives
> log-in,
> there is a display of voltages. temps and fanspeeds. Are any showing in
> red?
>

Only one fan speed indicator but I think that's as much due to the sensor as
anything because the reading fluctuates in motherboard monitor also. If the
hard drive wasn't almost new (<6 months old) I'd suspect that because it
sounds a little funny but it could just be a resonance from the case.
Replaced the Athlon 1800+ with a 2700+ today and it took 2 tries to boot but
once it did, runs fine.

"Lee M." <lmacmil@forget_it.com> wrote in message
news:. ..
> After my mobo swap yesterday, everything seemed ok. Today I am having
> trouble booting into Windows XP. I just had to restart about 5 times to
> complete the boot process. It hangs on the BIOS opening screen.
> Sometimes everything appears as normal, sometimes not everything displays
> (e.g., the drives info). Sometimes I can hit delete and get into the BIOS
> setup, other times the keyboard doesn't respond and I have to do the
> ctrl-alt-del to restart. Since this never happened with the old 8KHA+, I
> have to assume it's the mobo but once up and running, everything is fine.
>
> Fyi, this is rev 3.3 of the mobo PCB and the latest BIOS (7-29-04). I
> don't have any non-standard hardware.
>
> Any ideas out there? Thanks.
>
>
>
I'm going back to your original post on this board swap, and that second 4
pin power connector on the 8RDA3+.
Modern motherboards and PSU's use that second connector for CPU power.
Although you seem to be able to get your machine to run *sometimes*, I'd be
trying a different PSU *with* a separate 4 pin connector for the
motherboard. BTW, the separate 4 pin connector *is not* the same as the
extra 4 pins that can be split away from a modern 24 pin motherboard
connector. That split simply allows a new PSU to be used with older
motherboards that have a 20 pin connector.
I realize that it may not be practical for you to try a different PSU, but I
believe that connector is there for a reason. If you have a local dealer,
you may be able to try a new PSU, then return it if it doesn't help.

"Peter van der Goes" <> wrote in message
news:9_sii.6810$...
>
> "Lee M." <lmacmil@forget_it.com> wrote in message
> news:. ..
>> After my mobo swap yesterday, everything seemed ok. Today I am having
>> trouble booting into Windows XP. I just had to restart about 5 times to
>> complete the boot process. It hangs on the BIOS opening screen.
>> Sometimes everything appears as normal, sometimes not everything displays
>> (e.g., the drives info). Sometimes I can hit delete and get into the
>> BIOS setup, other times the keyboard doesn't respond and I have to do the
>> ctrl-alt-del to restart. Since this never happened with the old 8KHA+, I
>> have to assume it's the mobo but once up and running, everything is fine.
>>
>> Fyi, this is rev 3.3 of the mobo PCB and the latest BIOS (7-29-04). I
>> don't have any non-standard hardware.
>>
>> Any ideas out there? Thanks.
>>
>>
>>
> I'm going back to your original post on this board swap, and that second 4
> pin power connector on the 8RDA3+.
> Modern motherboards and PSU's use that second connector for CPU power.
> Although you seem to be able to get your machine to run *sometimes*, I'd
> be trying a different PSU *with* a separate 4 pin connector for the
> motherboard. BTW, the separate 4 pin connector *is not* the same as the
> extra 4 pins that can be split away from a modern 24 pin motherboard
> connector. That split simply allows a new PSU to be used with older
> motherboards that have a 20 pin connector.
> I realize that it may not be practical for you to try a different PSU, but
> I believe that connector is there for a reason. If you have a local
> dealer, you may be able to try a new PSU, then return it if it doesn't
> help.
>
>
My Rosewill 400 PSU does have a separate 4 pin connector with two 12v lines
and two grounds. I will have to look at my other PC's PSU and see if that
has one also. If so I may try the swap. The fact that it freezes on the
BIOS boot screen would seem to eliminate the hard drive as the problem,
wouldn't it?

"Lee M." <lmacmil@forget_it.com> wrote in message
news:2JGdnX3-voMs_BfbnZ2dnUVZ_t-...
>
> My Rosewill 400 PSU does have a separate 4 pin connector with two 12v
> lines and two grounds. I will have to look at my other PC's PSU and see
> if that has one also. If so I may try the swap. The fact that it freezes
> on the BIOS boot screen would seem to eliminate the hard drive as the
> problem, wouldn't it?
>
To reinforce what I told you, read this:

http://www.xtremepccentral.com/forum...ad.php?t=26212

I've had failure to fully POST (frozen boot screen) issues that were solved
by PSU replacement. Other failure to POST issues were cured by clearing
CMOS.

"Peter van der Goes" <> wrote in message
news:2Btii.270751$...
>
> "Lee M." <lmacmil@forget_it.com> wrote in message
> news:2JGdnX3-voMs_BfbnZ2dnUVZ_t-...
>>
>> My Rosewill 400 PSU does have a separate 4 pin connector with two 12v
>> lines and two grounds. I will have to look at my other PC's PSU and see
>> if that has one also. If so I may try the swap. The fact that it
>> freezes on the BIOS boot screen would seem to eliminate the hard drive as
>> the problem, wouldn't it?
>>
> To reinforce what I told you, read this:
>
> http://www.xtremepccentral.com/forum...ad.php?t=26212
>
> I've had failure to fully POST (frozen boot screen) issues that were
> solved by PSU replacement. Other failure to POST issues were cured by
> clearing CMOS.
>
I will try the CMOS clear first since that's easy. I do have the correct
4-pin connector connected properly. It is keyed (unlike the other 4-pin
connector). I suppose it's possible that my power supply isn't up to snuff
even though it is new and allegedly 400 watts.

I've just noticed something else when I fired up the nVidia system utility:
the memory voltage is at 2.73 which shows up as red on the graph. Next time
I reboot I will have to manually clock that down. I know I didn't change
anything.

Thanks for you continued assistance. We'll get this figured out yet. One
of these days I'm going to buy a brand name PC, fully assembled and tested
and forgot all this fussing with the home built units :-)