It's almost enough to make you buy a mac.

[Fabricated]

Friend of mine goes on vacation, comes back, Windows is now getting stop errors constantly. Any attempt to reinstall results in stop errors after or during the install.

Specs:
P5N32-SLI Deluxe
2GB Patriot PC800 DDR2
EVGA 8800 GTX
Antec case + PSU (tested and working)

We've done all of the following.

1. Tried 3 different CD-ROMs, both SATA and IDE.
2. Tried different cables.
3. Tried 2 different XP install CDs. Mine and his. Both work on other computers.
4. 4 Different Hard Drives, SATA and IDE.
5. Replaced the mobo.
6. Tested the RAM, RAM checks out at least according to MemTest86 and another test I picked up.
7. Disabling nearly every potential conflict causing thing on the mobo, from RAID controllers to onboard audio, to hardware accelleration, fast writes, etc.

So barring the ram being bad in a way that won't show up on a memtest, the CPU being faulty (which would mean it wouldn't pass a POST), or the Video Card being faulty in such a way that it only causes stop errors on booting windows after an install...I have no idea.

Just a tad frustrating. I spent 3 hours on it tonight with no luck, and my friend just took the thing home. We fiddled with the BIOS settings a bit more and I told him to try one more time, and then try installing Linux to finally settle if it's just Windows being retarded.

[Samwise]

Don't trust the mobo POST to tell you if anything is wrong.  Or if it's right, for that matter.

My last giant headache when building a machine turned out to largely be a matter of the POST not giving an error code when the video card was unplugged.  I falsely assumed that this meant that it was failing before it even got to the video card, because that's what it usually means when you get no error code whatsoever.  I ended up bringing it in to the shop and paying them $100 to look at it; they put it all together, booted it up, and it's been working fine ever since.

So, moral of the story, motherboards are fucking liars.

[Trippy]

So basically the only things you didn't swap out were the video card, power supply and RAM -- I would say it's probably one of those three baring a second defective MB. Did you flash the MB to the latest BIOS?

[Ookii]

I'm always a fan of trying out a new power supply if weird shit starts happening without any other plausible explanation.  You could go with your linux idea and try out a Knoppix live cd, though it sounds as if it's definitely a hardware problem rather then a software one.

[Fabricated]

So basically the only things you didn't swap out were the video card, power supply and RAM -- I would say it's probably one of those three baring a second defective MB. Did you flash the MB to the latest BIOS?

Used a tester on the power supply and none of the rails were bad, the voltages were okay too. Haven't flashed the mobo yet but he's installed windows successfully twice on the previous one. I'm thinking the RAM myself even if it does pass MemTest86. Maybe the video card but shit if that won't piss my friend off if it is.

We're at the point where we're about ready to just go to Best Buy and grab some RAM, a PSU, and a video card. Test and return.

[Trippy]

Yeah but is it putting out enough power to power everything in the case, particuarly the video card? An 8800 GTX is pretty power hungry.

[Lantyssa]

What's the wattage?  And even if it's putting out "sufficient" power, are you sure it's not having problems with variability?

[Morat20]

What's the wattage?  And even if it's putting out "sufficient" power, are you sure it's not having problems with variability?

That particular problem resulted in a friend of mine spending weeks getting his system fixed. Power supply tended to surge, fried his CPU. Testing indicated a bad CPU, so it was replaced (still under warranty) and fried itself a week later. They tested it, found a bad motherboard and a bad CPU -- replaced them both, tested fine, fried again.

Finally worked out the power suply was surging and causing random damage everywhere -- they ended up replacing the power supply, the ram, the motherboard and CPU again, and I think proactively swapped his video card.

First time I'd really ever seen a power supply problem that simply didn't boil down to "insufficient juice" or "dead power supply".

[Polysorbate80]

I had one that 'sploded pieces out the back of the PC's case.

One evening my PC shuts down out of the blue.  I says to myself "Huh, that's unusual."  Turn it back on, within a couple of minutes it's powered itself off again.  Something's definitely wrong; time to diagnose the problem.

As I'm flipping it back on again and trying to think what could cause such behavior, I recall that the mobo is set to power down on an overvoltage.  A moment after that, pieces of power supply are ricocheting off the wall behind the PC.

Replaced it with no long-term damage to anything else, though, ecxept my basement stinking of ozone for a couple of days.

[Kitsune]

Unquestionably a hardware issue.  The first thing that comes to mind that I didn't see on your list is flashing the BIOS; a crappy BIOS can easily cause blue screens.  Grab the latest version from the maker's website and install it.  I've yet to see a memory problem that wasn't caught by memtest, so the RAM should be okay.  Power supply is definitely a possible suspect.  There's the outside chance that the CPU got nailed by a power surge, or the heat sink/thermal grease wasn't attached properly and toasted it; those can cause intermittent crashes too.

[fuser]

Friend of mine goes on vacation, comes back, Windows is now getting stop errors constantly. Any attempt to reinstall results in stop errors after or during the install.

Whats the stop error? The number can help you track it down.

[Strazos]

My money is on the ram, unless that mobo is not an Asus, in which case I'll hedge and bet both/either.

Also, are there enough amps on your 12v rails? Is the VC on a different rail than the mobo/drives?

[MrHat]

Fuck it imo.

Buy the apple. 

[Fabricated]

Friend of mine goes on vacation, comes back, Windows is now getting stop errors constantly. Any attempt to reinstall results in stop errors after or during the install.

Whats the stop error? The number can help you track it down.

Looked it up, suggestions from the interwebs unhelpful, especially Microsoft (Run Dr. Watson and look at some fuckin' zeroes!).

As far as I know the PSU is fine, agian. I need to test it again, and we should probably pick up a spare and try that out in case.

[Engels]

Might want to check some forums regarding memory compatibility with certain motherboards too, although to be honest, I suspect the PSU. Even if  you've tested each rail, that doesn't mean that they keep on acting right under load. Something that appears normal under no load at all might wonk right out of voltage range when powering a system.

[Selby]

I've yet to see a memory problem that wasn't caught by memtest, so the RAM should be okay.

I had a memory issue on my computer where it was randomly rebooting every 2-3 hours (load, no load, didn't matter) and I couldn't figure it out.  Three years of living with the problem and I experimented and discovered that what was supposed to be 166MHz and was run there all the while didn't like that setting.  I set it to 133MHz and all was well with the world.  memtest didn't reveal any issues, so I had almost ruled that out.  Was the most annoying problem I ever had to work on (since it was MY computer).

[Engels]

I've yet to see a memory problem that wasn't caught by memtest, so the RAM should be okay.

I had a memory issue on my computer where it was randomly rebooting every 2-3 hours (load, no load, didn't matter) and I couldn't figure it out.  Three years of living with the problem and I experimented and discovered that what was supposed to be 166MHz and was run there all the while didn't like that setting.  I set it to 133MHz and all was well with the world.  memtest didn't reveal any issues, so I had almost ruled that out.  Was the most annoying problem I ever had to work on (since it was MY computer).

Actually, I was wondering if perhaps that could be a problem here. Ostensibly the P5 motherboard is set to autodetect on memory timings, speeds, etc, but is there a chance that something in the motherboard was preset to some other speed and its not playing nice with those PC800 sticks?

[Selby]

Actually, I was wondering if perhaps that could be a problem here. Ostensibly the P5 motherboard is set to autodetect on memory timings, speeds, etc, but is there a chance that something in the motherboard was preset to some other speed and its not playing nice with those PC800 sticks?

It could very well be.  It should auto-detect just fine, but you've got nothing to lose by dropping it down a notch (assuming you have the option in the BIOS) to find out.

[Righ]

I'd boot the miserable thing with Linux anyhow. While its almost certainly some flaky hardware, Linux will do a better job of telling you what it is.

[Tale]

Suggestion - how up-to-date is the BIOS version? Check if there's a newer version. When I upgraded to my 8800 I discovered it wasn't stable with my mobo until I upgraded to a more recent BIOS (mine is an ASRock mobo though).

[Fabricated]

Update: The RAM was bad despite it passing Memtest86 and Windows Memory Diagnostic. Not sure what's up. We fiddled with voltages and timings and couldn't get a result out of any of them.

Picked up a couple new sticks of RAM with the exact same CAS Timings and everything was better. /shrug

[rattran]

I've had mixed luck with Patriot stuff in the last couple years. Always works to start, sometimes just goes dead.

But it's fucking cheap. 8gig of it in this box, $99 AR from Fry's.