posting but not loading OS

[stopthekilling77]

thanks, i just backed up EVERYthing from all the partitions to my 500Gb external harddrive, so if i need anything i'll be able to recover pretty easily.

i'll get Vista back up when i have another 2Gb of RAM and a DX10 video card, but till then, i'll just be sticking with XP seeing how getting a dual boot setup was just for kicks anyhow. i'll be reinstalling XP soon, and bioshock after that :D

cross your fingers for me!

[Methious]

I'm feelin it, I just reloaded my desktop for a Mobo upgrade (Old board died), I was lucky I backed up 2 dvds worth of files music and things a few days before it died. I had just started downloading the drivers for the new board. I think the old board knew it's time had come and took the honorable way out, rather than end up on some old ladies desk surfing for peanut butter cookie recipes.

Hope the reload takes care of it for you!

[stopthekilling77]

the BS never ends.

i wiped everything, created a new full 150Gb partition and started installing windows...

it copies files, prepares for installation, starts installation and it LOOKS like its doing stuff and it wont freeze BUT it stops installing at "installation will complete in 39 minutes"

and when i restarted, i REFORMATTED again... and i BSOD

key text in it is
"*** STOP: 0x00000008E (0xC0000005, 0x80633146, 0xF7616918, 0x00000000)
Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete
Contact your system administrator......"

i'm getting tweaked now, its been out almost a week now. should i try to install windows with a clean drive and maybe no video card, just using onboard graphics?

[martini161]

correct me if im wrong but im almost 100% sure that your board doesnt have onboard graphics

[stopthekilling77]

thats gotta be one of the biggest "D'oh!" moments ive had in a long long time...

gonna run down some basics here that im ashamed to admit i havent tried: unplugging everything and plugging it back in, taking out the CMOS battery to reset it all, and try it with just 1 stick of ram to see if that does anything...

arg much?

[Methious]

It always seems like no matter what goes wrong with my customers computers I take one look at it and know immediately what's wrong, then mine gets funky and it's a 3 day process to get it back to normal. Probably because enthusiast computers are so much more complicated.

Hope you get it I know it's head banging time about now.

[stopthekilling77]

im going to shoot myself or it.

i've slicked the harddrive multiple times cause each time i try to install windows it screws up with the SAME ERROR THAT WAS DISPLAYED EARLIER except i've tried it with just 1 stick of ram (tried both, same error)

what on earth is wrong with it???

[DMB2000uk]

Your XP Disk is in working order right?

Go back to the UBCD, and run the stressprime (any of them should do) CPU test for a couple of hours. The screen will go black after a bit, this is a screensaver feature, hit a key and it'll come back on. This will check that your CPU is working OK.

Have you checked at this point that your PSU is outputting the right voltages (via using a multimeter and not something like the BIOS)

Dan

[stopthekilling77]

i think my dad has an analog multimeter, but im not sure how to use it.

guess i gotta dig up the UBCD again

[stopthekilling77]

wtf ive checked my RAM for 3 hours before and yet windows says its my RAM?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315335

anyone got a blow torch?

[Methious]

In my experience the Windows error codes aren't always right. You can try installing on a single module and if it fails try the other (if you have 2) that should tell you if the error is right (unless both sticks are bad).

I know by now it's not over clocked ram or cpu. If it persists you can try different ram and RMA the current set. I keep a cheap module or two laying around for that. The web site where I get it usually delivers on Thur if I order on Monday. Here's 1 gig ddr2 667 crucial $19 http://directron.com/rm12864aa667.html they have 1 gig ddr2 800 for like 24. For testing I keep the 667 in a pinch it helps a lot.

Hope you get it I know it's been a major headache for a while now.

[shwA]

Hey,

For what its worth, I'm facing a very similar problem. Here's my rig:

AMD X2 4600+
Asus M2N-E Mobo
2GB Corsair XMS
2x 250GB Western Digital HDD (in a RAID 0 array)
ATi x1900XT
OCZ 700w PSU
Thermaltake Matrix Case
Windows XP Pro 32-bit

My specific problem is that it'll post, but then instead of going into the Windows loading screen, it just goes to a blank screen with the blinking white cursor. I ran some HDD diagnostics and Memtest, but no errors were found. Normally, just after it posts, it'll show a quick screen confirming that my RAID array is healthy, but it doesn't get to that screen either. In my mind, the errors seem to be either related to the RAID, or to the OS. I'm going to try to find my XP install CD and run the repair stuff. My hope is that we can possibly find a solution that fixes both of our issues. I'll let you know anything I find out.

-shwA

[Methious]

I have the M2N-E that happened to me once, I reset bios, went into bios reset raid option, re-established the raid array and it booted. Other wise your raid array might be funky, try the bios reset thing failing that XP repair, failing that XP reinstall.

[shwA]

Well, I think for my particular problem, the RAID went funky. When I went into the XP Setup to Repair it, it recognized that I had a C: with 238,475 MB of partitioned space (238,475 MB free) and 238,473 MB of unpartitioned space. This is what it looks like:

238473 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

C: Partition 1 (Unknown) 238475 (238475 MB free)

238473 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

Unpartitioned space 238473 MB

So, if I read that correctly, the RAID had some sort of issue. Any other ideas? Should I just nuke it and reformat? Thats what I'm thinking.

To the OP, any new progress?

[Methious]

When you do the XP repair you still have to insert the raid driver disk and hit F6 to load the drivers before repair. I just did it on a system a few days ago that lost boot ability. The drives showed up the same way until I put the raid driver disk in.

Hope that helps.

[stopthekilling77]

anyone here think my motherboard is fried? i thought maybe i'd run my memory in single channel again instead of dual, but then i realized i'd already tried 1 stick at a time... i'm looking for a good article on how to test a power supply with an old yet sturdy analog multimeter...

this is getting depressing!

[DMB2000uk]

If you can read the analogue multimeter, it's just the same way as testing with a Digital multimeter.

At the very worst, take a (decent sized) picture of what the MM shows for each rail and one of us will read it for you

Dan

[stopthekilling77]

id be willing to do that if i knew how to use the darn thing...

[DMB2000uk]

Take a picture of the front of the unit, or list its model number if it is still around for sale (so we can find a picture), that way we'll know what mode etc it'll need to be on.

Do you know where in the PSU cables you have to shove the two stick/pin things?

Dan

[stopthekilling77]

best shot i can get with my cell phone camera

clearer.jpg (57.58 KiB) Viewed 7074 times

if you need any clarification with any of the labels, just let me know. the things like 15 years old but my dad swears by it.

and yeah um i have no clue what i'd be doing with this other than putting the black wire on the black and the red on the red...