PEP4 Replacemetn suggestions

[dustydad]

I built a computer from scratch 3 years ago. The original P4PE MOBO had
a terrible cold boot issue which I later found out others people have
also experienced. I RMA ed the board and got a replacement. The Error
code was a misleadig CPU failed self test. The new board performed
much better but on occasion failed the CPU self test. After 6 months
and several revs of the BIOS 2002-2006. the problem went away. (Well
mostly). Every once and awhile it would still spring up.

Recently however it just stopped and complains the self test fails.
When I loosen the CPU heat sink and reseat it. It starts working but it
fails again in a couple of days. A more detailed look at the CPU did
not seem any better. (I'm using it now but I dont think it will last.)

I like the configuration.

Pentium Northwood 2.4Gig 478, 2 PATA, 2SATA, 6 USB, 1 IEEE 1394, 533
FSB, DDR 2700, 4XAGP, On board Audio

But I'm about ready to go with another board given what I have read in
post jive with my personal experiences.

Anybody recomend a good replacement? It seems every board I read about
in the $50-80 range has some amount of DOA. The newer boards are all
new sockets and 478 seems to be on the way out.

My one last fix for thie computer is I'm going to put some heat sink
compund on the CPU heat sink. I always meant to do this but I'm doing
it more for pressure on the CPU than heat.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

Dusty

[Paul]

In article <1154493822....@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
"dustydad" <dfe...@charter.net> wrote:

ASUS P4P800SE Socket 478 Intel 865PE ATX $97 (in stock Aug3/06)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16813131484

That board would give you room for single or dual channel
memory, up to FSB800, and AGP 8X. So all your stuff should
fit in it. And this time, make sure you do the cooling right :-)

Tube of AS5 - application instructions on arcticsilver site:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835100007

There is another possibility here P4P800-VM microATX $82 , but
a few more probs reported than for the P4P800SE:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131460

MSI has a board for even less, with 865PE $64
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130467

With these DOA reports, the best thing is if you can get the
retailer to handle the DOA, rather than through the manufacturer.
Better yet, try a computer store in town, and ask if they still
have any 875/865 based S478 motherboards left - at least
you can drive to the store.

Paul

[Vic Smith]

On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 05:42:38 GMT, nos...@needed.com (Paul) wrote:

>In article <1154493822....@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
>"dustydad" <dfe...@charter.net> wrote:

>
>ASUS P4P800SE Socket 478 Intel 865PE ATX $97 (in stock Aug3/06)
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16813131484
>
>That board would give you room for single or dual channel
>memory, up to FSB800, and AGP 8X. So all your stuff should
>fit in it. And this time, make sure you do the cooling right :-)
>

I can second this one as I just built 2 of them and they presented no
problems and run just fine. Didn't think it had firewire (it doesn't)
and when I followed the link to check saw it's "sold out" at Newegg.
You can still find it using pricewatch for a few bucks more.
I paid 89.99 at Newegg for these just 2 and 3 weeks ago, so you don't
want to wait too long to get the 478 boards, because soon enough new
ones will go the way of the dodo, like the Northwoods.

--Vic

[dustydad]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I ended up going with a Gigabyte board GA-8IPE1000. Unfortunately the
ASUS ATX board below seemed to be discontinued from the manufacturer
and I went to my local Computer store since Newegg didn't have the ASUS
board or the Gigabyte board and going with another ASUS for me was a
loyalty issue. Too bad companies like ASUS don't care about problems
but for me to have 2 flaky Asus boards over the last 3 years blew my
confidence.

To my satisfaction all my original components work flawlessly on the
new motherboard. The P4 2.4 Gig Northbridge CPU hovers at 27 degrees C
just as it used to on the Asus board. (No heat conducting grease just
the stock Intel Heat sink.) I also turned off the ASUS health
utilities that failed when multiple users logged in XP becasue they
would report voltage errors. (voltages are all within norm with the
newboard.)

The new Gigabyte board has a friendler over clocking panel (I never
overclocked the CPU on ASUS board becasue the original board complained
about cpu failing overclocking when failing CPU self tests.) I can see
the evidence of overclocking in a Passmark test and 10% overclocking
results in a 10% higher rating. Heat going up to 30 C.

Now I'm feeling dumb I limped along with a flaky ASUS board for so
long. Adding up the problems I had. I must have wasted almost a 100
hours. (I wont go into the issues of how I tried to use the 3rd PATA
connector and crashed my OS. )

Now I have to find a better way to restore my system. The hardware
change took an hour but the new system would not boot. I had to restore
XP. Unfortuantely after 2 hours I had restored to XP SP1 and it would
be another 2 hours before it was back to an up to date XP SP2.

Cheers,
Dusty