Help required in Booting-out, Boot-up problems..!

[congo]

Any quality brand nForce2 Ultra400 chipset based board will do for Socket A, as long as it has the features you require.

SIS chipsets simply reek and VIA had their share of problems in socket A chipsets.

Chipset is of utmost importance. I suspect that people with wild, unsupported stories simply haven't got the knowledge to successfully, or even safely fool about with PC hardware, but hey, it's their money. Just because they broke their hardware or recieved faulty goods doesn't give them intimate knowledge of chipsets and the inner workings of PC's.

What amuses me is the fact that such experts care to advise at all, not only considering the embarrassment it could potentially cause him, but there is a strong chance that some associate may act on that ill advice, and be much worse off for their trouble.

But they are probably too busy trying to repair or replace their system components after doing so much damage that they hadn't actually thought it through too much before commenting.

So, anyway, you can take your advice from someone who has a pile of fried hardware, (Video card, mainboard, hard drive and CPU is it Rollerball?), or just go and check out the info for yourself.

Just google up the chipset comparison tests etc and reviews on those chipsets and you'll soon see supporting evidence of my ranting and raving.

In fact, if you are interested, you can spend entire weeks digging out all the info like I did so you can make your own informed choices.

I mean, you have personal experience with the VIA chipset, it sucks, it always sucked right? What more evidence do you need?

I tried for years now in these forums to teach everyone why it's so important to choose the right chipset, only to see member after member apparently totally ignore all my research and experience with this stuff, and then go out and buy a heap of inferior products. Well, it takes all kinds I guess.

PCchips make the cheapest and crappiest hardware using the junkiest chipsets, the reason they are popular is because non-techs can configure them because they have simple options intended for amateur home builders. I dare say this is why Rollerball is happy with it, because he could actually get it to work.
However, they are not performance hardware and BIOS and other options are limited. The gamer need not apply.

Socket A is not limited to 2800+ cpu's either, only on inferior chipsets....... An nForce2 chipset is capable of astounding performance and stability that only the latest 64 bit and intel chipsets will surpass.

This isn't new info, it's three year old common knowledge on tried and time proven technologies....

That board in the pic is a budget replacement with a quality brand Fozzer, you may want to read my last post again concerning some of the details.

Rollerball, while I sympathise with your current hardware frustrations, it's not in the interest of our members to make bad advice based on your recent experiences with numerous hardware failures. You bought and are continuing to buy some really cheap and nasty gear (PNY video cards, PCchips, SIS ......) and are obviously being mislead or confused by someone or something. I tried to help you resolve some of your issues in past threads, and I'm sorry it didn't help, but you are way offtrack with your above advice.

I don't want to get involved in any personal verbal brawls over this. I truly wish to help guide our members through the many pitfalls and problems that hardware issues present, and I certainly try my utmost not to furnish false information in these threads, after all, what would be the point?

These forums have been partially responsible for the knowledge I've gained about PC hardware. There are a lot of interesting people here with all kinds of PC hardware questions and problems. I have followed the progress of thousands of threads here, and have spent many all nighters seeking the answers to apparently simple questions, but alas, the answer is not often so simple as "Buy an nForce2 chipset". I have made those statements based on hundreds of hours of research and thousands of hours of personal experience, not just off the top of my head........

I'm fully aware that what I say may have a significant financial impact on the reader, and I choose my words carefully when I write here, trying to condense what I've learned into practical solutions for you all.

Now, I am limited in that this is a forum, I obviously can't watch over your hardware installation progress and check every step of the way what you are doing. I have to assume that the reader here has some basic PC hardware experience, and I do try to determine how much knowledge the poster has before getting them in too deep. Sometimes my human judgements are in error, and I have found (after it's too late!) that the individuals in question do not have the capacity or current required knowledge to be messing about with PC hardware safely. This occurs often enough to cause me some alarm, but I'm not aware that I cause serious problems by my advice. On the contrary, I get a lot of positive feedback and gestures of gratitude when problems are solved, and that is now the main reason I offer help at all.

It hurts me personally when my extensive efforts are undermined by inane and insensitive statements like some made above, especially after recently spending a lot of my personal time and effort attempting to help the person making those statements.

[RollerBall]

Can't understand why you're getting in such a lather congo. All I said is I'm not taking advice from anyone anymore - I'm making my own mind up as I've always done, and I'm not giving advice but merely telling what my experience has been to help others make up their minds.

I also said that the PCChips board I've got here would probably not meet other people's requirements but all I wanted to do was confirm that my original mobo had been damaged and then I would be moving the PC with that board on.

Can't see why you should then try to insult me without even knowing anything about me or my experience.

For your information, my single largest PC customer purchased over 30 units, my second largest nearly 20 and in the one year I sold around 70 odd. Obviously you have built far more than that for you to adopt such a superior tone but I reckon that's a fair number to be going on with don't you? Oh yeah.... and the only ones of those to ever come back were down to P/S failure, nothing else.

So I do know what I'm talking about a little bit and when I get a bloody component failure I say so. I've had bad brand spanking new mobos, graphics cards, network cards (oh yeah, I also support business networks) CD-ROMs, memory and most other things so I don't need you to try to shut me up merely because you are in awe to some manufacturer or other. So you love nVidia. Great. I think they are just another supplier, no more no less. And if something works I'm not a hardware snob either.

[the_autopilot]

I've had a couple of naff mobos and this definitely sounds like one.

Don't listen to all this stuff about which chipset is 'best'. I will never take advice from ANYONE in the future after my last new 6600GT (nVidia) sodded up my nForce2 chipset (nVidia) mobo. Never before had such an experience with VIA or SiS.

I am today (right now actually) trying to get data off my last hard drive so I can install the replacement mobo I had to buy as a result and get back to trying to do some work.

Moral - we all have different experiences. I will never again say what is 'best' and I will never take advice from anyone about what is 'best' but I will listen to other people's experiences and share my own which as far as nVidia are concerned right now are abysmal.

The nforce chipsets are one of the best and the 6600GT is solid card for its price. How you managed to screw it up is beyond me. Sites like tomshardware guide and anandtech will confirm this easily. Choose your arguements carefully, because arguing that the nforce chipset is inferior to that of a VIA or SIS is like standing on thin ice.

[RollerBall]

Choose your arguements carefully, because arguing that the nforce chipset is inferior to that of a VIA or SIS is like standing on thin ice.

What the heck is wrong with you guys down here. Can't you speak English. I have never said that any one chipset is better or worse than any other and I certainly don't say that in the section you've quoted. Learn to read.

And what a bloody cheek you have as well. I did not SCREW IT UP. The card was RMAd, checked by the supplier, found to be faulty and replaced at their cost including the carriage. It was not an expensive card - but the reviews of it on the various forums were not bad and described it as a vanilla nVidia with no frills. But whether something is expensive or not the least I expect it to do is work. And that card not only did not work, it also took out my mobo.

So don't come your superior codswallop with me sonny jim. Oh yeah - I'm sure that in your world BMW never makes a naff car either. Sheeesh. Must be the driver's fault...Give me strength.

[the_autopilot]

What the heck is wrong with you guys down here. Can't you speak English. I have never said that any one chipset is better or worse than any other and I certainly don't say that in the section you've quoted. Learn to read.

I speak and read English perfectly fine, thank you very much. You didn't say it directly, but you implied it. It was quite clear. If that was not what you were trying to imply, what did you mean by:

my last new 6600GT (nVidia) sodded up my nForce2 chipset (nVidia) mobo. Never before had such an experience with VIA or SiS.

Why mention "Never before had such an experience with VIA or SiS" if you aren't trying to imply they are better?

And what a bloody cheek you have as well. I did not SCREW IT UP. The card was RMAd, checked by the supplier, found to be faulty and replaced at their cost including the carriage. It was not an expensive card - but the reviews of it on the various forums were not bad and described it as a vanilla nVidia with no frills. But whether something is expensive or not the least I expect it to do is work. And that card not only did not work, it also took out my mobo.

Well, I'm sorry about your problem with this particular card, but this does not mean nforce is a bad chipset nor does it make the 6600gt a bad or abysmal card either. Your anger is misdirected and it seems you do not understand where fault lies. A bad card is a problem of the manufacturor (such as Asus or gigabyte), not nvidia. Same with the motherboard. Nvidia does not control the manufacture of each individual board/card.

So don't come your superior codswallop with me sonny jim. Oh yeah - I'm sure that in your world BMW never makes a naff car either. Sheeesh. Must be the driver's fault...Give me strength.

Watch your tone, kid. My 'superior codswallop' isn't only mine. Read around a bit and you'll see that I'm not the only one who shares this 'codswallop'. In fact, Dell (the number one supplier of PC's worldwide) chose to dump Intel's chipsets in favor of nvidia's nforce4 chipset for their upcoming ultra high-end systems.
http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20050808/SFM02108082005-1.html
Be careful what you label as 'codswallop' because, ironically, the only arguement here that can be labeled as such is your arguement.

[congo]

I need to be more specific Fozzer, I've built a few PC's with the mobo you show above.

From memory, at least one of those was shipped with a BIOS that didn't support FSB ajustment in 1mhz increments, a must for overclocking potential. It might be a good idea to check that before purchasing it, as you are currently experimenting with FSB speed increases. You could download the manual (nearly 10mb) or ask the supplier to check for you first.

As I pointed out, the board is a budget model, and there are similar boards with more features should you require them. The "L" designation on the board simply implies that onboard LAN is available.

There were a lot of excellent boards built on that chipset, which produced the benefit of local availability of a suitable product, in one brand or another.

Few chipsets have achieved this notoriety, and though slightly outdated, it remains a viable choice for gaming systems, particularly if you wish to extend the service life of other compatible components you own, such as your XP2600+ .

Another consideration, is the RAM required to fully take advantage of the power these boards offer in dual channel memory mode. Two similar RAM sticks (same size in mbs and architecture type) are required for the dual channel

[Ivan]

Perhaps this one is a good choice. Anything onboard except the video, SATA ports and other modern goodies in abundance (who will ever need 8 USB ports...)

[congo]

Asus always demanded premium prices in the nf2 boards, very nice boards indeed, and if the prices have dropped in line with the other boards, they would be excellent value.

You have to remember that this is a superceded chipset and that prices have been discounted a lot, however, they stopped dropping a while ago as steady demand continued.

That Asus board in Ivan's link also has no gameport connector or internal I/O gameport riser, so a soundcard must be fitted if a gameport joystick is used.

[Fozzer]

Hi, Chaps...

I have had a look at the GigByte GA 7N400-L1 and it looks like a reasonably priced board

[RollerBall]

.....

When someone starts quoting every line of what someone's posted to use in an argument then I know that that person needs to get out a bit more. Take my advice auto.

BTW - when did you last use your rig for FS rather than just as an ego trip? Don't recall seeing too many screen shots and stuff from you? Probably just me...my eyes ain't what they were either.

That's in the nicest possible way of course  ;)

[Fozzer]

If I give all you arguing buggers a Lollipop each, will you promise me you will stop trashing my super-dooper Thread... ...!

Please... ... ...!
LOL...!

Have fun, Chaps...!

Paul The Laid-Back... ...!

[Saitek]

Whoa steady steady guys!  :o

This is sounding like the AMD/Pentium argument. It is often not too much more than personal preference give or take a few things IMO and I think many people couldn't tell the difference between a super card and one a grade or tweo below. As long as the overall effect is great that is all that really matters.

I tend to be a bit like Paul and would rather keep the cash than pay laods extra for an extra peice of technology that makes whatever a bit better as for me anyway I probably wouldn't be able to notice much difference to justify it.

[congo]

Present: 3 sticks of 256 Mb PC 2700 DDR memory RAM = 768 Mb

Ahh, that's what I was worried about. The odd thing is that the board will actually perform better with 2 x 512mb sticks, and the third will slow it down substantially, (back to VIA speeds).

Ideally they need 2 x 512mb matching sticks to really shine, so that's something to chew over.

I mean, if you buy mainboard AND ram, that only leaves the price of a CPU difference to upgrading to a 64bit rig. (and then opens the PCIe can of worms).

You could just try it

[Fozzer]

Whoa steady steady guys!  :o

This is sounding like the AMD/Pentium argument. It is often not too much more than personal preference give or take a few things IMO and I think many people

couldn't tell the difference between a super card and one a grade or two below. As long as the overall effect is great that is all that really matters.

Hi Ben...!
The reason for this Thread is the fact that I have had long-time trouble with my present system, (Boot-up problems), so I'm looking for some advice to lead me in the
direction of a nice new motherboard...with lots of help from Congo...!
Back-track to page 1...!


[quote]
Hi, Chaps...

....Had a peek at the Giga-Byte GA-7N400Pro Rev2....
A super-dooper board, priced at around

[RollerBall]

OK - sensible post coming up.....

RAID is essentially a security device. More of a set up actually. What you do is install and set up with specialist software an array of identical hard drives (sizes, partitions) - RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. Redundant is the operative word because your data is spread over the drive array such that if any one drive fails, you don't lose your data. You can have anything from 2 (Raid 0) up to 32 disks (remembering my old NT Server training here.....). The other levels are RAID 1 and RAID 5 in order of security and I'd probably only be talking to you about RAID if you were a business client with a large volume of valuable data.

This of course is where I'll be told that I'm actually a complete bufoon and that now you can get mobos with RAID capability everyone and their brother has it. RAID 0 (2 disks) has no fault tolerance but comes with little if any performance loss whereas the others both impact on system performance.

Owzatt!  ;)