I just built a new computer for myself. It's sort of a beast: Asus P5N-E motherboard Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 4 x 2GB DDR2 PC6400 RAM GeForce 8800GT w/ 1GB VRAM 2 x 500GB SATA/300 7200RPM Hard Drives Pioneer SATA Blueray/DVD±RW drive 2 x 22" Widescreen LCD monitors but when I start the thing up to try to install windows, it only gets through the post screen about 50% of the time, and if it does, it freezes just as the windows setup CD finishes loading files. I'm thinking that my 400W power supply isn't powerful enough. Would that manifest as the problems I'm having? Additionally, when the Post screen *is* successful, I get a warning that my processor isn't recognized and that I will need to run a BIOS update in order to "unleash full power". Seriously, it said "unleash full power". I thought for a minute that maybe I was doing a dark ritual and that Beezelbub was going to appear before me and offer me ultimate control.

It's either going to be power or heat. If you have a temperature monitor then check your cpu temperature when the computer switches itself off. If you're getting > 70C on your CPU then check your fans / ventilation.

For your hardware setup you should need ~470W of power, so I wouldn't be surprised if your computer was starved of power either. I would get at least 550W power supply for that setup. In fact I have a similar setup running at home with the main difference being I have 3x SATA/300 500GB HDD's running on a dedicated PCI RAID controller :-D And it runs happily on a 500W PSU which I keep meaning to upgrade but to be honest I hate digging around my PC case because it tends to break stuff..

I'm not sure Beelzebub is likely to appear anytime soon but I would flash the bios as instructed. It could be that your mobo is incorrectly clocking your processor causing overheating or other problems. If you are manually entering your CPU settings be sure to double check them and go with manufacturer defaults whilst you get yourself off the ground.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

Quote: Original post by capn_midnight
I'm thinking that my 400W power supply isn't powerful enough. Would that manifest as the problems I'm having?

Just a "400W power supply"??????
You don't even say a name, so I guess it's a generic one.
Generic's power is far below what they say, if they say "400w" think about 250-300 real wattage. To get a more accurate result see the specs of the PSU (Power Supply unit) and sum all the "volts*ampers" (negative values count as positive) and you'll get real wattage. Even though they can be lying about that too.
Such PC (specially because of the GPU) needs a powerfull power supply. Cheap in the end is expensive.

*I want to believe your PSU has 24-pins, not 20....

A rule of thumb: If you buy high-end parts, your full CPU parts have to be high-end.
Otherwise you won't achieve maximum performance because of bottlenecks and may damage your system (like the PSU)

*Also try Linux, it might give you more detailed info if it fails.

*Try staying in the BIOS for a long time and see if it hangs at some place

*How are the temps????? you can be overheating. Ensure propper air flow. Just adding more fans isn't enough, they have to be at clever places.

*You also have too much RAM. Try one stick at a time. One of the four sticks may be faulty.

*I assume you have connected everything right....

Quote: Original post by capn_midnight
Additionally, when the Post screen *is* successful, I get a warning that my processor isn't recognized and that I will need to run a BIOS update in order to "unleash full power". Seriously, it said "unleash full power". I thought for a minute that maybe I was doing a dark ritual and that Beezelbub was going to appear before me and offer me ultimate control.

Hahaha, Motherboard suppliers could offer that too (World Domination... mmmm).
OK, yep indeed, having an outdated BIOS for an unknown processor means that it may not recognize some features (Better power consumption, higher Ghz multipliers, smart cooling, SSE-4-5-9000-etc, HyperTransport, etc., which will be there, but never used, no matter what OS you use)
Finally, it can be an incompatible MB for that CPU. If it says that your CPU isn't recognized, then that MB wasn't made for that CPU...

Thanks. I know the fans are good, they are brand new and blow like a cheap hooker erh, hair dryer.

Quote: Original post by Matias Goldberg
Finally, it can be an incompatible MB for that CPU. If it says that your CPU isn't recognized, then that MB wasn't made for that CPU...

It shouldn't be a problem.

Quote: Original post by capn_midnight
but when I start the thing up to try to install windows, it only gets through the post screen about 50% of the time, and if it does, it freezes just as the

I forgot to ask, what does it do when it doesn't go through the post screen? Do you get a blank screen?

You don't only have too much RAM, but HDDs and DVDRoms too! Plug only one and see what happens.

Hope this helps
Dark Sylinc

Quote: Original post by Matias Goldberg

Quote: Original post by capn_midnight
but when I start the thing up to try to install windows, it only gets through the post screen about 50% of the time, and if it does, it freezes just as the

I forgot to ask, what does it do when it doesn't go through the post screen? Do you get a blank screen?

You don't only have too much RAM, but HDDs and DVDRoms too! Plug only one and see what happens.

Hope this helps
Dark Sylinc

It just sits there, doing nothing. It won't respond to anything, like trying to enter the BIOS setup screen or changing from summary to detailed view on the post information.

To what I said, I can only suggest you to double check what you have done before:

*CMOS Clear jumpers. (Also it wouldn't be bad to clear the CMOS)
*Be sure all jumpers from the FSB and Clock multiplier are correct.

mmmm.... this shouldn't happen at all, since it's a new MB. But check for any leaked/popped capacitor
You should see them even with a blinded eye.

My humble opinion, the PSU is just not powerfull enough. You said sometimes it does POST. In such situations go to the BIOS as fast as you can and then to the hardware monitor.
Check temps and voltages while it does work.
Voltages say what they should have:
i.e.
+ 3.3v 3.28

Means the +3.3v is currently at 3.28v It should be at 3.3v
An error of +/- 5% is admissible.

Wish you luck
Dark Sylinc

well, new power supply (antec 500w) and dropping down to 2gb of ram and windows has installed. now to get all my drivers installed.

Are you installing Vista64? If so, make sure you do NOT put more than 2GB of RAM into the box before you're completely done installing. There is also a hotfix that you might need to get (Linky).

Also, I've had issues where motherboards that say they support 8GB of RAM, in fact do not.

I tried the following boards for an E8400 build (similar to the E8500 in that it's a Wolfdale):

ABit IP-35 Pro (Intel chipset): Did not work with 8GB (unstable even when underclocked)
EVGA 132-CK-NF78 (nForce 780i): Works perfect with 8GB at 120% FSB overclock.


Make sure to Memtest your RAM and run Orthos while you're at work/class to make sure everything's happy. Orthos is almost guaranteed to fail in less than 4 hours if you're low on power or your MB isn't quite compatible with 8GB.