Help building stable Win2K box

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Thu May 22, 2003 9:45 pm

Hi All:
I have the following:

BP6 mobo with regular RU BIOS
HPT366 v1.22
2 500Mhz Celery CPU's
128MB
Maxtor 30G ATA/66
Geforce 4 MMX440 64MB

I'd like to have the 30G drive on one of the 66/100 IDE ports(IDE 3 or 4). Does anyone have any suggestions? The reason I ask is because I tried Win XP Pro on it was flakey as hell... sometimes it wouldn't boot up... random lockups... random reboots... too much fun to mention here. Any suggestions? I hope Win2K is more stable and happier.
Thx...
_merker19

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Fri May 23, 2003 6:53 am

Your problem may not be in the OS. Is this the first time you have tried to use the BP6, or ? The HPT366 controller is only ATA/33/66.

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Fri May 23, 2003 8:29 am

No, it's not the first time I've used this bp6 mobo... but it has been a long time since I last used it. I think the last time I used it I had a plain IDE drive so I never bothered using the other IDE channels, so it never was an issue... but now that I actually want to make use of it, it's being a pain in the arse!

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Fri May 23, 2003 9:07 am

Try installing Win2KPro to a hard drive on the standard IDE controller. After you are up and running, install the drivers for the HPT366 controller, shutdown, move the hard drive over to IDE3 or IDE4 and start up the BP6. This should get you running from the HPT366 controller.

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Fri May 23, 2003 11:27 am

thx... I'll give that a try. I did try that with WinXP Pro and I bluescreened every time after I switched over to IDE 3 or 4. I hope Win2K isn't that picky...

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Mon May 26, 2003 1:04 am

ok, nvm. I installed Win2K like normal and specified the large disk drivers and referenced the hpt66 drivers v1.25.2 I got from this site. It worked great. I installed Win2K and upgraded to the latest SP3 and dnloaded all the critical fixes from M$. So from a software perspective, I've pretty much done everything i can... now I have 3 probs...

1) how do i get my Win2K to powerdown when i initiate a shutdown?
2) occasionally, I get random lockups when i'm surfing Flash Enabled sites... has anyone run into this weird problem?
3) I'm trying to get some rock-steady fps in Counter-Strike... can any1 recommend some good 3dfx drivers? my specs r below... I've been looking thru voodoofiles.com

Thx.
_merker19

Abit BP6 mobo, 2 500Mhz Celeron CPU's, 384MB RAM, 3dfx Voodoo 5500 64MB, Maxtor ATA/66 30Gig HD, Aureal2 Soundcard, D-Link 530-TX NIC, Generic 48x CD-Rom

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Mon May 26, 2003 11:18 am

Answers:

1) Before you installed WIn2KPro, did you enable ACPI and APM in the BIOS?

2) You are probably experiencing the VTT/EC10 problem. What is the capacitance of the EC10 capacitor on your mainboard?

3) Not familiar with the 3dfx world. Maybe someone else will have more information.

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Mon May 26, 2003 5:47 pm

thx hyperspace for responding!

1) Nope. I did so afterwards. Is it possible to enable this afterwards?

2) I have no idea. Do I look in the BIOS for this info?

3) np. I'm already experimenting with home-grown modified 3dfx drivers... I was pretty successful using these drivers on the voodoo 3000.

Thx again!

_merker19

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Mon May 26, 2003 6:40 pm

1) To do it right, you need to install, fresh, after enabing.

2) Check out this link: http://www.bp6.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=957

iSDn · Post by **iSDn** » Tue May 27, 2003 6:24 am

Hi!

You can try to change your HAL to ACPI-Multiprocessor, but maybe this will screw up W2k and you have to reinstall. You can change it in the Device manager -> Computer. Change it to ACPI Multiprocessor.

Bye.

iSDn · Post by **iSDn** » Tue May 27, 2003 6:24 am

Hi!

You can try to change your HAL to ACPI-Multiprocessor, but maybe this will screw up W2k and you have to reinstall. You can change it in the Device manager -> Computer. Change it to ACPI Multiprocessor. Surely you have to enable ACPI in the BIOS first.

Bye.

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Tue May 27, 2003 6:41 pm

thx isdn. I'll give that a try... i hope it doesn't hose my comp... but i'm brave I can give it a shot.

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Thu May 29, 2003 9:07 am

ok, i looked up the solution on M$'s Knowledge Base and I found the article...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;246236

I tried it and it blue-screens everytime at the same part in the re-installation. Luckily, on reboot I get the options:

Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 2000 Professional Setup

So I can still reboot into the OS... but unfortunately, I think I'll just reinstall... which is always fun! SO REMEMBER KIDS, if you want ACPI, make sure you enable it in the BIOS, then install, then test it out! w00t!
_merker19

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Thu May 29, 2003 9:12 am

thx for the info hyperspace. I'm not evn overclocking this bp6 and it's just plain unstable! I thought the bp6 with its dualie processors would be a juggernaut when handling true multi-tasking tasks, but I guess I was wrong. UGH! I'm gonna have a friend help me with doing this mod to the bp6... I hope it goes well and I hope its STABLE afterwards.

_merker19

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Thu May 29, 2003 10:40 am

No problemo. Keep us posted. We can usually get people up and running, if they keep at it.

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Thu May 29, 2003 10:55 pm

ok, i ended up doing a reinstall of the OS(I'm definitely imaging this puppy after this is all said and done) to get the the ACPI feature to work... and now it's happy to powerdown after i initiate the shutdown cmd. w00t!

Now onto the EC10 capacitor fix! I hope it works!

_merker19

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Fri May 30, 2003 7:52 pm

Xcellent!

BP6 Forever!

merker19 · Post by **merker19** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 9:00 am

omg... i think i'm confused. I read ur the articles in ur link, hyperspace... but i keep hitting all these names... i think i'm supposed to replace the ec10 component... is this correct?

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 10:02 am

If EC10 is 100uF, you will want to replace it.