Boot Problem with KX7

[Geeky1]

My KX7 is acting up... it won't boot into windows. It gets to the startup screen, the screen goes blank, and it restarts. I've formatted the hard drive, changed CPUs (1700 B --> 2200 A --> 2500) and I've run Memtest86, which turned up nothing. The system is in an Antec SLK-3700AMB with 2 85cfm 120mm fans (1 intake, 1 exhaust) a slot fan, and an slk-800/tt smartfan2 on the cpu. It's got an ATi R128 32mb AGP2x card, a GXTP, and a dlink NIC. The drives are 2 80gb/8mb ATA-133 Maxtors, a 24/10/40 CD-RW, and a Floppy drive...

WHY is it doing this? :scratch:

[primesuspect]

I'll assume WinXP.. Have you tried any other versions of Windows or any other OS? Normally, I would say memory, but that's weird. Maybe bad video card?

[Peckers]

Maybe the PSU is broken, check the voltage

[Thrax]

I had this problem a few times with my KX7.

Easy fix.

Reseat HDD cables, put ram in slots 1 & 2, try again.

Fixed it every time for me.

[Necropolis]

Title edited to give a better explanation of problem.

Oh, and I agree with Thrax. Friend of mine had exactly the same problem. Did exactly the same thing as Thrax to fix it, worked a treat every time.

[Geeky1]

Hmm... that's funny... I'll go ahead and move the ram back (I spaced it out into slots 2 & 4 to help keep it cool...) and reseat the cables... thanks!

[Geeky1]

Haven't done that yet- I'll update when I do, but in response to the other posts I didn't see...

Prime, it's XP Pro, and I haven't tried anything else... it may be the video card, but I doubt it... if thrax's suggestion doesn't work tho, I'll try it.

Peckers, the voltages are fine. It's a brand new 350w Antec...

jdii... if it were a software problem, it would have been fixed by a format and a reinstall, which has been done several times, and it has the problem even on the initial boot after installing. it also freezes randomly in windows...

[Geeky1]

Oooh... head hurts... excellent post John; I just shouldn't read things that long this late at night when I'm really tired... I'm going to re-read your post tomorrow morning when I'm thinking clearly so I make sure I understand it... however, I did yank the R128 and throw the 8500 back in, and now it seems to be fine... I'm typing on it right now in fact... so maybe prime was right after all... I switched after trying thrax's suggestion, which didn't seem to help this time...

anyhow, I'll update you guys tomorrow when I can make out what I'm typing again :D Thanks for the help.

[Geeky1]

jdii... well, I re-read your post... what you said makes a lot of sense... but I think this time it was just the video card, 'cause it's been stable for ~6hrs now with the R8500... which implies it's the video card... o well- now I have an excuse to get a R9800 :D

[profdlp]

I just put XPpro on my old Asus A7V133-Raid (not using the raid). Couldn't even get it to boot from the CD for the install on a zeroed-out HD until I set all the memory timings & overclocks down to Grannies Horse-And-Buggy settings.

Win2000 was the same way on that board. Ironically, once it's up and running I can jack things back up to the high-performance level.

Try crippling all the performance settings and see if that will let you get going.


Prof
(The Ol' Cat-Skinner):p

[Geeky1]

tried that too... the only thing that helped (and I'm not sure it actually did, but it seemed like it did) was jacking the voltage on the cpu waaaay up...

[MediaMan]

What I didn't see in my quick scan of this thread is the video card.

ATI video cards, especially the AIW series, are cranky on the KX7 series of mobos. Even with a 450 watt PSU they don't like to boot.

Mine would never boot unless I cycled the power button at least twice.

Try putting back the CPU voltage to normal and, if possible, bump up the video card voltage.

[Geeky1]

MediaMan... the card that causes problems is a Rage 128GL 32mb AGP card... the Radeon 8500 64mb is fine in it... I'll try bumping the voltage on the card if I can...

jdii... the thing is that it works fine on the newer (and faster) 8500, but it doesn't like the Rage 128...