Changed Motherboard & CPU - Problems

[crazy_bob_uk]

I've just replaced my motherboard and processor from a chaintech 7VJL and athlon XP 2200+ (throughbred) to a Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) and a mATX Foxcon motherboard. I know its not much of an upgrade but it was free and the chaintech motherboard was almost dead (LAN didnt work and only liked one HDD on the IDE).
So i reinstalled windows, and now it seams to randomly restart, usually when i click on something, or am busy using the pc, and sometimes before windows loads.
The rest of my system consists of ATI 9250 GPU, 2x samsung 160gb, 2x dvd rw, 2x pci cards and a 400w psu (only has 12A on the 12V line though).
Also, some of the programs i'm using (firefox, azureus) just seam to randomly close. Any sugestions what might be wrong?

[blueball]

have you installed the latest drivers for your motherboard chipset (Intel, AMD, SiS or whatever)?

[BigBry]

Run it on mimimum spec (1 HDD, all other un-needed parts disconnected) this will help check the suitability of the PSU.

Use this to test the RAM;
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Check all the cable/power connections are properly connected.

[crazy_bob_uk]

I have all the correct drivers downloaded from foxconn's website.

Soz, i forgot to mention the RAM its 2x 512mb corsair twinx, i've had it for a courple of years without any problems.

A friend reccomended i install speedfan, as it'll tell me the voltages from the PSU, how accurate is a peice of software like this? as its giving some crazy readings, going as low as 8 volts!

[Lexeus]

check your voltages in the bios if the system is unstable.

[crazy_bob_uk]

ok voltages in bios are:
Vcore: 1.61V
3.3V : 3.28V
5V : 5.09V
12V : 12.45V

But when using speedfan to measure the 12V line it looks like this:

[scrandman]

I have all the correct drivers downloaded from foxconn's website.

Which are probably months (if not years) out of date. You're better off downloading them from the chipset maker's site directly.

PS. If you told us the mobo model we'd be able to help more...

PPS. Give memtest a spin - if its an nForce2 board, those were awful picky with RAM.

http://www.memtest.org/

[crazy_bob_uk]

Sorry, the motherboard is a foxconn K7S741GXMG-6L i think.
The chipset is a SiS741GX
I think i'll try updating the bios as the one it has is quite old (dated mid2004).
Also today the sound from my M-Audio 24/96 soundcard has become very crackly (is that a word?) to the point where music is unlistenable.

[scrandman]

Try for later drivers here:

http://www.sis.com/download/

[crazy_bob_uk]

ok, thanks. I've updated all my drivers from the sis website, just a matter of time now to see if my pc crashes or not, but the audio out still crackles.

p.s. i've been trying to monitor what is said on the blue screens of death here are a couple that have appeared a few times:



and

[scrandman]

Have you run memtest yet?

[crazy_bob_uk]

sorry, didnt have time. got an exam today you see. i'll give memtest a go this evening. I may also try and borrow a multimeter from a friend so i can be certain what the voltages are from my PSU.

[Blitzen]

Reset the CMOS.

Some components are set to your old rig and need a jump start.

Cross the pins and reboot and i think all will be well.

BTW.....That PSU is shocking. 12V on a 12V Rail is seriously weak and you are sailing VERY close to the wind with that (especially using 2 HDD aswell).

[crazy_bob_uk]

So i've tried resetting the CMOS, which hasn't helped (have had a couple of crashes this evening).
I borrowed a multimeter to accuratly test the 12V line and it reading a steady 12.5V, so nothing wrong there.
I tried memtest from a bootable cd, but all it did was display a blue screen with a grey bar at the bottom and the memtest in the top right (with a flashing '+' sign), any sugestions what i'm doing wrong, or for a peice of memory test software that runs in windows?

[scrandman]

I've had similar problems with later versions of memtest on older socket A boards. Might want to try v1.20 or v1.26 (I have both on my hard drive which would suggest I've used them in the past!)

If you have a floppy drive you can run memtest from that - saves burning up a CR-R (if you are running short of them).

[crazy_bob_uk]

I found this: http://hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html
which seamed to do the trick, and it gave an error wheh running my ram at 200mhz (pc3200) which is what they are rated at, but have never been run at this speed as my old motherboard only supported PC2700 (166mhz). So i dropped the speed down and everything tested fine with no error (tested 100% of the ram).

Any ideas what i can do to get my ram running at its rated speed?
(not that it matters a great deal, i mainly use my pc for internet/music/videos)