KillerAngel
Senior member
Hey, guys. I'm having a little difficulty with a computer I built for a friend; specs are as follows:
Athlon XP 1700+
256MB Crucial DDR RAM
MSI K7T266 Pro 2-RU
Gainward Geforce 2 Ti
Hercules Fortissimo II
3Com 56k 2977 Modem
Toshiba 16x DVD
Plextor 12/10/32A CD-RW
Maxtor 40GB D740X-L (with liquid bearings)
Antec SX635 /w PP352X 350W PSU
Windows XP Home
A couple of weeks ago I put it all together, it was working fabulous. About a week ago my friend called me up, telling me it had locked up on her while she was at a bare desktop, going to start up a program. I told her to hard reset and see what happened, but when she did the computer would hang at the POST screen, right at the first of the Auto IDE drive detection, and after the RAM count. So I had her hard reset it a couple more times, which resulted in the same hang at the IDE detection part of POST. So I had her turn it off and back on, and it loaded WinXP right up. I told her to call me back the next time it locked up in Windows, which it did the next day. So I went to her house and verified what was happening, which is as I just described. After I turned the machine off and then back on, the HD was detected this time, and it proceeded to load up WinXP. However, after the load time turned from 20-30 secs to 5 minutes to the first sign of the Windows GUI, I became a little concerned. Ever since then, until earlier tonight, the performance when trying to load up Windows or to reinstall Windows has been abysmal-doing such tasks as copying the Windows installation files to the HD-and running at a snail's pace.
I've since proceed to swap out parts with my own machine, as they have very similar parts. I have the same CPU, RAM, case/PSU, CD-RW, and same mobo except mine is a standard Pro 2 without the Raid/USB 2.0. After doing some swapping I was able to get the IDE transfer rates back up to where they should be-the Windows installation was copying files very quickly as it should. I then switched back to entirely her own parts, and it was again transferring at a normal rate. So I figured something may have need reseating, and was almost content. Then I decided to try and hard reset the machine after POST, before it loaded Windows. And as before, the machine immediately stopped at the first of the IDE detection of POST-the only cure being to shut off and turn back on the machine.
I've since completely reinstalled WinXP, and left it running for several hours, and have not seen any kind of lockup or error yet. But the problem with the hard resetting and the detection remains. It doesn't appear to have this issue if I take out her Maxtor HD, or replace it with my old IBM 22GXP; it almost appears isolated to that specific HD. And although it did have problems detecting my 22GXP on the first startup, I've dismissed that as it's not the first time I've had a board that has a hard time with its detection-it takes longer than average to spinup. So I thought that maybe there's a BIOS issue with the IDE detection, a hard restart, and specific HDs that might need addressing. So I decided to put her HD into my machine and try hard resetting-since we have the same boards (mine is just a standard Pro 2 while hers is a Pro 2-RU, remember). So I hook it up in place of my own HD, start it up, and hard reset before Windows starts to load. After repeating it several times, I couldn't get my board to hang during the IDE detection.
I could really use your opinions and experiences with issues similar to these ones. Is there anyone that has the Pro 2-RU with a Maxtor D740X-L HD? Does your combo have the same effects when you reset your machine with the reset button? Without further advice or input, I suppose my next step would be to RMA this mobo back to Newegg-even though this would be the first MSI I've ever had to replace because of a defect. I've owned several personnally and have built other friend's machines with them, and they've all be outstanding.
Like I said, the only current "issue" with that machine is the problem during a hard reset and the IDE detection. I haven't yet been able to reproduce any lockups, error messages, or BSODs in WinXP yet-everything's as smooth as butter until I hit that reset button. Do you think this is some sort of BIOS issue, or should I go ahead and RMA my board?
Oh, and I've ruled out the Maxtor being an issue. It has passed all of Maxtor's own testing utilities tests, and I've never had any problem with repeated formats and constant reading/writing onto it. And the slow transfer of the Windows setup files was reproduced on my 22GXP as well, so I feel the Maxtor is in perfect shape, and the problem lies in the mobo.
Forgive the length of this post, I just wanted to be as detailed as possible for you guys. If anyone has this combination of mobo and HD, and anyone who has any suggestions or experiences, please reply. The 30-day "Satisfaction Guarantee" will be up shortly from Newegg, and I'd hate to wait several weeks for MSI to replace the board. 😉 Anyone who replies to my rather large post, you have my thanks. Thank you. 🙂
Athlon XP 1700+
256MB Crucial DDR RAM
MSI K7T266 Pro 2-RU
Gainward Geforce 2 Ti
Hercules Fortissimo II
3Com 56k 2977 Modem
Toshiba 16x DVD
Plextor 12/10/32A CD-RW
Maxtor 40GB D740X-L (with liquid bearings)
Antec SX635 /w PP352X 350W PSU
Windows XP Home
A couple of weeks ago I put it all together, it was working fabulous. About a week ago my friend called me up, telling me it had locked up on her while she was at a bare desktop, going to start up a program. I told her to hard reset and see what happened, but when she did the computer would hang at the POST screen, right at the first of the Auto IDE drive detection, and after the RAM count. So I had her hard reset it a couple more times, which resulted in the same hang at the IDE detection part of POST. So I had her turn it off and back on, and it loaded WinXP right up. I told her to call me back the next time it locked up in Windows, which it did the next day. So I went to her house and verified what was happening, which is as I just described. After I turned the machine off and then back on, the HD was detected this time, and it proceeded to load up WinXP. However, after the load time turned from 20-30 secs to 5 minutes to the first sign of the Windows GUI, I became a little concerned. Ever since then, until earlier tonight, the performance when trying to load up Windows or to reinstall Windows has been abysmal-doing such tasks as copying the Windows installation files to the HD-and running at a snail's pace.
I've since proceed to swap out parts with my own machine, as they have very similar parts. I have the same CPU, RAM, case/PSU, CD-RW, and same mobo except mine is a standard Pro 2 without the Raid/USB 2.0. After doing some swapping I was able to get the IDE transfer rates back up to where they should be-the Windows installation was copying files very quickly as it should. I then switched back to entirely her own parts, and it was again transferring at a normal rate. So I figured something may have need reseating, and was almost content. Then I decided to try and hard reset the machine after POST, before it loaded Windows. And as before, the machine immediately stopped at the first of the IDE detection of POST-the only cure being to shut off and turn back on the machine.
I've since completely reinstalled WinXP, and left it running for several hours, and have not seen any kind of lockup or error yet. But the problem with the hard resetting and the detection remains. It doesn't appear to have this issue if I take out her Maxtor HD, or replace it with my old IBM 22GXP; it almost appears isolated to that specific HD. And although it did have problems detecting my 22GXP on the first startup, I've dismissed that as it's not the first time I've had a board that has a hard time with its detection-it takes longer than average to spinup. So I thought that maybe there's a BIOS issue with the IDE detection, a hard restart, and specific HDs that might need addressing. So I decided to put her HD into my machine and try hard resetting-since we have the same boards (mine is just a standard Pro 2 while hers is a Pro 2-RU, remember). So I hook it up in place of my own HD, start it up, and hard reset before Windows starts to load. After repeating it several times, I couldn't get my board to hang during the IDE detection.
I could really use your opinions and experiences with issues similar to these ones. Is there anyone that has the Pro 2-RU with a Maxtor D740X-L HD? Does your combo have the same effects when you reset your machine with the reset button? Without further advice or input, I suppose my next step would be to RMA this mobo back to Newegg-even though this would be the first MSI I've ever had to replace because of a defect. I've owned several personnally and have built other friend's machines with them, and they've all be outstanding.
Like I said, the only current "issue" with that machine is the problem during a hard reset and the IDE detection. I haven't yet been able to reproduce any lockups, error messages, or BSODs in WinXP yet-everything's as smooth as butter until I hit that reset button. Do you think this is some sort of BIOS issue, or should I go ahead and RMA my board?
Oh, and I've ruled out the Maxtor being an issue. It has passed all of Maxtor's own testing utilities tests, and I've never had any problem with repeated formats and constant reading/writing onto it. And the slow transfer of the Windows setup files was reproduced on my 22GXP as well, so I feel the Maxtor is in perfect shape, and the problem lies in the mobo.
Forgive the length of this post, I just wanted to be as detailed as possible for you guys. If anyone has this combination of mobo and HD, and anyone who has any suggestions or experiences, please reply. The 30-day "Satisfaction Guarantee" will be up shortly from Newegg, and I'd hate to wait several weeks for MSI to replace the board. 😉 Anyone who replies to my rather large post, you have my thanks. Thank you. 🙂
