what's wrong with my computer!

[hardflipman]

sorry for the sensationalist title! i've been having minor issues with my an8 ultra since i got it from scan. i've spoken to scan tech support and abit who suggested driver issues and gave me a new bios to try.

basically the issue is that more often than not windows takes several minutes to load. once it's loaded atitool usually can't detect the video card. safe mode boots up in a matter of sceonds. a restart usually has the system booting quickly - thinking about it would seem that most of the problems occur from a cold boot. anyhoo, half life2 or day of defeat source crashes all the time aswell.

i have installed windows twice, used all different graphics drivers and nforce drivers, changed the bios etc to no avail.

now, 2 days ago i came home to an annoying sound coming from my other computer - damn graphics card had just expired. so i switched my good computer on to find that windows would not load at all. safe mode was fine but normal would just not do anything. it sat at the splash screen for ages. anyways, i was busy trying to sort out the other computer when i looked up and saw the following


now to me that is definitely symptomatic of a hardware failure. and i'm pretty sure it's not the graphics card because i have 2 x800GTs and the startup problems have existed from day one. any suggestions?

to be honest i'm thinking of ditching the abit and maybe getting an asus a8n sli instead - is that a good choice? i really do like abit boards but this has just given me a right hassle and don't know if i can be bothered risking getting another one that doesn't work.

my system is the following:
an8 ultra
powercolor x800gt
1gb geil value ram
maxtor 200gb drive
antec sonata case and psu

[autopilot]

Which BIOS version did you use? There might be a newer one available than Scan gave you. Update the BIOS again over the net using the program on the driver CD. I had massive issues with my aBit An8 Ultra when i first got it. A trip to the aBit forums and you will see we are not the only ones. Version 15 was notoriously poor. My main problem was it would not work properly with any PCIe graphics card and only worked if i used a VGA adaptor rather than a digital connection. Loads of other issues too. Flashing the BIOS to version 16 completely sorted everything. Works like a dream now. Use the program that came on the driver CD to do it automatically over the net. Quick and simple. It's a great board once you iron out the problems mate, don't give up just yet. If the BIOS flash does not fix it, send it back then. But i would put money on it being the BIOS on this board (but not much!).

EDIT : Wheres BUFF, he's the aBit expert around here

[hardflipman]

i think it was a beta of bios 16 - it came from abit.
didn't seem to make any difference but i'll try getting the proper one

[BUFF]

Seemed to have missed this somehow?
Tbh that looks like a gfx card problem to me.

Which Sonata do you have, if it's the original then the 380W PSU may be a bit marginal?
Also value RAM is questionable (even branded) on ABITs & all the nF4s (ABIT, ASUS, DFI etc. seem a bit picky on RAM).

d_d, iirc BIOS_15 was never an official release for the Ultra.
We're up to 18 currently.

[autopilot]

Fair play to you BUFF, do you just sit around all day waiting for an aBit related question to appear!!!

d_d, iirc BIOS_15 was never an official release for the Ultra.
We're up to 18 currently.

Thats odd mate because i definatly have V15. I even have it backed up. Maybe i had an early board?

[hardflipman]

it's the original sonata. i had been thinking that maybe it might be a psu issue but scan tech support reconned it was fine as did abit. the only thin is it has the 20 pin atx connector instead of 24 but that shouldn't make a difference. and also if it was a psu issue then surely the problems would manifest themselves when the system is being stressed but in all games except source ones it is very stable and that's with the system overclocked a wee bit and the graphics card clocked quite a lot.

i had also thought it was the memory but abit reckoned it was ok. and just suggested i up the voltages for stability i source games. i really wouldn't like to spend money on replacing the ram only to find that it makes no difference.

the fact that both x800gts wre having the same startup problems leads me to think it'snot the cards. although what happened in the picture has only happened once on the powercolor card

[BUFF]

Thats odd mate because i definatly have V15. I even have it backed up. Maybe i had an early board?

nah, early boards (like mine) came with 13
I seem to recall that 15 came out on another AN8 board & got passed around but I could easily be wrong

[BUFF]

it's the original sonata. i had been thinking that maybe it might be a psu issue but scan tech support reconned it was fine as did abit. the only thin is it has the 20 pin atx connector instead of 24 but that shouldn't make a difference.

Iirc (& I may not) the original Sonata PSU had 18A on the +12V? That would be considered at the minimum end of requirements .
As you say the 20/24-pin shouldn't be an issue as long as you have the 4-pin +12V connected too.
Obviously startup is a high stress time for the PC/PSU - I don't know if you remember all the problems that some people had with 9700/9800 AIWs & certain PSUs even though they were quality PSUs?

What timings & Vdimm have you set for your RAM?

[hardflipman]

i can't remember what the ram timings are off the top of my head but it is what it says it should be on geils website. i put the voltage up a couple of tenths from stock aswell. and it did seem to improve the source problems. but made no difference to the startup issues. i'll try the bios toniht and see what happens

[BUFF]

Pop onto the forum at ABIT-USA when you are in front of your PC & we'll see if we can get you sorted.

[shaithis]

That Geil Value RAM is good stuff (despite the word Value). Unless you have a dodgy stick or a BIOS compatability issue, I wouldn't look too hard at the RAM.

As someone else said.....it LOOKS like a gfx card issue - screen corruption during POST is quite rare and would lead me to think gfx card or mobo.

[hardflipman]

well, i just put my sapphire x800gt in and on first boot windows loaded up straight away but after shutting down and restarting it's doing the same taking ages to load and ati tool not detecting the card...
i'll go onto abit usa forums in a sec and see if anyone there can shed some light...

[autopilot]

Have you tried that BIOS update yet?

[hardflipman]

forgot to say that that was with the new bios in. it was a beta of 18 that i was using before. but it made no difference