Firstly, Hi all, This being my first post I thought it best to say hi.

I'm running an athlon xp 2600 on an abit nf7s motherboard and an msi 5600 gfx card, new psu, a 55 odd Gb HD and 512Mb of ddr ram.

My problem only started within a week ago where whenever I play a game or sometimes even doing little in windows the system just crashes and the motherboard lets out a siren kinda noise. Having installed a new psu which was on the way out anyways that can be eliminated but past that I'm miffed except thinking it may well be the HD or win xp itself. When trying to reinstall windows it sometimes crashes in the middle of setting up the installation.

Thanks for any help :-)
.G.

Hi !

So...your problem started within the last week huh ? This last week where the summer has actually decided to arrive here in the UK... 8) (sorry I'm rambling...) what I'm trying to get at is - HEAT - yes, the good old enemy of PCs. Have you checked the temp in your bios? If you haven't, re-boot now, have a look and post your findings in here.

It may not be the cause of the problem but it is a darn good place to start looking

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Yeah ive been running abiteq to keep an eye on the temps. previous to replacing the psu it was beeping due to the -5V output of the psu being at it's limit of -5.50Vinstead of being in its optimal range. That problem isnt there anymore but the crashing is.

I had the same board as you (I have the AN7 now) and from memory there is only two causes for the siren - heat & voltage anomalies.

I would have a look in the bios and check that the core voltages are in range - then if it continues I would definitely check that your heat sink is seated correctly...btw what were the temps in Abit Eq ?

ADDITION - You could also turn off the auto shutdown in the bios and keep an eye on the temps with a slightly better bit of software like this: http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

the system temp sits about 36-40 degrees and the cpu temp sits around 57-65 degrees depending on how many programs are running. The voltages are all within range now I'm using a new psu.

This may help you to pin down the problem: http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread...threadid=13527

...and this reply in another forum looks really good:

You said Bios 16 which means you have a v.1.X correct ? If you have a revision 2.0 then that is the wrong bios .. Anyways . You must do some things before you flash your bios . First - unplug your pc and clear the bios .. Let it sit for a few minutes.. Place jumper back into default and power up and flash bios with the awdflash/dr-dos formatted floppy..
After bios flash - repeat steps , unplug , clear bios ..
Set your bios as you want it , do the mulitplier and fsb and voltage settings and memory settings seperately (reboot after each) - ALL OTHER settings you can do all at once ..
If you have the revision 2.0 board you need Bios http://fae.abit.com.tw/download/bios/nf7-s2/nf7d10.exe
If you have the revison 1.X board you need Bios 17 http://www.motherboardfaqs.com/NF7/files/nf7_17.zip or Bios 16 http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/...f7-s/nf716.exe
Also if you have revision 1.X and do not use corsair memory http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/...f7-s/nf715.exe works just as good as 16 except no Corsair fixes ..
Just be sure to follow the steps carefully and make a clean dr-dos floppy before adding the Abit files to it .. If you try the Beta 17 you would need to chnage the bios name of 16 from the awdflash "RUNME.BAT" file to the name of the bios 17_beta for it to flash correctly..

ADDITION - this can also be caused by heavy duty fans being linked direct to the mainboard (esp the CPU fan).

Also running FSB out of spec will cause it, even if the machine is well capable of doing so or has been doing so for some time. Solutions seem to be, clear cmos with jumper, set cpu fan fail shutdown to disable, and set CPU overheat warning to 110 degress.

In extreme cases where none of the above works, reflashing the bios is the only other option.