Musical chairs (I mean computers)

[time]

There are three PCs:

A1 - A1600 on KT266A with WD 20GB
B1 - A1600 on KT266A with WD 100GB

A2 - A2500 on nForce 2 with WD 20GB
B2 - A2500 on nForce 2 with WD 100GB

A1 & B1 are identical except for the HDD; same motherboard, RAM, display and network cards.

A2 is A1 after upgrading but B2 is a new machine except for the HDD. B2 was freighted 1000km to replace B1 but use the same HDD.

The change of chipset necessitated a Windows 'repair' in both cases, after which various drivers were loaded.

B2 was tested with A2's HDD first. Overclocked to 2.2/2.3 GHz and with the CPU fan restricted to 1000rpm, the CPU passed 80C in a stress test without any obvious stability issues.

However, with B1's HDD, B2 was exteremly sluggish and blue-screened after a minute or two. Lot's of over the phone diagnosis later, the swap file was set to zero and things looked normal - but the PC still blue-screened after a few minutes (typically when trying to run something).

So, here's the puzzle: Despite testing, has B2's hardware become flaky after its trip? Or is the 100GB SD drive it inherited from B1 causing all this angst? Or what?

Any and all ideas gratefully received.

 

[Buck]

I figure it is either hardware or driver related. As you mention, hardware could easily be the issue, as parts don't always make it safely through the gentle hands of a carrier. Nonetheless, expecting Windows to work properly after changing chipsets from a KT266a to nForce2 is a bit bold in my opinion, but you may have had more success with that sequence then I have.

 

[Fushigi]

PIO mode? :-?

 

[zx]

Nonetheless, expecting Windows to work properly after changing chipsets from a KT266a to nForce2 is a bit bold in my opinion, but you may have had more success with that sequence then I have.

I agree. The windows repair can have unexpected results. I tried once when switching from single processor to dual (without changing the mobo) and although it did not give me any blue screens, I had many bugs and slowdowns. A clean install was better.

If your hardware has passed the usual stress tests, I don't think you should worry about it.

 

[time]

Thanks for the opinions, guys. Based on your consensus, I deferred ordering a replacement HDD and kept concentrating on the software side. I asked the user to check processes (before we killed the swap, it crashed too quickly for anything like this) and discovered that system and scvhost were chewing most of the CPU time. Disabling svchost gave us enough of a breather to install a couple of Windows patches I supply on CD (although it appeared to crash after the second at least). I then stopped Windblows rebooting on a crash so we could read the bloody BSOD errors, which blamed a file named fwdrv.sys.

All this time the machine is crashing regularly and Plug'n'Pray is fighting tooth and nail to install devices every time the accursed OS restarts. :evil:

Google revealed that fwdrv.sys is part of Tiny firewall (also known as Kerio in later versions). AFAIK, the poxy product was disabled, BTW. Uninstalling resulted in a fully functional PC.

This is one of the very few times that a BSOD error has actually told me something useful. :-?

 

[time]

As for using Windows repair to allow changing motherboard chipsets:

Yes, I normally prefer starting with a clean slate instead. Windows 2000 is infinitely better than Win98 in this regard, but it's still a Microsoft product.

However, I believe it mostly works in this situation. It's just that it can't fix some of the glorious plug-in technology that M$ inflicts on us.

For example, when I did a dry run on the sister PC, everything worked except DirectX. Of course, the DirectX Diagnostic tool insisted everything was fine; there just wasn't any 3D graphics capcbility! Reinstalling or installing higher versions of DirectX and the display driver achieved absolutely nothing. As did changing the video card.

In my experience, if DirectX is broken, you are hosed beyond all hope. :x

 

[time]

Forgot to mention, in case anyone here hasn't realized:

When you boot from the Win2k CD and it asks if you want to create a new installation or repair and existing, the trick is to select 'New', not 'Repair'.

After a little while, it will ask you the same question in a different format! This time, select repair.

The earlier question seems to launch a half-assed repair. :-?

 

[Buck]

I'm glad things worked out Time, and thanks for the tip.

 

[Tannin]

A good tip. I'll bear it in mind.

 

[zx]

I just went through the repair process to upgrade a PII based computer with an AMD 760MP based one. The repair went fine, but there were countless bugs in windows. VPN stopped to work, even though I re-installed routing and remote access. Windows Installer kept asking me for cd's to repair software. When I try to un-install those software, the installer went nuts. The machine took forever to boot. Well, at least active directory worked...

I've had a similar experience when using repair to pass from single processor to dual processors on another board.

So I guess the repair process is good when you want to restore a system to back-up what's on it and do a clean install after that. That's better than nothing... :roll:

Did anyone get consistant good results out of the repair feature?

 

[blakerwry]

I dont think I've ever been able to do the the quick repair (automated repair process?) in 2k and XP. I have had no problems doing a reinstall ontop of a current OS (which is what used to be referred to as a repair before 2k and XP).

 

[Mercutio]

In my experience quick repair does something worthwhile maybe 1 in every 3 or 4 times I try it. Having the ERD helps a lot (maybe 1 in every 2 or 3 goes), and ASR, if you take the time to do it, has been foolproof for me, literally the only positive I've found with 2003 Server so far.