Alright, so my pc's been upgraded and I've gone with winXP

[Manny]

...and I've been frustrated as hell today because nothing works. Not because it's a new pc and operating system and because I still have to get used to everything, but quite litterally because nothing works. I've had problems installing XP, I tried to install the drivers for my audio card (Creative LIVE 5.1) and it screwed up XP entirely, I tried to format but then I couldn't install XP again until finally I was able to format using the setup from my old win98SE disc, etc... I've only now succeeded in getting XP on there again, which for the past two minutes or so has worked fine (knock on wood...). Please read on.

The problem(s)? Well, a phonecall to tech help this afternoon told me XP is apparently very sensitive to anything that wasn't written especially for XP. Meaning the drivers for the SB Live card, the card which was also in my 'old' PC, came into conflict with whatever settings XP was already using for the card. It seems winXP, contrary to older Windows versions, detects and installs a lot of things on its own already, and doesn't react well when you try to change anything by installing different drivers.

I can still grasp that however, since the SB Live installation disc is the disc that came with the soundcard in 2000 I think, meaning its drivers are probably unfit for XP (even though I find it ridiculous that it would mess up the entire operatingsystem in such a manner). But what about stuff that really should work, but doesn't? The most horrid example of this, something which almost had me biting the edge of my desk and which I found absolutely incomprehensible, is the fact that XP got totally screwed after installing the drivers of the Radeon 9600XT which I got brand new for this PC. That's right - the drivers on the official CD that came with the 9600XT. All I had done at that point was install XP, and afterward the video drivers, that's it. The result was the system suddenly rebooting, programs like Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer shutting down on their own, the mouse locking up, the keyboard not responding, and eventually, after a few reboots, nothing working at all anymore. The reason I know the problems were related to the video card (or its drivers at least) is because winXP told me at a certain point; a window popped up, telling me something along the lines of "the system instabilities you are experiencing are caused by the drivers for the Radeon 9600XT". Something like that at least.

So now I've no idea what to do. Is it normal for winXP to be this incredibly unstable every time you install something (even official and recent drivers, it seems)? Might these problems be the result of something else? All I know is that at this point I'm almost deathly afraid to change or install anything; I use loads of programs on my PC, such as file splitters, WinZip, certain music programs, etc... Should I quake in terror every time I try to install something, fearing that nothing will work anymore after installing something as harmless as a media player codec or a new driver for something? People have been telling me XP is very stable and easy to use and such, but the sheer misery I've experienced with my new pc today makes these staements seem almost laughable. I mean if I can't even install the drivers from the CD that came with my new video card without everything going to hell. I guess I can say I'm fairly desperate. Help!

 

[Maxi]

No it's not normal for WinXp to do that. I've never had any of the problems that you have described. I wouldn't install the drivers from the cd. Go download them from the official ATI site. And always makes sure you download or install drivers that are meant for XP.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Oh you think thats annoying? I tried install windows2000 pro for about a day or 2, got so many errors, saying the cd couldn't copy files then would freeze. Then I check and double check everything, the thing that messed it up(to my knowledge) was the damn cpu clock speed....Was set at 177mhz and normal is 166mhz, changed that, rebooted, installed it fine, stayed up another 2+hrs installing stuff, not getting to bed till 5am...talk about a computer being pissy. >_<

 

[SidewinderX]

well, check the BIOS settings. What are you're boot devices? what's you memory timing set at? what you cpu set at? are the HDD jumpers set to master? etc.

 

[blahblahblah]

It could be the order you install drivers is what is causing XP to go crazy. I always install windows first, motherboard drivers and then video card and sound card drivers. You should almost never and use drivers that came with a product. Go online and download the newest drivers and burn them to a CD. That will help with any compatability issues.

As for your install of Windows XP sounds quite unusual. XP is a fairly stable and robust operating system. I would recommend you do a full reformat of your harddrive and then reinstall Windows XP.

As for your video card drivers, the Catalyst suite uses different drivers for Windows 98 and Windows XP AFAIK. So go over to ati.com download the latest XP drivers and you should be good to go. In fact, these new drivers may even fix your Windows XP problem.

 

[Manny]

Come to think of it; when I was first getting ready toi install XP and I went to the bios to change the boot device, I noticed the clock speed was set at 1667MHz, which I found a little strange. I didn't give it much thought, though, thinking that number might not have anything to do with the CPU (which should be an AthlonXP 2800+). I'm looking at the config screen right now, under 'system', where it says under the 'general' tab:

Computer:
AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2800+
Clock speed: 1,66 GHz
512 MB RAM

Might there lie the problem? I checked the bios, though, and there's not many other settings in the place I mentioned other than 1667MHz. In fact, the highest setting available there is 2500Mhz. Something must be wrong anyway; I'm writing this post after my computer just rebooted on its own again for some reason. And as I said, all that's installed now is XP, nothing more.

 

[Maxi]

Your CPU is not meant to run at 2800mhz, i'ts PR rating is 2800, which meant atleast that it should perform the same as a pentium 4 2800mhz, but it doesn't really work too good.

 

[blahblahblah]

If you have a AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (barton core), it should run at 2083 MHz. (FSB setting = 166, Clock Multiplier = 12.5).

[Edit]: Is your FSB running at 133 MHz? If so, you can bump it up to 166 MHz which will make your processor run at its correct speed.

 

[Manny]

Well, without messing with the BIOS, something which I'm not exactly comfortable with, I think I got my PC more or less working now. Something's still messed up at least, because the computer keeps rebooting on its own from time to time. Also, I donwloaded Aquamark 3 to test the system and it wouldn't even start up. Samewith the Far Cry demo. There shouldn't be a problem with the video and sound drivers now though, since I just installed the latest ones for XP from the net today. So far so good there, at least. My guess is there's still something wrong with the Bios, somehow - that orthere's a problem with how the cards are placed in my PC: I remember with my oldpc, in the beginning, there was a problem with I/O errors, which was solved by leaving oneslotopen beneath each card. Looking at this PC, it seems the store put the network-card right under the Radeon. Could this cause some of the trouble I'm having?

 

[[Matt]]

you have your motherboards FSB set to 133MHz... go into BIOS and set it to 166MHz.... if not there should be a jumper on your motherboard to switch between the two!

 

[Manny]

Can doing this damage my pc in any way? I've just gone into the bios btw (in between two sudden reboots) and wrote down the information concerning CPU and clock speeds:

CPU speed: 1667MHz
CPU Frequency Multiple: 12.5x
CPU External Frequency: 133/33
Memory Frequency: auto

I'm assuming the FSB people are telling me to change is the 133/33 (external frequency) value?

 

[Asus]

Yeah, the 133 is stating the FSB is set to 133MHz while the 33 is saying that your PCI bus is set to 33MHz, as it should be. The FSB needs to change to 166 though, if you would like to have it run at it's full speed (166 x 12.5=2083MHz).

 

[blahblahblah]

What power supply are you using?

 

[Manny]

Dunno about the power supply...on the store's bill at least it says it's a 300W supply. About the 133/166 issue, how do you know it's supposed to run at 166? Why not at 333 then, since I believe that's the FSB valuefor the Athlon XP's? Just curious.

 

[Dedatorv]

Can doing this damage my pc in any way? I've just gone into the bios btw (in between two sudden reboots) and wrote down the information concerning CPU and clock speeds:

CPU speed: 1667MHz
CPU Frequency Multiple: 12.5x
CPU External Frequency: 133/33
Memory Frequency: auto

I'm assuming the FSB people are telling me to change is the 133/33 (external frequency) value?

Well if it is a AMD Athlon 2800+ then it will not damage it at all. Currently you actually have it underclocked to a AMD Athlon 2000+. So under CPU External Frequency change it to 166. When the computer boots up does it say anything like the what the processor is? Normally it should be able to label it during POST.

Best thing to do is set the Ext. Freq. to 166, if you still some problems then just reformat and install all the up to date drivers.

 

[Asus]

100,133,166,200 are base clocks.
That is the actual freqency that times your computer. Everything is taken from that number. It has been refered to FSB in bios on some machines as well.

PCI is a ratio from that number set to 33MHz and APG is as well to 66MHz.
The FSB is set from that number. It is doubled pumped so 2x133(266) or 2x166 (333) makes the FSB.
The CPU is also taken from that number. 12.5x166=2083MHz (2.08Ghz)

 

[Manny]

I see... Quite interesting; thanks for all the help so far guys. In the bios however it also says that in order to make changes to those cpu settings, the motherboard has to be set in jumperfree mode. What's that? Also, I'm wondering how the Athlon cpu's can be the equivalents of the Intel processors if there's such a difference in clock speed. I assumed an Athlon 2800 for instance would be roughly the equivalent of a P4 2.8 Ghz, at least I always got the impression they were regarded as roughly equal systems.

Something else, probably unrelated, I'm wondering about is what the difference is between FAT32 and NTFS. My HD for instance is NTFS-formatted. Is this a goodthing or a bad thing? Once again, thanks for all the aid so far.

 

[poseyjmac]

manny, amd cpus do more work per cpu cycle, this is why amd gives them PR ratings, so customers can roughly see how they compare to intels chips.

look in your motherboard book for information on how to set jumperfree mode.

also you might want to note your CPU temperature in bios, if thats too high you are going to get reboots or lockups when your computer does stressful things like games.

and for info on NTFS vs FAT:

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

 

[Asus]

MHz is only freqency. How often something occurs. In this case, how often the clock cycles or repeats. That doesn't determine power or performance by itself.
If a truck can go 200mph but it can't tow anything then what good is it?
I'd rather have a truck that can go 100mph but can tow a good sized load. That's progress and performance.

 

[SubKamran]

Am I the only person that's never had problems installing XP Pro on two BRAND NEW CUSTOM BUILT computers the FIRST TIME? :|

 

[Asus]

Am I the only person that's never had problems installing XP Pro on two BRAND NEW CUSTOM BUILT computers the FIRST TIME? :|

Not at all.

 

[SubKamran]

Not at all.

How is that raptor? Worth the buy? *am contemplating*

 

[Asus]

How is that raptor? Worth the buy? *am contemplating*

I am enjoying it even more now that I upgraded my system.

It was fast on my AXP nForce2 system but the SATA bus was a hack as it just road the PCI bus. On this nForce3 system, the SATA bus goes right to the Chipset and there is plenty of bandwidth. I expect the same from your P4 system. I boot in 25 seconds on this system now.

Depends what Harddrive you have now, I guess. I had an older 80GB WD Caviar 2mb Cache drive prior to this Raptor. I like the 74GB over the 36GB version for a few reasons. Performance, noise (Probably stability too, with liquid bearings) and size all are improved. Some of that is obvious.
5 Year warrenty, can't beat that.

Oh I'm sorry, was I supposed to drive you away from your temptations? :naughty:

 

[CrazyHarij]

Watch out, Sub! He's binding you with his spells!

 

[Cybernoid]

Should I quake in terror every time I try to install something, fearing that nothing will work anymore after installing something as harmless as a media player codec or a new driver for something?

Probably. The stability of Windows is directly related to your luck. If you are an unlucky person, XP will go apeshit every time you start it. It's better than the previous versions, but still a complete pile of steaming turd.

 

[SubKamran]

Probably. The stability of Windows is directly related to your luck. If you are an unlucky person, XP will go apeshit every time you start it. It's better than the previous versions, but still a complete pile of steaming turd.

Never gave any problems for me.

Oh, and Asus, thanks for the advice. I think I'll buy one soon, upgrade from my noisy 40GB WD PATA drive.

 

[poseyjmac]

windows has nothing to do with luck lol. it does exactly what the input tells it to do. now sometimes the input can be screwed up because of hardware instability or user error. but overall winxp is stable.

maybe people should have to get a license to use windows, you can't just do whatever you want to it. even windows 98 can work flawlessly if you know how to treat it right.