Hi folks, I am not a happy camper .... I have recently purchased my 2nd 64 bit system. It is a 754 semperon 3000+ 64bit amd and an asus k8n-e mthrbrd. 1 gig of corsair ( in matched 512 pairs) pc 3200, ati video 256mb video card , wd hdd 80 gig 7200rpm w/ 8meg buffer. Pwr supply is a brand new 400 watt. It posts wonderfully right off the bat ... gdisk'd the hdd .... two partitions, formatted both, ran smartdrv, started to load windows xp pro . The thing copies all the startup files that it needs, tells you that it is ready to load windows, reboots normally , once back in to loading mode it asks if you have any third party raid drivers .. (no) starts to copy windows .. gets going light speed (or so it seems) ... the screen goes black and it reboots only to get back to the exact same screen and do it again . Fact is, if I left it alone, it would do this inperpituity( Forever) ! I have had this happen on the first socket 754 64 bit chip I bought with a older asus mthrbrd KT8 I believe. I was able to cure it by slowing the processor down by raising the core voltage along with the fsb and memory to their respective lowest timings .. I have looked at this new board ... once I take it off of factory default , I can put it into manual and raise the core voltage to 1.75 I cannot adjust the multiplier down past 4 ( it goes up to 12+ if memory serves) and this still doesn't change anything .. ! This is not the first time I have built a computer ... Fact is I have quite a few under my belt .. Once they started getting faster (gig or better) I have always had to slow FSB and cpu's down to get things loaded, dos is so cantankerous about speed ... any suggestions, help ?? I am about ready to pull what little hair I have left out of my head ! ! ! Could smartdrv have anything to do with it ... ? Thanks in advance Box !
Sempron's are not 64-bit, at least at this point in time. Doesn't matter if it's a Socket A or Socket 754. They are not 64-bit CPU's, only 32-bit. Hate to break it to you, but you'll have to get an Athlon 64 for 64-bit. Secondly, 400W doesn't mean it's a good power supply. I've seen so-called 600W power supplies with less amperage than my Antec and Sparkle 350W power supplies. I don't know how picky Asus is, but make sure the power supply has at least 22A on the 12V rail, and it should be listed on the power supply's label.
:O ya know .... your right (semperon) .. sorry I got thrown by the 754 socket as I have a a64 754 3200 . I bet they are a64's that have a something bad on the die. An old intel trick ... Celeron comes to mind . I think I have it solved ... talked to a couple of engineers here at work ... the fact that I am doing it in dos is the biggest thing ... I am going to try to do an automated load with some of the tools that they gave me today ... I have no doubts of the power supply ... it is rock solid. I may be inclined to think I have a bad stick of memory .. But thanks for the reply. Box
[google]Memtest[/google] is your friend for that. You may need to relax the timings manually and/or increase your DDR voltage a little. Oh, and you don't need DOS at all for XP. The installer will let you create a partition for Windows or format one already there (great for reinstalls). DOS is a bit long in the tooth, and by using it, you're just making it harder.
