question about stability

[CDT]

I've built a new cheap system out of the following:

soyo sy-k7vme MB
1 GB
amd sempron 2400
geforce 4 fx 5200

the mb, ram and memory were tested when I bought them. I added in the vid card.

what is happening:

when I am working (it can be as simple as browsing the internet or running multiple apps at once), the monitor will go blank. the green light stays on but the power saving yellow light goes on once it goes blank. I have turned off power managment in the bios as well as the os (win98 se).

I did have trouble installing directx (need it for some apps)..I finally had to install it before the video drivers (latest nvidia drivers from their site) to get it to work. I did try different versions of directx and vid drivers and the problem was the same (monitor going blank).

before I buy a new monitor (it is pretty old, about 4 years) I'd like to know if anyone has seen this problem before and knows whether it is the monitor.

thank you.

PS: this system is not overclocked.

 

[Titanion]

The order to install should be chipset drivers, DirectX, and then video card driver... Download the lates drivers from Soyo... uninstall all three, then reinstall all of them in thay order... are you just using the default XP chipset driver now?

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700

 

[CDT]

thanks for the reply.

I have installed the drivers in that order. initially I didn't (I installed vid drivers and then directx) but I wiped everything a couple of times and reinstalled windows98se to start fresh. plus, reset the bios to "optimal settings" each time. right now I have directx7 installed and it's not crashing as much...but it still does periodically.

The chipset drivers I am using are the latest for my board from the soyo site.

2004-01-29
VIA 4 in 1 Driver Package for Win 9x/ME/NT/2k/XP ver:4.51v

the vid drivers are the latest from nvidia: ver 61.76


In win98se, the only thing I noticed that was not installed from the soyo driver set was the following:

*psi to isa bridge (there are no isa slots on this board?)

*the primary and secondary ide controllers, in system properties, are listed as microsoft drivers.

also, I have tried other nvidia driver versions to no avail. the latest seem to be working though.

I'm going to try the onboard video the next time it locks up (by taking out the agp card) and see if that helps.

thanks again for your help and I hope this information is of use.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by CDT on 09/25/04 12:21 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Titanion]

Ask around for a stable driver for your FX5200 card. You may want to do the same thing for a stable VIA driver. Newer is not always better for older hardware. W98SE could be your problem as well. Getting XP on there migh solve all of your problems... does the nvidia driver support Windows 9x?

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700

 

[CDT]

the problem must have been the geforce fx 5200 card...i ripped it out and the onboard video seems to be stable.

thanks for the help..time for a sale on ebay.

peace

 

[ChipDeath]

It could be an inadequate power supply. The extra power draw from the card might just have been enough to tip it over the edge.

Might be worth trying a better PSU before getting rid of the card.

---
Epox 8RDA+ V1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @200x10 (~2Ghz), 1.4 Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL/1x512Mb Corsair XMS PC4000 2.5-3-3-7
Sapphire 9800Pro (VGA Silencer Rev3) @418/742

 

[CDT]

might be..it'd 300w.

do you hsve a suggestion on s good ps?

thsnkd

 

[endyen]

Did you have the onboard video disabled in bios?

 

[Crashman]

Various versions of VIA's drivers will crash Windows 98 depending on what chipset you have. I gave up on them completely when fixing used systems and resorted to Window's default drivers for VIA chipsets.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[CDT]

it's the km400 chipset.

the onboard video is automatically diabled when you install a pci or agp card...

 

[Crashman]

I was speaking of their AGP port driver, not their video driver.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[CDT]

I know..I was answering the question fron endyen as well..sorry for the confusion.

peace

 

[ChipDeath]

Is the air blowing out the back of the PSU quite warm? The warmer it is, the nearer its limits your PSU is operating.

Also use something like MBM5 to log voltages every couple of seconds. That way you can see if any of them drop off just prior to crashing, or are just generally a little low.

DON'T buy a new PSU without checking your voltages... I would hate to be the reason for you spending money on something that isn't a problem..

do you hsve a suggestion on s good ps?

Fortron Source & Enermax are pretty good, in my experience. Fortron tends to be cheaper.

A lot of people like Antec PSUs, but I've never used one myself.

a 350W should be easily enough for your needs from one of the above manufacturers, a bit more if it's a cheapo generic one (380 - 400W). You shouldn't need that much, but better safe than sorry.

---
Epox 8RDA+ V1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @200x10 (~2Ghz), 1.4 Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL/1x512Mb Corsair XMS PC4000 2.5-3-3-7
Sapphire 9800Pro (VGA Silencer Rev3) @418/742

 

[CDT]

air is cool..voltages seem stable enough (via the soyo hw monitor app)

I have another problem now....lol.

I installed ie6 during the last windows install (i really only like firebird but sometimes a site has to be opened in ie you know..) and I got this webrebates virus and used avg to get rid of it. now this thing runs like a 486 with 4mb of ram. seriously slow. even with nothing running on startup (except systray and explorer).

I'm tempted to have a mb/processor/memory buring in the the front lawn. a sacrafice to the god's of cheap PC parts.

one more backup and reinstall... if it screws up again, it's time for some gasoline and a match...

or maybe ebay.