Mobo Issue? 3 quick beeps

[Shepski]

Hi All,

Just upgraded machine to include an asus a7v600, amd2500+, geforce fx5600 and 512mb 3200 crucial memory. Everything appears to be fine except when I try and fdisk a new drive (which works fine in all other machines) or run a scandisk in dos or even when restarting form windows me.

I get 3 quick beeps and the video goes off. I have tried a different psu but still the same.

Anyone have any ideas?

[pdug175]

total guess... memory???

[Wolf Man]

That is the graphics card I believe. Make sure thats pushed in well, otherwise it is memory, i just cant remember, but I am 70% sure its the gfx card

[Austin]

Yuk! Whether or not it's the cause I'd start by ditching WinME.

If you get beeps on startup it's usually down to PSU, CPU, RAM, mobo or gfx card. 3 beeps is gfx card IIRC but it may vary by mobo. You should take out all non-essential hw to find the culprit. It can often be something as simple as the PCI card(s) aren't quite pushed in far enough.

I'd suggest setting AGP8x back to AGP4x, 2x or disabled as VIA are known to have quirky AGP implimentation at 8x, perf diff is virtually ZERO. Are the PSUs you tried all 350W+ and preferably a good brand name? Everything is running stock right? Have you checked the HSF is attatched properly and that only a tiny amount of compound is used? Can you try each of your key components in another PC?

[Shepski]

well, i was planning on getting 1mb of memory so i guess a trip to pc world to buy another 512mb stcik will test the memory front out. I have tried the gfx card in another machine and also one from anohter machine but still the same result in my machine.

I only use WinME for playing AOE rise of rome as windows XP is crap when playing over the internet, lags like a mofo

I will try setting the agp down to 4x and see what happens. Cant remember the make of the psu but its out of my friends machine who upgraded to EXACTLY the same items at the same time and he hasnt the same issue as far as I am aware.

BTW. what sort of memory should I ask for in the shop? 512mb DDR 300mhz?

[blockers]

Think its the RAM. I had lots of trouble with RAM a while, well i thought i was the RAM, but it turned out to be the mobo.

Test the RAM is every DIMM.

[Stoo]

WinXP lags over the net?

Odd, I'd have a close looks at your networking settings and maybe set Dr TCP on it..

4x AGP seems to work a lot better for me too, If I run my 9500 in 8x mode UT2003 develops a rather nasty stutter, but as soon as I knock it down to 4x it runs like a dream

[Austin]

Be sure to you end up with 1GB not 1MB of RAM! I would suggest going for a 512MB stick of PC3200 (DDR400 / 400mhz) from a diff manu to the existing stick, not that Crucial are bad (they are fantastic) but it is known sometimes one brand of PC3200 simply refuses to work with one type of mobo or another. When most PC3200 RAM and mobos came out the spec was still unfinished, that probably causes much of the problem. You should be able to send the Crucial stick back, esp if you used their Memory Selector. Their cust support is top notch, maybe mail them about things.

WinXP should be way better over the Internet ... maybe it's driver related?

[Shepski]

Originally posted by Austin
WinXP should be way better over the Internet ... maybe it's driver related?

Yup, XPP rocks on the net but not with this one game. Dont know if the game is too old or what. It works fine playing locally and even over the network but try and play with someone else logging into my machine over the net and forget it....Mr Lagmeister comes to town. Tried everything I can think of to sort but put it down to:

a.) old game
b.) microsoft being rubbish as its a ms game and ms os

[Austin]

I know it's a long shot but have you checked for any patches for that game or tried selecting Win95 Compatibility mode for the .exe?

[Shepski]

y, game is too old, last patch was about 2 years ago or so. Tried win95 compat but didnt seem to make any difference

[Aracanth]

Might be obvious, but are you sure its YOUR end causing the slowdown?? If it's OK on the LAN, it may be the response of the guy at the other end. Remember with a game like this they need to sync with each other........ Just a thought....

[Shepski]

well, we both using isdn, both on same ISP and he is on win xp aswell. tried setting the settings to the same at both ends and even tried the direct dial so we dont go thru the isp but still no joy

[Aracanth]

Ah well, the fix is easy..... As it works on your LAN, just lay in fibre between you and your mates house.... Of course that MAY be expensive :-)))

[Shepski]

woohoo....thanks for your help guys, turned out it was the HD Cable. Looks ok to the eye but changed it for a new one and all the problems have vanished (except the laggy AOE one tho )