(FIXED) Seeking PC help from system building gurus

[redrumloa]

*FIXED*

What started as a simple upgrade has turned into a nightmare. I got a GeForce GT430 for my youngest 2 boys for Christmas and the problems began. Here was the setup.

Asus A8S-X
AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800 (2Ghz)
Geforce GT430 (Started with Geforce 8400GS)
2GB PC2700 DDR
Windows XP 32bit (legal, registered)

Upon installing the GT430 one of the CPU cores went up to 100% load even when idle, even though System idle shows 99%. Games performed terribly, so the load was there. I checked all the usual stuff, latest bios, latest drivers etc, all proper. I figured the card was probably incompatible with the oldish(relative term) motherboard. I returned it for a HIS Radeon HD 5670.

No help... Install the 5670 and same problem. I figured to reinstall XP for the heck of it. What I found was interesting. When I installed XP and SP2, the driver seems to work like a champ. When I installed SP3, everything went pear shaped again. So, I figure it must be an OS issue and XP is EOL so I went out and got Windows 7.

Even worse... I installed Windows 7 and with the VGA driver, it looks great. When I download and install the latest ATI driver, the system locks up badly upon reboot. If I wait long enough I can move the mouse pointer but clicking on anything the screen takes forever to update (like 1-2 minutes). CPU load shows zero or near zero.

So what are my options? Installing XP with only SP2? Buying a new MB? I'd essentially have to build a whole new PC. Have any of you experienced any of this? There HAS to be a work around? The A8S-X is an older MB, but not prehistoric.

Anyone?

[dwaldrop]

Looks like Asus has a recent bios update on this MB that addresses PCI Express issues.

Also, what is your power supply?

[redrumloa]

What bios update?!?!? Link??? The latest I see on the website is 1001, which I have. That would be a silver bullet! Link???

I have a Antec TruePower Trio 430W power supply.

[basman74]

Red,

The only advice I can offer you here, is make sure you have the exact driver for your card, since (from my experience with nvidia) those cards using the chipset are made by various OEM's and supply their own custom drivers to suit their derivative (deviate?) video boards..

I seem to recall one particular problem I had at work (around 3 years ago), where I needed DirectX 9 functionallity on my workstation and had major issues with the newly supplied nvidia geforce upgrade (can't remember the model). I seem to recall spending/wasting a few days, just to find the right OEM driver - then the right build that actually worked!

Admittedly the upgrade card was a cheap one @USD$75 at the time, but I wouldn't be surprised if this also occurring with more expensive cards as well..

[dwaldrop]

Looks like the site I was at is incorrect.  They list bios 0801 as being released on Dec 14, 2010.  Looking at ASUS, that is certainly older.  (http://www.downloadatoz.com/driver/item_asus-a8s-x-bios-0801.html)

I have the exact same power supply.  I know that I have not upgraded paste my ATI HD 4650 due to some concerns about power.  Any chance that the PS is not pushing enough juice?

[redrumloa]

I decided to fall back to XP and only install SP2, rejecting SP3 completely. Now how to make it bulletproof against malware? :-/

I'm going to make a ghost image as soon as all updates, minus SP3, are installed. If anyone can think of a workaround down the road I will try it and fall back to this ghost image if need be.

[Retro_71]

Normally SP3 fixes alot of issue its rare for it to make something stuff up.
Have you tested your ram? Try moving them to different slots.
Also check the rails on the power supply either by multimeter or looking at the bios to see how much power they are providing.
What bios setting have you got enabled? namely in the power management options make sure HPet is off.
Also see in PC health and make sure CPU smart fan is off.
Have you tried loading into safe mode and checking to see if you get 100% cpu usage?
Have you download the lastest directX drives? 9c june 2010.
as for virus and the like I use AVAST less overhead then Symantec endpoint, there is a free and a paid for version (i use the paid for version).
Use firefox instead of IE and get the ADBlock Plus for firefox.

[ElPolloDiabl]

Load the defaults on the bios. Some of the options although allowable can cause system instability.
Did you format the C: drive before reinstalling windows?

[Retro_71]

Actually.... he did say updated bios so i assumed that defaults were loaded after restart.
but the main problem is SP2 working SP3 Not, that the weird part. Maybe something in registry or start-up is causing this hence why I asked for if booted in safe mode.
How large is your HDD? do you only have one partition?

[redrumloa]

@Elpollodiabl & retero 71

RAM is good, PC power supply is good, bios settings good. No low hanging fruit to be picked here. I've done multiple installs between XP and Win7 and pinpointed to the fact it only works on XP up to SP2, as soon as SP3 is installed or immediately after the driver is added to Win7 everything screws up.

I reverted back to XP SP2 and everything worked great... Until I tried to install Dead Rising 2 game and it says it requires SP3 :furious::furious::furious::furious:

[Trev]

If you can't attribute a spike on a single CPU to a specific process, then it's likely caused by interrupt or DPC processing. You can use Performance Monitor (perfmon) or Process Explorer to confirm.

Try resetting the motherboard BIOS settings to factory defaults and disabling or removing all hardware other than what you need to boot and use the system, i.e. remove USB devices other than keyboard and mouse (use PS/2 devices if possible), disable on-board audio and network interface, etc. If the problem is solved, add bits back until things break again. One you find the bad device, make sure you have the appropriate driver installed (which may not be the latest, but that's a good place to start).

Asus eventually stops adding new drivers for older motherboards to their site, so you may have to go directly to the part vendors for drivers: SiS, Analog Devices, and Intel. For a system you don't want to fiddle with, start with the drivers provided by Microsoft. You can uninstall the current driver and install the one distributed by Microsoft directly from device manager.

[redrumloa]

@Trev
I used Process Explorer in XP SP3 a few days ago and it showed Interrupts to be hogging cpu load. I had no clue how to fix...

I reset bios defaults and disabled everything I could, no help. The bios is the latest, but the latest is 2006. I even tried disabling USB in the BIOS, but the system wouldn't boot windows without it enabled.

I am stuck trying to go back to SP3 now to try one more time before giving up. Windows shows no IRQ conflicts, I wonder if I can change the IRQ number?? Would that help? DOesn't seem likely but I am at a loss...

As for misc drivers, I don't have much installed atm. I am using USB on the MB with default M$ driver, Radeon with latest Catalyst driver, Sound Blaster with latest Creative driver, built in hard disk controller with default M$ driver. Built in 1Gbit Ethernet controller with latest Asus driver. That is it, additional built in devices (serial, parallel, sound etc) are disabled in bios.

[actung_bab]

yes hi red check your psu down one side should say the 12 volt amps , l got built my nephew game pc and had gforce 9600 card needs like 28 amp powers on the 12 volt
leads usually you have 6 pin special plug for this his psu has 17 amp and 16 amps
this chould be the problem you cant go by the psu wattage

[actung_bab]

What started as a simple upgrade has turned into a nightmare. I got a GeForce GT430 for my youngest 2 boys for Christmas and the problems began. Here was the setup.

Asus A8S-X
AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800 (2Ghz)
Geforce GT430 (Started with Geforce 8400GS)
2GB PC2700 DDR
Windows XP 32bit (legal, registered)

Upon installing the GT430 one of the CPU cores went up to 100% load even when idle, even though System idle shows 99%. Games performed terribly, so the load was there. I checked all the usual stuff, latest bios, latest drivers etc, all proper. I figured the card was probably incompatible with the oldish(relative term) motherboard. I returned it for a HIS Radeon HD 5670.

No help... Install the 5670 and same problem. I figured to reinstall XP for the heck of it. What I found was interesting. When I installed XP and SP2, the driver seems to work like a champ. When I installed SP3, everything went pear shaped again. So, I figure it must be an OS issue and XP is EOL so I went out and got Windows 7.

Even worse... I installed Windows 7 and with the VGA driver, it looks great. When I download and install the latest ATI driver, the system locks up badly upon reboot. If I wait long enough I can move the mouse pointer but clicking on anything the screen takes forever to update (like 1-2 minutes). CPU load shows zero or near zero.

So what are my options? Installing XP with only SP2? Buying a new MB? I'd essentially have to build a whole new PC. Have any of you experienced any of this? There HAS to be a work around? The A8S-X is an older MB, but not prehistoric.

Anyone?

hi again if the mb is a asus A8N5 X
there not very good mb my other nephews mb was on found the battery went flat
and ram was very diffcult to seat in the end got it working then left a screw in it loose and shorted the on of switch aghhh after got it workign great dam that was that
they seemed bit nasty mb design l had trouble getting creative soundblaster card to work
that was going before . so got him a cheap dual core mb asrock
and cheap intel dual core cpu fitted parts from that to make new machine
there another asus A8N5 X mb on are local auction and its got issues as well l got 11 dollar bid on it hehe as l still got james is amd 2800 + cpu
l had real issues with this motherboard was flakey as hell
might be the battery notiched his when tryed to change part broke of for earthing
chould be not saving its settings
hope it goes okay l be looking at replacing the mb though god time l spent working on that system

[redrumloa]

@actung
The power supply has a lead for PCI-E GFX card, but the HIS HD 5670 does not use this. The power supply has three 12V rails with 16A each. HIS only specifies 400W or greater recommend, not 12V rail amperage. It does not act like a power supply issue to me, but I could borrow my 1000W monster from this box to test just in case.