Urgent help please

[chris watton]

Hi, Wonder if there are any PC guru's out there who can help me. Now, I'm no PC rookie (built loads of PC's and all work great!), but this probs got me stumped!
Apparently, when the wife turned on my PC this morning, it booted up, but was making a high pitched noise (that's the best description I can give, as she re booted it before I got up!!!!), after she re booted, it goes past the BIOS post and RAID 0 post, all fine, when it comes to boot into Windows, I get a message telling me the 'System Configuration files are missing'! I have put the XP disc in (tried both drives) and it asks me if I want to boot from disc (after changing boot order in BIOS). When it tries to boot from disk, it stops when it gets to 'loading setup', all I get are those words and a blue screen, and then it hangs!

Can anyone help me?, I don't want to eliminate by buying expensive parts to find out they were OK anyway!

Thank you

Chris

[manek]

Sounds like a hardware problem.

Check power supply and memory modules -- I had a memory module go bad recently and it took me days of frustration before I tracked it down. But first, go through the PC (while it's off) and make sure all cards and memory modules are firmly seated.

>> Edited by manek on Monday 21st March 09:08

[off_again]

manek said:

Sounds like a hardware problem. Check power supply and memory modules -- I had a memory module go bad recently and it took me days of frustration before I tracked it down. But first, go through the PC (while it's off) and make sure all cards and memory modules are firmly seated. >> Edited by manek on Monday 21st March 09:08

Yep, been there and bought most of a new PC trying to track down what was a memory problem. Worth checking out as (and as daft as it might sound) Microsoft does report other problems even though its a memory one...

Try dropping the number of modules or even swapping them out with alternatives. Might be worth trying. Alternatively Download something like NTFSDOS and boot up into DOS to check out the drive and Windows folder..... something might have got corrupted....

[ErnestM]

Have you made sure that your RAID is intact?

ErnestM

[MickC]

If you suspect memory problems use memtest86 to test it - www.memtest86.com/

You will need a working PC to create the bootable floppy or CDrom, after that it's OS independant.

[chris watton]

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated , I know the RAID config is OK, as I have already tested it, I even changed the boot order to allow XP to load onto a non RAID hard drive (have 4 hard drives), but nothing! It's as though there is a missing link between the CD, motherboard and hard drives!, but the BIOS sees all the drives! This is very odd, I have dealt with all sorts of probs in the past, including dodgy memory, but this is the first time that I havent been able to stard XP with the original CD in the drive, acting as first boot! I am perplexed!!

[chris watton]

Well, had a night troubleshooting last night, and came to the conclusion that the motherboard is at fault, all the hard drives work, GPU, memory, so it can't be anything else!. Have had to bite the bullet and order a new mobo from Ebuyer (£120 , mind you, was £170 when first purchased!), am hoping, although highly doubtful, that I can change the mobo and carry on as usual, but being in RAID0 config, I don't hold out much hope, trouble is, I have forgotton all of my broadband settings!

[chris watton]

Update! was a lot worse than I initially thought! My Raptor hard drives in RAID0 died, but not before taking out my CPU and motherboard!! It has taken 2 bloody weeks to get the parts I need, along with troubleshooting, all because my very expensive hard drives blew on me!! and they're supposed to be top of the range, bullet proof items too!!, all in all, it's cost me over £500 to fix, and my PC's still in bits, 'jury rigged' for now 'till I get my other hard drive in place!
Oh yes, bought a new PSU too, just in case!!

Chris

[roadsweeper]

chris watton said:

Update! was a lot worse than I initially thought! My Raptor hard drives in RAID0 died, but not before taking out my CPU and motherboard!! It has taken 2 bloody weeks to get the parts I need, along with troubleshooting, all because my very expensive hard drives blew on me!! and they're supposed to be top of the range, bullet proof items too!!, all in all, it's cost me over £500 to fix, and my PC's still in bits, 'jury rigged' for now 'till I get my other hard drive in place! Oh yes, bought a new PSU too, just in case!! Chris

Hope you get it sorted Chris, very worrying that this kind of failure can occur. Maybe consider a swap to RAID5 or similar?

[beanbag]

MickC said:

If you suspect memory problems use memtest86 to test it - www.memtest86.com/ You will need a working PC to create the bootable floppy or CDrom, after that it's OS independant.

This isn't a very good test. It won't detect all memory errors believe it or not. I had memory errors left right and centre yet this util couldn't find them! Replaced my memory and then thought sod it.....and replaced the mobo, psu, memory, cpu, h/s/fan! (Expensive fix!)

[chris watton]

roadsweeper said:

chris watton said: Update! was a lot worse than I initially thought! My Raptor hard drives in RAID0 died, but not before taking out my CPU and motherboard!! It has taken 2 bloody weeks to get the parts I need, along with troubleshooting, all because my very expensive hard drives blew on me!! and they're supposed to be top of the range, bullet proof items too!!, all in all, it's cost me over £500 to fix, and my PC's still in bits, 'jury rigged' for now 'till I get my other hard drive in place! Oh yes, bought a new PSU too, just in case!! Chris Hope you get it sorted Chris, very worrying that this kind of failure can occur. Maybe consider a swap to RAID5 or similar?

Cheers , It is sorted now, I am running one one 'good' Raptor SATA drive (not a lot of space, 37GB, instead of the 72 it had before), but all my important stuff, work files, updates etc were safely on 2 120GB Maxtor IDE drives, and the SATA drive that let me down in such a spectacular manner is still warrantied, so that's going back tomorrow and I await the replacement, pity it didnt cover the CPU and mobo I have to buy too!!
I built the PC myself a year ago and used only the cream of componants, costing all in all £2500, without the monitor!, so it does seem no matter how much you pay, it still breaks the same as something a fraction of the cost! The Raptor hard drives are almost £80 each!




>> Edited by chris watton on Monday 4th April 18:36

>> Edited by chris watton on Monday 4th April 18:37