MSI KT3 automatically shuts down

Computer Hardware
#1

About a year ago, I built a system based on a MSI KT3 board for a friend of mine. After about half a year, he started experiencing problems. His computer alsways shut down as soon as he loaded the CPU quite heavily.

I first assumed that the cooling was the problem. As I tried different cooling (I exchanged the Alpha PAL8045 for a 80mm Tigerterm block) nothing changed. So I checked everything but no problem to be found.

Suddenly the system didn’t turn on anymore. When I put his Athlon 1700+ in my old mainboard (I had a KT7 Turbo back then) the DLEDS gave the same error: 4x red, meaing a damaged CPU. Although there was no fysical damage done to the CPU, it seemed dead. I brought it back to the reseller we bought it from.
Putting my Athlon TB-C 1,2Ghz on the board didn’t make any problems, it worked like it should do. So I concluded that the KT3 board was fine.

As we did not hear from the shop in a couple of months, my friend today decided to get a new CPU. He bought an Athlon 2100+ (Tbred B core). Guess what: the system boots, but automatically shuts down after a random number of seconds.
So what’s going on here? The auto shutdown should only be initiated by an overheated CPU… but as it never goes above 50C I don’t think that to be a problem…

Anybody? We’re getting quite desperate… all the parts seem to be working fine… :confused:

#2

I heard more of this problem.

PErhaps you should visit the forum of MSI

www.msi.com.tw

or a athlon xp forum.

If i can find some links i will post them for you

#3

Originally posted by damiandimitri
PErhaps you should visit the forum of MSI

As I think the mainboard is causing the problem (although I don’t think it to be defective) I already posted this on the MSI forums. Not much of a help so far…

#4

What about cpu cooler fan protection/detection, is it enabled in the bios. If the cooler is on cfan1 move it to another and disable the function in the bios.

#5

Originally posted by tf52
What about cpu cooler fan protection/detection, is it enabled in the bios. If the cooler is on cfan1 move it to another and disable the function in the bios.

Did that… when there’s no fan on the board and the protection is enabled, the speaker on the board makes an alarm-like sound.

#6

If the board runs fine with a athlon 1.2-c, it sounds like a bios problem. Do you use the latest bios version.

#7

Originally posted by tf52
If the board runs fine with a athlon 1.2-c, it sounds like a bios problem. Do you use the latest bios version.

No, I can’t flash the board, since it doesn’t boot (shuts down during the post)… and I don’t have a CPU that runs on it (I sold the Athon 1,2 quite some time ago)…

#8

If you remove all power connections and ide cables to hd’s and cd/dvd/cdr drives. Remove all pci cards and try to boot with only agp video in.

What about the psu. Do it have enough power, 300 w or higher.

#9

I did that once… removed everything, I even put a PCI vga card in the board, 1 stick of ddr and ofcourse the CPU+cooling… same problem.

Tested it with 2 different PSUs!

#10

If it worked with a Athlon 1.2-c , you have to borrow a athlon or duron cpu from a friend, so you can boot the system and update bios.

#11

My guess is the board is just FUBAR. Stress cracks around the socket or something that moves a bit then it warms up. The fact that one CPU worked on it may be just chance, every time you move it or work on it the problem would be slightly different, but progressively worse. Shorted circuits at the mounting points, thermal compound in the wrong place are a couple more possibilities.

#12

These people speak of an unstable 133MHz line.

Here they speak of unstable memory lines.

At here they talk about unstable memory/video caches.

Or perhaps you need different memory.

#13

if your bios is an ami bios…you can flash it without beeing able to boot…

look at the MSI site for recovery boot…

you just need an empty diskette with a normal bios…you need to rename it to amibios.boot or something and push insert when you start the computer…

if you want me to copy/past the real procedure…i will do it for you

#14

“I exchanged the Alpha PAL8045 for a 80mm Tigerterm block”

You got a link for this Tigerterm block? It’s the first time I’ve heard of such HSF. Must be a Euro company or something. I’ve been running an Alpha PAL8045 for the past 2 years w/ a 39CFM 80mm fan, haven’t experienced any probs w/ a MSI KT266, KT266A, or KT400 mobo using XP 1800+ CPU. Did you clear CMOS before you install the new CPU? Go into BIOS immediately after you boot up to change settings?