System Halted 8KHA+ and AMD 2400+

[bardor]

Currently I have an AMD 1600+ in my system and recently upgraded to a 2600+ 266 FSB. After installing the latest BIOS from Epox and stripping my system down to just the MB, CPU, RAM, Video and HD, I still get the Blue Screen Of Death that says ***System Has Halted Hardware Malfunction*** Just after the XP Pro logon screen appears. I've cleared the CMOS, tried the last 3 BIOS versions, even in Fail-Safe Mode. Get the same thing.
I returned the CPU and bought an AMD 2400+ 266 FSB T-Bred. I still get the same thing. Epox support tells me that the 2400+ and 2600+ work fine. How can this be, what am I doing wrong? I read several posts concerning similar issues, but I still can't get my system running.

FYI... When I put the 1600+ back in, everything works fine.
See my Sig for my system stats.

Thanks for any help.

[Nitza666]

Is your cpu running very hot probably?
Did you mount the heatsink correctly on the cpu?

[bardor]

I am using a Thermaltake Volcano 12 Fan and Heatsink rated for up to 3000+. When I installed the 2400+ I cranked up the speed on the fan just to be safe. At idle the cpu temp is 49 degrees celcius. Is this too hot you think? I could try smearing some more or better thermal grease on the CPU. I am pretty sure the heatsink is seated right, I have taken it on an off several times. I will make sure though.

[tlemaste]

I also upgraded my 8KHA+ with a bios flash and the XP2600+ cpu. The 49c temps aren't excessive, but it is running higher than I would expect. On really hot days my temp goes to 42-43c.

When I first installed the new cpu I neglected to install the latest drivers for my hardware (video, sound, harddrives - I don't trust the MS supplied ones for top performance), and the latest Hyperion (4in1) drivers. Unfortunately, I ended up with a corrupted dll that XP needed to load and go. I finally just did a full clean install.

Before doing anything: Be sure you are NOT overclocking!!!!

Install the latest bios - it's safe and it works. It also provided support for the faster cpus. After flashing, clear CMOS, then set defaults in the bios.

Update ALL of your device drivers and your VIA chipset drivers - they can be found on AOAfiles.

Boot up, test, and enjoy!

[bardor]

Thanks tlemaste, I will give that a try this weekend and see what happens. I am sure I need some updated drivers. I also picked up new silver thermal compound to help lower my temp at bit.

[bardor]

I have made sure that all my drivers are up to date. I even bought some Antec silver thermal compound and applied to cpu and heatsink properly, hoping to bring the temp down a bit (it idles at about 45-48c). But I am still getting the Hardware Malfunction message immediatly when the xp logon screen appears.

I have another machine with the same MB and RAM. I am going to do a clean install of XP with the 2400 and see what happens.

[CoachB22]

Check the Capacitors!
You may have an issue where cap is only functional enough to support 1600+

[bardor]

Is there an easy way to check the Capacitors?

[Áedán]

Look at them! They should be nice squat cylinders. They shouldn't show any signs of leakage, and they shouldn't show any signs of internal pressure (where the top is convex). You're most interested in the ones around the CPU socket.

[bardor]

By just glancing at them I do notice that there are about 5-6 that have a slightly convex top, 2 of them near the CPU have a small amount this rusty looking stuff on top. Could this be the problem?

[CoachB22]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but sounds like your mobo is on it's way out. I also have an 8KHA+ ver 2.0 with a couple of bulging caps. I'm starting to experience USB problems.
Epox offered to repair my board for $14.00 plus shipping. I am sorely tempted to do it cause I love this board...put it thru heck.... BUT I also would like to try my 1600+ on an Nforce board. The Shuttle AN35N is ~ $58 at Newegg.com. They also have some good prices on Abit NF7-S and newer Epox boards.
Just from browsing the forums, I gather even 266fsb CPUs run faster on an nForce 2 board.
Hope this helps with your issues. Good Luck!
CoachB

[bardor]

I just took my board and looked at the caps a little closer, some of them don't look so good. I am kind of surprised, this board is only 2 years old. Anyway, I may upgrade it someday, but in the meantime I bought another 8kha+ several months back that was hardly used. I put the 2400 in it and it is working fine, for awhile. XP reboots sparadically it seems. The screen flashes to a stop error, so fast I can't read it. I checked the mini dump files, debugged and found NDIS.sys could be causing a problem.

Has anyone had trouble with reboots or stop messages after upgrading to the 2400, or 2600?
FYI - the capacitors on this 8kha+ are perfect.

Thanks

[bardor]

I put the 2400 in the new 8KHA+ with new Crucial RAM, still getting the Blue Screen. I have also had IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors.

I will try another clean install of XP with this board and CPU to see if that helps. Other wise I am clueless as to why this is happening. EPOX support keeps telling me that this board will support 2400 and 2600.

[jnansley]

Originally Posted by bardor

I put the 2400 in the new 8KHA+ with new Crucial RAM, still getting the Blue Screen. I have also had IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors.

I will try another clean install of XP with this board and CPU to see if that helps. Other wise I am clueless as to why this is happening. EPOX support keeps telling me that this board will support 2400 and 2600.

Hmm. Nasty. On one hand, I have seen many random problems that have been solved by running CHDSK /r (I think - surface scan) from Recovery mode (boot from Windows CD).

And on the other hand, according to:

http://www.kabalsrealm.com/systems/projects/vp6/

capacitors may not show physical signs of problems, and you'd need a fancy capacitor testor thingy to discover this. Gizmo probably knows more about this than me.

[Gizmo]

jnansley is right that it is possible for capacitors to open up without showing any outward signs of being defective. I'm not convinced that is the problem in your case, simply because USUALLY IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is caused by a memory problem.

Have you tried running memtest?

[PaulPhoenix]

Hi everyone.. I actually registered just to be able to propose a solution to this problem. I have the same problem with my m/b. Everythings fine with my old Duron 800, but the new XP2000+ I bought yesterday causes the same error. If it does not appear during startup, it certainly occurs when I run the Memory Bandwidth benchmark in SiSoft Sandra. (BTW, the system passes all the CPU-related benchmarks without a hitch, provided that the system can survive until the login is complete in WinXP.)

Things I tried:

1. Default Fail-Safe settings
2. Default Optimized Settings
3. Single stick of DDR Ram
4. Barebones system
5. Looking for updated drivers
6. (BIOS is already updated to latest version)

When I checked EPOX US, I found the following:
KB article

The article does not cover 8KHA+ but I think it's worth a try. I'll try it tonight and post the results. If anyone gets to try it before I do, please send the results as well.

[Gizmo]

Please do let us know how you fare with this.

[PaulPhoenix]

Things I have tried..

1. Disabling the Athlon 4 SSED option
2. Raising the VCore voltage to 1.70 (read it in some other article/forum)
3. Tried older BIOS versions (3 of them, found many intermediate versions at www.epoxtr.com)
4. Changing FSB*Multiplies to 100*15 (Multiplies locked, goes only upto 12.5)
5. Disabling everything in BIOS including USB

None of them work. I also tried combinations of these, no luck there either.. Dropping the FSB to 100 MHz helps a little but doing a continuos (Burn-In) memory benchmark in SiSoft still causes the "Hardware Malfunction" after a few minutes/runs! Can't think of anything else really except a clean install, but I read in some other article/forum that it does not work either.

The funny thing is although www.epox.nl lists TBreds up to 2600+ are compatible with this m/b (using the latest BIOS version), www.amd.com lists 2000+ Model 8 CPUs are not compatible. Sigh.. Unless someone suggests something useful to try, I will not pursue this further, seeing that so many people tried so many things to no avail..

Good luck to anyone who has this problem. If you find a solution, please contact me....

[bardor]

I have tried all those ideas as well and finally gave up. I went to Tiger Direct and bought a Shuttle AN35N Ultra with nforce2 400 chipset. It runs the 2400+ like a champ and gives me room to grow with 400fsb, usb 2.0, 8x AGP. So I am very happy with it so far. Goodbye epox.
I may by another 1600 or 1800 for that epox and build a back up machine. Good luck.

[jnansley]

Congratulations on fixing your problems!

However, I'm not sure that's a very fair comparison to make