I'm running an nForce4 Intel SLI setup with XP Pro SP2, which I built about a year ago. Had no serious issues with it then, other than nVidia's ****tacular onboard NAM and USB issues. Using a P4 531, 2gb DC 667 ram, 7600gtko GPU, 80gb & 160gb WD sata HD, couple of disc drives, and a big flashy PSU.
About 4 months ago I started getting occassional freezes, mostly when under a large load involving a big chunk of disk space. I expected the occasional freeze, especially if downloading/watching/playing/burning all at the same time. A few months later I start getting boot-up problems, especially when cold. Sometimes it would freeze-up before the Windows loading screen. Had a few others issues I wanted to take care, so I figured I'd do a fresh install. Moved all my media to the 160gb, wiped the 80gb out, reinstalled XP fresh on the 80gb (deleted, partitioned, formatted same file system using the XP disc).
Worked just fine, till I rebooted. Wouldn't boot XP from the hard drive (boot priorities were correct in BIOS). Ran CHKDSK, FIXBOOT, BOOTCFG and every **** thing else related to booting. Everything showed it there and proper, just wouldn't boot. Wiped the drive out again, reinstalled fresh again. Now I'm getting pretty much random problems. Sometimes the computer makes a few beeps instead of one and won't even display anything when I power it up, just a debug code on the board related to "HD Write-Protect". Sometimes it gets to the Windows loading screen and freezes. Sometimes I get to XP, screw around for a few minutes before it freezes then reboots. I've been using the drivers straight off the mobo disc (with the exception of the NAM and Firewall related stuff of course), just as I did originally with no problems. Been trying to use updated drivers off the nVidia website, but can't accomplish uninstalling the old drivers without freezing. Can't even run any sort of virus check or anything from Windows without an eventual freeze.
Like I said, the drive shows up just fine. I can do a clean install and go about my business for hours, but as soon as I reboot, I start encountering problems again. Should I assume the HD is just shot, or am I missing a driver issue here? I really don't want to put XP on the 160gb, cause if thats not the case then I'm putting all my media in danger of deletion.
On Dec 17, 6:36 pm, neosolipsism <neosolipsism.
31r...@no.email.invalid> wrote:
> I'm running an nForce4 Intel SLI setup with XP Pro SP2, which I built
> about a year ago. Had no serious issues with it then, other than
> nVidia's ****tacular onboard NAM and USB issues. Using a P4 531, 2gb DC
> 667 ram, 7600gtko GPU, 80gb & 160gb WD sata HD, couple of disc drives,
> and a big flashy PSU.
>
> About 4 months ago I started getting occassional freezes, mostly when
> under a large load involving a big chunk of disk space. I expected the
> occasional freeze, especially if downloading/watching/playing/burning
> all at the same time. A few months later I start getting boot-up
> problems, especially when cold. Sometimes it would freeze-up before the
> Windows loading screen. Had a few others issues I wanted to take care,
> so I figured I'd do a fresh install. Moved all my media to the 160gb,
> wiped the 80gb out, reinstalled XP fresh on the 80gb (deleted,
> partitioned, formatted same file system using the XP disc).
>
> Worked just fine, till I rebooted. Wouldn't boot XP from the hard
> drive (boot priorities were correct in BIOS). Ran CHKDSK, FIXBOOT,
> BOOTCFG and every **** thing else related to booting. Everything showed
> it there and proper, just wouldn't boot. Wiped the drive out again,
> reinstalled fresh again. Now I'm getting pretty much random problems.
> Sometimes the computer makes a few beeps instead of one and won't even
> display anything when I power it up, just a debug code on the board
> related to "HD Write-Protect". Sometimes it gets to the Windows loading
> screen and freezes. Sometimes I get to XP, screw around for a few
> minutes before it freezes then reboots. I've been using the drivers
> straight off the mobo disc (with the exception of the NAM and Firewall
> related stuff of course), just as I did originally with no problems.
> Been trying to use updated drivers off the nVidia website, but can't
> accomplish uninstalling the old drivers without freezing. Can't even
> run any sort of virus check or anything from Windows without an eventual
> freeze.
>
> Like I said, the drive shows up just fine. I can do a clean install
> and go about my business for hours, but as soon as I reboot, I start
> encountering problems again. Should I assume the HD is just shot, or am
> I missing a driver issue here? I really don't want to put XP on the
> 160gb, cause if thats not the case then I'm putting all my media in
> danger of deletion.
Bad powersupply? Can you get into BIOS and see what voltage you are
getting. A bad PSU could mess up all your other hardware.
Its a little early and I tried to read your message, but to me I was
wondering how you said you reformated the drives...but are your sure
you don't have boot records on both drives? This could really confuse
Windows. Also no other operating systems installed on the drives as
well? Windows hates dual-booting.
No dual boot. The 160gb is free of OS, just a few folders holding my media (plus a few long alphanumeric folders I assume are backup related). When I got the new drive I formatted it using the XP disc, NTFS, single partition. When I wiped the 80gb I did the same, NTFS, single partition, reinstalled XP. Adjusted BIOS settings accordingly as far as boot priority and HD boot priority are concerned.
Yes I can get to BIOS just fine. Don't run into freezes until XP starts loading. Not at my comp right now or I'd check the PSU voltages, will look into it once I get off work. I'm reluctant to blame the PSU though, its an Xfinity 750W SLI/SATA ready, and I'm pretty sure everything is revolving around the 80gb HD (or XP software issues on the drive), though the fact that it gives me more hell when its really cold is questionable.
Guess I'll have to try putting XP on the 160gb, disconnect the 80gb, and see what kind of results I get.
Get home from work today, turn it on, get no video signal whatsoever, long beep instead of one. Sounds like its booting up though, just can't tell because the monitor isn't getting a signal. Reset, same thing. Reset again - get video, but freezes and reboots after BIOS. Reset again - get all the way to XP loading screen before it freezes.
Fixin to pull the 80gb and put XP on the 160gb and see what happens. At least then maybe I can rule out whether or not its a problem outside the HD or software related.
No luck. Took the 80gb out, installed XP on the 160gb. Everything went okay at first, but once I get to Windows and went to install the mobo drivers it froze up. Just like it would on the other HD.
So now I'm stumped. I'm getting issues with either HD, and even before I've installed any drivers. Think that rules out both of my guesses.
Am I missing something here? There's gotta be something I'm overlooking. I didn't have any issues like this when I first put this computer together, but then again I've added hardware, formatted drives, and tried alternate drivers a few dozen times in its lifetime.
On Dec 18, 4:45 pm, neosolipsism <neosolipsism.
31t...@no.email.invalid> wrote:
> Voltages seem good to me as per BIOS:
>
> VCC1.4 - 1.39V
> +5 - 5.12V
> +12 - 12.3V
> 5VSB - 5.0V
> VDIM - 1.74V
> VBAT - 3.15V
>
> Get home from work today, turn it on, get no video signal whatsoever,
> long beep instead of one. Sounds like its booting up though, just can't
> tell because the monitor isn't getting a signal. Reset, same thing.
> Reset again - get video, but freezes and reboots after BIOS. Reset
> again - get all the way to XP loading screen before it freezes.
>
> Fixin to pull the 80gb and put XP on the 160gb and see what happens.
> At least then maybe I can rule out whether or not its a problem outside
> the HD or software related.
you have checked the video card? see if it is all the way inside the
slot.
On 2007-12-19, ckoehler <ckoehler@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 18, 4:45 pm, neosolipsism <neosolipsism.
> 31t...@no.email.invalid> wrote:
>> Voltages seem good to me as per BIOS:
>>
>> VCC1.4 - 1.39V
>> +5 - 5.12V
>> +12 - 12.3V
>> 5VSB - 5.0V
>> VDIM - 1.74V
>> VBAT - 3.15V
>>
>> Get home from work today, turn it on, get no video signal whatsoever,
>> long beep instead of one. Sounds like its booting up though, just can't
>> tell because the monitor isn't getting a signal. Reset, same thing.
>> Reset again - get video, but freezes and reboots after BIOS. Reset
>> again - get all the way to XP loading screen before it freezes.
>>
>> Fixin to pull the 80gb and put XP on the 160gb and see what happens.
>> At least then maybe I can rule out whether or not its a problem outside
>> the HD or software related.
>
> you have checked the video card? see if it is all the way inside the
> slot.
2nd the suggestion. I had problems with my gigabyte & the ati 1650 gt;
got new drivers without improvement, then did the same for the video drivers
for 3 versions back still without success installing the drivers as the error
msg says "the card is not compatible with the hardware".
Went & got a nvidia chip card (evga 8500 gt), installed & everything works
"normally". I do think an nvidia video card would be best for me from now
on if only for "safe" hardware compatibility issues.
Yes, GPU is fully seated. I took the entire computer apart and put it back together the other day, being sure every **** connection was as good as humanly possible.
Reset the CMOS yesterday and managed to boot up with no incidents just using the 160gb with fresh XP, no drivers installed yet (considering it freezes as soon as I try to do something in XP).
Came home today and booted it up, wouldn't recognize either CD drive. I checked them, and they weren't even getting power, even though they were well connected. Disconnected the power supply pins to them, used some pins off a different wiring bundle, and presto, recognized the drives. Now I'm thinking bad PSU.
neosolipsism wrote:
> Yes, GPU is fully seated. I took the entire computer apart and put it
> back together the other day, being sure every **** connection was as
> good as humanly possible.
>
> Reset the CMOS yesterday and managed to boot up with no incidents just
> using the 160gb with fresh XP, no drivers installed yet (considering it
> freezes as soon as I try to do something in XP).
>
> Came home today and booted it up, wouldn't recognize either CD drive.
> I checked them, and they weren't even getting power, even though they
> were well connected. Disconnected the power supply pins to them, used
> some pins off a different wiring bundle, and presto, recognized the
> drives. Now I'm thinking bad PSU.
>
> Is there any way to test the PSU to be sure?
>
I would want to test that cable, while there was a load on it.
You can connect an unused hard drive, to the suspect power cable.
(Use an old drive. I have a 4GB drive I don't care about any more,
that I use for this.) You don't have to connect up the data cable.
The drive should still spin up and draw a small amount of power.
Then, take a multimeter, and set it to "DC Volts". Make sure the
test leads are plugged into the volt holes, and not the holes for
amps measurements. Now, connect multimeter black lead, to a
black on the Molex. Use the red probe, to check the +5V and the
+12V wires. The results should be within +/- 5%. So the lowest
acceptable 12V value would be 11.4V.
To probe the Molex, you can poke the test lead into the back
of the nylon shell, where the wire goes in. The wire is
crimped in a metal pin, and you are attempting to contact the
submerged metal. The metal may not be exposed equally, so may
take a few attempts to make contact with the multimeter probes.
If the voltage is low enough, it is possible the drive
won't even spin up.
Bad hard drive or driver issues? 
Linear Mode
