trouble, think conflict?

[vapd]

Installing xp on sys based on Abit kg7, athlon xp 1600, maxtor hdd, msi GF3 ti200, cheap sound card (PCI 4) motarola modem (pci 6). Doing it bit by bit, get to put modem in, xp installs it fine, and I connect fine. Reboot after conecting cdrw and it goes haywire. Windose says found new hardware, pci card, it turns out this is the modem? which win now thinks isnt attached to pc. OK, try variously to reinstall modem and it just aint having it. Eventualy win stops booting. Take out modem. Remove it from device mngr etc. PC boots fine. Remove sound card, but dont uninstall it. Add modem back to slot 6, installs fine works fine. Put sound card back in and it just continues working. Fine, no probs. What the hells happened there? So I start listening to a cd and surfing and lol: perhaps not so good after all, after about 5mins of this the pc locked up completly and I had to use reset switch. Then unit wouldn boot in to win. Forced an ECSD update in bios and turned off fast writes and then it booted ok, but am at a loss really. Again listening to music and surfing and pc locksup, also automatically goes into bios after reboot. I can guess the area of prob but can somone please help to solve it!! (I've got sound card in pci 2 now but still same probs.)

[Ruslan]

I would suspect modem - Motorola PCI modems are the crappiest modems I have ever seen!
May be it is just me, though, but I really don't like them...

Do you have any other modem to test it?

[confus-ed]

Seems to me you've proved everything works.... just not together!

If you've not managed your xp install completely then try a fresh one with ACPI off in the bios and force the standard HAL during windows detection.

ACPI makes all the 'eligable' devices share irqs 9 (well not that ACPI steals that one!), 10 & 11, however it doesn't allways do the job correctly due to the way the MS specification table is held. The MS specification table is a 'derived' bios translation table which windoze uses to control physical resources of devices attatched to either the PCI or ISA buses, 'naughty' devices quite often break MS rules and so the whole thing goes tits up!

Those icky GeForce drivers won't help either as they break every rule in the book.....

Bottom line is that some devices will not work correctly with certain combinations of other devices, no matter how smart Uncle Bill tells you his limp ware is

[nytiger73]

I agree that they problem is probably something to do with the modem. I have worked with Motorola modems in the past and they just SUCK!

[vapd]

hi, thanks for replys all, I had to use the motarola modem in pc as all the others I have did not work under winxp! But I seem to have solved the prob by moving the sound card to pci 1 and modem in pci 6. However I know have another problem with pc.....
The person I built it for reports that upon first boot at home the unit got to the xp boot screen and then the belkin surge master lights started flickering and pc went dead or he turned it off, I am not sure. Either way the unit is now dead but the fuses are all fine and the surge master is running other devices fine. I am waiting for the unit to be returned again but fear a serious problem, any ideas folks?

EDIT: OK got the board on my test bench but its not posting, with a variety of agp and pci cards, the ram and cpu it gets to testing ram, finishs and then stops, cannot enter bios and ctrlaltdel dont go. Keyboard lights flick on on boot. Am going to try flashing bios in another board and will post agai after but any input much appreciated.

[vapd]

Right have flashed boot block in my asus p2b and still exactly the same problem with board. Any ideas? By the way its outa warrenty from the retailers.

[Ruslan]

Originally posted by vapd
The person I built it for reports that upon first boot at home the unit got to the xp boot screen and then the belkin surge master lights started flickering and pc went dead or he turned it off, I am not sure. Either way the unit is now dead but the fuses are all fine and the surge master is running other devices fine. I am waiting for the unit to be returned again but fear a serious problem, any ideas folks?

1. Did you check the PSU - it's definataly sounds like dead PSU to me...and worst thing is what that PSU could take also the motherboard...

2. It is obvious, but did you check all the components - CPU, RAM and so on?
3. Have you noticed any suspicious smells from the motherboard?
4. Abit boards are "famous" for their problems with capacitors - check them visually...
5. It could be also blown MOSFET (one or few of them) in voltage regulator - it can be checked using ohm-meter...

[vapd]

Hi, yes I am suspiciouys of psu but havnt got round to testing it yet.

I have had a good look at mobo and cant see any physical defects.

Have managed to get mobo to post with another cpu but, and this is the interesting part, it will not post at 133 bus and I have seen another abit mobo with exactly the same prob. This one a kr7a. Anyway board posts fine at 100fsb now but as soon as bus is 133 even with correct dividers it will not post and board must be cmos cleared. I still havnt tested the drives from the pc but hope there ok. Anyway got a rma from mobo retailers! It dosnt ru out till Friday after all