windows xp crashes with abit nf7 ver. 2 / windows 2000 just runs fine

Hello everybody.

I have a big problem with win xp sp2. it crashes nearly every 2 or 3
minutes. Sometimes it runs fine for half an hour but no longer.
The point is that win 2k sp 4 on another partition just runs fine with
no crashes at all.

As I dont really know wether this is caused by the abit mainboard or
not. This is my system:

AMD ATHLON XP 2800+
ABIT NF7 VER. 2.0
2x512 MB INFINEON DDR 333 in dual channel mode, timings by spd
ATI RADEON 9600 XT from msi
SB AUDIGY 2
USP KEYBOARD
LOGITECH MX 518 MOUSE

I tried it both with nvidia sw ide drivers installed and not installed.
But anyway: the sw ide driver runs fine on win 2k.

I have this problem now for 1.5 years and I dont wanna stick to win 2k
for all times.

I hope there is somebody who knows how to fix this.

Greets.
Joerg Schumacher.

 

It has to be a software/driver problem, right?

The motherboard is made by nVidia and the video card is made by ATI.
These guys are competitors - in the pc video market. Not much reason
for them to collaborate between themselves to get their drivers
running smoothly/compatible. Your best bet, imo, is to use only
microsoft drivers. So, have you installed an ATI video driver and are
you able to un-install it?

Also, windows makes some fundamental installation decisions (ACPI and
HAL), (based on your hardware) only at os installation and cannot be
changed / un-installed / re-installed. When you try winxp sp2, are
you trying it from a fresh install, or, ?

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~mobo.help/

 

Hello,
thanks for your fast answer.

Yes, it is a fresh install of win xp with sp2 already included.

Abit support told me to change memory timings to 8 4 4 3 and rise DDR
SDRAM Voltage to 2.80 V.

But this brought no improvements.

I will try to uninstall the ATI display drivers. But the same driver
works fine on win 2k.

Any further suggestions?
Greets.
Joerg Schumacher

 

Hello again.

Deinstalling the ATI Display Drivers did not fix the problem.

Just now I had another 3 crashes of win xp.

Greets.
Joerg Schumacher.

 

I've got an NF7-S2 running WinXP SP2, running nVidia drivers, and I'm using
an ATI Radeon 9200 with ATI drivers. No probs whatsoever. My other machine
is all nVidia, which does simplify things. But both machines run fine.

Regards,

Margaret

 

Joerg, I had similar problems with SP2 - lots of BSODs on a system that
had run vanilla XP pro for many moons without a single problem. I have a
similar processor to you, and the same version mobo. Same video card,
but GEforce. Onboard sound. Logitech keyboard mouse.

I uninstalled SP2. This partially, but not completely, fixed the issues.
I still got bsod, but a lot less frequently. The self-removal of SP2 is
not remove-all, that I can guarantee (file versions etc). Bits of it
stick around, much like a nasty virus. Mickey$oft ...
So I up/cross-graded my memory (went from 1@512 Mb Kingmax to 1@1024 Mb
Crucial) and lowered the bus speed to 360 Mhz from 400 ... then I
reinstalled XP_pro_with_SP1 over the top of the existing install.

That works for me. Machine is rock solid again. SP1 gives me USB2
support, and as for all the 'patching', I patch my system and security
with 3rd party software, plus I go through a hardware firewall/nat
router these days; I don't think I NEED SP2, thank you very much.

Format c: to clean up the whole mess is/was not an option for me because
of a fungus of Delphi mods that I cannot hope to recreate the way it is
now embedded in my resident source code <sigh>.
But it might work for you - if you have a spare hdd, scrub it with a
complete format, then try to install XP SP2 vanilla from the CD, install
your most directX heavy game and see how you go. I have heard of people
for whom SP2 didn't work as an upgrade, but did work as a vanilla
install on a clean machine. Or better (i.m.o.) see if you can borrow an
install disk with SP1 somewhere <grin>.

anyway, I hope this may prove useful info for you -Peter

 

Hello.

I just tried it with a borrowed "win xp with sp1 included"-cd. And I
again had two crashes. Windows 2000 still runs just perfect.

Abit support just told me to buy new memory and a new power supply. But
both of them are really good and absolutely sufficient. And they are
running with win 2k.

The option not to use the ati graphics drivers, which doesn't help
either, is no option for me at all. As I am using CAD-Software, I need
fast drivers.

I hope there is somebody who knows something else I can do.

Or I quit this AMD shit and get an Intel system.

Greets.
Joerg Schumacher.

 

Just a few ideas for what I'd try, in this order::

1) Try running with your BIOS set to the most conservative settings.
(maybe you already did this)

2) Try running with only one DIMM installed

3) Try replacing/removing components in your system to get down to the
bare-minimum, e.g. in your case you could take out the sound card, and
if that doesn't help try replacing components like the video card and
DIMMs with those from another system known to work.

4) Check that you are you using the latest BIOS and the latest firmware
for all of your peripherals. (I have an NF7-S v2.0 at the moment that
won't work with my PC3200 Infineon memory without using a recent BIOS
update.)

Also: when you say "crash" you could be more specific. Is it just a
spontaneous reboot or powerdown? Does windows display a blue screen
with any info etc? That stuff could be helpful.

 

Hello.

I will try it today with the bios settings. And I will try it without
my soundcard.

When I say Windows crashed, I mean there is an instant reboot with no
bluescreen. I don't get additional information from windows.

And also for your information: I had the issue, that I heard cracking
sounds in the music I played while typing on the keyboard. It seemed to
be happen often to users of nforce2-boards. Using an usb-keyboard and
mouse solved the problem. (Abit support verified, that this should
solve the problem).

Greets.
Joerg Schumacher.

 

Me thinks Peter did something to his computer to make it act like
Margaret's - problems, what problems, LOL. Question is what...

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~mobo.help/

< snip >

 

Hunh? Both my machines run fine.

Regards,

Margaret

 

Switch off "Automatically Restart". You then will see what is causing the
BSOD.

Control Panel\System. Click on the "Advanced" tab, click on the "Settings"
button in the "Startup and Recovery" box, clear the tick next to
"Automatically restart" in the "System Failure" box.

You will now be able to read the info that is causing your BSOD.

If you have a PCI sound card, it could be this.

There may be a file in the C:\windows\minidump folder. It may tell you what
the problem is.

Dave

 

Right-e-o. You're machines run fine and you have no problems.

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~mobo.help/

 

@Dave:

I have automatically restart after system failure turned off. But it
reboots without showing
me a bsod with information. And there is no minidump folder in the
system, so there is
no further information saved via memory dump.
In the bios the setting is on "Halt on all errors, but keyboard".

I haven't tried it yet without the sb audigy. But I changed the ide
settings in the bios. I turned
off ide prefetch and ide bus master and disabled ultra dma for all
drives.
First I thought this has solved the problem as I had no crash for some
hours but then windows
crashed again.

In most times the crashes occur when I am installing software from cd.
But I think its just the
matter that here big amounts of data are going fast through the system
and maybe this is too
much.

I will tried without the soundcard when I have more time.

Greets.
Joerg Schumacher.

 

My daughter has this board and I had the same problem and for the life of me
after about 50 builds it had me stumped.
I read on a forum about memory issues with this and swapped my memory with
hers.
We both have 1 gig of pc3200 but mine was corsair and hers was a generic
brand Hynix I think.
It did the trick and no more problems.
I used her memory in a lower base system with no problems and bought her
some corsair.
Hope this helps.
Mike

 

Hello again.

I have changed some bios settings again. I disabled agp fast write and
switched agp mode to 4x. With disabling ultra dma mode this gave me
some stabilty.

But today Windows crashed again. I could repeat this crash several
times, it happens when the system is under big load for some short
time.
I don't think it is software related because redoing the bios settings
to the less stable ones, made the crash happen almost instantly. While
using the more stable settings made the crash happen after 25 seconds
or so.

I tested my RAM by running memtest86 the whole last night, and it found
no errors.

But I don't know if the RAM is really ok or causing the problem cause I
don't think memtest86 stresses the RAM very much.

And Abit support suggested to use a different power supply.

So is there anybody who can tell me how to test my RAM really?
Or is there a program which can test the psu and monitor the output?

Greets.
Joerg Schumacher.

 

Just verified that it is no software problem.

I set my fsb/dram to 100 MHz frequency and then I passed the problem
where all the last crashes occured.

Greets.
Joerg Schumacher.

 

You can test whether your power supply is adequate at this url.
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/
it gives a rough estimate of what your system needs.
Also I use memtest but find that sometimes it says memory is fine but when I
use it on another machine it fails under load.
Best is to pay a little bit more and get branded memory.
I personally use corsair but others swear by ocz or geil.
in bios setup let the memory field be set by spd it usually finds the best
settings.
good luck
Mike

 

Interesting. Would it be safe to say that winxp alone puts higher
demand on your memory than win2k?

So, somewhere between 100 MHz and 166 MHz their should be a max stable
FSB?

Margaret must have really good memory and Peter must have lowered his
FSB till things became stable...

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~mobo.help/

 

This is what Abit support told me. They say winxp puts higher demand on
both RAM and psu.

And actuallly there are no stable settings at all cause there were
again some windows crashes, although the RAM runs with 100 MHz, all
UDMA is disabled, agp rate is set to 4x and agp fast write is turned
off.

Greets.
Joerg Schumacher.