PCA Forums

i have a soyo plus and 1700+ . Just got a new HDD 80 gig Maxtor. Clean install of XP home and the pc freezes. doesnt shut off, just freezes. its not temp i dont think because im not doing anything heavy when this happens. Doesnt seem to have a certian time but while im playing music it pauses the music too.

I have tried the onboard sound and i have tried a sound card and that doesnt work.... Any Suggestions or questions appreciated

Try installing the newest via 4 in 1's and be sure all of your ide cables are pushed in all the way...

have you downloaded the XP drivers for the sound card, or onboard? When had problems with mine it was usually drivers for something or I had a card in a pci slot that shared an IRQ with something that didn't like it.

search the board for flying penguin's "sermonette" on irq conflicts - that migh be your problem since it's a new config

Is this a Dragon+ mobo? The Dragon is very picky about which PCI slot a card lives in. If you look at the forums at AMDMB you will see lots of discussion about that. Either that or a driver issue or conflict would be my guess. Good Luck

As the previous owner of that board, I advise using the bottom three PCI slots. How many of the PCI slots are you using ?

Thanks guys for the input. This is what is going on now.

I have fat32 on the 80 gig.... should it be NTFS? But this would cause problems like this?

Nascarfool.... I have the Radeon in the AGP, Modem in the PCI slot directly under the Radeon, and the soundcard is in the bottom slot.

I loaded the latest 4 in one drivers. Still cant get the onboard sound to work.

Ran F@H last night and no freeze. But before i went to bed i played a few games and it froze during them about 10 and 20 minutes after playing.


Also i hear a little static in my speakers... like the volume is all the way up... but its not.


*** now i am going to move the modem into the bottom slot. See what happens then.


Thanks Again Everyone.

go into the hardware properties in the cp and see where all the cards are landing irq-wise

i know in my kt266 system i have a the promise controller and vid on the same irq and the promise won't take anything else, the bottom line is slow boot - also most boards let you reserve irq3 for the modem - do you have that enabled?

I got the onboard c-media working and moved the modem to the bottom...

Played about 30 minutes of Moto Racer and no Freeze.

Any feedback on Fat32 and NTFS? should i have gone NTFS or stay with Fat32. In a few weeks i may get another 80 gig and try out the raid... or should i just leave it like it is? i dont know anything about raid.

More info here on IRQ Channel sharing issues (which sounds like your problem): http://soldcentralfl.com/quakecoop/glfaq5.htm#5_9

As for NTFS vs. FAT32, I recommend FAT32 on a home system.

There shouldn't be any difference in performance, but FAT32 is easier to manage in case of a disaster. If Windows fails to boot you can always access files from a 98 boot disk.

All NTFS does is add security features which you really don't need in a home environment or most small offices.

Thanks to everyone that helped me out.. running great so far... Thanks for that site FP and the NTFS vs Fat32 info.

Hey Clint. New video cards, like the Radeon, have a tendency to run very hot, especially after a lengthly amount of gaming. Good call moving the modem. Having a card positioned directly under the video card may cause heat to accumulate in the small space between the cards. I prefer to leave a slot or two between the video card and the first PCI card, to allow for greater air circulation. The buildup of heat may have been contributing to your system crashes.

Regarding FAT32 vs. NTFS, I prefer to use NTFS. NTFS advantages include the ability to assign permissions to files and folders. FAT32 doesn't support file and folder level permissions. In addition, NTFS natively supports data encryption for added security. Encrypted files can only be read by the user that encrypted them, and only that user can decrypt the files. Finally, NTFS supports compression at a file and folder level as well, allowing you to save space by archiving and compressing files you don't use often. By no means will using NTFS prohibit your ability to run certain programs. It's just a type of file system. Your FAT32 drives can be converted to NTFS by running the NTFS Conversion Wizard in Windows XP.

I run my win 2k systems under fat32 so i can break in when i forget the password

I agree with Chewey - I prefer leaving at least one slot open to the left of the vid card - it prevents heat from being trapped.

Also don't put any cards adjacent to the vid card that get hot. Keep a hot card as far away as possible (like a secondary vid card and some controller cards).