Recent Problems..

[kevinmz]

Hey Anandtech,

So I've been having some trouble with my (rather old)machine recently and was looking for some help diagnosing the problem. It was running like a top up until now. Here's my current setup:

psu: thermaltake tr2-500
mobo: gigabyte ga-965p-s3
cpu: c2d e6300
ram (4 sticks in all): 2gb patriot ddr2 (pc2 6400) (original), 2gb gskill ddr2 (pc2 6400) (recently bought)
video: evga 9600gt (recently purchased)
hdd: samsung 200gb (model # SP2004C)
optical: (some old) liteon IDE
OS: XP home

So I got the dreaded BSOD (0x000000F4) while in Windows, and I immediately shut down and started taking out sticks of RAM one at a time and rebooting. I tried booting with each stick of RAM by itself and it still BSOD'd with the same F4 error. A minute or two after I get into Windows, it completely locks up and BSOD's on me. Doesn't matter what RAM configuration I use.

30 minutes later it was even worse. My machine failed to even recognize the hard drive. I turned on the computer and it wanted to boot from CD. I rebooted again and went to change the boot order, and sure enough the hard drive was the primary boot device. So I rebooted again and it booted from the hard drive into Windows! I was about to pull my teeth out. I thought it was going to work, but sure enough it BSOD'd with the same F4 error.

I then shut down and changed the SATA port, and it booted from the HDD into Windows only to BSOD again. So I rebooted and the new port no longer recognizes the HDD. So I tried another port -- same result. It boots into Windows the first time and BSOD's. The next boot it would not recognize the HDD. I'm starting to think this is a problem with my motherboard?

Currently, my roommate has my HDD plugged into his XP machine and is running chkdsk on it. There seems to be no problem with him using my HDD on his machine. It will probably have to run overnight, and I will post in the morning if it is finished.

Does Anandtech have any tips for helping me diagnose where my problem lies? I'd greatly appreciate any help I can get at this point.


Thanks

 

[mechBgon]

One other thing you might check: your PSU output voltages. Checking them with a digital multimeter is the best method, but otherwise you can see what your BIOS's PC Health readings say. Are they close to target?

 

[kevinmz]

Hey,

Quick update. Chkdsk said it fixed an "empty file". Its actually booting into Windows right now (amazing).

Originally posted by: mechBgon
One other thing you might check: your PSU output voltages. Checking them with a digital multimeter is the best method, but otherwise you can see what your BIOS's PC Health readings say. Are they close to target?

I looked in the PC Health Status in the BIOS and it says the 3.3 and the 12v are "OK"

Edit: Another update: CPU fan now not coming on. The rear case fan comes on, the PSU fan comes on, the video card fan comes on, but not the CPU fan.