Almost new 64 bit build

[vagrantsoldier]

I recently replaced 4 parts of my computer hoping to up the performance mostly for gaming. I bought an ABit AN8 motherboard, eVGA 7800 GT, AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, and finally two sticks of 512 Corsair EMS RAM. I updated the system BIOS and then did a fresh Microsoft Windows 64 Bit install. Once I had the drivers installed I started transferring back to my hard drives all of my backed up data. This was when I noticed the first small issue, windows explorer kept on freezing up. I installed F.E.A.R. and opened it, once I started configuring the options the game froze, but sound continued.

I ended up restarting and trying it again, and then again. Everytime I tried it froze at the menu. My first guess was bad RAM so I tested all of my RAM and it turns out the 2 512 sticks I had before the new setup were bad, which doesn't make any sense, but with one of those 2 in, the computer will not boot windows. When I had the RAM I knew to be good in, the game still froze. Also on occasion my sound will not kick in for the menu of the game, I have an Audigy 2 ZS by the way.

I don't really know what is going on a whole lot, this would be my first 64 bit, first dual core build. I was sort of thinking of trying the OS install again or trying a Windows XP install instead. If anyone has any ideas, your help is much appreciated.

 

[D1gger]

It could be a bunch of different things, too small power supply, overheating, bad RAM, bad RAM slots in the motherboard, device driver conflict (my personal guess). Have you checked the device manager to see if it has detected any driver conflicts?

I would try to isolate the problem by reducing the system to it's bare essentials (motherboard, cpu, RAM, one hard drive, video card) and then install a clean version of XP and slowly add the various components, hardware and software, until you reproduce the problem. The last item added is the likely culprit.

 

[amdskip]

What power supply are you using?

 

[vagrantsoldier]

The PSU is a 520 Watt Aspire

I think I will just end up reinstalling windows, have not yet decided whether I should stick with 64bit or go back to XP Pro though

 

[vagrantsoldier]

How do I check for driver conflicts btw, and also I have to install the ethernet driver before doing anything with Windows Update

 

[D1gger]

The Win/64 could be a large part of your problems. There are many devices without drivers available yet for Win/64.

To check for driver conflicts \Start\Control Panel\Performance and Maintenance\System\Hardware\Device Driver. This will give you a list of the hardware and if you have any yellow highlights it will identify hardware that is not functioning correctly or has a driver conflict.

 

[vagrantsoldier]

The computer is running much better now after reinstalling the OS, I chose to try it with Windows XP though, but within the next couple weeks I will probably try the x64 OS again.

The computer stills seems to be running a bit sketchy, I need to test all of the RAM on it I think, I sort of think the Elixir 512s that I had previous to the additions might not be compatible to the motherboardor something, because when I run them alone the computer doesn't seem to want to boot. I tested those and the Corsair 512s all at once with Memtest86 and recieved no errors, though it was my first time using the program, not sure what all the options are for it, any help in that area would be appreciated. Thank you all for the help