f13.net

Issue solved!  Thanks!

See end of thread for newest problem! :P

Doesn't matter. In the BIOS you can adjust the boot order.

Doesn't matter either.

I just winged it and followed my gut.  Worked out fine.  I think.

Having some random issues with the graphics card resetting to 640x400 resolution atm....And some MS framework issues...And some others, but otherwise, seems to be going well.

Tried to run 3dMark2005, but it crashed about 1/4 of the way through and reset my system.

Not sure if I am going to like this 27 inch LCD HDTV I'm connected to...Native resolution is 1366 x 768, and the closest I can get is 1360x768.  If I could get it set up to be sitting further away (I'm about 1.5 feet from the screen right now  :-o ), I would probably be happier. 

Need to load up some games and see how it runs in leiu of being able to use 3dMark2005....

I have a nasty feeling something isn't set up right, or I am developing ALOT of heat.   There are four fans at work right now:  The CPU fan, a 120 mm case fan, one fan on something or other on the board itself, and the fan on the vid card.

But for first night, it's not doing too bad.  Just a few bugs to work out...Seems to be hanging up at the Windows XP splash screen a little too often....I'm wondering if I have a corrupt install....

Are your case fans pointing in the right direction? Get some temperature monitoring utilities and check to see how hot things are getting. Also make sure you are running DirectX 9.0c. The NVIDIA control panel allows you to set custom resolutions though I don't remember if you need the CoolBits registry hack to enable it.

Fans are blowing in the right direction.  But I've got more problems than that...

On a hunch, I reformatted the drive, and tried reinstalling XP.  I'm now getting all sorts of errors while copying files.  Mostly it's:


I've gotten that message, or some variation of for:
cyycoins.chm
diskcopy.dll
dvdplay.exe

and am now stuck on kodak_dc.icm

And had 3 virii pop up on this computer this morning.  And Ive had problems with my 360 the last couple of days.  Coincidence?

How are you connecting to the Internet? Does your comp have an IP address directly accessible from the Internet or are you using NAT? Do you have other computers on your network? A virus wouldn't affect the installation process unless your install disc itself is somehow infected.

Using a router between the twp pc's and the 360.  Does that answer your question?  I have no idea what a NAT is....

Okay let me ask it like this: Does your working computer have a 192.168.X.X IP address or something else?

How do I check in xp?

(I used to know this....)

Bring up a command prompt window and type:

ipconfig /all

When I do that, a small black box appears for a split second then disappears..

I *thought* the command was ipconfig, and I had tried it, but it did the same thing.  Which is why I thought I had forgotten it...

Try Start -> Run -> cmd , then type in the window?

That did it...

IP addy is 192.168.x.xxx

Okay you are using NAT. Assuming you really are getting viruses/trojans/worms on your new computer it's probably coming from your other computer and not the Internet. Scan your other computer. You can also try turning it off/disconnecting it from the LAN while you try reinstalling XP on your new computer. Then patch up your new computer before reconnecting your old computer.

Also make sure your SATA connectors are properly seated. It's very easy for them to work themselves loose from their "slots" since there's no locking mechanism. E.g. if the cable near the connector is bent it could be pulling the connector loose.

Power supply up to the job?

He has this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

so yes assuming it's not defective.

Did that this past weekend, but this morning three trojans popped up.  Then on reinstall of Windows XP, I get the above messages of files not being able to be copied.  Both computers are on the same network, so it's possible the trojans/virii infected the new computer?  Seems like too much of a coincidence to be ignored, yes?


Will try that tonight...


I'm thinking of taking it apart and reseating everything tonight.


As an aside, I ran a google search on the missing files.  Seems like it's indicative of bad memory, bad HDD, and/or bad XP disk...

Fucking.  Awesome.

Something isn't jiving...

Now, as evidence by the above fantastically n00bular questions, I'm no pro at this...But...

Is the fact that my 360 is saying 'dirty disk/bad disk', my new PC not being able to copy files from a perfectly clean winxp disk, and the fact I had 3 virii on my 'good' computer this morning too much of a coincidence?

Despite the 360 being a Microsoft product, it's a completely different beast from your PC's running Windows. I think it's unlikely that some kind of cross-platform virus is muddying things up.

So yeah, probably a coincidence.

GODDAMNIT....

What.  The.  Monkey.  Fuck.


Pulled out the Samsung drive.  Put in an old (working CDROM drive) just to start trouble shooting.  RAM is seated fine (swapped places, tried loading in with one stick, then the other).  Vid card is seated fine.  Everything is where it should be.  When powering up the system, no matter what monitor I use, I initially get a screen that looks like the data image screen or whatever from the Matrix movies.  Then it loads up normally.

I'm also getting a NTLDR error. 

What the FUCK is going on and how do I fix it??!?!

I'm beyond fucking pissed right now....

And on top of it, I've got a virus on this computer that I CANNOT GET RID OF....
Trojan-PSW.Win32.OnLineGame that has infected C:\Windows\System32\dllms.dll

Well it could any number of things including a bad stick of memory, bad drive, or bad motherboard. If it's easy to reproduce you could try it with just one stick of memory and then the other. Or if you can burn ISOs on your other machine and you have a relatively speedy Internet connection you can download a bootable Linux CD image that has a Memtest option like Ubuntu and have it check your memory.

Are you using a real Microsoft pressed XP install disc or is this something you created yourself? You aren't saying when you are getting infected so it's unclear how that's happening but you should disconnect your new computer from your LAN before doing the install again.

Done that.  Tried with one stick, then the other.  Swapped DVD drives.  I am STILL getting the Matrix looking graphic on start up, and consistently get messages such as this:

Setup cannot copy the file: cinemst2.sys
- To retry, press Enter
  If you are installing from a CD, make sure the Windows XP CD is in the CD-ROM drive
- To skip this file, press ESC
  Caution:  If you skip this file, Setup may not complete and Windows XP may not work properly
- To quit Setup, press F3


No idea how to do that.


Real MS press XP disk.  Full retail version.  SP2.  The disk is GOOD.  I actually just reformatted/reinstalled on this computer....


Done.  And I'm still getting error messages and blue screens.  Hell, some of them even say it's not a valid copy of Windows....

So it's been narrowed down to video card and mobo as far as I can tell.  The mobo doesn't have an onboard video chipset, so no way to test there.  Short of going and buying a el cheapo PCI card, I don't know what else to do or how to test which one it is.  I am LEANING towards it being the video card.  All the 'cannot copy files' seem to be video in nature.  This is an example of files that will not copy:

dvdplay.exe
kodak_dv.icm
rio8drv.sys
riodrv.sys
streamci.dll
vdmindvd.sys

And the above cinemst2.sys

Not being able to copy files is more of hard drive/motherboard problem. When it's not able to copy a file is it your DVD drive that's thrashing/accessing or your hard drive? If your other machine has a PCI-e video card you could try that. You could also try connecting your hard drive to a different SATA port. You can also try a different SATA cable.

Both DVD drives (new and old) cause it to fuck up.


It doesn't, sadly....


Tried both...No dice.

Tell you what...Just as soon as I get done updating this machine (about 10 minutes), I'll post up pics of the BIOS and some of the errors I am getting...

That doesn't answer my question. When it's having trouble copying a file is it the DVD drive light that's staying on and your hard drive is idling or is it your hard drive that's thrashing around?

THAT I don't know.  I didn't think to look....

Anyhoot.

For your viewing pleasure

Initial powerup. I've entered the Matrix:
(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/matrixgraphics.jpg)

DIE ERROR MESSAGE FROM HELL:
(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/die.jpg)


(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/bio1.jpg)


(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/bio3.jpg)


(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/bio4contd.jpg)


(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/bio5.jpg)


(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/bio6.jpg)


(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/bio7.jpg)


(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/bio8.jpg)


(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/bio9.jpg)

I am TEMPTED to yank the HD out of this computer and put it in the other one.  It only takes about 2.5 hrs from beginning install to full updated...

Also, I've managed to get into DOS mode after trying to use Windows Recovery Tool.  Ran chkdsk and the message "CHKDSK found one or more errors on the volume".

Bad HDD?

Well assuming there's only one thing wrong I would say motherboard at this point. The garbled startup screen could be a video card problem but you can see the BIOS screens fine so there's something odd going on there and a bad video card doesn't explain the file copy problems.

Even if you manage to get XP installed using the old computer you won't have the right drivers to run it properly on the new computer and you'll still need to use the new computer to install a bunch of stuff. Plus it sounds like your old computer doesn't have SATA.

No, what I mean is...Take the HDD I KNOW works, stick it in the new one, reformat, try and install XP on the new mobo/vidcard/ram using the old HD

Oh sure you could try that as long as you don't mind backing up the old drive.

Already backed up...I keep important stuff on CD's anyway.  All i've done so far is reinstall and update windows and drivers since reformatting this machine tonight.

If I use this HDD and it installs fine, I know it's my 'new' HDD and I can have newegg send me another tomorrow.
If I use this HDD and it fails, then it should narrow it down to the mobo, yes?

I just pulled the 'new' HDD from the comp...It's pretty damn hot...Normal?

No you don't know that unless both are SATA drives (it sounds like the old one is an IDE drive) and you use the same SATA port.

Not necessarily. We don't know if the XP disc is bad in some way (bad pressings do happen). If you can a CD copying utility you could try dupping it with "verify write" turned on on your old computer.

Yes that's normal unless you have a fan blowing over it.

Well, "pretty damn hot" doesn't exactly say a whole lot unfortunately. HDDs do get fairly warm, so they do need their own sort of cooling. On my case, the intakes blow through the HDD cage and into the main case.


Also, I'm no IT pro, but I'm guessing your mobo is fuxored. I had a bad mobo once when I was setting up a system in the past...you could get to BIOS and shit, but the Windows install would be corrupt, couldn't get any VGA display or anything...it was a mess, and there wasn't any network connection to worry about. Took a lot of parts swapping to narrow it down, too.

Also, depending on the HDD and if you want to risk putting it in another machine, you could download diagnostic tools to check the working status of the HDD in question.

EDIT: Sounds like putting the questionable HDD in another machine is not an option.  :|

Update:

In my BIOS, my SATA wasn't enabled all the way (see one of the pics, cant see it with this resolution...dont ask).  It's now asking me to set up a RAID.  Do I need to do this with only one HDD and one CD/DVDROM?'

It's also saying I need to make a SATA driver disk to use during the OS installation (page 77 for this mobo's user manual if you can pull it up from EVGA's website).  I dont have a freakin floppy drive, and I am not even sure if this mobo SUPPORTS a floppy.

 :|

No you don't. Keep RAID disabled.

Not if you are installing SP2. It comes with SATA drivers.

Using SP2...

I made it as far as the 'finalizing installation' screen....1 minute left....green progress bar hangs up in the middle....

Anyone got a noose I can borrow?

Oddly, yes.  Want me to post it ?

yay.

got to desktop.  got xp installed.

internet explorer is a no show...
the sata2 hdd is showing up as ide...

I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, GIMME MORE OF IT!!!

Are you saying it's saying it's using an IDE connection or that it's an ATA drive?

It's hooked up to a SATAII connector on the mobo using a SATAII cable to the SATAII input connection on the HDD.

Under device manager, it shows up under IDE drives with the following under the properties>details tab:
 ST3250620AS

then a loooong drop down tab below it

then in the big white area it says: IDE\DISKST325062020AS________________3AAJ____\202020202020202020202020205139314541C4E53

Something has to be messed up in the BIOS?

i'm on msn if you want to contact me there....use the hotmail provided under my email on my profile.  as admin, you should be able to see it....

No that's fine. My SATA Maxtor's are similar.

well, that's it...
i've spent 18 hrs the last two days trying to get this fucker to work and it's turning into one big fucking boat anchor...
all i know to do is to buy a floppy, get the SATA drivers from the gigabyte disk and try to reinstall.  again.

what completely boggles my mind is that IE is gone, along with a whole bunch of other stuff...

It's virtually impossible to install XP without IE since so many components depend on the underlying DLLs. Type "iexplore" in the Run box and see if it shows up.

If Windows isn't asking for drivers during install it doesn't need them.

i did.

nothing.

double clicking the ie icon on the desktop asks me to select the program to open it with (notepad, paint, windows fax and something viewer, and some other program).

it's not there...

Latest error to pop up:

I would RMA the motherboard.

Search for "mshtml.dll" and "shdocvw.dll" in your C:\WINDOWS directory (should be in system32). If those are there search for "iexplore.exe" also in C:\WINDOWS.

Going to do that today....

Windows 2000?

Yeah.  Caught me offguard as well.

I'm guessing memory issues. Try running http://www.memtest.org/ (http://www.memtest.org/)

I would, if I could ever get to desktop and online with it.

But, I tried installing / getting it to work with one stick of each and it still didn't work.  Tried all four slots.  No dice.  So mem seems ok. 

I'm just going to RMA the damn board and be done with it...Sucks though, since it could be up to about the 14th before I receive a new board.  Probably just going to send it back for a refund and buy one locally.

You mentioned a virus earlier. Some hide in the boot sector, so even a reinstall of Xp might not clear it, if this new HD you installed was affected. Did you do a full reformat, including the MBR? Since you do not have a floppy drive, I recommend you download a Linux Live CD ISO and burn it, then boot from it. See what happens there. Changing platforms can often diagnose a problem.

I recommend this live CD (http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download), since its fairly transparent in its use, and can explore existing hardware.

I appreciate your help, but you are talking WAY over my head. 

MBR?  And I know NOTHING about Linux.

Is that link you provided the Linux Live CD ISO?

Master Boot Record - it is where the drive goes when it starts up. Basically it's the bios of the drive.

Ah, ok.  That's what I thought it was, but wasn't going to assume anything.

The answer to the question is:  I don't know if I formatted the MBR or not.  I did a format from the WinXP CD (full, not a quick).  There is about 8 mb or so that seems to never format.  Is that the MBR?  I'm going to give it a shot tonight after doing some reading, but if it doesn't happen right off the bat, I'm sending it back tomorrow.

Likely it didn't. You would need something with an old version of FDISK on it and run it with:

FDISK /MBR

roger dodger, wilco.

The plan today/ tonight now is:
Buy floppy drive.
Buy alternate mobo.
Install floppy drive.
Format the MBR.
Install the OS.
Install the SATA drivers as per the manual USING a floppy disk (despite that I have SP2, which is supposed to have the SATA drivers)

Possible results:
I)  Failure - Taking it apart (again), RMA'ing the mobo
     A)  Rebuild using new mobo
           1)  If successful, cheer and rejoice
           2)  If unsuccessful, open bottle of whiskey and toss the case (including components) in boat to use as anchor

2)  Success - Cancel RMA, stress test the hell out of it (any recommendations besides 3dMark?), celebrate.

Edit: Spelling pwns me these days for some reason

Sorry, I should have been clearer. Yes, that link was to download the Linux Live Disk ISO. This particular brand of Linux is called Ubuntu. Don't be scared, this could be fun exploration, instead of utter frustration. You want to download the one listed as Standard Personal Computer, and burn that ISO (disk image) to a CD, using something like Nero.

Then you boot to the CD, and the CD itself is a mini operating system, from which you can format any hard drives you have plugged in (assuming the Linux installation sees it, which 80% of the time it does, unless you have some wonky raid config, which you don't). You can format it, change wether its a primary, secondary, active partition, etc. Basically, you can even install that live CD into a permanent OS onto the suspected hard drive. If you can then boot to Linux on that hard drive, mess about with it, you can probably place a safe bet that the problem isn't hardware, but something software related (corrupt XP install disk, virus, lack of some necessary drivers, etc).

Ugh.

Between Trippy and another guy, we've narrowed it down to one of two things:
1)  Bad mobo
2)  The fact that the SATA drivers could POSSIBLY be not being set up correctly during the installation process.

So, going to monkey around with it tonight and go from there.

See - I'd still go for

#3. Memory not playing nice.

Stopped by a 'puter shop on the way home...

Talked to the guy there...He gave me a copy of Quicktech Pro S.B.  Everything checked out but...

one of the sticks of RAM....

About to give it a go on the install and see what happens...

So far.  So good.

Anyhoot...Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has tried to help!

Good deal. Glad it worked out. Super odd symptoms for a dead ram stick. Missing IE? Just odd.

All sorts of weird things were happening.  I don't know if it was the bad memory or the fact I *finally* got the SATA drivers installed correctly, or a combination of both.  But it absolutely SCREAMS right now.  Can't imagine what it's going to be like when I get the second gig of RAM installed.   Actually about to have to shut it down to RMA the RAM back to newegg (bought as a matched set), and wait on them to receive, then send a new set of RAM.  Noone locally sells the 6400 speed RAM...Not Best Buy or Circuit City.  I might check the local computer shops, but no doubt they will be three times as much as newegg.

When you have a variety of seemingly mis-matched errors it's almost always one of two things.  Motherboard or RAM.  Motherboard errors generally focus down to a few things after some scrutiny.  The more exotic, baffling and seemingly unconnected the errors are the more likely it is the RAM though.  Odd double bit flips and such that maintain parity and are randomly insterted in the middle of billions and billions of correct values can do all kinds of wierd things.

What brand was the RAM?

I was going to suggest you might check what voltage it can handle and adjust it in your bios and see if you can get both sticks to work together.

WINTEC.

My mistake was generally thinking RAM was RAM once you got past the specs, and went a little cheap.
Won't make that mistake again.


I tried that, but no dice.

There is better spec RAM out there, but I always buy Crucial and have never (touch wood) been disappointed, in any machine I've built or upgraded for 14 years now. That's a shitload of computers without one bum stick.

Actually, I ordered 2 gb of Crucial for my rig.  I've generally used it in the past.  Should have known better. 

Ah well.  Live and learn.

Just ran 3dMark2005 (free version).  With 1 gig of the cheap RAM, I got 8,745 3DMarks. 
Edit: Ran it a second time, with AA and all that set to 'let application decide' and got 9,680 3DMarks

Yeah, you should generally stay away from the off-brands. This is a great example of why.

I always go with either Crucial or Corsair (mostly Corsair). Between the rigs I have built or helped to build, I have never run across a bad stick from either company in the past 8 years or so.

I'm talking maybe 30-35 sticks here. Granted, when you consider how many sticks both of these companies sell, that's a minuscule sample. But twice I have had to deal with systems that went with something else, and RAM was (one of) the problem (OCZ, and something else).

Next issue:

Blue (fades/shifts between black and green and blue) and red text is fuzzy.  Doesn't matter the resolution.  Doesn't matter refresh (fixed 60 hz). 

Vid Card: EVGA 7950 GT
Monitor/TV:  Olevia 27 inch LCD HDTV Widescreen
Cable, connected via: DVI-M from vid card to HDMI-M to TV.

Graphics, otherwise, are flawless.  If it's a red object, it's fine.  If it's a blue object, it's fine.  It only happens to text, which I *believe* is 2d?

Looking at it's spec's, you are running it at 1360 x 768?

I have an old viewsonic 13 inc LCD that is always fuzzy as well. I'm sure it's acceptable as a TV, not sure it's meant to be used as a monitor.

Could be a function of not running it at its native resolution.

Thats what I thought....

But it does it on my small 19 inch monitor as well (using an adapter to go from DVI to VGA) on any resolution.  I've got a ticket in with EVGA, so shall see whats up.  It's not THAT bad, but it is annoying as hell; especially in view of the cost of the card....

Try the other DVI output.