CPU/Mobo Office PC givings problems

zhopudey

zhopudey

Skilled
My office PC is totally frustating me!!! :mad:

Heres the config -
3200+ Winnie
MSI Neo2 Platinum
2x512mb Hynix
XFX 6600gt
120gb Seagate SATA
80gb Seagate PATA
Asus DVD-RW
Some 450W PSU
etc.....

Ealier, I had problems of windows not loading, drives not getting recognised, etc. Recently, I swapped the f***all msi rounded cables with standard ones. Now, all drives get recognised properly. But I'm getting the following problem -

XP is installed on the PATA. When it starts, it runs Scandisk ( or is it CHKDSK ? ) on two of the SATA partitions. Everytime single time :S After the scan is over, pc hangs. :( So, I tried disconnecting the SATA drive. This time,PC hangs during the WIndows bootup screen.

I tried installing XP again, but after the intial scsi and raid drivers get copied, PC hangs :huh:

I'm totally at a loss!!!
 
Try going into command prompt directly

Like, press F8 or F5 or something like that which allows you to choose how you want Win to load. In safe mode, in normal load, previous best known configuration, command prompt, etc....

Choose command prompt.
 
zhopudey, your os is installed on the pata, but maybe the the boot up files are present on the sata drives, thats why it refuses to boot up w/o sata.

so you tried installing xp again, in that case i just hope your boot files have not been overwritten, and old xp path is still there, assuming that try this :

first thing is skip the chkdsk, it gives you about 10 sec to press any key to skip the chkdsk. see if it boots up, if it does then run chkdsk on sata drives from inside xp, i think they are corrupted badly.

also as nikhil said see if you can into safe mode by pressing F8 during startup. , or try the last known configuation.

or boot up with xp cd, & try the repair option of xp install.
 
dipdude said:
zhopudey, your os is installed on the pata, but maybe the the boot up files are present on the sata drives, thats why it refuses to boot up w/o sata.
Click to expand...

:huh: It was a fresh install on the PATA drive. I dont understand what you mean :S

so you tried installing xp again, in that case i just hope your boot files have not been overwritten, and old xp path is still there, assuming that try this :

first thing is skip the chkdsk, it gives you about 10 sec to press any key to skip the chkdsk. see if it boots up, if it does then run chkdsk on sata drives from inside xp, i think they are corrupted badly.
Click to expand...

If i skip chkdsk, it hangs immediately. If I let it run, it checks 2 partitions ( out of 3), reports no errors, and then hangs.
also as nikhil said see if you can into safe mode by pressing F8 during startup. , or try the last known configuation.
Click to expand...

In safe mode, it loads till mup.sys, then hangs.

or boot up with xp cd, & try the repair option of xp install.
Click to expand...

With the CD, it copies initial scsi, raid drivers, then says " Windows is starting setup", then hangs.
 
It was a fresh install on the PATA drive. I dont understand what you mean
Click to expand...

in bios you get a option as to which is your boot drive or something on those lines, so when you have sata as your choice, & then install xp on pata, all goes fine but the boot.ini, ntldr, config.sys, io.sys etc are present on the 1st partition of sata.

______________

ok first try this,

1) Boot off the XP CD and enter the "recovery console"

2) type "diasable mup" and hit enter (with out quotation marks)

3)reboot normaly and should work or try safe mode see where it freezes.

or try this

Boot with your Windows XP Disc and select the R option for the System Recovery Console, run chkdsk /p on C: or run it on all your partitions, post back.
 
I always use 2 HDDs and I have XP installed on both the HDDs..... after having my share of headaches I finally found a solution to installing XP on both drives and not have each installation interfere with the other - the solution is simple attach only the drive to which XP is going to be installed to and connect the second drive only after the installation is complete. This has always worked for me.
 
dipdude said:
Boot off the XP CD and enter the "recovery console"
Click to expand...

Hehehe.....I don't get that far :bleh: PC hangs before I get the options screen ( R for recovery, Enter for setup, etc)
@Eazy, thats what I'd done as well. But then the SATA started giving problems, so I used only PATA. Then I formated the SATA, to remove windows, so that I could use that space.
Now, since the XP cd is not working with the PATA drive, I'm thinking og disconnecting PATA, and trying to install on SATA. But I have some important data on SATA c: drive. And no, I cant connect it to any other PC and transfer data.

So I'm stuck. :(
 
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ok, take out your pata & try installing xp on sata only, do a clean format & install. see if you can install it like that.

or alternatively, take out your sata, install on pata, do a clean format & install.

hope your data is backed up.

also, be sure about not being able to get into recovery console. are you sure your new ide cables are fine, set your bios options to default, are your ram & psu in good shape.

last option i suggest would be to boot from a floppy using either win98 or me startup disk & then format all your hard drives.

followed by install of xp from cd.
 
@ zhopudey,
Change your rams with known good, working rams.
The problem(s) you describe is a classical symptom of lower quality "remarked" hynix rams of dubious origin.
 
:rofl:

@deejay, this is my office PC. I cant do any such thing! Also, theres another PC with exact same config thats working fine. So my explanations about quality of ram will surely fall on deaf ears.

@dipdude, will try installing XP on the SATA and let you know.
 
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@zhopudey, dont edit your post after someone posts cause it makes the train of thought of the posts a lot messed up.

1. ^look at deejay post, about remarked hynix.

2. take out your pata & try installing xp on sata only.

3. same as 2 but, do a clean format & install. see if you can install it like that.

4. boot from a floppy using either win98 or me startup disk & then format all your hard drives. followed by install of xp from cd.

5. check if your ide cables are fine, set your bios options to default, are your ram & psu in good shape.

6. post back.

@zhopudey, rofl, by the time i finished typing you have already posted :) so ignore steps not relevant anymore.
 
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When installing Windows I know of 2 things that can at times cause an installation failure - overclocking and having the anti virus protection from the BIOS switched on .... also disconnect any USB devices like scanners - only the mouse and keyboard are safe to connect to USB during installation.
 
zhopudey said:
:rofl:

@deejay, this is my office PC. I cant do any such thing! Also, theres another PC with exact same config thats working fine. So my explanations about quality of ram will surely fall on deaf ears.
Click to expand...

Nothing ventured ...Nothing Gained ....Amen!!!!

Do both the m/c's share the same physical ram sticks.?? having the same config does not gurantee that both the m/c's will perform equally.

I am not stating that the ram is faulty and this is the only reason for ur problems, but atleast rule out this possibility first.can't you convince the powers that be to atleast rule out faulty rams by substituting with known good rams.
 
zhopudey said:
Now, since the XP cd is not working with the PATA drive,
Click to expand...

Does your MoBo's BIOS have an option like "IDE Configuration" if you have this option it should not be changed from the default..... otherwise there can be problems like what you are facing.... the defaults here are......

Onboard IDE operation mode = Enhanced Mode
Enhanced Mode support On = SATA
Click to expand...

I found that if I changed the second reading to be PATA than I could not get the PATA HDD and any Optical drive to work at the same time. My main drive is a PATA but I have had to select SATA for this option.
 
@Eazy, only mouse is attached to USB. And, since this is my office PC, obviously nothing is o/ced.

@deejay, Both machines have 2x512mb ram. Apart from this, if I mention chips used and spd and timings and stuff, I'm sure my sys adm will start pulling his hair out!
However, if nothing else works, I'll try using a stick from some other machine and see if it helps. But I might have to come down on saturday for that. :(
Hey, do you want me to post a pic of the ram? I can do that.

@Eazy, bios is set for "optimised defaults". And everything was working some time earlier. I'd even brought my 80gb hdd from home to copy movies and stuff :eek:hyeah:

But one fine day, it started acting up. However, I found that selecting "Last known good config" solved problems. But now, even that isn't working.
 
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Ok, tried connecting only one drive, and installing XP. Same problem as before. :(
It says "Setup is loading files", and copies all scsi and raid drivers, vga drivers etc. Then it says " Setup is starting Windows ", and hangs.

Should I try changing RAM? I'll need to persuade my sys adm for this. :(
 
^ you can try changing rams if you want,

one more thing to try is boot from floppy, & use fdisk /mbr command & see if that helps you in xp installation.

or last choice left is boot from a floopy & using fdisk & format commands recreate the partitons & clean install xp.

only problem is your data. if your data is present on sata then take out your sata & clean install on your pata, maybe you could recover the data from sata after xp is installed on pata.
 
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