- Mar 13, 2005
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Howdy all...
I need your help. I have been working on a friend's computer, on and off, for over 3 weeks now. It all started when he got his computer back from the store where he had purchased his video cards (eVGA 7900GTs, same as mine)... one was bad out of the box and he had taken his computer back to the store so they could pull it out for a return. He took his system home (with one card), and when it fired up it got to the WindowsXP logging on screen and went to black with the message "NTLDR is missing or corrupt, blah blah blah"... anyway, Windows wouldn't boot. I managed to get into the system after repairing the Windows install, and found that the original Windows had been deleted by Scandisk and was all sitting in a .CHK folder! I backed up what I could of his stuff. I check his hardware, and found the SATA cable was loose on the HDD... perhaps bumped by the video card extraction. I replaced it with a better, more solid fitting cable.
Format and Reinstall #1
Everything was good. Then, I replaced his CPU (Athlon64 3700+) with a new one (Athlon64 X2 4400+), and started getting anomolies (BSoD, etc.). After some research, apparently, AMD's techs recommend reinstalling XP when you switch from a single core to a dual core.
Format and Reinstall #2
This time, everything looked great... install went flawlessly, all the software was solid, I took no chances and made everything as stable as possible. I have almost the identical set-up as my buddy, both hardware and software-wise (except the dual core)... I have never had any of these issues. Part way through this install I also replaced his RAM... OCZ 1GB Kit to a OCZ 2GB kit (same one as I have). The old kit went into my daughter's computer where it is running just fine. So, after all the software is on I start running benchmarks. 3DMark03 and 05 both loop through twice just fine, return good marks. It was late, so I went to bed. The next day I got up and fired up the computer to run 3DMark06... and the computer went straight into scandisk/chkdsk... where it found some corrupt entires and deleted them. When it finished booting, I checked the .CHK files and they seemed to contain Microsoft Update and Windows Update stuff. Windows Update still worked, although all of the hidden entries had been reset. I checked over the rest of the system, and all seemed good. I rebooted, and the computer booted to a black screen with "C:\Windows\System\Config\System is missing or corrupt, blah, blah, blah". I found a fix to replace this file through Recovery Console, but the next boot brought me to a black screen with "C:\Windows\System\vgaoem.fon is missing or corrupt, blah, blah, blah". I managed to replace that too, but the next boot went back to scandisk which found a ton of stuff corrupted, and by the time I got into Windows it was totally messed up.
Format and Reinstall #3
I installed WindowsXP SP2 clean, his drivers (minus the AMD Dual Core utility) and Windows Updates (minus the crap). Before I did anything else, I ran the Western Digital Diagnotic Utility (Data Lifeguard Tools) for an "extensive" test. It said the HDD (a WD SATA 200GB) was just fine. I plan on running the Windows Deep Scandisk as well, but this is where I sit now. If the Windows Deep Scandisk returns nothing, then I am at a loss as to what could be wrong. I have installed this Windows/software setup on dozens of computers... all of which are still running perectly today. This is however, the first dual core system I have tried. Even though his problems started before the dual core, it's possible that was coincidental, and the problems are exclusive. However, I'm not sure where to go from here... I will continue to reinstall Widnows and software, with alot of caution as to what and how I put things on... but other than that, I can't think of what could be wrong.
If anyone out there can offer any insight, I would surely appreicate it!
Thanks...
His System:
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Athlon64 X2 4400+
OCZ Platinum 2GB PC3200 Kit
eVGA 7900GT CO Superclock (one)
Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
WD 200GB SATA HDD (NVRAID)
Enermax Liberty 620w PSU
decent cooling
Latest drivers (non-BETA) for all
WindowsXP SP2 fully updated
I need your help. I have been working on a friend's computer, on and off, for over 3 weeks now. It all started when he got his computer back from the store where he had purchased his video cards (eVGA 7900GTs, same as mine)... one was bad out of the box and he had taken his computer back to the store so they could pull it out for a return. He took his system home (with one card), and when it fired up it got to the WindowsXP logging on screen and went to black with the message "NTLDR is missing or corrupt, blah blah blah"... anyway, Windows wouldn't boot. I managed to get into the system after repairing the Windows install, and found that the original Windows had been deleted by Scandisk and was all sitting in a .CHK folder! I backed up what I could of his stuff. I check his hardware, and found the SATA cable was loose on the HDD... perhaps bumped by the video card extraction. I replaced it with a better, more solid fitting cable.
Format and Reinstall #1
Everything was good. Then, I replaced his CPU (Athlon64 3700+) with a new one (Athlon64 X2 4400+), and started getting anomolies (BSoD, etc.). After some research, apparently, AMD's techs recommend reinstalling XP when you switch from a single core to a dual core.
Format and Reinstall #2
This time, everything looked great... install went flawlessly, all the software was solid, I took no chances and made everything as stable as possible. I have almost the identical set-up as my buddy, both hardware and software-wise (except the dual core)... I have never had any of these issues. Part way through this install I also replaced his RAM... OCZ 1GB Kit to a OCZ 2GB kit (same one as I have). The old kit went into my daughter's computer where it is running just fine. So, after all the software is on I start running benchmarks. 3DMark03 and 05 both loop through twice just fine, return good marks. It was late, so I went to bed. The next day I got up and fired up the computer to run 3DMark06... and the computer went straight into scandisk/chkdsk... where it found some corrupt entires and deleted them. When it finished booting, I checked the .CHK files and they seemed to contain Microsoft Update and Windows Update stuff. Windows Update still worked, although all of the hidden entries had been reset. I checked over the rest of the system, and all seemed good. I rebooted, and the computer booted to a black screen with "C:\Windows\System\Config\System is missing or corrupt, blah, blah, blah". I found a fix to replace this file through Recovery Console, but the next boot brought me to a black screen with "C:\Windows\System\vgaoem.fon is missing or corrupt, blah, blah, blah". I managed to replace that too, but the next boot went back to scandisk which found a ton of stuff corrupted, and by the time I got into Windows it was totally messed up.
Format and Reinstall #3
I installed WindowsXP SP2 clean, his drivers (minus the AMD Dual Core utility) and Windows Updates (minus the crap). Before I did anything else, I ran the Western Digital Diagnotic Utility (Data Lifeguard Tools) for an "extensive" test. It said the HDD (a WD SATA 200GB) was just fine. I plan on running the Windows Deep Scandisk as well, but this is where I sit now. If the Windows Deep Scandisk returns nothing, then I am at a loss as to what could be wrong. I have installed this Windows/software setup on dozens of computers... all of which are still running perectly today. This is however, the first dual core system I have tried. Even though his problems started before the dual core, it's possible that was coincidental, and the problems are exclusive. However, I'm not sure where to go from here... I will continue to reinstall Widnows and software, with alot of caution as to what and how I put things on... but other than that, I can't think of what could be wrong.
If anyone out there can offer any insight, I would surely appreicate it!
Thanks...
His System:
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Athlon64 X2 4400+
OCZ Platinum 2GB PC3200 Kit
eVGA 7900GT CO Superclock (one)
Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
WD 200GB SATA HDD (NVRAID)
Enermax Liberty 620w PSU
decent cooling
Latest drivers (non-BETA) for all
WindowsXP SP2 fully updated
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