Trouble installing XP-Pro with new PC Build

[CraigLC]

Hi Guys. i am pulling whats left of my hair out here... heres what I have.

Asus A7N8X-E Motherboard
AMD Processor with heatsink and fan
Two Kingstom Ram chips for a total of one gig

(Mboard, RAM and processor were bought as a grouping)

Sony CD-R / CD-W / CD-RW drive
Western Digital 80 Gig hard drive ultra ATA 133
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.

All new components, all bought from the same supplier and were new in box with cellophane wrap etc. I have it all in the case and I am trying to install WIN XP Pro which was also bought new in a wrapper...the problem is that it keeps getting errors (dumps to blue screen) on install. The one time it actually did install and run it was so slow I damn near cried. Now I have tried to research this on my own. I have turned off every IRQ port and every device and power management and made sure all my connections were good etc. It still fails. I don't know what to do? does anyone have any thoughts?

 

[P5-133XL]

Run MemTest86+

Check CPU temps and voltages in BIOS

 

[MaxBurn]

Double check post speed is what the processor is rated. Might want to just load bios defaults.

 

[CraigLC]

Run MemTest86+

Check CPU temps and voltages in BIOS

71F on the board and 117F on the CPU itself


As for bios defaults I did try that initially. Its only since it failed that I have begun messing with settings in the bios. :-?

 

[Handruin]

Which AMD processor did you buy (speed, core, etc)? Also, what power supply do you have (make/model). Can you try using a single stick of ram...if no improvement, swap with the other? As Mark suggested, MemTest86+ could prove some valuable troubleshooting results.

Also as mark suggested, can you list the voltages, this might help determine if the power supply is cranking out enough juice for your given CPU.

 

[CraigLC]

"socket A" AMD 3200

the power supply is marked as MGE and the model they have checked off is LC-B400ATX It is what came with the case obviously i have tried one ram here and there and everywhere. At this moment I am looking into why the hard drive seems to freeze whenever i run the western Digital provided diagnostic tools on it. Bad drive maybe? I'll list off the voltages from the bios tomorrow evening...gotta go to be for work in the morning. Thanks for the input guys.

Doug, This could be a good reason to get you two down here? LOL we got pizza...beer...cars...and a DSL hookup just waiting for this machine!

 

[Handruin]

I'll definitely come down for a visit, but it'll have to be in Nov. My weekends are busy as hell for the rest of Oct and weekdays are consumed for work. If you can get this new beast up in running, you're more than welcome to join in on a planned LAN party on the 30th & 31st at my place.

Have you tried the WD on the secondary controller? Also, make sure the board isn't grounding to the case some how. That might cause you tons of problems.

 

[CraigLC]

Okay then...problem solved. I had bought the 80 gig WD hard drive months ago and never ended up even opening the package. I just threw in an old 6.2 gig I had lying around and whammo! bios loads fast as hell...XP installs first try and XP runs lightening quick! I just wanted to say thanks to those that offered helpfull hints and tips. As for the lan party...that souds awesome. I usually work weekends so its hard for me to get them off but I may just try! What games you going to be playing? Since my computer until this point was a little old I dont have any of the newer games for PC. I have been enjoying my X-box though

 

[Mercutio]

Before you throw that WD drive in the box to RMA, you might try pulling its jumper and using it in Cable Select mode. WD drives are REALLY funny about that...

 

[CraigLC]

Huh... I'll give that a try tomorrow before I go out and buy a new one...anyone have any recommendations on what drive(s) to buy? my case and motherboard are SATA capable. Would it be worth the extra bucks I would expect it to be to get a large drive that is SATA?

 

[Handruin]

A bunch of guys here like samsung drives. I've recommened two of them to a friend and so far so good. I'll likely be buying one with my next system.

As for the extra money on SATA, you'll likely to see little if no performance gain with SATA. At most you'll reduce cable clutter. If you can get the drive for the same price I'd probably go for it.

 

[Buck]

How was the Western Digital drive originally jumpered? If it is the only device on the cable, it should be jumpered as Single (pins 4-6 or no jumper shunt present), if there is a Slave present on the same ATA cable, then it should be jumpered as a Master (pins 5-6).

 

[CraigLC]

Buck, It was jumpered as a master and was the only thing on the cable. I haven't tried to "unjumper" it or let it do cable select as Merc suggested yet but I will. In the meantime in between time. i bought a 120 gig SATA drive. 7200 rpm and an 8mb cache. Of course now I have no idea how to get XP to accept it LOL Its my new project for the night! doh!

 

[Handruin]

If it doesn't find it automatically, you may need to configure your SATA controller in the BIOS, and then install drivers in XP to manage it. Is it a Silicon Image SATA controller?

 

[MaxBurn]

WD drives need no jumper at all if they are the only device on the cable.

There is a jumper required if there is a slave present or if the drive itself is the slave. If you look on the top of the drive there is even a picture of how to jumper it.

 

[CraigLC]

Okay..so I tried a jumperless 80 gig...it still wouldnt go..in the words of Dr McCoy..."Its dead Jim" As for the SATA drive..... I cant seem to find a driver that fits on a floppy which is what i would seemingly need for XP to recognize it at start up. I got it recognize it as a secondary drive...me and the BIOS are GOOD friends at this point.

Doug it is a Silicon Image SATA controler and ASUS provides drivers and utilities but they are only good once you have XP installed. Even the manual says to get the driver on a floppy first but I haven't been able to find it in small enough form or without the software suite of utilities. I am googling for a source as I type this.

 

[MaxBurn]

To bad about the dead drive.

About the floppy drivers; the Windows F6 driver install looks for an "oemsetup.inf" file in the root of the floppy drive (can't be in a folder). See if you can find this file in a sub directory of your big driver install and copy that directory contents onto the floppy.

There has to be a way though. Just totally unfamiliar with nvidia chipsets.

 

[CraigLC]

I have said it before but I'll say it again! The file name was a little different but I was able to figure it out and get the driver to install windows on my SATA drive....well its installing to the drive now...have to ait and see how successfull I'll be :mrgrn: thanks again guys!

 

[CraigLC]

Well good news and bad....I got XP to installl as well as my DSL connection...thats the good news...the bad newsis that my Radeon 9800 pro is a very unhappy camper. I called ATI but they want to pin it on the BIOS of my ASUS motherboard. I cant seem to update that...I think I am doing it right but it seems to just sit and rotate on the floppy. Anyone heard of issues with this car (9800 Pro)? It wont run even basic games like Return to castle wolfenstien or Ghost recon...both XP suopported games :eekers:

 

[Buck]

Well good news and bad....I got XP to installl as well as my DSL connection...thats the good news...the bad newsis that my Radeon 9800 pro is a very unhappy camper. I called ATI but they want to pin it on the BIOS of my ASUS motherboard. I cant seem to update that...I think I am doing it right but it seems to just sit and rotate on the floppy. Anyone heard of issues with this car (9800 Pro)? It wont run even basic games like Return to castle wolfenstien or Ghost recon...both XP suopported games :eekers:

Only with some Tyan boards that had an updated BIOS to fix the issue.

 

[Handruin]

What version of the ati catalyst drivers you using? Try uninstalling all ATI drivers and then install latest catalyst drivers for radeon family (4.10 is the latest released) if you haven't already. Make sure the radeon card has a good power connection from the power supply. I'd also try patching XP and then install the latest directX through windows update.

 

[CraigLC]

I have installed direct x9.0 and XP service pack 2 and I have the latest catalyst drivers Its not just during games that it dies...seems to die randomly whenever it wants like when I am online. I am planning on trying to start over...complete rebuild. maybe my build is bad. I have done a lot of reading and it seems that folks playing Halo seem to have the biggest problems.

 

[Handruin]

Maybe the card is overheating? Just check and verify the fan is working on the card. Also, maybe something in the BIOS is configured incorrectly? (aperture size, or side band addressing...) I'm just trying to think of ideas.

 

[CraigLC]

The fan is working on the card and my case has two side panel fans which as it turns out blow outside air right onto the card where it is positioned.

In other news. I have run memtest as was suggested and am getting bad results. I have two ddr400 chips which together equal a gig. Using only one installed on the motherboard at a time I ran the memtest and each time I got failures...one only failed with test five...the other failed five and six. It gave me addresses and such but I have to be honest and say I am not sure what it means...do I go out and buy new ram now?

Primed95 wont even run...it errors right off the bat.

So to sum up the issue.... I have been able to install the XP Pro no problem...I have flashed the bios now with no problems (Approved ASUS bios update) MY ati drivers are the newest available....and were the first video drivers installed after a complete re-format and rebuild. I also installed directx9 I have not installed service pack 2 because i have heard of it actually causing issues with games and I am experiencing the same issues I did when it was installed before so I dont think it will help.

My machine randomly clooses down IE. sometimes it BSOD me and reboots. I think its between my video card and or its drivers or I have bad ram. Thoughts on this? or how do I interperet the memtest results? thanks guys.

 

[LiamC]

Memory failures

Any error is bad news.

Are you running overclocked/aggressive memory settings? If you aren't, run memtest with a single DIMM and see if you get errors. If you do, swap the same stick into another socket. Run memtest again. If you still get memory errors, you probably have dud memory stick. Repeat with other stick.

If you can get another stick (beg/borrow/friend etc.), try memtest with this borrowed stick. Doesn't matter what size or if it is 200/266/333 etc, we just want to make sure that this borrowed memory tests OK. This eliminates a dud motherboard/mem socket/north bridge as the problem. If the borrowed stick fails, you may have a dud mobo.

Sounds like dud memory though.

 

[time]

I don't like the fact that Memtest fails in the same place (Test 5) with both modules (even though only one fails Test 6).

I also don't like the mounting coincidences. First the ATA100/133 drive; now, not one, but two DRAM sticks.

All of this could be explained by a bad motherboard.

You really need to try a RAM module from a different manufacturer - size and speed are irrelevant. Just focus on Memtest - there's no point looking at other stuff if it can't get through that.

 

[CraigLC]

I had another older drive which worked fine where the 80 gig didnt so at this point I am not thinking mother board. I am running optimal settings and NOT over clocking anything. Anyone have any suggestions on brand of Ram? I would likely either get 2 512 dimms (ddr 400) or just one big one gig dimm. thanks again for all the help :mrgrn:

 

[Handruin]

I've had good results with Crucial memory for several years now. If you think the issue is RAM compatibility, I'd suggest searching with google to see what other people use with your motherboard. If you can find other people using the same Kingston RAM, then Kingston may not be the issue in terms of compatibility. I also can't say without doing the same research if Crucial is the right choice for your board.

Did you ever capture the voltage readings from the BIOS? Maybe your power supply isn't providing enough current?

 

[CraigLC]

What should I be capturing it from? I mean in the bios there is the hardware monitor. Do you mean that where it says like 1.5v and then has a reading?

 

[Handruin]

Yes, in the BIOS there are values listed in real time for the different voltage levels. Capture all the current operating voltages and what they pertain to. This way we can see if one or more are running out of range. They may be fine, but at least it will help with troubleshooting.

 

[Bartender]

Also, note the fluctuations in the voltages.

 

[time]

I had another older drive which worked fine where the 80 gig didnt so at this point I am not thinking mother board.

The older drive uses a considerably slower interface (ATA33 I'd guess) and doesn't require the 80-wire cable.

If you can't borrow some alternative RAM, try slowing it down in the BIOS. The nForce2 BIOS usually allows a good amount of fine tuning, so try 166MHz instead of accepting the defaults, or relax the DRAM timings (eg. ensure CAS is 2.5 or 3).

Your supplier should be able to confirm compatibility for the combination you purchased.

It's also worth trying to slow down the CPU by reducing the FSB (in the BIOS) to 166MHz. To save time, you could try everything together and just see if it makes any difference.

 

[CraigLC]

Well...as requested...here goes..

VCORE 1.69
+3.3V 3.2 but fluctuates to 3.4 and back occosionally
+5 4.99 but fluctuates down to 4.97 and back sometimes
+12 12.8

That mean anything to anyone? :eekers:

 

[time]

The 12V rail is out of spec, but a little on the high side is okay as long as it's consistent.

If you're reading this from the BIOS, then the 3.3V rail is all over the place. Asus rounds to one decimal point in the BIOS, so that's at least a 3% swing under steady load. By way of contrast, the PC I'm typing this on has a teeny 200W power supply feeding a Thoroughbred 2400 (more juice than your XP3200 Barton, I believe). Either in the BIOS or with the extra decimal places of the Windows-based hardware monitor, the 3.3V rail doesn't move at all. That's hardly surprising, because to the best of my knowledge, the motherboard is using the 12V rail to supply the CPU.

So your power supply is probably crap - but I'm reluctant to blame your problems on it yet.

Borrow some RAM from somewhere - anything - so you have some idea where you stand.

 

[CraigLC]

well with further research I am really thinking RAM. The fine folks at Kingston let me know that the RAM I purchased ( not from them) has been listed for some time as incompatible for my mother board and ASUS whole heartedly agrees. Everything I described to the tech at Kingston sounded very familiar to him. I am in the process of getting some Corsair RAM which has been tested on the Nvidia chipset (which I have) and is specifically designed for the dual channel configuration which my board supports. It will take a couple days to get here but I will keep you posted on the results. :mrgrn:

 

[CraigLC]

Update

Well good news! I got some new corsair RAM which was reccomended for my Nvidia chipset and dual channel ram configuration and everything is awesome. Machine is fast...no more errors etc. Thanks for all your help and suggestions guys. :mrgrn:

 

[MaxBurn]

Really makes me wonder what was up with the other memory. Could you post the part numbers of the Corsair you got and the Kingston that didn't work? Is there a difference like speed or CAS latency?

Been using Corsair XMS or Valueram for the past couple years, not one problem so far.

 

[CraigLC]

The kingston tech I spoke with, multiple techs actually, said that kingston does not make a 400mhz product that is compatible with my asus mother board. The nvidia chipset in general is supposedly not something they do well with. I got corsair twinX1024-3200c2 i had kingston valuram kvr400x64c3ak2/1g

 

[The JoJo]

I'm about to RMA (When I get decent packaging) my a7n8x-x motherboard, due to memory problems. The importer hadn't heard about any problems with it and memory, but the net is full of this (see amdmb.com forums).

 

[Handruin]

Awesome Craig! I'm glad you were able to get the machine running. I'm sorry you had to go through so much when it was some incompatible RAM.

Now that you're up and running...ready to play some games. :mrgrn: We just had a LAN party this past weekend. If you're ever interested in joining us, let me know. I know it's not a short trip, but we make it worth it. We normally play from Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon. Half Life 2 is almost out, and we're thinking about another LAN party to honor it...maybe some star wars battle front will get played.