Re: Bad motherboard or CPU?



Whenever I reinstall I wipe the drive clean and do a thorough reformat, then install the OS. I let it run with the included drivers to see how it does, and then I download/install the latest drivers from the manufacturers' websites. The problems occur regardless of which drivers I use, though. I didn't know there were special "ide accellerator drivers," so I'd have to say no to that one....

Re: Bad motherboard or CPU?

willawake,

I had checked the jumper settings and they were correct. I also tried every other possible combination with no luck. I also tried removing the optical drives and then using that IDE channel with no change.

One other interesting thing, though: If I remove my hard drive and boot to a Live CD it boots right up and while it does randomly close a program or stop accepting mouse/keyboard input the problems are kept to a minimum. If I can find a local store with a PCI IDE card I'll try that. CPU usage spiking to 100%...

Re: Bad motherboard or CPU?

Ok, some other questions:

1.) How does Thermaltake compare to Hipro and Antec? I borrowed the Antec from another computer, so I still need to get one for this system. This weekend Newegg has a 430W Thermaltake on sale plus free shipping, so I'm giving it serious consideration. While it received a good rating from purchasers I'm wondering about the caps used in it, like linuxguru was talking about.

2.) Does it sound like the CPU usage was actually spiking and the temperature jumping or could that have just been the motherboard...

Re: Bad motherboard or CPU?

What is the VRM?

Re: Bad motherboard or CPU?



The Antec was retail, not OEM, though I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

I don't see any problems with the caps and don't want to attempt recapping myself, so I'd rather simply replace the motherboard. I guess my main question is whether or not there is a chance the processor is faulty or damaged, in which case I'd replace them both with newer parts. (ie socket 939 or AM2 as opposed to 754 and PCIe instead of an AGP mobo so I have the option of installing a graphics card at a later date.)...

Specs:
HP Pavilion a810n desktop
AMD Athlon64 3300+
Asus K8S-LA motherboard
Integrated graphics (SiS)
Integrated audio (Realtek)
Out of warranty: 2 years old

When I first got the computer it worked perfectly. 8 months into it, however, I began having occasional problems where one or twice a week it would randomly crash to the BSOD. I assumed it was a software issue so I reinstalled Windows XP Home (OEM at the time) and it appeared to resolve it. As it turns out that was just a coincidence.

A few weeks later it picked up again,...