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slross

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Asus A7V600 / Samsung DDR400(PC3200) / 80Gb Seagate SATA / Connect3D Radeon 9600 / Athlon 2600XP Thoroughbred Freezing problem - HELP PLEASE!!!!

Hi All,

I had to make a slipstream windows XP (SP1) boot disk to install the SATA controllers as my ASUS A7V600 wouldn't allow XP to install on a SATA drive without them and they couldn't be installed from the CD.

Now, each time on entering my XP account, My machine thinks that I have out-of-date none-Windows XP files on my machine and always asks me to re-install them every time. If I insert the XP Boot CD, the dialog disappears and the Install Windows window appears.

Every time I play any OpenGL or DirectX Game like C.O.D., My machine freezes, forcing me to reset.

I am running my memory @ 333 MHz and my CPU @ 333MHz (Running as Athlon 2000XP)  even though I have FSB 400MHz and DDR400 because it is too unstable at full speed.

Overall, my PC is sluggish and jerky which I did not expect when spending over 500 quid on components.  I have read various articles from different forums explaining about the XP install problem and various BIOS updates and Catalyst Driver Updates but no answers seems to have been found.

I believe that the combination of a SATA drive and the Asus A7V600 causes issues but is SATA the problem or is it the ATI drivers? Does anyone have the answer to this question!?!

I am also getting "windows corrupt" alerts when I try and launch Internet Explorer and Explorer is always crashing.  Upon reboot, my system often runs CHKDSK, regardless of whether a "textbook" shutdown was performed.  During this CHKDSK, it seems to recover 100s of orphaned files!!!

I am running BIOS 1006 and Catalyst v3.7 (I have tried the latest catalyst drivers and the problem is even worse.)

Any help with this pickle would be much appreciated.

Steve
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Snowguy

You do know that the 2600+ "Thoroughbred" comes in 2 flavors a 266FSB and a 333fsb which one do you have? If it is the 266FSB and you are running it a 333FSB this would be your problem.
http://139.95.253.213/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=37,E=0000000000151968631,K=2566,Sxi=16,Solution=3913

AXDA2600DKV3D 2600+ 2083MHz 12.5x  =333FSB
AXDA2600DKV3C 2600+ 2133MHz 16x     =266FSB
SOLUTION
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Callandor
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In SafeMode go to start-->Run and type  sfc /scannow and have your CD in the drive.  This will bring up the system file checker which could fix some problems.

Also remove every bit of ATI software.  Make sure all folders are delted and nothing left in the device manager.  Now download an older version of the drivers.  Check through the list and se when your card has been added to the supported list.  I would go about 2 or 3 versions above that.  Check if your CPU Fan is not getting to hot, run DXdiag from the Run prompt to check for DirectX Problems.

After doing this you should be pretty fine!
If you look at Smartgart in your Advanced display settings, what does it say that your AGP is set at?  if it is set at 0X and won't let you change to the 8x that you'd like it to be at, you'll have to install the drivers for your chipset.  Make sure you installed these drivers from your Asus disk.  Good luck.
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I don't know too much about SATA configurations so someone else will have to help there, although I also don't believe that is the source of your problem, as ASUS boards are notorious for undervolting the ram causing system instability during medium to heavy use of the memory. I had an asus board that would constantly freeze and reboot because of this very problem. Something you may want to try to do is look up what the appropriate voltage is for the ram you are useing and use some diagnostic software to check what the voltage is to your dim slots. The asus utility PCProbe does the job well enough for these purposes, and if you find it is not providing enough voltage automatically, then try going into bios and setting the voltage manually. That fixed the freezing/ rebooting problem for me, and it sounds as though you are having a similar problem.
Hi,

as promise i did a reboot and checked my DRAM voltage it running at 2,65V
Did you install the VIA Hyperion drivers? go to www.viaarena.com/?PageID=300 and download/install the VIA Hyperion drivers then restart.

Check your BIOS for "Fast Writes" and disable it.  As suggested, turn your AGP down to 4X.  There is really almost no benefit to 8X AGP except in very extreme situation with huge textures, etc.

>>The only SATA drive that are really faster than ATA drive are the WD Raptor series, cause this are SCSI disks with an SATA interface.
Where did you get that from?  SCSI is not compatible with xATA.

-dog*
What kind of ram is it that you have in your computer? Also was it the ASUS install disk that you tried installing the SATA raid drivers off of? Cause I know ASUS has drivers included on their install disks, and the proper raid drivers should be there.
Hi, check this link:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=65
If it won't work goto http://www.wdc.com look for Enterprise SATA and you will find the Raptor series. And it is SCSI type hardware with an SATA controller instead of an SCSI controller board. That for sure.
It " matches SCSI performance and reliability while providing simplified connectivity".  Yes, it does run at 10,000RPM which is more common on high-end SCSI drives, but its not exactly a SCSI drive with a SATA interface.  Internally, they're fairly similar, its all in the type of PCB and physical interface.  I guess I'm just "picking nits" :)

dog*
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ASKER

Thanks for all your help guys, my machine is now stable and runs Far Cry, TOCA 2, Call of Duty, Painkiller !!!!!!!!! (Smooth)

I wasn't sure who to award the points to because I'm not entirely certain as to what fixed it in the end.  I downloaded the latest Catalyst 4.4 Drivers and turned my AGP down to 4x.  I think its just a case of playing with the BIOS.