Monbart

Hello everyone. I used to build machines as a living a few years ago and decided to build my new machine as I enjoy it and to save some money. However now im running into walls as I have problems, and as I am slightly behind in technology I need your help. I’ve seen you guys helping people out in a respectful, helpful way and respect you all for taking time out to help people like me.

Sorry about the size of this, but i wanted to list everything ive done and tried.

Here goes....

My spec is the following;

ASUS P4P800E-Deluxe MB (with BIOS UPDATE 1007)
Intel Pentium 4 3.20e With HT "PRESCOTT" on socket "478"
2x 256MB PC3200 DDR400MHz (Both in Blue sockets)
1x Maxtor DiamondMAX 10 SATA HDD (installed on the ICH5R. SATA1 port)

ABIT/ATI Radeon 9250 AGP

I am using the onboard sound chip (realtek AC-97)

My power supply is an ASUS A-36F 340W (came with new case, ASUS TA10)

My OS is windows Media Center with SP2

Right, here we go!.....set the bios up to use sata (bios detected drive as 3rd Master). I then booted my windows XP disc, pressed F6 to install 3rd party SATA/Raid drivers, inserted my made floppy. It detect the drive, I partitioned and formatted. Installed windows ok.

Installed drivers for Intel chipset, rebooted.
Installed onboard sound drivers, rebooted.

Now the machine is acting slower than my old Athlon 1.6GHz.
Run more than one program and the machine slows to a halt, thinks about things, then gets back to normal. When the machine is doing things and the CPU gets to 50% the mouse pointer slows right down and then speeds up, then shoots across the screen to where it should be.
Another thing is when its doing the whole thinking thing and I happen to be listening to music (mp3's) the music slows down and breaks up. This also happens in games that ive tested with it. As things are loading the music/sound effects slow down. (it feels like im going though a time warp!!)
I've tried updating the onBoard sound drivers but no luck.
Also tried updating the Intel chipset drivers, still no luck.

Two things I did try... removed one of the Memory Modules, and It ran even slower than before. It got to windows after a long wait but when it did windows just stopped loading and the taskbar failed to load onto the screen. It also ditched all of the XP visual effects.

I've also disconected my SATA drive and installed a 40gig IDE HDD, Installed windows on it and main drivers..Still does it!

Just in case, for your reference the cpu never gets hotter than 42C and the board doesn’t get hotter than 32C.

Things I think it might be;

Power Supply...Not enough balls?
OnBoard sound chip....Causing problems?
My HDD.....Heard a lot about the DiamondMAX 10 not being compatible with the ICH5R chipset, but I've got this far. And the IDE drive i tested on it did the same thing.
Memory....Could be faulty? It was a friends memory out of his dell but it worked fine in his machine.

Why is my new machine running like a 486?? lol

If anyone can shed any light on this I would be very VERY greatful.

Thank you in advance everyone

Monbart (from the UK)

linderman

Hello:

Congrats on getting that far / thats a highly configurable board and as a result many people really struggle to get that far!

Now on to your problem / you have what sounds like a classic case of the CPU being throttled down to dontkey mode / did you get most of your own bios settings or did you use auto detect ??? cpu paramaters / fsb / memory voltages etc ????

That power supply isnt cutting it by a long shot / I would use a minimum 400 watt Antec or Enermax / there pricing but then again that aint no VW bug your running there! I personally would grab the Antec 480 Watt / the new P$ CPU's and video cards are real power hogs

Sounds like you did everything else right / i belive some of the moderators and mentors in this forum has diagnostic progs listed in their signature posts that might aid you in your actuall perfromance output / sandra lite rings a bell for me.

Post back with what your cpu vcore is set at & the multiplier same with memory timings and volatages

But my first silver bullet gets shot at the PSU


regards:

Monbart

Thanks for your quick reply linderman. So i did well so far hu. I suppose that means I havent lost the touch lol...

I did suspect it could be the cpu being throttled down but as heat wasnt a problem I didnt take it any further..thank you for correcting me. As for my bios settings all of them are set to auto. I didnt want to keep it set to auto as some boards in the past dont seem to "auto" very well.. Where would I find the manual settings for my setup??

Also, the whole PSU thing.... I am running x2 dvd drives, a floppy drive and a SATA drive. Im also running a ATI Radeon. So In my past experence this would be a main cause. I will buy a new one asap.

Also, am I right in thinking the Prescott sucks power like theres no tomorrow??

Thank you very much

Monbart

Ok I have installed a 400w PSU for the time being.

here are the voltages as displayed in the BIOS hardware monitor;

Vcore 1.312 - 328 (average)
33v 3.360
5v 5.160
12v 11.612 - 673 (average)

CPU is set to auto
Performace mode set to standard
Memory set to auto.

Also, I have spoken to someone who has stated that Media Center and ATI drivers (+ CATALYST using .net framework) can cause issues causing similar
problems to my own. I have now uninstalled the drivers, uninstalled the .net framework and re-installed JUST the ATI drivers. I must say it has improved it slightly. It now takes a bit more to get the mouse sticking and the sound to slow down. This could be down to the PSU upgrade tho. However i havent noticed any difference in games.

linderman

I will do a little research on your config and get back to .


I agree with the info you have found about the catalyst drivers / they seem to be a pass or fail situtation

it wouldnt hurt to do a memory test (memtest86.com) let it run it for hours when you can / have seen alot of memory failure lately

also if you look in " Sarkast" (one of this forum's top guys) signature at bottom of all his posts / I think he has a power supply calculator prog or site just to double check what you need / you are running some hot stuff there and plenty of it .

as for the prescott / yes its a heat furnace and a power hog !!!!

but runs like a chevy big block too !!

In the mean time you might get lucky enough to have Uncle Macro or Crazi Joe jump in here / I think one of them is running your board and they probally know your bios configs by heart.

PS / did you enable hyper threading or PAT as some call it ???????


regards:

linderman

In your bios could you check the following ?


What are your memory volt settings set at / cas latency settings / ?

what is your FSB set at ?

what is your multiplier set at ?

ksteiger

Did your computer run well prior to installing the sound and chipset drivers?

Monbart

ok...

As everything is set to manual I cant see any settings regarding memory volt, CAS latency or multiplier...

However, these are the important settings I CAN see;

CPU frequency - 3200mhz
FSB speed - 800mhz
L1 Cache - 16k
L2 Cache - 1024
L3 Cache - 0

Ratio status: locked
VID Cmos setting: 62
Max CPUID setting: Disabled
Hyper threading: Enabled
Config DRAM timing by SPD: Enabled
Mem acceleration mode: Auto
DRAM idle timer: Auto
DRAM refresh rate: Auto
GFX aperture: 32 (Have tried increasing and decreasing)
Spread spectrum: Enabled
MPS rev: 1.4
AI Overclock tuner: Standard (If i set this to manual it opens up more options but all but one are set to auto)
Performance mode: Standard

Thats all it says, that along with everything i mentioned in my last post. Sorry I cant give you more info

As for it working prior to installing the sound and chipset drivers, im not 100% sure if it did. I do know that i didnt get problems straight after i installed windows the second time. The probs started more like the next day (The first time I had SATA as RAID enabled in the bios and the install buggered up)

Hope thats enough info guys.

I will run memory tests and other benchmarks when time allows.

Again, thank you all!!!

linderman

If you get the chance try these out


PSU calculator = http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/



cpu throttle watch = http://www.panopsys.com/Downloads.html

Monbart

...Thank you for the links.

Had the software running...Am i right in thinking that the blue line at the bottom drops down as the cpu is de-throttling? If so, i just ran a few test (running a game with everything turned up) and it droped back 3 times, but only for a few seconds before it leveled out again.

Also, i used the PSU calc and with everything i have i need 305watts. I now have a 400watt PSU.

Does this throw any light on the subject, cause im clean out of idea lol

Monbart

linderman

Know what you mean / running out myself as well


uninstall the onboard sound driver and see if that fixes jerky mouse thing / as long as the dip in the throttle watch are only for a second I dont think any probs indicated there / kinda sounds like a driver or IRQ battle

crazijoe

My general rule of thumb on PSUs
The power consumption of the computer should be about 60% of the rated power of your PSU. This is for effeciency and longevity of the PSU. If you are drawing more than that, you need to get a bigger PSU. When you constantly pull power at the 80% mark of the PSUs rating it will heat it up and burnout quickly. The rating is Max output not constant. You need that extra 40% for peaks.


The other issue I noticed was the CPU temps.
Questions:
1. Where are you getting these readings from?
2. What are you using for a CPU HS/fan?

Is this thing in your refridgerator?
I find it almost impossible to see a max temp of 42C from a Prescott core CPU.

More suggestions. I would probably do as linderman has suggested and run memtest86. If it runs slower with one removed, I would make sure both sticks are good.

Monbart

My cpu idles at 35c and the board at 29
at full load the temp never gets hotter than 42/43, board 32/33.

I know this because it tells me in the bios under system monitor and it also tells me the same figures in AIbooster.

I was using the standard intel p4 cooler/fan until about 5 hours ago when i changed it to a Cooler master Vortex dream. I thought it might help, but no.

I would post some pictures for proof, but i feel i dont need to. Temperature is not the issue here. There is a compatibility issue somewhere. Besides, my old crappy AMD Athlon XP 1.6 gig never got hotter than 51c. Its about the cooling and common sence.

Thanks to all for your help. I will spending the next few days re formatting/clearing bios and trying IDE drives. I'll also be trying Windows XP home as opposed to Media center. I feel MC could be the problem.

Regards
Monbart

linderman

Monbart:


I have seen some posts that Media Center causes conflicts / If I can recall where I saw it / I will post

Also it just dawned on me ! The ram you have installed / is it one of the "tested" vendors in the asus manual under QVL (qualified Vendor List) ??

I have remebered several posts that the system wouldnt even post / because it didnt like the ram / I have seen threads where the system was unstable because of not tested ram. Non tested ram / doesnt necessarily mean they wont work / but Asus has made a proclaimation that the board will run stable if used with verified ram models.

Sounds logical

regards:

Joe


not media center / but TV Media
http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=19634

Monbart

...thats my way of thinking. I will be trying XP home to see what happens. Also, no, the memory isnt in the recommended vendors list. However it is kingston. But I am thinking of trying ram in the vendors list to rule out another of the many things that it could be.

Ive been at this for nearly 2 weeks solid so im having a day off tomorrow lol.

I will post any findings that i find in the next few days. I want to help people get out of the same mess im in lol


Kind regards

Monbart

whodat

check here

did you look through these media center faq's

linderman

Hey Jim :)

Thanks for the info / I think I will dodge that bullet myself / surprised by daugter hasnt got me into that pickle / she downloads more crap that crashes than a spyware maker!


regards:


Joe

crazijoe

I still can't buy the temps on that. Theres no need to prove it. I have seen some flakey BIOS versions read incorrect temps on the sensors. But since Asus website is still not working, I can't check what versions had problems. (It seem there website is only wroking 60% of the time. and when it does it's like at a turtles pace.)

linderman

Yeah Hear you there Joe . I think Asus sales has far outpaced their infrastructure




regards:


Joe

Monbart

...right guys...I think I have found the problem...Check this out....

Did a complete re-installation, it found drive ok and installed fine with no problems.

Installed all drivers and rebooted.....it worked fine
Then i shut down the machine.....restarted

Then the problems started again......

So, as im running out of options I unpluged the SATA drive from SATA 1 and plugged it into SATA 2...worked FINE!!!!!

Did loads of tests (PRIME95, ThrottleWatch, running media player) it was fine.
Loaded a Game...ran fine...
After a few more reboots, it started doing the funny thing again...
Swapped SATA ports again...worked fine...

Its still working fine now..but i know it will do it again soon.

I know when its going to do it again as windows takes longer to load and as windows is about to finish loading (before welcome screen) the screen goes blank and goes into hibernate for about 10 seconds, Then comes back on and then we have the problems.

Just as a recap, my HDD is a Maxtor DiamondMAX 10 SATA, and my board is the Asus P4P800-E Deluxe (ICH5R Chipset)

Also, the machine runs fine on IDE but i am going to do more tests on this.

My thoughts so far is that every so offen the HDD bottlenecks (hence the slowdowns) and to resolve this you swap the SATA ports over.

What do you think guys? This is a strange one!!

Regards Simon (Monbart)