Please Help: Computer Problems Galore

[eLinux]

This is actually quite sad/depressing, considering my situation.

Got home today from work only to find my three huge packages from NewEgg... You can see what I ordered here:

http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishR.asp?ID=741801

Build the thing...took me longer than usual because I haven't built a box in a while. Everything looked okay, powered the baby on...and the problems began.

At first, the computer wouldn't boot. Gosh darn it, I put the memory in the wrong slots.

Fixed that. Then I realized the jumpers on the DVD-ROM were not correct... Fixed those up.

Now the real problem. I changed a few things in the bios (i.e., support for USB mouse, alarm when certain temperatures are reached, etc.). Then I rebooted with a Windows XP CD popped in (yes, I know this is a Linux forum ). I figured since I'm going to dual boot, I'll install Windows first.

Windows installer is loading up, and BAM! Blue screen of death. Huh!? Brand new computer, brand new HDs, and now a bluescreen? It said something like "Page in Non-Paged Area." The last time I got those errors on my laptop a few months ago, the laptop was completely dying (thank goodness it was a work laptop!) -- motherboard, everything...the guts.

So then I start rebooting. The thing finishes the POST successfully, and then reboots...doesn't really get past that.

I turn it off a while, then turn it back on. I go into the BIOS and reset the settings. Then the system finally gets to this screen (I guess when it starts searching for boot devices) that states something like, "Looking at DMI Pool"... For those of you who own a Gigabyte board, you might be able to tell me what the heck its doing.

It refuses to get past that point...with or without the Windows XP CD in the computer. Actually, before the blue screen crash, every time it reached this point without a CD in the drive, it would complain about their being no boot medium... Now? Now it doesn't do anything...just sits there forever with the DMI stuff going on.

I'm completely lost...frustrated, bitter...etc. Funny how a day full of joy to have a new computer can be ruined so quickly.

I figured some of you who are Gigabyte diehards will be able to help. I'm going to be pretty upset if I have to RMA the processor or the mobo... I'm going to stop messing with the computer for tonight. I already forgot to plug in the system (NOT CPU; system) fan in once tonight...luckily I caught it and also luckily, the processor doesn't do anything if it can't even reach a boot device, so the box was nice and cool...

One more sidenote. The system seems to say "success" to this DMI thing when I leave RAID *on* on the BIOS...when I turn it off (I don't want to RAID my SATA drives), it sits there in the DMI thingy waiting for who knows what.

Any help, ideas, suggestions, etc. are MORE than greatly appreciated.

Thanks, everyone.

 

[HermDogg]

I'm gonna cheat... Click here 'cuz i haven't been to sleep yet... The only other thing I can think of is put the jumpers on your main HD and your main RW drive to master, and set the others to CS and see how it goes...

 

[viivo]

Heh, did you copy and paste that from a Linux forum?

Run Memtest86. It sounds like a memory problem to me.

 

[Yanagi]

is the heatsink installed properly?

 

[eLinux]

Originally posted by: HermDogg
I'm gonna cheat... Click here 'cuz i haven't been to sleep yet... The only other thing I can think of is put the jumpers on your main HD and your main RW drive to master, and set the others to CS and see how it goes...

Ran through these and it doesn't look like any of these could be the problem. However, it *could* be the jumpers on the hard drive.

That wouldn't make much sense, though, as the BIOS shows two SATA drives in the correct order on the page.

Hummm, dunno what else it could be on the page, other than possibly bad hardware.

BIOS is working fine...heatsink is installed properly. The memory check during POST shows the memory just fine, too?

I'm thinking it's a simple problem I'm missing... Maybe the SATA drive jumpers. But the strange thing is that the system let me boot off of my CD room once. Now it won't do it again.

@viivo: I'm hoping you're wrong about the memory. I'd hate to start RMAing things... But you're right, the bluescreen does make me think that.



Other ideas/thoughts?

 

[eLinux]

Hummm this is not good...I keep reading (when I did a search on Google) that this might be a hardware problem...

I wouldn't even know where to start in diagnosing such a problem. It could be the SATA drives, motherboard, memory, etc. etc.

This is really bad.

 

[point4life]

Really sounds like bad memory. Test each memory DIMM individually. If that doesn't work, test each HD individually (with each one set as "Master").

 

[mechBgon]

Raise your memory voltage to 2.7 volts and read your motherboard manual end-to-end. Trust a guy with >150 motherboard manuals, they are worth reading if you need to solve a problem

 

[eLinux]

I really hope it's not the bad memory. Wouldn't POST fail if the memory was bad? The memory would explain the BSOD, but it wouldn't explain the Verifying DMI Pool problem...

@mech: what would raising the mem voltage do? I am pretty sure I have read 99% (if not more!) of my motherboard manual trying to figure out what was going on already... But I'll re-read it. You're right, there might be something in there I missed.

Thanks folks...any other experiences/ideas that might help are greatly appreciated.

 

[magratton]

No the post may not faile (likely will not, I have never seen it fail since my days with a 386 DX40) if the memory is bad. download MemTest86 as others have said and run it. If you get failures, then test each chip individually. Hope this helps!

 

[CVSiN]

I had a similar issue very recently.. i had some bad samsung ram and it would post and then none of my drives would boot...
never got to BSOD though...
but yes RAM can be bad and make it through POST...

RMAed ram bought better stuff and no problems at all since

 

[foofoo]

one more exhortation to download and use memtest86.
at the very least, it will prove that your ram is ok and you can go on from there.
but this sounds like ram to me.
good luck

 

[eLinux]

How can I run memtest86 when the only thing I can get into is my BIOS?

Doesn't make sense to me.

I'll RMA these sticks, I guess, if I can't get anything else to work.

 

[viivo]

Originally posted by: eLinux
How can I run memtest86 when the only thing I can get into is my BIOS?

Doesn't make sense to me.

I'll RMA these sticks, I guess, if I can't get anything else to work.

Take your ram out and put it in the machine you're using now then run it.

Edit: Heh, unless it's a laptop of course.

Edit2: Also since you said you can get past the DMI part with raid, you should be able to boot from a floppy, so memtest86 is still feasible.

 

[ggnl]

I've had the same problem before. I screwed something up at some point during the early stages of a Windows XP installation and started getting stuck at "Verifying DMI pool...". There are a couple things I would suggest trying (you might have tried these already).

1st: Make sure your CD drive is set as the primary boot drive in the bios (assuming you can get into the bios)

2nd (if 1st doesn't work): Go to MS Support and download the program to make a Windows boot disk. You will need 6 blank floppies for this.

3rd: Do you have another system you can check the ram on?

I hope your luck gets better.

 

[eLinux]

I'm in a huge jam...here's the latest revalation:

I have the BIOS set to turn the alarm on if something goes wrong with any given fan (cool feature, especially since it didn't exist on my old Dell).

I boot the machine, everything is cool...then the alarm starts blaring. I reboot, go into the BIOS, and the CPU FAN had died!

*sigh* I don't know what's going on. The processor now is possibly messed up...the alarm went off last night too, but I wasn't sure what was going on, and I didn't get to the BIOS fast enough.

I believe I've officially decided I'm going to fully use my 30 day return policy with newegg. I'm going to get a new processor, new motherboard, new memory chips, and new hard drives...then there is *no* doubt in my mind that nothing is wrong.

Now I just have to plan everything correctly so I don't get charged 15% restocking fees...

Thoughts/ideas/insights always appreciated...

 

[foofoo]

hi,
sorry if this is obnoxious but you did install the heatsink with the cut step toward the pivot side of the socket didnt you?
someone has to ask since this is the most common cause of overheating and it still looks ok when you look at the hsf sitting on the mb.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: eLinux
@mech: what would raising the mem voltage do?

Gee, I don't know... after more than 15000 posts specializing in mobo troubleshooting, and happening to own Corsair XMS 3200C2 and an nF3 250Gb board myself, I've resorted to just making stuff up as I go along. Don't bother actually trying my suggestion or anything, it's so much easier to disassemble your stuff, pack it up, drive it down to the UPS depot and send it away for several weeks.



(if you aren't going to take the advice you're asking for, then we're all wasting our time here... eh? )

 

[Ionizer86]

Try running your mem off-sync at 166MHz and/or change the latencies on the ram. Run it again and see if it's stable. At least you can isolate mem issues that way.

Yes I've had a friend with an unstable build. Turns out his Mushkin 512MB PC3200 works at 166 but not at 200. So he RMA'd and got a Crucial, and now all is good.

 

[John]

eLinux, there are a lot of helpful replies in this thread. Usually when one is asking for advice he doesn't brush it off under the table (as you did with mechBgon).

Pull the motherboard out of the case and set it on a box. Leave the cpu, a single stick of memory, video card, a single SATA HDD, and the psu connected. Reset the cmos and leave the raid option in enabled. Set the boot sequence to floppy (if you have one) cdrom, SATA, SCSI, or HDD-0 depending on your available choices. As long as you do not configure an array you will continue to boot just fine.

If all else fails please post your results and we will come up with something else to try. Otherwise you are not only wasting your time, but Newegg's when you RMA a non-defective part(s).

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: John
eLinux, there are a lot of helpful replies in this thread. Usually when one is asking for advice he doesn't brush it off under the table (as you did with mechBgon).

Pull the motherboard out of the case and set it on a box. Leave the cpu, a single stick of memory, video card, a single SATA HDD, and the psu connected. Reset the cmos and leave the raid option in enabled. Set the boot sequence to floppy (if you have one) cdrom, SATA, SCSI, or HDD-0 depending on your available choices. As long as you do not configure an array you will continue to boot just fine.

If all else fails please post your results and we will come up with something else to try. Otherwise you are not only wasting your time, but Newegg's when you RMA a non-defective part(s).

Follow this advice!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[eLinux]

Whoa whoa!

Calm down everyone. I was trying to offend anyone at all. I simply wanted to know why raising the voltage would help. I thought this was done when you overclock a computer, and I've simply never overclocked before (for a variety of reasons). I wasn't questioning anybody's credability...simply being curious!

I was pretty frustrated yesterday when I wrote my post about exchanging things... I'm sorry if I gave anyone the impression the advice you all have given me is not helpful...that's definately not the case. I'll give these suggestions a try tonight and get back to all of you.

Thanks

 

[BaumerX]

Last time I had this problem with a WD harddrive, It was the jumper settings. I remember they set different than a Maxtor or Seagate. I think I had to put them on cable select or something. Not sure exactly.

 

[eLinux]

On a SATA drive?