Really need Tech help

[nbohr1more]

This could be due to "4K sector" issues:

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2888

[Baddcog]

Here we go again

 

 

If I unplug my main (working HD 150 gig) and I unplug my DVD rom, then plug in ONLY my new(just in warranty replacement) 500 gig hd, then bios picks it up during detect ide drives, though it takes 20 seconds longer than my main HD.

 

However, If I plug my DVD back in so I can instal an OS on the HD, the HD doesn't show. Nor does it show if I only have both HD's plugged in.

 

Is this a power issue? Is my PSU too weak now? It's an Antec Neopower 500w which should be enough. It's supposed to be enough to run dual GPU's, and I only have a 5850. (and my comp has been running fine for years... but the psu could be going out I guess).

 

(my main Hd and DVD work fine together BTW)

===========

 

I'm thinking it's probably my mobo/hd controller, though I'm no expert. Reason being.... An extra HD shouldn't take that much more power right? On top of that having the dvd disconnected to 'save' power and it still wont show if another hd is plugged in.

 

I've had no problems with shutdowns/crashes (other than multiplayer steam games that have always locked up sometimes). Currently I'm pushing a HD, DVD, and 5850. My power supply is quiet.

 

The only thing that is wrong is that I can never detect more than 1 HD at a time. I have serious doubts both my old HD's died at the same exact moment, plus the new one I got last week showed long enough to format and install stuff, then it just vanished, but no crash, the one the guy dropped never showed (and who knows, maybe it was OK still???). And this new replacement only shows if it is the only HD/dvd plugged in (dvd is also sata, so I suppose it is controlled by the HD controller too?)

 

-------

 

Mainly I don't want to order a new cpu/mobo/ram combo if I don't have to (even though it would be nice). But i don't want to buy a PSU either if I don't need to. This SUCKS!

 

-----edit------

Also, my PSU is 500W, my GPU is 500W minimum. Do you think after a few years it would be struggling?

[rich_is_bored]

It sounds like a power issue. I'm assuming the 5850 is an addon card and your motherboard also has integrated graphics. If so you might try removing the 5850 to lower the power draw. If everything works fine under those conditions then it's probably an inadequate power supply. Hopefully you don't have one of those problems where you end up replacing almost everything before you identify the problem.

[Baddcog]

Yeah, 5850 is add on, quite a beast too, was second to top of the line 2 years ago... so aging a bit but still a monster.

 

I thought about removing it but was not wanting to ... but I guess I should try just to verify that too.I don't have onboard gfx though, so that means breaking out my old 8600 and installing it...

 

I guess it would be good to at least try it, tomorrow.

-----------

 

Carp, swapped cards. My 5850 takes two poer cords, the 8600 only one, so I know it uses less power. Still, no go. Drive just doesn't show.

 

Guess that means Mobo eh?

 

----------

OK, with the 8600 in, new HD and DVD plugged in... New HD shows in BIOS. But rebooot with Windows instal disc, Windows can't find it, and it appears Bios doesn't see it in post when the disc is in (but the post screen goes by fast).

 

So I don't think it's the PSU.

 

This Mobo manufacturer went out of business not long after I got the thing, so any support or updates are non-existant.

[Bikerdude]

Guess that means Mobo eh? This Mobo manufacturer went out of business not long after I got the thing, so any support or updates are non-existant.

new mobo time.

[Baddcog]

Always the bearer of bad news eh Biker

 

lol, Yeah, I've exhausted every other possibility I think. Too bad I spent the cash on the new HD I probably didn't need...A system upgrade would be nice though.

[Baddcog]

Well, I did it.

 

A guy on another forum also thought it was mobo after going through the entire thing.

 

$300. Should be installing it Tues Night. Which either means I';ll be stoked on Wed or totally up shit creek, lol. Way things been going lately...

 

Going the AMD route this time. 3.3 ghz quad 4100 zamboni sumthing or other. 8 gigs ddr3 1600 ($40, might as well get a full 8). Asus am3+ mobo. All of it had really high ratings on NewEgg so it should be a pretty decent set-up.

[Bikerdude]

Looks like a nice setup you have there BC, hope it dosent make you too skint. Now, you do realise that with this new system we expect twice as much tdm work from you.....

 

:-P

[Baddcog]

lol, or twice as much play time

[jaxa]

or half as much with double framerate

[Baddcog]

FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

Looks like i got a doa crappy mobo.

 

After install, crossing finger, everything went pretty smooth. Should boot right up... black screen.

 

reset cmos, removed ram, reset battery, removed gpu... nothing.

 

installed old gpu. black screen. Look for answers online. tons of issue with booting, the processor I got, bios, black screens, doa's...

[Xarg]

Ouch! What was the mobo?

[Baddcog]

asus m597a

 

had 4 eggs on new egg and pretty good reviews ...but after having issues I saw a 'manufacturers comment' toggle, and there were pages of bad reviews

 

I'll just see if newegg will swap out for another brand

[Bikerdude]

ouchie.

[Baddcog]

m5a97 i mean...

 

Dig this, I sent an email to asus support and this is the reply:

 

Clear CMOS again, place a single memory module in the slot furhtest from the CPU. Ensure the memory module latches on both sides. Power up and see if the board will POST. If it will not, last thing to try is to power down again, remove the CPU from the socket and clear CMOS. Replace CPU, mount cooler and single memory module again in last slot. Also try using onboard IGP insread of discrete and see if the board POSTs.

 

-Raja

 

::

 

tells me to try using the onboard graphics.... This mobo does not have integrated gx. Ughh

[Xarg]

Might just be time to give it up, and retire to a monastery to contemplate the meaning of life.

[Baddcog]

Well... The board is RAM'ed. Not after i went out and found an overpriced stick of ram just to be sure It was a toss up, send the board back, in a week or two stick bad ram in it and find out it was the ram... Or go buy more ram I don't need and use the board while waiting for my ram to be RMA'ed...

 

At least now i have an extra stick of ram, and an extra gpu for testing.

 

I got the bios screen to come up once, unfortunately I was pushing down to power off when I saw it come up, then it never came back

 

Oh well, New Egg is paying for shipping and they refunded me full price, so I'm going to try this one instead..

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128519

$10 more. Pretty much same specs across the board, but it's got usb3 for front panel too.

 

-----

 

agh well, I dunno.

 

Seems the Bulldozer processoers have an issue that many AM3+ boards don't have proper bios installed. So you can't boot. Unless you buy a cheap AMD processor to boot with, replace mobo bios, then put in the FX CPU.

 

I'm completely lost. Any board I get will be a gamble. The Asus guy emailed back and said if i got another and it didn't work he'd work his magic and have someone at corporate test one for me before they sent it out.

So at least I got that eh?

 

Or I could take this one to a local shop and pay them to upgrade the Bios (maybe if any local shops can handle that).

 

Or I can also buy a cheap cpu with the new board.

 

Or I can send this damn proccessor back and just buy an X4 Phenom II, which I think benchmarks better anyway, for the same price as this cpu and a cheap one. lol, this sucks.

 

And now I find out though this is called a quad core it's a dual. Whereas the X4 is a true quad. And matches the multi-threading, yet the X4 excels at single threading (aka Doom3)

[Bikerdude]

Thats a good board, and if I had known you werew gonna get that one I have a spare one.

 

Dont bother witl Bulldozer, just get the fastest quad core phenom you can find, newegg have a 975 but that will run hot so you will need a better 3rd party cooler.

[Baddcog]

That's the problem, just realized New Egg will only replace processors, so I'm stuck with it .

 

I sent an email to AMD telling them this whole BIOS thing is crap and I want them to replace this junk with an X4, we'll see...

 

I'm leaning towards this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

Still a jump up from what I had, and hell, sounds like a jump up from what I bought.

I already bit the bullet on the cash side of things... The stuff I bought had good reviews, guess I just didn't realize how high % the bad reviews were (1-2 eggs is 20%, that's not good)

 

Maybe I just need to get the same mobo again and one of these and eat the cost of the extra processor (if AMD doesn't come through). If they don't come through I don't know how excited I'll be to buy their stuff in the future.

[Baddcog]

Got a response back from AMD. They they they can't swap out the processor and if I'm having issues with the bios then I have to send my board back to manufacturer to get it flashed.

 

Yet that board was given the a-OK by AMD to be 'certified' with that processor. And it's not just Asus. The AM3+ boards all appear to have a 20% 'DOA'/return rate on them from NewEgg. So clearly manufacturers can give it the approval stamp but aren't held accountable by AMD for whether or not the Bios will work. Pretty much shafting a ton of customers.

 

AMD has lost my business for good.

 

I've already got a refund for the mobo. And I'm stuck with this processor, so at this point I may just go the intel route, seems there current processors are way better anyway.

 

Watch this space, I may have a crappy Fx4100 for sale soon, lol.

[Bikerdude]

Does that FX cpu come with a heatsink or is it oem? as I might have it of you to go with the GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 I have going spare, I think mines got the latest bios, if it hasent I can borrow an amd cpu etc. I could put the mobo CPu in the media PC and pull the old Core2duo setup that's in there atm.

 

Went looking for the latest bios just to check and found this thread -

 

- http://www.overclock...lub-help-thread

 

That said , why not just get a cheap Semperon to update the bios and then you wont have to splash on a new (im guessing Intel) mobo/cpu etc

[Baddcog]

thanks for the link, I'll give it a good read here in a few.

 

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Well, at this point I'm a bit PO'ed at AMD for this crap. They give the manufacturers of the mobos the OK to tag it as FX ready. Even when they are not. Then customers deal with this crap not being able to even boot, RMA'ing, rebuilding machines, etc...

And they won't replace it with a processor that WILL work no issues.

 

So do I want to give them even a few more dollars for a Sempron so I can just boot and load BIOS? NO. Will I choke on $100 before I give them a few more, probably. Stupid yes, but this is BS.

Plus all the reviews I'm reading, I don't even think the FX4100 is going to be an upgrade from my Q6600, in fact it could quite well be worse. And it's bad at single threading (TDM) to boot.

----------

 

The board you have there has the same issue (unless you have updated BIOS of course) as I was looking at that as a replacement. Unfortunately it seems ALL the AM3+ boards have this exact same issue. Thus AMD should take this crappy processor back imo.

 

Problem is, the 1155 boards seem to have just about the same failure ratio at new egg. Almost every mobo I look at under $150 has a 20% fail rate. Are manufacturer's just building crap now? I don't remember seeing these numbers when I bought my 775 board. And it booted up the first time and ran for 3 years.

 

Just a bit frustrated atm.

 

I'm to the point where I'd rather just choke on the money I lost on the FX4100. Spend more than I wanted to to begin with and get a set-up that will really kick some ass. And i5 looks like the way to go at this point.

 

---------

What are you running atm?

[Bikerdude]

Ok, well if you want to get rid of the BD and dont mind posting it to the UK I will have it off you.

 

Main PC:

Asus P8Z86-V

Core i5 2500k

Samsung F1 * 4 in raid-0 (upto 600mb/sec r/w)

G-skill 4GB*2 DDR3-1600@8-8-8-24@1.5v

GTX480 w/Inno3D hawk cooler (which I had skimmed)

XFI

Nexus RX-1K 1000w PSU

 

Media PC: (which will be the precipitant of your BD chip and my mobo etc)

Gigabyte GA-X38-DS5

Core2Duo E6300

Seagate 320GB *1

HD3850

Kingston DDR2 1066@5-5-5-12

Onboard sound, using digital out

OCZ GameXtreme 600w PSU

 

Yeah that i5 is the best bang for buck IMHO, I played Batman:AC @1680*1050, DX11 - MVAA&HBAO, Details Vhigh, Physx@ medium and got fluid gameplay across the board. Skyrim w/'Full HD' pack (& a bunch of other packs/fixes) maxing the GTX480's ram (all 1.5GB of it) and getting fluid gameplay on that also.

 

The Mobo/Ram were in my main PC till it upgraded, so if I put the amd mobo in the MPC then I will put the C2D/X38 setup in another case and keep that till someone needs thier PC upgraded and sell them that.

[Baddcog]

So I got an i5 and a gigabyte board ordered. The board was $100 and people seemed to like it, though it's pretty new. Strange cause it has parallel ports on it (old school printer) but it also has usb 3.0 and sata 6, lol. Crossfire is only 4x, not that I'll use it anyway.

 

But it got lost in the mail or something So they're trying to find it, was hoping to build tonight/tomorrow, maybe this weekend? maybe next week

 

So I called NewEgg to find out where it was (seems it never got picked up by tracking info) and complained about the whole fiasco again. He gave me an RMA for a refund on the FX processor. Gotta pay a $15 re-stock fee but I get most of my money back so that's good

plus that processor came with a $10 gift card that I used on my new order, lol, so restock is really only $5.

 

So my faith in NewEgg is restored. The policy is no returns on CPU's, but it was BS they are selling those things with all the issues they've had (20% return rate on mobos).

[Bikerdude]

Ah, glad your getting sorted then :-)