Hey ppl! Been trying to fix a computer for the past few days now and it just doesn't want to work. It's a long story and i've pretty well nailed it down to the Mothboard. System is a: Winfast K7741MG Motherboard Sempron Socket 462 2600+ Seagate Barracuda 40GB drive Abit Radeon 9250 AGP 128MB Generic 512MB 184pin DDR (1 stick) Crappy PSU Pioneer DVD-RW Firstly this system had 98 on it and we couldn't get the DVD drive to read DVD's, would read CD ok but not DVD's. Tried the drive on another computer and it did the same so we took it back to get a warranty replacement and waiting on the drive to come back. Then we updated to XP and we were having problems like random crashing and just not responding fast and we went to defrag and windows said the drive had a possibly corrupt drive so we just formatted and installed XP freshly. We did that and now the CD drive we have in it now seems to respond every now and then, reads CD's when it wants etc etc. I've swapped out IDE cables, RAM, graphics card. I seriously doubt its the Hard drive but it could be but i'm more convinced its the motherboard. I'm guessing the DMA has gone, considering its happened to me several times before and it is a poor cheap winfast board. So we're prepared to upgrade to a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and possibly Graphics and HDD. We need to know what a good cheap quality system is going to be. Somethinhg like an Asus board with some bells and whistles and something that will perform well. I havn't done my research on the new AMD chips yet. I'm still a K7 man!!! We would like to just replace the board but seeing as K7 boards are now obsolete and we can't buy them new anymore theres no point. So a 64 bit system, 1GB RAM, good motherboard etc etc. Need a fast reply guys so any help is going to be great, sorry for the long post. Daniel. Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe XP2500+ @ 3200+ @ 205MHz 1GB DDR400 Dual Channel Generic RAM Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256MB Stock Clocked Home made HSF combo WD 36GB Raptor Liteon DVD Burner<br

If you formatted and installed WinXP, you should install the motherboard drivers. That might be why you don't have DMA. Also install all the other drivers. Sorry, I do not check for private messages

socket A boards can still be bought new http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=246419 I think it will support the hardware you have, but do your research to be sure. Seems to have gone up about $5 since I got it as a replacement for an emachines t2080 back in November. I got it because of the on board video, which you don't need. Also keep in mind its a micro-atx larry

When you start getting multiple, seemingly unrelated problems, the first thing to look at is the power supply. You say yourself you have a crappy PSU. All the problems you mention can be caused by a crappy PSU, especially if you have added components since the computer was new. If you are blaming the motherboard in order to justify getting new one then fine. If you want to save yourself some money then I would try a known good PSU first. Stuart

Yeah well the computer has a very poor PSU in it. We are going to get an Asrock board: http://www.asrock.com/product/939Dual-SATA2.htm Tell us what you think. Thinking of going for an Athlon 3000 as well. Another half gig of DDR1 and seeing how we go We'll also get another PSU. I'm testing the HDD from the computer atm, seems ok, the RAM passed and next is the GPU. So after all this i think we'll be ok. I did install the drivers for the IDE channels and it still did the same thing. So we're just going to go with a new board and CPU, i dont trust the winfast, it looks faulty. Tell me what you think, probably getting the board later this afternoon. Daniel. Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe XP2500+ @ 3200+ @ 205MHz 1GB DDR400 Dual Channel Generic RAM Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256MB Stock Clocked Home made HSF combo WD 36GB Raptor Liteon DVD Burner<br

Daniel !!! Think we have talked before... www.hypernetdist.com.au Asus a8n-e full atx, $141.00 s939 3000+ $195.00 Thermaltake 430W on special for $60.00 but you will need a pci-E card for that board.. But down load the latest bios from asus and install it before installing the OS.. IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT A8N-SLI Deluxe AMD X64 3500+ Wnchst Corsair 2x512 DDR400 Dual Channel GV-NX6600128D PCIX Graphics Card Ggbyte GT Pro CPU Cooler Zalman VF700-CU VGA Cool

If you dont want to go pci-e yet, heres what I would suggest. Get you an Asus A8V, preferrably deluxe... Good boards, easy to update bios... Hasnt failed on me yet. Then either go with a AMD 3800+ Dual Core 939, or a 3800+ San Diego 939... They are great at overclocking. I have my Dual Core from 2.0 stock to 2.4 ( of course with cooling supplies =) As on the seagate hard drives, I am becoming very skeptical. I have recentl;y bought a Seagate Baracuda 300G Sata II... But it had been giving me problems. Slow loading, errors, crashes.. installation. I know it is nothing else in my rig, because I have replaced them all! Looking more and more on these forums, I am realizing a lot of people have been having Seagate problems, especially with their Barracuda 100-300 Gig line... I am attempting to send back my drive (cant let that 5 year warranty go by wasted) to see if its just certain drives that are defective, or if they just suck at making hard drives. I have never had any problems with Western Digital. All my ATA drives work like a dream, just a little slower than others. If you decide to go with seagate, go with their Raptor line, get a couple 74Gig and Raid em. Then for Power, if you have the extra money, go for a PCPowerand Cooling 470Watt... ~$100, but WELL worth it. If you want to be up to date, then jump on the bandwagon... I know my broke --- cant afford buying an all new mobo, CPU, Power Supply, and Video Card...