computer locks up

[Mikel05]

setup is as follows:

MoBo> Asus A7V8X-X
Cpu > AMD 2500 Barton Core
memory 256MB

I start it and I get the 1 short beep- Post is good.
It detects the IDE primary Master than Slave
The secondary Master detected then locks up.
A little back-Ground. You guys helped me set this little guy up and nothing has changed in the month and a half that Ive had it. I had Win 98se, Win 2K, and WinXP all loaded on this. I know, I know. ALL Three!! ...I needed them to prep on the A+ op-system test (I passed but anyway. I would get lock ups about every week or so. But today It froze and no matter what I couldnt get it going. I tried using a startup disk it went about half way and froze. I went into the setup screen, just navigating looking for something....and it froze there to.

FYI- I did clear the MOBO (ram clear), reseated the memory, reseated the Graphic card, swapped a HDD.

I hope you guys have some Ideas. I just happen to have the exact MoBo handy. but I was going to return it for a A7--- E-deluxe. I guess Im hoping you can narrow it down to a MoBo or a CPU. Hmmm What are the signs of a bad MOBO....and a Bad CPU?? For the record Im betting on the MoBo.....let me know!


Thanks in advance, Mikel05

[Jarhed7276]

Will it boot if you take out the secondary master?

[Mikel05]

At one point I had disconnected all IDE's and tried to boot w/ a Win 98 start up disk. NO-GO

One more thing- I shut it down for about an hour and tried the Start up disk. It was loading then at some point was saying
"Line -- in config.sys was missing" (or bad I forget) It listed about 4 lines like that....then locked up. The reason I think its the MoBo is that it does POST. A good Post is 1 short beep, which I get, and that should clear my CPU.

Thanks for the quick responce. I'll check in tomorrow.

[Mikel05]

NO luck guys I swapped out the MOBO and no-go. When I first power up it goes straight to the Bios setup screen. When I exit and save changes the screen goes black and my monitor enters pwer-saver or sleep mode.

I'm all ears. HELP