Gigabyte 7VAXP ULTRA board

[RogerPhillis]

I would appreciate to now if anyone has had experience of this Mobo.
I have rebuilt a friends system using the above , and he previously used all the same hardware installed on a Chaintech board with no problems, using Win XP.
This new board runs Win 98 only, with an improved performance ,which it should with 400Mhz 512 Mb memory, but will not run XP.
There appear multiple blue screen hardware error messages ( such as Ox0000050 page fault in non paged area) and try another graphics card etc etc.
Also random multiple copy files errors when copying files from disc to h/drive for installation.
Cleaning the disc and using alternatives was no help(all legit cds)
Occasionally setup proceeds to the final install screen and then bombs out.
Tried all settings ( such as Graphics x4 or Auto, Memory 266,333,400, Auto etc etc ) on bios I can think of and updated to Jan 03 upgrade.
The hardware has been stripped down to Soundblaster 5 sound which has previously been used on XP and Radeon 7200 graphics card,again compatible.
The XP compatibility check run fron Win 98 does not show any real problems other than the Raid Controller which had been disabled / re enabled with no improvement during XP attempted installation.
Graphics card is a true x4 which is supported.
CPU is 2400+ AMD, 266DDR again supported in the bios.

I recommended buying this board as it had a 10 rating on a recent survey, although the 400 memory support was slightly flaky, but would should run better on 333 setting for 512 Mb .
400 Mhz memory.
This board has 4 IDE Channels. Firewire ,multiple SATA connections, USB2 etc, but without XP is like a fast car without a decent engine !
Help would be urgently appreciated !

 

[scriptasylum]

XP seems to be finicky when it come to memory. Try setting the memory timings (CAS RAS etc) in BIOS to some conservative values. I believe that BIOS has an "ultra" perofrmance setting, try a lesser setting.

If you have two sticks of RAM, try using just one, then just the other.

I don't personally have this board, but I know plenty of other people have and do run XP fine. Other things you could check:

- Make sure your power supply is decent enough for your hardware.

- Upgrade to latest BIOS.

Still, I think it's a memory issue.

 

[RogerPhillis]

Thanks for the reply.
I had been scrolling around for info on error messages and then tried some DDR266 memory instead of 400 Mhz.
The install then went straight through OK.
There must have been a fault in the 400 memory that only showed when intensive file copying procedure was needed for the XP install, as all the Bios settings were correct.
Most odd.

 

[Taurus]

just sounds like bad memory. pc3200 should work fine so just get those replaced or return them and get a better brand.