ASRock K7VM4 Crash MSFT SP2 (DEP) to Blame?

[cruddypuppy]

Hi, I have a system instability problem.

My System: After Upgrade to 333mhz Bus speed:
Motherboard ASRock K7VM4: Bus Speed 333 mhz
Power Supply L&C 350W 3.3v=24a 5v=35a 12v=12a
One 80mm Case Fan
Chipset: VIA KM400/ VT8235CE
CPU Barton 2800XP+ ( 2.083 mhz/ 333 Mhz/ 512 L2) with AMD supplied Cooler
Ram V-Data (supposedly made by A-Data) 2 X 512 PC2700 (166mhz DDR) Total 1024Mb
Windows XP Pro with SP2
LAN: Onboard ( Via Rhine II)
Display: NVidia FX 5700 256Mb.
Sound: Audigy LS
HDD: Maxtor 40GB ata133 7200rpm 2 equal partitions C: D: with fixed swap file on D: 1.5Mb
Also 1 Zip drive 1 CDRom and 1 NEC DVD Burner combo.

Before upgrade:
All components the same execept with T-Bred 2400+ and 1G Crucial RAM at 266mhz, and cd burner instead of dvd burner combo. The system was extemely stable.

After upgrade to Barton and 333 RAM system would crash repeatedly unless one stick of RAM removed (either one) or system left on for a long time.
Both sticks (Mushkin green) tested ok with memtest86.

Was told by ASRock people to try RAM from "Approved list" so dumped the Mushkin for the A-Data ( V-Data). System better, games worked well (very few crashes) and no crashes while doing MS money or Web browsing.

Then 2 changes resulted in serious rebooting problem right before log-in screen. A blue screen reporting "PFN list corruption" appeared.
1) swapped out CD burner for DVD combo burner.
2) winXP SP2 update installed. Again, leaving system on for a long time helped, as well as removing one stick of RAM (either one). This is how I am currently running but am causing a lot of HD file swapping.
and games crash frequently.

Possibilities? 1) Paranoid, take a shot at MSFT, guess: could it have anything to do with SP2 and "Data Execution Prevention" or "NX" messing with memory address mapping? If anyone knows anything about this or how to turn it off it would be appreciated.

or 2)Reality guess: PSU is not powerful enough, from reading your forum. Please recommend wattage for new PSU specifically more 3.3v rail vs more 5v rail.

Thanks,
C P

<font color=blue>worry is worse than trouble; the worst never happens.

 

[tweebel]

Sound like a PSU problem in which the PSU needs to warm before it performs all right. I would log the voltages for that purpose and see what happens while leaving it idle for a while and then starting a game or starting it immediately.
I didn't read anything about a BIOS update, you should try that too.
VIA chipsets are notorious for strange problems with Creative Sound Cards so you could have a problem there.
You should also try different memory timings.

Good amps for the PSU are 25+ on 3.3, 40+ on 5 and 16+ on 12 for your system and a good combined voltaged on 3.3 and 5 together.

Also monitor your system temps. The chipset could get too hot. Search the Internet for the board, ASrock isn't really one of the best out there..

 

[cruddypuppy]

Thanks,
Yes from other messages in the forum, that seems to be the cause.
I can monitor the temp of the cpu -it runs close to 49-50`C.I have a front panel temp monitor that reads 40'C for cpu and 36` for the HD, i could move that probe to the northbridge chip. It does have a heat sink.
I can monitor the voltages only within Cmos. After "warming up"( sounds like an old TV set) the 3.3 v is only 3.05-3.10v under no load, the 5v is 4.95 and the 12v is 12.36.
I've seen 3.3v stats on PSU s varying from 20a all the way up to 35a on 450w total PSUs. Do AMDs reqire more wattage in this area than Pentiums?
Sounds like I need to go with one with more 3.3v or does the CPU draw off the 5v ?
C P

<font color=blue>worry is worse than trouble; the worst never happens.

 

[cruddypuppy]

Addendum: I also have the latest Bios Flash ver. 2.5. I tried going back and forth with ver 2.4 but it made no difference. C P

<font color=blue>worry is worse than trouble; the worst never happens.

 

[Rugger]

Your 3.3V line is low.
<A HREF="http://www.osronline.com/custom.cfm?name=articlePrint.cfm&id=334" target="_new">PFN list corruption</A> Looks like it could be drivers or memory. Google is your friend!


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:tongue: <font color=red>Have you read the FAQ? Searched for other posts on this topic?</font color=red>

 

[tweebel]

I believe Athlon XP's demand quite a lot from the 3.3V line. Read it somewhere. Something to google again..