[Help] - Windows XP Home wont install

[Envoi]

Well, thanks for that. But I'm all PATA in this rig.

Quick update:

Picked up a cheap PCI GPU, put it in, took out the PCI-E, no help.

Got a new mobo yesterday; AN8 SLI.

I'll let you know.

-- Kris

:edit:

P.S.

I've setup a half dozen, or so, rigs with SATA and have had no problems. ::knock on wood::

Edited June 30, 2005 by Envoi

[Blam-O!]

the moral of this story is to always use the ATA133 standard untill those SATA guys get their crap together

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

SATA works great for me and all th PC's I have built using SATA for a year already.

Highly recomend SATA, once you use it you won't go back to IDE. IMO

~~~~~~~~~~~~

So is your PC running stable yet?? Sounds like you got a lemon. Go buy an ASUS MB, Corsair MEM, and an Antec PS with ethier a SATA WD or Maxtor HD for your next setup. See if you have any problems then.....

[ga_akira]

Yo, hears my two penneth.

I have the following

Abit AN8 F4t4l1ty SLi

SATA Disks (1 system, 2 stripe raided)

2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer Ram

AMD 64 FX-55

I was trying to install windows last night, several times, I loaded up the drivers and just when it says "Now starting Windows" (or words to that effect) the machine reset.

I tried a number of ways of implementing the raid controller and sata controller to no avail. Eventually, I stripped out various components from being recognised.

The raided sata disks went, the second FX7800 went back into non SLi mode, still couldn't get it to work.

Then I dropped out one of the RAM sticks.

It worked. I thought, fecking great, duff memory. Installed windows, then restarted, and reinserted the stick.

CLICK. Reset as soon as windows started to get underway.

So I knew it was my ram, or a problem linked to my ram for sure.

I then checked the BIOS for the RAM settings.

On the AN8 Fatality SLi, the default for ram timings is 'Auto'. I changed this to 'By SPD' and tried to reboot again with both sticks.

Tada, I could get into windows run app etc etc.

However, this isn't the end of the story. I decided to install the game I bought for my new machine and refused to play on my last machine. Battlefield 2.

Installed, loaded and played the first single player map. Seemed to work ok (well actually in SLi mode pretty **** fine to be honest!) As the game went to change the round, click, it reset again!!!!

I am going to have a look at the actual CAS latency settings tonight and see if they need fiddling. But I really wasn't sure if this was a RAM or a Mobo problem. after reading this I would look more at the mobo, but I just am not sure that after 3 mobos and you are still having problems that Abit could get it soooooo wrong!?!?!

Any thoughts?

Akira

[Envoi]

About freakin' time.

It's working and set up at their house finally. I picked up an abit AN8 SLI. Installed it with the Enermax PSU I still had. Windows installed perfectly. Ran P95. The f*cker failed in the first minute. I was fuming. But all it took was raising the RAM voltage. No biggie.

Thanks for ALL the input guys. I hope anyone else with similar problems finds this saga helpful.

-- Kris (scarred Abit consumer)

[ga_akira]

I noticed abit have released a BIOS update which changes the ram voltage, if ?I install that will that fix my problem?

I hope so!!!!

I want my score over the 11434 mark tonight

[ga_akira]

That didn't work. I'm getting annoyed with this now. Abit haven't replied to my email. Memtest shows no problems with the ram, although it does not report the speed correctly

It's fine in non dual channel mode, but as soon as I start the macine in dual channel it won't load windows!! grrr.

[^_^]

you have identical matching memory modules

with the Asus board, I had to set the mem timing to manual, and slow down the latency

[TonyMartin]

Arrrrrrrrgh and yippppeeeee

That's better. 12 hours trying to get the following working and I think I have cracked it.

Thanks to ga_akira putting me on the right track

Yes it is a BIOS and Voltages problem. (Please be warned I just "went for it and increased all the voltages without worrying about the consequences and it worked, if you try it yourself it's entirely at your own risk, okay!)

After numerous attempts at installing (including Linux etc) I read ga_akira note and so I tried cranking up the voltages (each by one notch) and I got Windows to sucessfully do the first part of am install where before it would hang half way through copying files (at about 9-10%). It then crashed later in the processes.

So I rebooted again and cranked all the voltages up by 2 notches.

This time it got past the Windows enter the key section before crashing.

Rebooted again and youve guessed it voltage up to 3 notches (one of them only goes up to 2 notches) and sucessful install.

I then loaded on via memory stick the Windows based BIOS utility and latest BIOS file and upgraded to 1.6 (worked flawlessly) and rebooted and everything seems fine (early days yet but all seem stable so far)

IMPORTANT. Each time Windows does a reboot for some reason the BIOS resets the voltags to AUTO so ensure you re-enter the BIOS voltages on each reboot until you have installed Windows and Flashed the BIOS and then you should not need to

Also the Nvidia Firewall thing crashes my PC and so does trying to use the MGuru thing to quieten the fans. (even the latest ones from the net!

Good luck and I hope this helps.

Tony

P.S. here the kit I am using

Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SKT939 gamers motherboard! NFORCE4 ULTRA

GECUBE RADEON X700PRO PCIe 128MB SilenCool Solution

Creative Sound Blaster Live - 24bit External 5.1 Sound Card

AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3200+ Socket 939pin 512k L2cache 90nm Retail Boxed Processor

AG Neovo F417 17" TFT 12ms 450:1 (1280x1024) Monitor - Black (3 Years On Site Warranty)

Seagate ST3160827AS 160GB 7200rpm SATA 8MB Cache - OEM

Belkin Wireless Silver PS2 RF Keyboard and Mouse

Zalman (CNPS7000B-ALCU) Super Flower S478/S462/S754 (Al/Cu)

Microsoft OEM Windows Xp Professional Edition SP2 - 1Pk

Sony OEM 3.5 Floppy Drive

Nero Express OEM V6 Burning Software - Suite 3 inc Plugins

Antec Sonata Midi Tower in Piano Black Trupower 380W PSU - 9 Drive Bays

LG GSA4163 16X DVD Dual Layer R/RW/RAM Internal IDE (Beige) - OEM

Corsair (VS1GBKIT400C3) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL3, Memory Modules With Lifetime Warranty

Edited July 19, 2005 by TonyMartin

[ga_akira]

Glad I helped someone! My problem is still here though!!!!

Im thinking my CPU is bust, but need to do further testing, but don't have extra ram for the test, DOH DOH

About the FanEQ thing. I am using SLi and it says in the manual to disable all FanEQ settings when using SLi, maybe it is a problem loosely based around that? Considering you are not using nVidia and therefore not SLi?

Hope thats helps.

[TonyMartin]

Hi again, still having problems here but the machine is up and running stable (or as stable as Windows gets!)

I found the MGuru and the Nvidia firewall ended up trashing Windows so was up till midnight re-installing again without those things.

I also left the voltages on all things cranked up two notches to be sure and it seems stable and fast.

I have switched off BIOS shadow and set RAM to ESD rather than auto.

Good luck

Tony

Glad I helped someone! My problem is still here though!!!!

Im thinking my CPU is bust, but need to do further testing, but don't have extra ram for the test, DOH DOH

About the FanEQ thing. I am using SLi and it says in the manual to disable all FanEQ settings when using SLi, maybe it is a problem loosely based around that? Considering you are not using nVidia and therefore not SLi?

Hope thats helps.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[D.Arbib]

Once, a long time ago, I had this sort of problem - it arises from the fact that bits of previous installation are still on the drive,

My solution which always works is to run a free utility "KillDisk" downloadable to a floppy and run from your floppy as the first boot in BIOS setup. This fills the drive with "00" all the way through (a fairly long process!), After that you should be able to install XPSP2 with no problem

[D.Arbib]

My suggestion is that you have remaining bits an pieces on the drive.

My solution to problems of re-installation are solved by using a free utility "KillDisk" downloadable to a floppy and run from floppy in boot up.

This fills the drive with "00" (taking quite a long time) and then there is no problem re-installing XPSP2

Edited July 20, 2005 by D.Arbib

[ga_akira]

I've found that by dropping the voltage on my ram allows me to boot windows in Dual Channel mode, so I have a specific hardware issue somewhere, but it is hard to pinpoint if the issue is with the ram or the motherboard.

[Snowy]

Evoi = If you have a Gbs Lan onboard then disable it then windows and service pack will install. I also had an abit bord that did exactly the same when installing windows till i disabled everything and saw where the problem was

[RJARRRPCGP]

About freakin' time.

It's working and set up at their house finally. I picked up an abit AN8 SLI. Installed it with the Enermax PSU I still had. Windows installed perfectly. Ran P95. The f*cker failed in the first minute. I was fuming. But all it took was raising the RAM voltage. No biggie.

Thanks for ALL the input guys. I hope anyone else with similar problems finds this saga helpful.

-- Kris (scarred Abit consumer)

I would be p***** too if Prime95 failed at stock. Glad to hear that increasing the VDIMM solved the problem.

That's strange, because usually if the Windows installation was successful, the RAM's fine.

That symptom sounds like a processor chip problem instead of a RAM problem.

If the RAM wasn't stable, you're usually aren't even able to use Windows without getting an error message.

If the RAM isn't stable, you usually get error messages such as "Windows-corrupt file The file x is corrupted and unreadable" (or similar) pop up error messages, "***STOP: REGISTRY_HIVE_FAILURE" BSOD, "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" and etc.

Being able to run the Windows installation process without any errors, but Prime95 fails usually means that the motherboard isn't giving your processor chip enough Vcore or the processor chip is faulty.

Windows, especially a Windows NT-based OS is sensitive to RAM malfunctions. You usually can't even browse the internet if the RAM is having a malfunction.

Also, there has been reports of Prime95 always failing with some Athlon 64 processors.

Edited March 18, 2006 by RJARRRPCGP