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General discussion

BIO's problems . . . i think?

Apr 4, 2004 12:12PM PDT

I am running a Gigabyte GA-7zx rev1.0 Mainboard, with a 120gig HD and a 40 Gig HD, DVD-Burner, 36x CD-Rom, 512 mb ram.

My problems started when i got the 120gig HD, i installed Win XP and all my old software, and it worked fine for a month or so. then my usbs would quit at random, or my whole PC would Restart for no reason. no known virus, according to Norton 04. so i crashed everything reinstalled XP and it kept giving me fits during install saying certain .dll's would not Copy properly. finally it installed, my ethernet connection will not recognize when it is plugged in, certain programs will not run. Figured bios was my problem, tried every flash program i could possibly use, all say "unrecognised ROM type" and will not update BIO's. also tried removing the 120gig HD and just using the 40Gig, no go there either.

any help would be greatly appreciated?

Discussion is locked

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Re:BIO's problems . . . i think?
Apr 4, 2004 1:00PM PDT

1. Let's skip over the BIOS update even though I bet it's needed. How about that power supply. With all that, you'll want a monster 450 Watt PSU and try it without a case cover to steer clear of heat issues.

2. You do need the BIOS update. Call the supplier if need be to get the right one.

3. Installing XP is treacherous since Microsoft doesn't fetch latest MOTHERBOARD or for that matter any updated drivers. Without that BIOS update or drivers, stability may be an issue.

The DLLs not copying is usually a sign of heat, failing CDRW drive, out of date BIOS or an overtaxed PSU.

Try this. Set the BIOS to very conservative settings. Such as 1X AGP speed and the FSB to 100 or 200 MHz. What happens?

Bob

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Re:BIO's problems . . . i think?
Apr 4, 2004 1:36PM PDT

Sounds like a failed motherboard. You can further test this by stripping the machine down to just the motherboard, power supply and video card (assuming it's not an onboard one). Disconnect everything else from the power supply (a failing power supply can be the source of erratic and hard to trace issues). Unplug the Motherboard from the power supply and remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes to release any configuration info stored in the CMOS. Motherboards with a CMOS battery soldered on have a jumper to discharge the CMOS chip. Replace the battery, reconnect the cables to the otherboard and boot the computer. Access the BIOS by pressing the setup key (this is usually <DEL>, F1 or F2). In the BIOS setup choose the "Safe Defaults" option or the like to get the most compatible configuration. If the computer boots and seems to function correctly, add the remaining hardware, component by component, until the system gets problematic again. If it gets irratic you will likely have identified the offending component. Be aware that the system getting irratic when you add a particular component does not indicate that it is the cause of your problem. Sometimes if the power supply is bad, just adding the electric "load" of the component can cause a failure. Repeat the test installing the components in a different order to test the theroy.
Should the computer seem to function OK, you can reinstall the operating system as it was most likely a BIOS setting causing the problem. Otherwise it's likely time to get a new motherboard.

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Re:Re:BIO's problems . . . i think?
Apr 4, 2004 2:09PM PDT

I actually ran into the same problem. Ended up I had ram go bad. Due to heat issues. Replaced Ram and added another case fan, it's been running great and I've been downloading, & converting digital 8 media and burning DVD's with no issues. Except 1gb of DDR isn't quite enough ram with what I'm doing. Time to order more ram Happy

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Thanx all i will try it all out next free second i get!!!
Apr 5, 2004 1:15PM PDT

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