Another "Help me figure out computer problems" thread

Raslin

Alright, so, I've been trying to help my friend fix his computer. Its fairly new(this february), and worked when he got it(A friend built it for him). If I remember right, the specs are...

7950GT 512mb
2x 1 gig of OCZ PC6400 ram
C2D E6600
320gb HD(not sure of brand, WD maybe)
No idea of the case
Asus P5-N "Lifestyle" Mobo
OCZ 700w power supply
LG CD/DVD drive
Running on XP SP2

So, it wasn't working right for him before, but reinstalling windows fixed it. For a couple days. So, I come over to check it out again. It goes from Mobo splash screen to...

"A disk read error has occurred
Press ctrl-alt-delete to restart"

Great. So, I reset mobo to default, no go. Then, I boot up his XP SP2 disk, so I can try some things with recovery console. It loads all the files, then "Setup is starting windows", then I get a BSOD. Nothing really informative, but incase its relevant, the bottom part:

Technical Information:
*** STOP: 0x0000007F (0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

So, I can't boot past mobo splash, and I can't get far enough with the XP CD to reinstall, reformat, or run recovery console. I've tried the regular things, like reset to bios default, re-seat things in the computer, reset CMOS. Nothing works. Help?

Technicality

Try running it with each of the sticks of ram in on their own.

Raslin

Technicality wrote: »

Try running it with each of the sticks of ram in on their own.

Just did that as I was posting. Both individually had the same problems as both in. I'll run memtest next time I come over(No blank CD's around at the moment), but seeing as he had no problems before, it seems weird both would start working bad at the same time.

Technicality

yeah, its pretty unlikely both sticks would just die on their own if the rest of the computer was working properly.

Got a spare power supply? Thats the next thing I would try.

Raslin

Technicality wrote: »

yeah, its pretty unlikely both sticks would just die on their own if the rest of the computer was working properly.

Got a spare power supply? Thats the next thing I would try.

I don't, but it really seems unlikely. Its a 700w, and OCZ is a decent company for PSU's afaik. Honestly, I think its the harddrive, looking at the errors. I'm going to take it to my house, see if I can't format it there and get it working again.

imperial6

Could be a bad cable to the hard drive, easy to test that one.

Raslin

Well, I switched it from the Sata4 cable to the Sata3 cable, and it resulted in much hilarity. It went to boot to CD, and then hung... but there were random colored boxes on the screen, with numbers in them. Except for one. It was a smiley face.

It was a smiley face.

Anyways, rebooted, went to the real xp loading screen with the bar moving under it, got out of it, and hung. I think it was doing this before.

Anyways, I'm going to try repairing windows again. Maybe the cable is what made it fuck up again.

Raslin

Well god damnit.

I tried repairing windows. It started going through setup, and then hung. So I restarted the computer.

Everything is exactly back to how it was in the OP. I am seriously angry right now.

DrFrylock

Have you at all considered that the disk read error might in fact be...a disk read error?

Like, the hard drive is faulty? Have you tried downloading the manufacturer's testing tool and running it on the drive (these generally do not require Windows or a working OS and will run off a boot floppy, CD, or USB drive).

Raslin

DrFrylock wrote: »

Have you at all considered that the disk read error might in fact be...a disk read error?

Like, the hard drive is faulty? Have you tried downloading the manufacturer's testing tool and running it on the drive (these generally do not require Windows or a working OS and will run off a boot floppy, CD, or USB drive).

I have considered it, but I had not found a way to check it. I was going to bring his hard drive to my house later, and poke around with it in my system to see if I could fix it. I'll have to find out exactly what his HD is(brand, at least), before doing anything like that.