Arghh! Strange problem with new PC.
Discussion
I've just upgraded my PC with some new bits, as it was pretty flakey before (could never get MSN to work, CD and DVD drives would sometimes not be able to see data on any disks etc...), and it would reboot itself pretty frequently, plus the video settings would reset themselves occasionally.
I had seen some reports saying that other people had found that the particular m/bd was a bit troublesome (Asus 2 x AMD board, fitted with 2 x AMD 1800 XP CPUs), so figured a new board and CPU would sort me out.
So... I bought myself some new bits:
Intel 865 motherboard
Intel P4 3GHz CPU
2 x 512MB DDR RAM
2 x SATA hard drives
and installed them into my existing case, with it's 430W PSU, GeForce 4600 graphics card, 120GB ATA hard drive, CD writer and DVD drive.
I set the two SATA drives up as RAID 0, and booted off CD to install Windows XP Pro.
The PC boots OK, and starts the install program, however never gets any further than 55% through copying files to the local disk.
I've tried this a number of times, and it either dies with a "Stop" screen, hangs at 55%, or comes up with a message saying it is unable to copy a certain file (different file each time).
The Stop messages are usually different each time, and have referred to IRQ stuff, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, or sometimes don't even have any message at all.
I've tried taking out all PCI cards except the graphics card, have made sure everything is seated properly, have cleaned the CD and have tried it in both my CD drive and DVD drive, but to no avail... I've even tried installing onto a single SATA drive without it being configured as RAID 0, but this didn't make any difference either.
Any ideas?
I had seen some reports saying that other people had found that the particular m/bd was a bit troublesome (Asus 2 x AMD board, fitted with 2 x AMD 1800 XP CPUs), so figured a new board and CPU would sort me out.
So... I bought myself some new bits:
Intel 865 motherboard
Intel P4 3GHz CPU
2 x 512MB DDR RAM
2 x SATA hard drives
and installed them into my existing case, with it's 430W PSU, GeForce 4600 graphics card, 120GB ATA hard drive, CD writer and DVD drive.
I set the two SATA drives up as RAID 0, and booted off CD to install Windows XP Pro.
The PC boots OK, and starts the install program, however never gets any further than 55% through copying files to the local disk.
I've tried this a number of times, and it either dies with a "Stop" screen, hangs at 55%, or comes up with a message saying it is unable to copy a certain file (different file each time).
The Stop messages are usually different each time, and have referred to IRQ stuff, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, or sometimes don't even have any message at all.
I've tried taking out all PCI cards except the graphics card, have made sure everything is seated properly, have cleaned the CD and have tried it in both my CD drive and DVD drive, but to no avail... I've even tried installing onto a single SATA drive without it being configured as RAID 0, but this didn't make any difference either.
Any ideas?
Podie said:
Is the BIOS set to take that sort of memory... try turning off ECC checking... 
... or try "percussive maintainance"...
I'll double-check the bios for memory settings, but I'm using non-ECC RAM, which is what the M/bd asks for.
I've got a couple of other memory chips, so will try them instead as some of these errors do point to it being memory related.
If that doesn't do it, I'll skip the percussive mainainance, and Mr PC will meet Mr Window, follwed soon after by Mr Ground.
>> Edited by ehasler on Wednesday 17th September 10:41
Whip out all the memory and then re add it one stick at a time trying the install at each one.
If this still doesnt work
Check the XP media, it may be bunk
Ramp up the voltage a little to the CPU I have found some boards have slightly flaky voltage controllers.
Try a different power supply, it may be a juice issue unless you are around 350/400w
If this doesnt work come back with your findings and we can try something else.
Actually re-reading your post check the PSU wattage first...
>> Edited by plotloss on Wednesday 17th September 10:42
If this still doesnt work
Check the XP media, it may be bunk
Ramp up the voltage a little to the CPU I have found some boards have slightly flaky voltage controllers.
Try a different power supply, it may be a juice issue unless you are around 350/400w
If this doesnt work come back with your findings and we can try something else.
Actually re-reading your post check the PSU wattage first...
>> Edited by plotloss on Wednesday 17th September 10:42
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817197
Check that all your Hardware is on the Microsoft HCL (hardware compatibility list)....
Check that all your Hardware is on the Microsoft HCL (hardware compatibility list)....
206xsi said:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817197
Check that all your Hardware is on the Microsoft HCL (hardware compatibility list)....
I saw this article, but the errors are occuring before any 3rd-party drivers are installed, and the only new hardware I have added is an Intel motherboard, Intel CPU and two Western Digital hard drives. Intel's RAID drivers are designed for XP, so I'd be very surprised if any of this is causing a problem.
plotloss said:
Whip out all the memory and then re add it one stick at a time trying the install at each one.
Actually re-reading your post check the PSU wattage first...
I've got a 430W Enermax PSU fitted, which should be OK I would have thought?
Good advice for the memory though - I'll give that a shot tomorrow (out for
tonight, so probably best not to try 
stuff when I'm 
!)
Didn't know memory would fit in the PCI slots. 
Aha! I think I've found out what it might be!
I ordered some Kingston HyperX RAM with a CAS latency of 2, but according to Kingston:
"The default SPD timings on the HyperX KHX3200/xxx modules are too aggressive for the motherboard."
Hopefully I can set the motherboard to use a setting of 3, which is one suggestion from Kingston, or the other is to swap this RAM for some CL3 RAM.
Problem solved! (hopefully!!!)
I ordered some Kingston HyperX RAM with a CAS latency of 2, but according to Kingston:
"The default SPD timings on the HyperX KHX3200/xxx modules are too aggressive for the motherboard."
Hopefully I can set the motherboard to use a setting of 3, which is one suggestion from Kingston, or the other is to swap this RAM for some CL3 RAM.
Problem solved! (hopefully!!!)
Wahay! All sorted now! 
The problem was because I had ordered some super-dooper RAM (Kingston HyperX) which has low CAS latency settings. The default setting on my motherboard was to auto-detect the memory settings, and use those.
For some reason, this was too much for the motherboard to handle, so I've changed the BIOS to manually set the CAS settings to more standard values which has done the trick!
Replacing the memory chips for standard CAS 3 DIMMs would have had the same effect.
Thanks for your help everyone!
The problem was because I had ordered some super-dooper RAM (Kingston HyperX) which has low CAS latency settings. The default setting on my motherboard was to auto-detect the memory settings, and use those.
For some reason, this was too much for the motherboard to handle, so I've changed the BIOS to manually set the CAS settings to more standard values which has done the trick!
Replacing the memory chips for standard CAS 3 DIMMs would have had the same effect.
Thanks for your help everyone!
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