Hey all. I've been having some problems with one of my computers recently, and I can't figure out what's causing it.
About a week ago, I put a new NIC in, which is when all the problems started. When I turned the computer on, Windows 2000 Advanced Server started giving random stop errors during startup.
I took the card out and started up again. It still gave random stop errors. I had to restart the computer a few times to get it running. I figured it would work better if I reformatted and reinstalled, so I backed up all the data (more than 30 gigs) and did just that.
I booted off of the Win2000 CD and everything looked good up until the point when I had to select a partition. I only had one (80 gig NTFS) so I chose it. Instead of saying it found an existing copy of windows, etc, it said the partition was "recognised but damaged" and needed to be reformatted. I let it format, but it took about 2 hours and then said the format failed.
I then tried to format it with Partition Magic 6. It also took forever (with bad sector checks off btw) but it said it finished. Back to Win2000 setup, I got up to the partition screen, and again it said the partition was damaged.
At that point I thought there might be a hard drive problem, so I took it out and put it in another computer, along with the new NIC. Both worked absolutely fine.
I then took the hard drive out and put it in the non-functioning computer. I also replaced the IDE cable. Booted from Win2K CD, same story. Said the partition was damaged and took hours to format, then said it failed.
The next thing I tried was Windows NT Server, thinking that my Win2K CD might be scratched or something, causing this nonsense. No such luck, I had the same problems.
Back to partition magic, I killed the NTFS partition and put an ext2 partition in it's place, then booted off my mandrake 8 install CD. The install took a long time, and I got a kernel panic on the first boot.
So I took the hard drive out and put it back in the other computer. Still works fine in that one.
This time, I put a Promise Ultra66 IDE card in, and hooked the hard drive up to it. In Partition Magic, I killed the ext2 partition and put an NTFS in it's place. Format took only seconds thsi time, like it should.
I booted from the Win2000 CD, thinking my problem is solved. I selected the NTFS partition, and it copied the files as it should. When it rebooted, it looked like it was going to work, but just before the graphical "Starting up" screen, I got an error, saying ntoskrnl.exe was "missing or corrupted" and to run the repair tool from the Win2K CD.
When I did it, it said the installation was beyond repair, or something like that.
So the next thing I tried was to take the computer completely apart, and put it back together piece by piece. When it was back together, I started it up and went through the normal format routine. Also, at this point I had taken the Ultra66 card out.
The format and install went fine, and it booted without fail. I was able to get all my software installed, and the computer actually ran flawlessly for 2 days.
That brings us to today. Just an hour ago, I was moving some files around, when I got a stop error. I tried to reboot a few times, always getting stop errors at random points during boot, and eventually gave up. I took the hard drive out and put it in another computer, and all files were there, intact. I even booted off of it without any problems, other than the large number of hardware changes.
Right now, I am using both the hard drive and the NIC in this computer (the one I'm typing on) and they work fine. What could the problem be?
Basic specs:
ASUS CUSL2 motherboard, approx. 1 year old
Intel Pentium 3 CPU, 800 MHz (no overclock)
Nvidia Geforce2 MX video card
Yamaha Xwave 576 sound card
Realtek RTL8139 network card
3Com EtherLink XL network card (the new one)
Western Digital 80 GB IDE hard drive
Samsung 48x CD-ROM drive
Thanks in advance for any help, I'm out of ideas!
About a week ago, I put a new NIC in, which is when all the problems started. When I turned the computer on, Windows 2000 Advanced Server started giving random stop errors during startup.
I took the card out and started up again. It still gave random stop errors. I had to restart the computer a few times to get it running. I figured it would work better if I reformatted and reinstalled, so I backed up all the data (more than 30 gigs) and did just that.
I booted off of the Win2000 CD and everything looked good up until the point when I had to select a partition. I only had one (80 gig NTFS) so I chose it. Instead of saying it found an existing copy of windows, etc, it said the partition was "recognised but damaged" and needed to be reformatted. I let it format, but it took about 2 hours and then said the format failed.
I then tried to format it with Partition Magic 6. It also took forever (with bad sector checks off btw) but it said it finished. Back to Win2000 setup, I got up to the partition screen, and again it said the partition was damaged.
At that point I thought there might be a hard drive problem, so I took it out and put it in another computer, along with the new NIC. Both worked absolutely fine.
I then took the hard drive out and put it in the non-functioning computer. I also replaced the IDE cable. Booted from Win2K CD, same story. Said the partition was damaged and took hours to format, then said it failed.
The next thing I tried was Windows NT Server, thinking that my Win2K CD might be scratched or something, causing this nonsense. No such luck, I had the same problems.
Back to partition magic, I killed the NTFS partition and put an ext2 partition in it's place, then booted off my mandrake 8 install CD. The install took a long time, and I got a kernel panic on the first boot.
So I took the hard drive out and put it back in the other computer. Still works fine in that one.
This time, I put a Promise Ultra66 IDE card in, and hooked the hard drive up to it. In Partition Magic, I killed the ext2 partition and put an NTFS in it's place. Format took only seconds thsi time, like it should.
I booted from the Win2000 CD, thinking my problem is solved. I selected the NTFS partition, and it copied the files as it should. When it rebooted, it looked like it was going to work, but just before the graphical "Starting up" screen, I got an error, saying ntoskrnl.exe was "missing or corrupted" and to run the repair tool from the Win2K CD.
When I did it, it said the installation was beyond repair, or something like that.
So the next thing I tried was to take the computer completely apart, and put it back together piece by piece. When it was back together, I started it up and went through the normal format routine. Also, at this point I had taken the Ultra66 card out.
The format and install went fine, and it booted without fail. I was able to get all my software installed, and the computer actually ran flawlessly for 2 days.
That brings us to today. Just an hour ago, I was moving some files around, when I got a stop error. I tried to reboot a few times, always getting stop errors at random points during boot, and eventually gave up. I took the hard drive out and put it in another computer, and all files were there, intact. I even booted off of it without any problems, other than the large number of hardware changes.
Right now, I am using both the hard drive and the NIC in this computer (the one I'm typing on) and they work fine. What could the problem be?
Basic specs:
ASUS CUSL2 motherboard, approx. 1 year old
Intel Pentium 3 CPU, 800 MHz (no overclock)
Nvidia Geforce2 MX video card
Yamaha Xwave 576 sound card
Realtek RTL8139 network card
3Com EtherLink XL network card (the new one)
Western Digital 80 GB IDE hard drive
Samsung 48x CD-ROM drive
Thanks in advance for any help, I'm out of ideas!
