Unstable mainboard Biostar P4M80-M4.

[HenningL]

I'm trying to get a Pentium 4 system up and running. Old technology, though the mainboard is only two years old.

It's VIA based, chips are P4M800 and VT8237R Plus.

I installed Windows XP SP3.

And here the problem:

The system becomes highly unstable when copying files to or from external devices. That be USB storage devices og DVD/CD-rom. First it slows down considerably and then it's brought to a complete standstil. Eventually Windows locks up and bios sends a constant beep. This may denote a hardware problem I guess, but which?

I tried changing every single device connected to the mainboard, i.e. cables, RAM, videocard, harddisk, CPU and PSU. I also tried disabling USB, LAN, video and Sound in Bios and adding AGP and PCI cards instead. I even tried dismounting the heatsink from the chipset and aplied new cooling paste. Still no go.

All fans are spinning fine.

Are there anything I may have overlooked?

Henning Larsen

 

[mdd1963]

I'd first make sure you have latest drivers from here....mainboard, and, also USB 2.0 drivers....; select correct ones for Win2000/XP 32 bit
http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/driver.php?S_ID=246

 

[HenningL]

Yes I have newest drivers. Also tried older drivers. And also tried with Windows own standard drivers. All no go.

Tried newest and next to newest bios as well.

I discovered the mainboard has great difficulties with many harddisks. Although bios supports 48 bit LBA and the disks are seen and recognized by full size in bios, Seagates Seatools reveals communication problems when running the long test. Sometimes after installation the disk is running in PIO mode, which also denotes a disk problem I guess.

I also tried older and smaller disks though, but the problems persist.

Am beginning to thinking the mainboard has a defect.

Henning

 

[mohameddoh]

this looks like a heating problem
check the cooling system on the cpu
also don't forget to apply the heat paste between the heatsink and the cpu
ok

Mohamed Hossam

 

[HenningL]

Yes, I agree this has all indications of a heating problem. Unfortunately it is not a heating problem. The PC is situated in a normal office room at normal temperatures (20-22 C). All fans are spinning fine, and temperature sensors show normal values.

It turned out to be caused by a malfunctioning mainboard. I replaced the mainboard and everything runs fine now.

Henning