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**Cpt.Crappy** · 03-07-2004, 12:08 AM

i got refferred to an epox, and i love it, look at em and see if you like it...newegg.com is your best place to look...not that many boards but just a suggestion

**minibubba** · 03-07-2004, 12:09 AM

what problems are you having with the DFI mobo? from what i understand they are supposed to be pretty good

anyway, for AMD 32-bit solutions the nForce 2 Ultra 400 is still the best imo. personally, i think brands like asus, epox, and abit are the best

**Black Rain** · 03-07-2004, 01:36 AM

Originally posted by DarkRose

been looking at Chaintech, Gigabyte, and Asus.... because I don't think I'm ever going to touch DFI again... sent my board to them twice, and still no change in problems, GRRRR!!!!

:mad:

Oh, I know how you feel. Presonally, I won't touch another Asus mobo since the problems that I had with my old one (RMAed, the second one also failed). After that I won't touch anything Asus, esp. AMD Asus mobo's.

With that in mind, I wouldn't reccomend an Asus mobo. The Abit NF7-S that I'm using now is lovely, great board. The Epox AMD boards are always worth a look also. Personally, I think that most of the big manu's are O.K.- just avoid PC Chips.

As for the chipset, the nForce 2 Ultra 400 is still the best for AMD XP CPU's. Most of them will suport what you need, only the cheaper ones don't have SATA (and they tent to be 'normal' nForce chipsets).

**DarkRose** · 03-07-2004, 02:17 AM

Well, I started with mobo problems, installed XP Pro, SP1, and as soon as I install the nForce chipset drivers (no matter what version), start coming up with delayed write errors, registry errors, bunches of stuff, system toasty, no going nowhere. i've had 2 bad HDDs (Maxtor, DFI says they have most problems with them) I've sent to mobo in to DFI twice, the last time was with my HDD, which they determined bad, but said mobo was good, tested it with my copy of windows, no problems, as soon as my new HDD arrived (a 160gb Seagate) i put everything back together, HDD works, and as soon as i installed the mobo nForce drivers,........ same problem. could this be a memory problem? i've already replaced a questionable (el cheapo) power supply, a bad HDD, and had the mobo looked at by DFI twice..... memory is the only other major component I haven't checked out, besides running memtest86 on it, and not really sure how to use that real well..... I'm using Corsair 1 gb (2x512) dual channel XMS memory.... if nothing works, gonna get a new mobo and send pics to DFI of their mobo, post-12 gauge..... heh.

:grr:

**Thoric** · 03-07-2004, 03:14 AM

Originally posted by Black Rain

Oh, I know how you feel. Presonally, I won't touch another Asus mobo since the problems that I had with my old one (RMAed, the second one also failed). After that I won't touch anything Asus, esp. AMD Asus mobo's.

With that in mind, I wouldn't reccomend an Asus mobo. The Abit NF7-S that I'm using now is lovely, great board. The Epox AMD boards are always worth a look also. Personally, I think that most of the big manu's are O.K.- just avoid PC Chips.

As for the chipset, the nForce 2 Ultra 400 is still the best for AMD XP CPU's. Most of them will suport what you need, only the cheaper ones don't have SATA (and they tent to be 'normal' nForce chipsets).

i have a Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2.0 and have found it to be absolutely fantastic. there are quite a few others around TT and other forums with this same board and giving the same feedback...(not trying to start a

) just giving my :2cents:

**DarkRose** · 03-07-2004, 03:54 AM

Bak to my comment about my errors.Ive been getting errors and something about a copy of the Registry somewhere, etc. Also under Admin tools, event viewer, I've got a lot of disk error 51's,with this explanation (no delayed write errors at the moment becaue nFocrce chipset drivers not installed, those errors and the registry error only happen after instaling them)

Explanation
An input/output (I/O) request to a memory-mapped file failed and the operation was retried.

does this mean i might indeed have a memory problem? I made a brain fart boo-boo early on setting up this sytem (misread some advice) and acidentally bumped the memory speed to 800mhz (400x2, not realizing the number was doubled), the system would not boot until the CMOS was cleared and fail-safe settings restored.

also, may be the wrong spot, but in my ATI control panel, under SMARTGART, it won't let me enable AGP 8x, keeps it set at "off" after testing and re-booting, 8x is enabled in my BIOS, and it's an AGP 8x board with a 9800 Pro... where's my problem????

:( :shrug:

**Wiggo** · 03-07-2004, 04:49 AM

Run Memtest86 to check ya memory. I hope that ya have XPsp1 burnt to CD and ya not downloading it straight from the web. The prob with SMARTGART (why do ATi feel like they have to shout a function out) is that the chipset drivers havn't taken or ya loaded the video drivers b4 the chipset ones.

**DarkRose** · 03-07-2004, 12:02 PM

At the moment I have NO chipset drivers loaded because every time i load them, system crashes and I have to re-install Windows. I've used memtest86, but I'm not sure excactly how to use it, there were a couple of options i tried with it (don't remember which ones) that locked/crashed the program immediately.... I'll try again as soon as i find the floppy and see which options they were

**maximus7001** · 03-07-2004, 01:17 PM

Try memtest86+ , it works better with nvidia chipsets. Much better than the original for your situation. Use the f1 safemode if this version still freezes for you. Read the webpage.

**DarkRose** · 03-08-2004, 11:46 PM

Ran 13 loops with no problems. Memory Sizing -probe option, if I do "memory sizing" and "all" it locks.... the only 2 major components of the system I haven't had checked/reaplced are the memory and CPU itself..... memory is Corsair Dual channel 1GB XMS Pc3200 and CPU is Athlon XP 3000+ 400mhz FSB.... )Barton)

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