Motherboard crapping out on me?

[cdgreg]

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/6782/errorx.jpg

Over the past month or so I've come home to this PC crashed message but pretty much just avoided the problem by hitting F1, letting it reboot and hoped nothing would come of it.

Unsurprisingly, my method did not work out as intended and today it took me about 8-10 reboots/turning the PC off for a few minutes/hitting F1 to get into windows successfully. Basically it just seemed to hang, then cycle back to the Hyper Transport sync floor error screen. You can see the exact error in the picture above.

I called the little shop that built me this PC about 2-3 years ago and talked to a regular salesman not the owner who built it since he had already gone home but he said he's guessing it's my mobo taking a crap. Sadly I'm about 2 hours away from the little shop that built it so I may end up trying to do the necessary fix on my own. I ran a near full Everest report which I've attached to this post due to the massive size, but cut and pasted the part about the motherboard here:

--------[ Motherboard ]-------------

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 63-0100-000001-00101111-102207-ATHLON64$1ADJT007_A7310NMS V1.8 102207
Motherboard Name MSI K9N4 Ultra-F (MS-7310)

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type AMD Hammer
Real Clock 200 MHz
Effective Clock 200 MHz
HyperTransport Clock 1000 MHz

Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type Dual DDR2 SDRAM
Bus Width 128-bit
DRAM:FSB Ratio CPU/6
Real Clock 402 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 804 MHz
Bandwidth 12866 MB/s

Motherboard Physical Info:
CPU Sockets/Slots 1 Socket AM2
Expansion Slots 3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16
RAM Slots 2 DDR2 DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio, Gigabit LAN
Form Factor ATX
Motherboard Size 180 mm x 300 mm
Motherboard Chipset nForce500Ultra

Motherboard Manufacturer:
Company Name Micro-Star Int'l Co.,Ltd.
Product Information http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?f...=1&cat2_no=170
BIOS Download http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloadindex
Driver Update http://driveragent.com?ref=59
BIOS Upgrades http://www.esupport.com/biosagent/in...m?refererid=40

If it is indeed my mobo going can anyone recommend one I should purchase to replace? Also if it is, how tough is a motherboard replacement? The extent I've done hardware swapping wise is replacing my power system unit and replacing some ram...Thanks in advance.


edit: full everest log is about 827kb and too large to attach. If anyone needs it please let me know and I'll be glad to e-mail it to you.

[shiarua]

Try resetting the CMOS. If that doesnt work, flash the BIOS.

Consult the motherboard manual on how to do this.

[fishstix]

Get some compressed air and make sure there's no dust around messing things up. Otherwise, it's not too hard replacing a motherboard. When you remove your old one, basically, do the same but in reverse. Might need to check if you need to reposition some of the screw holders though. Is this the board you have? You should be able to replace it with any AM2 board. Personally, I bought this board to replace an old one from Fry's. I was lucky and they had it in stock nearby. I wouldn't spend over $50 since your CPU is kinda lacking in power, your computer wouldn't benefit too much. If you plan to upgrade the CPU also down the line with like a Phenom II, or Athlon II, then this same Gigabyte board actually would be pretty decent still unless you want to go with DDR3 ram.

[cdgreg]

Thanks for the 2 replies. Just reset the CMOS and blasted the shit out of it with compressed air. Hopefully this works, if not flashing the bios scares me a little bit. MSI's website says this:

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=html&name=liveupdate

MSI Live update online is the tool to online detect and auto-update BIOS/ Driver/ Utility/ Firmware directly.

* MSI Live Update Online must use Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.0 and above versions, OS requires Windows® 98SE/ME/2000/XP.
* MSI Live Update Online uses Microsoft® ActiveX technology, please modify your ActiveX settings to ensure the proceeding of the automatic analysis and download.
* If your browser has installed Toolbar plug-ins, which might affect the normal operation of MSI Update Online. Please check your Toolbar-related settings to ensure the proceeding of the update service.
* In the BIOS/Firmware flashing procedure, the instability of the PSU (Power Supply Unit), power failure or other operating errors might result in the process failure which makes the system fail to re-boot, which are not guaranteed by MSI's product warranty.

Important! In order to flash the BIOS/Firmware safely, please make sure to close all running applications in your system before flashing. (Including Outlook, ICQ, Anti-Virus application, etc…)

Yes, Click at your own Risk lol

edit: also wtf, I'm on Vista and I don't see that listed in the required OS's.

[shiarua]

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=do...1&prod_no=1083
^Manual BIOS update (need a floppy disk or, if the motherboard supports it, a flash drive to put the BIOS file on).


Here is the link for your motherboard for the live update. Works with Vista

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=do...2&type=utility

[Olo401]

The thing that's worrying me here is the line "A hyper transport sync flood error.." yadda yadda.. Doing a google search shows that to be an EXTREMELY common error, possibly related to the hypertransport speed vs. memory bus speed. And it's not just your motherboard because it seems to happen across different manufacturers' boards.

[cdgreg]

Just as a friendly update for the people who contributed: I reset the CMOS, cleaned the case itself out, and have been running it without the walls on. I have to admit that I had no idea how caked with dust the vents were so I wouldn't be surprised if that also had something to do with it. Since resetting the CMOS and cleaning it I dealt with a couple weird side effects like having to reinstall windows messenger, reapplying some noscript rules, and having a few errors about incorrect paths when trying to run a program. Other than that I have not experienced the hyper transport sync flood error since and have left the PC running 24/7 bazaaring a ffxi character. The PC does feel like it's lagging harder when opening a program or multi tasking, and I'm not sure if that's just my imagination or something is still going on. Thanks again for the contributions, will be sure to post here if it crashes again with progress lol.

[cdgreg]

Well spoke too soon. The pc was lagging really hard and seemed to b using excessive amounts of memory for no reason so I tried to reboot it. Now I'm stuck in a cycle of hypertransit error > reboot. I tried resetting the CMOS again but to no avail. I guess if possible I'll try flashing the bios from a USB drive, if I could get into the pc once more I'd just use the live update. /sigh posting from my phone.

[shiarua]

Also, try re-seating all components. (ram, etc)

[cdgreg]

Also, try re-seating all components. (ram, etc)

Thanks will try that. Quick q: if I take it to a local pc shop today how do I properly say CMOS? All letters or C-mos? I don't want go sound like a complete idiot.

[fishstix]

In my head... I've always said it c-mos, but dunno really lol. You could just say to reset the bios instead of reset the cmos, I think they'll understand.

[JetEnduro]

Thanks will try that. Quick q: if I take it to a local pc shop today how do I properly say CMOS? All letters or C-mos? I don't want go sound like a complete idiot.

C-MOS