major problems.

Dom · Feb 20, 2003, 04:38 AM

My computer has been giving me some major problems of late. I was having issues with boot-up, (hard drives would fail). So I switch my secondary from a WD 120Gb to a Maxtor 40Gb and my computer booted-up fine. I thought the problem was with the hard drive, so I RMA'ed it but with the replacement drive I was still having the same problems. So I figured it was a power issue. After replacing my Enermax 350w with an Antec 480w the problems still persisted. After repairing WinXP the problems stopped but now their back again. I was thinking maybe it's the power in my house messing-up my PSU's but my other comp works fine. I have been leaving my computer unplugged thinking maybe there is something wrong with the outlet my computer is plugged into. Leaving my comp unplugged seemed to work and my computer was working fine so I left it plugged-in. Today when I tried to boot-up my comp hung on the WinXP load screen for like 10mins then it finally restarted itself. So today I went out and left my comp unplugged again and when I came home today my computer still hung on the WinXP load screen but it eventually went into Windows and is now working, but I fear if I restart or shut down Windows won't boot again. Has anyone had any problems like this or heard of this? Please, I need help any suggestion? Please help!

edperks · Feb 20, 2003, 05:12 AM

maybe it could be your IDE interface or a bad cable try a new IDE cable and If that does not work try hooking up your drive to IDE 2 and see if it works. Goodluck!!

Dom · Feb 20, 2003, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by edperks
maybe it could be your IDE interface or a bad cable try a new IDE cable and If that does not work try hooking up your drive to IDE 2 and see if it works. Goodluck!!

That's a good idea, I never thought about that. I hope that's all it is.

Dom · Feb 20, 2003, 06:24 AM

No, that didn't work.

Any other suggestions?

dai · Feb 20, 2003, 07:15 AM

try a registry clean if that does not fix it check the ram is seated properly and is not faulty,cannot think of anything else that you have not tried already except for some software not loaded properly

Cyan007 · Feb 20, 2003, 07:40 AM

My brother had a problem similar to that. He had 2 memory sticks.. 1 512MB and 1 64MB. He switched the 512MB further away from the processor and just didn't use the 64MB and now his computer starts fine, mess around with your memory slots if you can....

fornicatarachnid · Feb 20, 2003, 08:15 AM

I tend to agree with Cyan007 about this. In my experience, at least on three occasions,

problems such as the ones you are having have always been something to do with a

faulty stick of memory, have you tried changing it ?

ToshiroOC · Feb 20, 2003, 08:27 AM

http://www.memtest86.com/

Run this and see if it comes up with errors or not, very useful program

Dom · Feb 20, 2003, 04:14 PM

The RAM is properly seated and I ran the RAM tester utility that Tosh posted and it found no errors. I didn't try switching the RAM around because of the damn C-RIMM's, and RD RAM has to be used in pairs (I wasn't sure of the right configuration and couldn't get the system to boot).

~~JAV~~ · Feb 20, 2003, 11:10 PM

Kinda sounds like the PCI bus is running too high & the HDD's can't handle it. Are they S.M.A.R.T. capable? If so enable it in BIOS & run: "SpeedFan" S.M.A.R.T utility & see what it says.

Fix: Lock the PCI @ 33.3mhz or turn the FSB down 'til the PCI is less than 37.5mhz. At 118FSB & no locked PCI > you're running 39.3mhz.

HTH,

Dom · Feb 21, 2003, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JAV
Kinda sounds like the PCI bus is running too high & the HDD's can't handle it. Are they S.M.A.R.T. capable? If so enable it in BIOS & run: "SpeedFan" S.M.A.R.T utility & see what it says.

Fix: Lock the PCI @ 33.3mhz or turn the FSB down 'til the PCI is less than 37.5mhz. At 118FSB & no locked PCI > you're running 39.3mhz.

HTH,

I've been running this system OC'd like this for months now with no problem.

I don't know how to lower the PCI frequency by it's self. One of the first things I tried when the problem started was running my CPU at it's default speed, but to no avail.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Feb 21, 2003, 11:22 AM

ummm.. check you bios settings!!! I got that kinda problem when I "tweaked" my bios.. and wierdly enogh it didn't happen right a way... but when my system freezes at startup (loading xp screen but it never does

) I reset my bios to defults and it booted just fine again! Then again also check for bios updates!

merry · Feb 21, 2003, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dom
I don't know how to lower the PCI frequency by it's self.

I don't believe you can, this was possible on some - older - VIA chipsets. The PCI is a fraction of the system bus (in your case 3xPCI=FSB, so 118/3=39.3 MHz).

Dom · Feb 21, 2003, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by The_Neon_Cowboy
ummm.. check you bios settings!!! I got that kinda problem when I "tweaked" my bios.. and wierdly enogh it didn't happen right a way... but when my system freezes at startup (loading xp screen but it never does ) I reset my bios to defults and it booted just fine again! Then again also check for bios updates!

Well, when it first started having the problem I tried my BIOS settings at default, but to no avail. I never tried a BIOS update, I would try now but I can't seem to find my board on ASUS' site and am having problems getting into the download section.

Dom · Feb 21, 2003, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by merry
I don't believe you can, this was possible on some - older - VIA chipsets. The PCI is a fraction of the system bus (in your case 3xPCI=FSB, so 118/3=39.3 MHz).

I've been running my system with that PCI bus speed for several months now with no problem, so I don't think it's that.

Dom · Feb 21, 2003, 04:02 PM

I tried a BIOS update with default settings, same problem.

ToshiroOC · Feb 21, 2003, 07:35 PM

Perhaps your computer's hard drive is failing. Do you have other hard drives that you can try booting off of?

EDIT: I'm stoopid, and I need to read the first posts more carefully

EDIT EDIT: I refigured out what I was thinking - maybe your IDE controller is failing. Do you have any PCI IDE controllers you could try with your hard drives to see if they help any? Can you try a different motherboard with all of these different parts?

WildChild · Feb 21, 2003, 08:55 PM

check to see how high of a hard drive your bios support ....it seems to me the only things it could be are ...memory(which you said you tested),ide cable,hard drive isnt supported ...i noticed ya said it booted fine off of a 40 gb but not the 120......or the bios updates ....

dai · Feb 22, 2003, 03:46 AM

can you borrow a motherboard with a different chipset not via and swap it over i had problems galore mine went down all the time on an old soyo board i could not borrow one so i bought a cheap ecs board and all the problems dissappeared,my son is using the soyo with 98 with no problems so i figured the board was to old for xp it was a soyo slot 1 133.

~~JAV~~ · Feb 22, 2003, 06:14 AM

SC,

The PCI bus thing is a progressive failure, in my experience. It takes months (or more) of ocing to start corrupting files & the like. If the bus was too high @ the outset, it plain wouldn't boot to Windows. It's like most things in life: you can push it right to the limit w/o immediate problems, but after time it does adversely affect things.

Lemme give you a link for the S.M.A.R.T Diagnostic tool for HD's. That should, at the very least, show you the 'health' of the HD's & help either confirm or eliminate if the HD's are 'messing up'.

Here:

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php Check your temps, voltages (esp the 12v rail) & use the S.M.A.R.T utility. You'll have to enable S.M.A.R.T in bios.

HTH,

**EDIT** I clicked on a 'Favorite' after I posted this & went to another board. Lo & behold! http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwb/ulti...;f=35;t=000952 Funny huh? Discussion of FSB/PCI & HD corruption!

Dom · Feb 22, 2003, 07:44 AM

I'm going to try a new motherboard, CPU & RAM later today. I'll let you guys know what happens.

Dom · Feb 22, 2003, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JAV
SC,

The PCI bus thing is a progressive failure, in my experience. It takes months (or more) of ocing to start corrupting files & the like. If the bus was too high @ the outset, it plain wouldn't boot to Windows. It's like most things in life: you can push it right to the limit w/o immediate problems, but after time it does adversely affect things.

Lemme give you a link for the S.M.A.R.T Diagnostic tool for HD's. That should, at the very least, show you the 'health' of the HD's & help either confirm or eliminate if the HD's are 'messing up'.

Here:

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php Check your temps, voltages (esp the 12v rail) & use the S.M.A.R.T utility. You'll have to enable S.M.A.R.T in bios.

HTH,

**EDIT** I clicked on a 'Favorite' after I posted this & went to another board. Lo & behold! http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwb/ulti...;f=35;t=000952 Funny huh? Discussion of FSB/PCI & HD corruption!

I tried Speedfan, and checked out the S.M.A.R.T feature. It's said my HD's are in perfect health. On another note, after installing Speedfan I found I could no longer boot - I got a blue screen and a message telling me of possible remedies to resolve the problem. After booting into safemode (which took no time at all), I uninstalled Speedfan and was then able to boot.

I can't look at that URL yet, as I have to be a member of the forum and am still waiting for my registration to be approved.

syko86 · Feb 23, 2003, 09:05 PM

Hi, I added 128MB of RAM to my system recently, and my system became very unstable. I did memory tests and stuff... And there were no problems at all. Then I took out the 128MB, and left my 256MB in it, and my system became stable again. I tried putting in the 128MB again, and my system hanged and stuff again.. Sometimes I think computers are really weird...

Feb 20, 2003, 04:38 AM	#1
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	major problems. My computer has been giving me some major problems of late. I was having issues with boot-up, (hard drives would fail). So I switch my secondary from a WD 120Gb to a Maxtor 40Gb and my computer booted-up fine. I thought the problem was with the hard drive, so I RMA'ed it but with the replacement drive I was still having the same problems. So I figured it was a power issue. After replacing my Enermax 350w with an Antec 480w the problems still persisted. After repairing WinXP the problems stopped but now their back again. I was thinking maybe it's the power in my house messing-up my PSU's but my other comp works fine. I have been leaving my computer unplugged thinking maybe there is something wrong with the outlet my computer is plugged into. Leaving my comp unplugged seemed to work and my computer was working fine so I left it plugged-in. Today when I tried to boot-up my comp hung on the WinXP load screen for like 10mins then it finally restarted itself. So today I went out and left my comp unplugged again and when I came home today my computer still hung on the WinXP load screen but it eventually went into Windows and is now working, but I fear if I restart or shut down Windows won't boot again. Has anyone had any problems like this or heard of this? Please, I need help any suggestion? Please help!

Feb 20, 2003, 07:40 AM	#6
Cyan007 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Newport News, VA Posts: 212 Rep Power: 0	My brother had a problem similar to that. He had 2 memory sticks.. 1 512MB and 1 64MB. He switched the 512MB further away from the processor and just didn't use the 64MB and now his computer starts fine, mess around with your memory slots if you can.... __________________ Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2 Shuttle SN95G5 v3 AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Geil 1024MB PC3200 DDR400 (512x2) ATI AIW Radeon X800XT Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Seagate Barracude 500GB SATA

Feb 20, 2003, 08:27 AM	#8
ToshiroOC Unbiased. Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 4,812 Rep Power: 0	http://www.memtest86.com/ Run this and see if it comes up with errors or not, very useful program __________________ [img][/img] [color=White]Peace be with you, Joe.[/color] Driverheaven Staff Member (Supermoderator)

Feb 21, 2003, 11:22 AM	#12
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	ummm.. check you bios settings!!! I got that kinda problem when I "tweaked" my bios.. and wierdly enogh it didn't happen right a way... but when my system freezes at startup (loading xp screen but it never does ) I reset my bios to defults and it booted just fine again! Then again also check for bios updates! __________________

Feb 21, 2003, 07:35 PM	#17
ToshiroOC Unbiased. Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 4,812 Rep Power: 0	Perhaps your computer's hard drive is failing. Do you have other hard drives that you can try booting off of? EDIT: I'm stoopid, and I need to read the first posts more carefully EDIT EDIT: I refigured out what I was thinking - maybe your IDE controller is failing. Do you have any PCI IDE controllers you could try with your hard drives to see if they help any? Can you try a different motherboard with all of these different parts? __________________ [img][/img] [color=White]Peace be with you, Joe.[/color] Driverheaven Staff Member (Supermoderator)

Feb 20, 2003, 05:12 AM	#2
edperks HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 780 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	maybe it could be your IDE interface or a bad cable try a new IDE cable and If that does not work try hooking up your drive to IDE 2 and see if it works. Goodluck!!

Feb 20, 2003, 06:24 AM	Thread Starter #4
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	No, that didn't work. Any other suggestions?

Feb 20, 2003, 07:15 AM	#5
dai DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 126 Rep Power: 0	try a registry clean if that does not fix it check the ram is seated properly and is not faulty,cannot think of anything else that you have not tried already except for some software not loaded properly

Feb 20, 2003, 08:15 AM	#7
fornicatarachnid Clanless Join Date: May 2002 Location: On the web, England UK Posts: 714 Rep Power: 0	I tend to agree with Cyan007 about this. In my experience, at least on three occasions, problems such as the ones you are having have always been something to do with a faulty stick of memory, have you tried changing it ?

Feb 20, 2003, 04:14 PM	Thread Starter #9
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	The RAM is properly seated and I ran the RAM tester utility that Tosh posted and it found no errors. I didn't try switching the RAM around because of the damn C-RIMM's, and RD RAM has to be used in pairs (I wasn't sure of the right configuration and couldn't get the system to boot).

Feb 20, 2003, 11:10 PM	#10
~~JAV~~ Banned Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: California, USA Posts: 283 Rep Power: 0	Kinda sounds like the PCI bus is running too high & the HDD's can't handle it. Are they S.M.A.R.T. capable? If so enable it in BIOS & run: "SpeedFan" S.M.A.R.T utility & see what it says. Fix: Lock the PCI @ 33.3mhz or turn the FSB down 'til the PCI is less than 37.5mhz. At 118FSB & no locked PCI > you're running 39.3mhz. HTH,

Feb 21, 2003, 04:02 PM	Thread Starter #16
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	I tried a BIOS update with default settings, same problem.

Feb 21, 2003, 08:55 PM	#18
WildChild I'm Still Watching Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: New Jersey,U.S.A. Posts: 1,068 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	check to see how high of a hard drive your bios support ....it seems to me the only things it could be are ...memory(which you said you tested),ide cable,hard drive isnt supported ...i noticed ya said it booted fine off of a 40 gb but not the 120......or the bios updates ....

Feb 22, 2003, 03:46 AM	#19
dai DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 126 Rep Power: 0	can you borrow a motherboard with a different chipset not via and swap it over i had problems galore mine went down all the time on an old soyo board i could not borrow one so i bought a cheap ecs board and all the problems dissappeared,my son is using the soyo with 98 with no problems so i figured the board was to old for xp it was a soyo slot 1 133.

Feb 22, 2003, 06:14 AM	#20
~~JAV~~ Banned Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: California, USA Posts: 283 Rep Power: 0	SC, The PCI bus thing is a progressive failure, in my experience. It takes months (or more) of ocing to start corrupting files & the like. If the bus was too high @ the outset, it plain wouldn't boot to Windows. It's like most things in life: you can push it right to the limit w/o immediate problems, but after time it does adversely affect things. Lemme give you a link for the S.M.A.R.T Diagnostic tool for HD's. That should, at the very least, show you the 'health' of the HD's & help either confirm or eliminate if the HD's are 'messing up'. Here: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php Check your temps, voltages (esp the 12v rail) & use the S.M.A.R.T utility. You'll have to enable S.M.A.R.T in bios. HTH, EDIT I clicked on a 'Favorite' after I posted this & went to another board. Lo & behold! http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwb/ulti...;f=35;t=000952 Funny huh? Discussion of FSB/PCI & HD corruption! Last edited by JAV; Feb 22, 2003 at 06:23 AM.

Feb 22, 2003, 07:44 AM	Thread Starter #21
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	I'm going to try a new motherboard, CPU & RAM later today. I'll let you guys know what happens.

Feb 23, 2003, 09:05 PM	#23
syko86 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 130 Rep Power: 0	Hi, I added 128MB of RAM to my system recently, and my system became very unstable. I did memory tests and stuff... And there were no problems at all. Then I took out the 128MB, and left my 256MB in it, and my system became stable again. I tried putting in the 128MB again, and my system hanged and stuff again.. Sometimes I think computers are really weird... __________________ "Shoot Yourself In The Head, A Better Life Is Ahead." "Who do you side?" "Myself, of course." http://shux-inspir3.spydar.com Shucky Poets