Problems with my new gaming rig *Cries out loud*

[Theodor]

My system finally arrived, and I'm already having problems. First of all, here are the specs:

-AMD Athlon x2 4400+
-ASUS A8R-32 MVP Delux
-Kingston 2 gig rams "Twister product"
-ATI X1900XT
-Creative Sound blaster x-fi eXtreme music.
-Western digital 74GB raptor.
-Thermaltake purepower 680W powersupply.
-Thermaltake Shark system case.
-Logitech cordless desktop MX 5000.
-LG Flatron 19" LCD screen, with 8ms response time.

First problem, which is my mouse. When I'm working on my desktop "word, music or whatever" it works perfectly well, however, I'm not being able to play games with it, because it's delaying A LOT, and sometimes it takes more then 3 seconds to respond. I thought at first because of the configuration of the game's visual, so I decreased and nothing happened. Then I plugged in my 6$ optical mouse, and bang, it works perfectly well. So what's wrong with the mouse? Why it's very annoying to play with? I don't think that it's because something is standing in the way of radio transmission, if so, then it wouldn't be working so well on the desktop in the first place.

Second problem, I bought an external 120gig hdd. When I plugged it in, it says that the new device has been installed and ready to be used. However, I cannot see it when I go to My computer to access it. So what's the problem exactly? I tried to see the hardware configuration, there is a yellow question mark on "Other devices" do I need a driver for this external? Shouldn't it be something that windows do on itself?

Third problem, I bought that processor to save money on myself, and to tweak it a bit to match 4800+ frequency. So, I went to the bios to blow off my skills. Let me put it like this: Imagine you're a deaf person that went to a party. It's like I'm a total ignorant, eventhough, I've been reading articales about overclocking, hardware news and stuff like that for more then a year now. So if anyone can help me out, I would appretiated it.

The only thing that really astonished me, was the processor cooler. I have never thought that AMD ships a cooler with 4 heatpipes. It's a quality cooler, and I'm happy with it.

The system is noise is very acceptable, very comfy. But I'm thinking about removing the fan of the heatsink, and throw in a LED one, since I have a window-like on the side of the case, and a 120mm blue LED fan on the back. I can changed the heatsinker's fan, correct?

Awaiting your replies. I know that I have wrote a lot, I just need to get on with it.

[ExceededGoku]

have you got ati tool on? or any other temperature monitoring enabled? if so disable it/them

[megah0]

for the hard drive, right click on my computer, select "manage" and select disk management. you may need to activate the drive which can be achieved by right clicking on the appropriate item and selecting activate (or a phrase to that effect)

HTH

[Theodor]

ExceededGoku, what do you mean? What does that have to do with my problem ?

[ExceededGoku]

related to the mouse freezes, I used to get them with ati tool when i had temp monitoring on and w1zzard told me to disable temp monitoring... I haven't addressed all your problems cos I haven't bothered to read it all yet, i will a bit later

[mfurse]

1. Mouse - Your problem might be the Logitech software, it "kicks in" when it detects games, but can be set to not in the setpoint software suite. I had over-sensitive issues with my MX600 and had to tick the box that switched off game detection.

2. The yellow circle might not be your HDD unless it only appears when you plug the drive in and disappears when its not. Sometime external drives are not shipped entirely "plug-n-play" but need formatting into the file system of your choice.

If you go to start > control panel > administrative tools > computer management > disk management

you should see your system harddrive there and its partitions, CD-Drives etc and then maybe your new external HDD ~120GB in size that is grey because is has no file system. If you right-click that drive then click "initialize disk" a wizard will take you through the steps to create partitions and format them for use. After this has completed a drive letter(s) will show up in My Computer.

3. x4400 to x4800 so 2.2 - 2.4 Ghz. Your chip has an 11x Multiplier so its clock speed is set by 11 x 200 = 2200. The 4800 has a 12x (12x200 = 2400). (You cannot 'up' a multiplier unless you have an FX chip) so will have to up the second figure (the HTT bus) to get a better speed. Upping the 200 to something else also ups your memory speed by the same unless you use a 'divider' where the memory can be set at 150 or something so when u push the HTT (default 200) up by say, 5%, the memory only goes up by 150x105% = 157.50Mhz meaning it is not your memory that would limit the overclock.

So to get 4800+ equivilant you need ~218Mhz HTT, your memory may not work at 218Mhz so you may need to use a divider. You can try to get your memory working 1:1 (no divider) but you may need to reduce its "timings" so that is more likely to run at a higher frequency i.e. instead of 2-2-2-5 you may need 2.5-3-3-6 or similar.

The best recommendation I can make with regard to overclocking the A64 platform (cus it is a little different!) is to read this guide. It is for DFI boards specifically but it does explain many of the same concepts related to the processor and memory dividers/multipliers story and shows you how to stability test etc.

Hope this helps.

Matt

[Theodor]

Thanks a lot, I'm greatfull.

[BUFF]

you might want to check what BIOS your mobo is on - the A8R32 has had quite a few & it's only the latest ones that seem to cure a no. of reported ills.