Alright people, here's the story. I just acquired the necessary components to essentially build my computer back from the ground up (keeping my previous case, HD, DVD drive and not much else). I got all the parts except for the video card, which I won't get until tomorrow, but I figured I'd try it out with the on-board graphics.
I assembled everything in what I thought was a proper manner, but now when I try booting it up it makes it all the way to the Windows XP pre-loading (i*.e. the little ASCII bar fills up), then it reboots completely to the BIOS. If I let it go, it'll do this over and over again. Could anyone more well-versed in this help? Or at least point me towards the probable source of the problem?
Here's my set-up:
-Intel motherboard model DG965WH with C2D E6600 CPU - it has one IDE port and six SATA ports
-My old HD and DVD drives, IDE. I have an IDE-SATA adapter that I originally put in my HD, then switched over to the DVD drive when the original attempt didn't work - to no avail.
-lol ram
I suspect the issue is either some IDE/SATA screw-up or the CPU overheating (though the CPU fan DOES work properly and I've been performing most of the tests with the case wide open anyway). Any help will... help.
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It's fairly unlikely that it's overheating, you should be able to monitor the CPU temp in the Bios under health status.
Personally, I'd probably try memtest just to check the ram, try booting to a linux distro on CD and then a reformat and reinstall windows.
Sure, I'd reformat... if I had any way of doing a back-up... arrrrgh.
I did a memtest and I had a fail (it's still running right now). According to the diagram that came with my MB, my RAM (two 1GB strips) are placed on "Channel A, DIMM 0" and "Channel A, DIMM 1". Is it possible I need to put them in a different configuration for the system to properly recognize them?
"Was cursing, in broken english at his team, and at our team. made fun of dead family members and mentioned he had sex with a dog."
"Hope he dies tbh but a ban would do."
That doesn't solve the problem, though, and I still get a Fail on the memtest.
I'd also setup the timings and the speed as well for the memory in the bios while you are there, I've never had auto work for me.
About setting the voltage... what voltage should I set it at? I can't find any reference to it anywhere on my RAM's package or documentation...
Auto is usually 1.8v, so you can try 1.9, 2.0 and 2.1 but I wouldn't go any higher without knowing what it should be set at.
2x1GB Kingston DDR2 800MHz.
Also, under Memory options in the BIOS, the things I can change are Memory Frequency, tCL, tRCD, tRP and tRASmin. You'll kind of have to hold my hand through all these things I know nothing about. :P
After many more tests (including a successful launch of Ubuntu if I use a special parameter), and a failure to even format and reinstall my HD (I get a BSOD in the process), I've decided that my HD probably got corrupted somehow during the build, or that there's some incompatibility with the IDE/SATA converter, or SOMETHING that makes it unusable with my new build. I think I'm just gonna get a new HD today when I go get my gfx card, my old one was full to the brim anyway. Hopefully I'll still be able to access my old HD when booting on the new one so I can back-up the REALLY essential stuff.
This should be your next step. Make sure you run memtest on the single sticks as well. To be honest it just sounds like you need to send them back for a replacement, but best to be sure that everything else works first.
I already did that. I did it again just to be sure. I get the same results no matter what configuration I put the memory in (I tried putting them in different DIMMs too in case one of them was defective).
The only other thing I can think of is that there's something wrong with the SATA slot I put the HD in. I'm gonna put it in another one right now, see if that works. If it doesn't, I'll pretty much have eliminated every element other than the HD itself.
Well fuck then. I guess both my strips are fucked or something. Gonna take them back to the store when I go later today.
Yeah, that's what failing memtest means.
I'm now cruisin' on awesome.
I would really make sure that this is the case, considering that it failed memtest and Ubuntu wouldn't boot (both of which have nothing to do with Windows), before you keep using it beyond your warranty period.
There could still be something wrong with the hardware there, most likely memory or motherboard related. Run memtest again, at the very least.
It was the DVD drive. I was running Ubuntu off of a live CD, and the Windows installs didn't work because of it.
And I did get the RAM switched in with a shiny new set before I managed to install, when I was still observing my options. Crisis is averted, and BioShock is beautiful.