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    Looking for input on new gaming machine

    Excellent. Thanks all for the suggestions and I think I have largely settled on the make up of the system. Now I just need to get everything together so it will be ready to run my pre-order of the enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate! 1600 fps, here I come! Thanks, John
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    Looking for input on new gaming machine

    Thanks, will definitely go with the 3770k. Planning to use the Noctua for air cooling. John
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    Looking for input on new gaming machine

    Hi, Thanks for the quick reply. I did look at that sticky before posting and thought I had included most of the requested but info, but on the instant replay, yes, sadly I neglected to mention that I will be purchasing in the U.S., I am not re-using anything from the old machine, and I will...
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    Looking for input on new gaming machine

    With my current machine getting a bit aged I'm in the process of planning a new one. It is intended primarily for gaming as well as to be the primary home computer in terms of web surfing, record keeping, and occasionally I watch Blu-ray's on it. I already have a 5.1 Logitech speaker system...
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    RAID configuration spontaneously changed

    I would love an explanation for this. I have a gaming rig based on two 10,000 rpm drives in a RAID 0 array, with a separate 2 TB drive for data, plus an old 500 gig drive in two partitions that I recently emptied onto the large drive when I bought it (thank god, as it turns out). Last week, a...
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    POST problem on system rebuild

    Well, rats that is embarrassing. You are of course correct sir. Unfortunately, when I look through the specifications of the processor, I don't see any mention of stepping, and I must confess I don't actually know what it is. I'm guessing that the 45 nm E8400 using E0? In which case, I...
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    POST problem on system rebuild

    I checked - the BIOS version currently on the mobo is the most recent available.
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    POST problem on system rebuild

    All right - 1 stick of ram (tried several) does not work. I also powered off and disconnected the power supply and popped the mobo battery - that didn't help either. Could this be the processor? Not real excited about pulling everything out of the case, but maybe I'll rebuild on a sheet of...
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    POST problem on system rebuild

    I'll try that... DDR2 DIMMs don't have to be paired? Let you know this evening. I guess my question is: With the boot sequence having gone past the 2096M OK, can it still be the memory or is more likely some other component? Thanks.
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    POST problem on system rebuild

    Initially I had 1 floppy drive (it was lying around so I threw it in), one IDE DVD drive, and a SATA hard drive. All three have been disconnected and the POST goes no further than previously.
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    POST problem on system rebuild

    Building a system for my GF - was a good excuse to update some of the stuff on my main system. Anyways..... System powers on, the CPU is recognized "Intel (R) Core(TM)2 CPU E8400 @ 3.00 Ghz , Speed: 333x6=1998 MHz" "DRAM Frequency ForDDR2 800 (Dual-Channel ) Initializing USB Controllers...
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    I'm am happy to announce that I am reporting to you all live from the new machine. Four hours with no hint of instability. I shall attempt to partition using the UBCD. Should I suddenly become engulfed in smoke and flame in the next several days I will report back but for now I would like...
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Thank you, that site was very helpful. Downloaded a demo version of partition magic which recognized the unallocated section of the hardrive but wouldn't partition it because "this is an evaluation copy." The actual software is $69!!! That's half the cost of the damn drive. Anyone other...
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Well, this bios recognizes it and now I've gone to SP2 and it's still listed as the same size. (137 gb) Is there anyway to force Windows to take another look at the drive now that SP2 is installed or did I screw myself by letting the installer format the 137 gb partition to NTFS? Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    yeah, I checked.. the bios is the current version. It's one of the reasons I went with a 6 month old mainboard... figured the kinks would be worked out. I've gotten most of the drivers installed and I'm getting service pack two going. I'll try this for a few days and drop a line to MSI. I...
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    So far I have rebooted several times during the XP installation.... nary a hint of a problem..... hmmmm......
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Well, I believe I can simplify things a bit for you folks. I did a low-level format of hard drive last night and just now started working on the thing again. The RMA'd Dell monitor arrived and thankfully works this time. (Even better, when you tilt it, you don't hear little pieces rattling...
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Well, there's nothing else to strip out. HDD test is complete, no errors. I'll start from scratch with a low-level format and see what happens. (I do have a multimeter but I moved a few weeks ago and it's in a box somewhere). Thanks, Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Jeez, that IS the whole system, except for the 3 other sticks of ram. Just a basic gaming rig. Everything else is onboard. And I had tried running it with one stick of ram to no avail. Hard drive surface scan is at 89% finished, but if it checks out clean, I'll swap the SATA cables, do a...
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Have not yet swapped SATA cables. Would a problem with them not turn up in the HD diagnostics? (Which is still underway, BTW... still got 67% of the full surface scan to go). Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Did some reading on samsung website. Currently running hutil v2.03 including a surface scan (assuming those are the results you want). Will update once complete. Let me know if you have any other suggested tests. Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Alright, 276,213 gigaflops with no errors. Nice little processor. Will begin to work on hard drive. Suggestions as to which diagnostics? there are many. Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Yep, listed above Samsung 500Gb 7200 rpm HD500. Was brand new, I just plugged and went - did not format or partition. Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Okey-doke. 10:27 hours of continuous memory test. 14 passes, 0 errors. Theres a variety of HD diagnostics on the boot disc and I'm new to this part of troubleshooting, so I'll run stressCPU until I hear back from you. (Quad-Core Intel proc has SSE, right?) Thanks, Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    OK. so far 1 pass, 0 errors and we are 1:29.37 into testing. Nice to know the cheapest piece of suspect equipment seems to be working. Testing continues. I'm still bothered by the crash during the initial install... it never actually got to a windows environment before crashing the first...
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Sorry, went away for weekend. OK, successfully burned DVD and memtest is running. Will report results in AM. So far, no problems in 1:33 minutes, lol Now, how do I score administrator priviledges for my dump files if my profile keeps getting corrupted? Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Well, maybe I'm missing something basic but I don't do a lot of CD burning... I downloaded the self-executable which extracted into the UBCD411.iso Burned that to a DVD. Set CD as the first boot device on both of my computers - functioning and problem child. It skipped past the CD on...
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    All four sticks, huh? All right, I'll run it today. Let you know later. Thanks, Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    SATA drive so no jumpers? I do have some other SATA cables... certainly haven't tried that yet. How would resetting the CMOS help? I'm already on default BIOS settings. Thanks again, Thanearchon
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    Got a variety so far. Most common are "Page fault in non-paged area" and "Bad pool header" Have also seen "Attempt made to write to read only memory" once or twice.
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    BSOD hell on new system... help

    OK, built a new system this weekend and having no end of trouble. Specs: MSI P6N Diamond NF680i mobo Core 2 Quad 6700 MSI NX8800GTX OC 4 Gb Ballistix Crucial PC6400 memory (1 gig sticks) Samsung 500G 7200 rpm HD500 Asus DVD burner DRW-2014L1T LS SATA1 Logitech z5500 speakers (these...