New system problems,

[Qun Mang 0]

I just purchased an IWill KK266 motherboard, a 1.1GHz Tbird, a new case with 300W PS (Enlight), and a stick of KTI 128MB PC133 SDRAM. A few of the problems I'm running into include: sometimes POSTs, sometimes doesn't, particularly on a reset. Sometimes I have to hold the reset button for about 10s then releasing it before it will POST. When attempting to install Windows 98 or Windows ME, Scandisk will detect a FAT error and then lock up when I try to fix it. I didn't try installing Win 2000; I want to get Win 98 or ME working first (I don't care which, as it will only be used as a secondary OS, anyway). Iwill suggested a possible power supply problem, but I don't see how unless it's just defective. I am trying to run just a minimum system when installing: video, 1 HD, 1 CDROM, floppy, keyboard, mouse, 1 stick of RAM, 3 fans (tried with only the CPU fan, but it still failed). They alterately suggested a video card problem. Does anyone know of incompatibilities between a Voodoo3/3000 and this board? Could an incompatibility here cause problems with the hard drive? Naturally, when trying to load the already-installed Win 98 or Win 2000 OSs, they both failed. Win 98 kept complaining of a corrupt registry, then restored an old one, rebooted, and did the same thing. Win 2000 just came up immediately with an error say some file (forget name) was corrupt. I expected the OSs to not load, but I really expected them to install fresh. Am I going to have to reformat everything? I have several data and program partitions, and the only way to start fresh using fdisk is to get rid of everything (have to get rid of the extended partition to redo the C partition). I have been successful in the past just deleting the Windows and Program Files directories with Win 98 (never tried reinstalling Win 2000, I only started using it last October). Actually, I did try fdisking then reformatting the 10GB HD (see below), but it is possible that this HD has sector errors. I would've tried checking and marking out bad sectors, except Maxblast and Scandisk both crash. I am really at a loss here. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Hardware tried with new system:

Compaq CDROM drive (also tried with Pioneer DVD-114)

Maxtor UDMA/33 10.0GB HD (also tried with 30GB HD (UDMA/66) and 13.0GB HD (UDMA/33) together)

Voodoo3 3000

AMD 1.1GHz Athlon w/Vantech fan

IWill KK266 motherboard (non-raid version)

 

When checking the vital stats (voltages & temp), everything seems normal, except the 2.5v line read 3.35v, though IWill says that's normal. The CPU temp was 40 deg. C. V_core was something like 1.6 or 1.8v. 3.3, 5, and 12V lines were pretty close, as well.

[Brian Frank 0]

Try checking your hard drive cables to make sure they are intact.

You could have a bad board too.

 

About the power supply: Is it loud? Has the Fan stopped working?

If its still running, thats probably not the problem.

 

Im thinking you could easily have a bad board.

Reformatting and reinstalling is always the wise thing to do when going to a new motherboard. Windows is very touchy about that--especially Win2k--which is very sensative to hardware problems.

If the cpu is running at 1.6 volts thats probably a major problem right there. The T-Birds all run at a 1.7 volt vcore. If your are overclocking the processor already, UNclock it back to the default.

Also, Ive had experience with a board (not an Iwill) that refused to install Windows 98, just because it SAID there were bad sectors. What it turned out to be was the settings in BIOS for the harddrive werent set properly. Once those were set, everything ran fine.

Hope that helps. If it doesnt, the board is probably bad.

[Qun Mang 0]

I'm not entirely sure what the V-Core voltage read, I just know it was 1.something. I'll have to look at it again. As for the IDE settings, what did you have to change? Right now, it autodetects the hard drives, and the detected UDMA settings seem correct. It can also read the hard drive just fine, even boot from it, so it would seem that the sector/cylinder settings are detected right, as well. The reset problem, though, seems to be an indicator of something serious. I'll probably just exchange the board and see if the problems go away.

[Qun Mang 0]

Ok, I checked again, and v_core reads 1.92V, even after I go to the Smart Settings and change the v_core to 1.700V. I didn't try a lower v_core setting to see if it would read lower, though. I also re-fdisked and re-formatted the HD on another computer, and now scandisk doesn't crash. However, Windows setup has, twice. The first time, on copying setup files (froze), and again as soon as the GUI loaded (multiple errors- closed one error dialog, another would open). I am convinced Windows is not the problem, as MaxBlast also had problems. I don't think it would be a video card issue, either given these errors. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The RAM module works fine in my other system, so I'm sure it's not that, and swapping hard drives and CDROMs didn't work. What's left is the motherboard itself, or the processor. I heard that this board also has a problem with factory-unlocked Athlons. How can I tell if mine is one of these? What is the nature of this problem? I didn't buy mine in the retail box, so I think it's possible, even if not likely, that I could have been sent an ulkocked CPU. Again, thanks for any help you can give.

[Brian Frank 0]

See if you can change the clock mulitplier and have it boot up. If not you dont, unless you do the L1 bridge closing trick.

Play around with the hdd type setting, but its best to leave it as Auto.

I really really doubt the V3 is a contributing problem at all. Is bios reading the name of cd rom weird? Like not saying Compaq CD-ROMxxx (for example) and giving a bunch of symbols like *()^&%$ and numbers and letters combos? If its doing that, its bad.

If you get a new board and dont plan to overclock, I suggest if available a Tyan board. Or get the Asus A7V/133. I dont have any experience with Iwill, since I havent seen any of their boards in town.

Really, if everything worked right before, Id say its the board or the processor. And based on the info, Im leaning toward the board as a problem.

[Qun Mang 0]

Well, it seems a fear of mine has been realized. I called SMK, where I bought the board and CPU, and the tech there was absolutely certain the problem is the CPU. The problem is, the warranty clearly states it is void if ANY thermal compound is found anywhere but on the core. Even though I tried to put on as little as possible, it still ran off once I put the heatsink on. The paste itself is barely past the edge of the core, but there is a stain reaching (or very close to) the jumpers on one side. Even if the paste (which came with my Vantec fan) is conductive, could the STAIN reaching the jumpers really be shorting them? Also, if all the paste that's needed is a tiny drop on the core, then WHY does the Vantec include about 1000X that much? Thanks Brian for all your help.

[Brian Frank 0]

OUCH!