TOTAL SYSTEM HELL: please help me, severe issues!

[MatthewF01]

<pulled from my post at ocworkbench from my serious problem, HOPEFULLY YOU CAN HELP! Im going insane, its making me depressed and sick to think about these troubles...> http://forum.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=27&t=005640


OK heres my complete hellish nightmare I thought I never would live. I got a Soundblaster Audigy MP3, and tried to install it yesterday. But the package did not come with the drivers (damn ebay), and Creative doesnt post complete drivers on their site. So I looked all over but couldnt find the Creative drivers. I instead tried to install the KX Project drivers (www.kxproject.com), hoping that they would work just as well.
So, I popped the Audigy in the first PCI slot, didnt change any PCI settings in BIOS (this is my first PCI device, so im not keen on the settings), and booted up.

Windows XP Pro, was picking up on all the hardware, and installed the Firewire support, and tried doing audio many times. I think a couple times I didnt let it, and then it eventually went through with installing some things. So then I went through the KX install, and it told me to reboot, so i did.

Windows boots up, then comes in with the sound not working. Then the system freezes and I reboot. I let it boot normally, and it freezes on the login screen, BUT after I put my password in, the sound DID pick up and it played. So I rebooted a million times, trying safe mode, last known good config, and normal boot, all to no avail. It always freezes on the logon. When I try safemode, it either bluescreens, blaming it on some cxxxx.sys driver or something, or just freezes while loading drivers. It made it in ONCE, but froze immediately.

So now about my hard drives. I had a 40GB drive that had Windows on it, which is also where the KX project is insalled, and I have a 60GB secondary drive. So I used my 6-disk XP bootdisk set, and it loads all the disks, but when I put in disk #6, it says Please Wait on the bottom, reads the disk for 5 seconds, then the system hangs (the keyboard lights go off).

My first question to anyone who knows: WHAT DOES DISK 6 LOAD THAT WOULD FREEZE THE SYSTEM?

My first thought was that it loads sound drivers, and freaks out when it sees Audigy. So I took the Audigy out and tried again. Same damn thing. So then I totally removed the 40GB drive with the most likey corrupt Windows install on it, and tried to go through the bootdisk process on the 60GB secondary, which I switched to master. SAME DAMN THING.

I am very flustered at the whole thing, and it is giving me headaches and I actually threw up last night thinking about how I could fix this. My system was the Internet server of the house too, so thats a problem. I had to set up another machine as the server, but it sucks at it.

Does anyone have a clue what could be going on? Anyone come across this themselves? Anyone have any more suggestions?


Please, I am so desperate and fed up! Thank you so much in advance for every single reply. And to the one who can help me get my system back, I will be eternally grateful to them.



My system:
AMD XP 1800+ @ 2000+
512 (256x2)MB Samsung PC2100
ECS K7S5A w/ 0325L oc bios
Geforce 2 MX 100/200
TDK VeloCD 8x4x32x
Buslink DVDRom 12x
IBM 40GB 5400rpm HDD
Seagate 60GB 7200rpm HDD


My dad gave me a copy of NT Workstation, and I tried using the boot floppies, but the system KEEPS FREEZING, and then I tried booting off the cd, which WORKED, but it froze at one point.
My dad posed this question: could it be a problem that the HDD is already formatted as NTFS and has files on it? I wouldnt think so.


OK, NT boot disks kept freezing the system, just like the XP ones did, so I tried booting off the XP cd. It loaded all the drivers and stuff, and then it got to the point where it said at the bottom: "Setup is loading Windows", and it just hung there. IT KEEPS FREEZING!
Why would the install freeze?


Now I re-connected the 40GB with Windows on it, and thats where it was putting all the info from the CD.

why the hell could a system freeze during load off a boot disk?

Man my system is so hosed.

And if Audigy drivers are indeed built into Windows, I put the card back in, in Slot 3. Are there any registry settings I should change?

 

[daveqb]

man i feel for ya!
i had a big bad problem, that wasnt as bad as yours but didnt let my system function normally.

i have heard that Audigy and XP dont get on too well. they say dont install the drivers for Audigy as it slows the system HEAPS!! (didnt say it crashes the system)
i did a search on Drivershq and it appears theres drivers for it , but anyway..... not helping u much now ....

i had a system that would freeze during the boot off the CD, actually twice this happen, systems that would have already been running fine with Win98se, a bit average performance, but when booting up XP CD it would freeze EVERY time!!!! actually even frooze off Win2k as well.
the first one turned out to be to much paste on the chip. it was all over the bridges and everything....
the other was just a fault HDD, cant remember but XP did a scan of it and found bad sectors, a susbstantial amount.

i dont know if i helping you or making you feel worse

my only suggestion is to strip the system right down, boot with just graphics and RAM
upon that working fine, add a HDD, see if theres any diff,
change HDD and see if that makes a diff,

hopefully find whats causing the prob

alternatively scan the HDD's on another computer, scan it for physical errors too, could take some time though....

upon all that failing my only suggestion would be to recover all the data ya can with the help of another computer and the re-format the HDD(s)


i hope i offered some help

good luck!!

 

[Slapstick]

There was a disscussion on Rage3d about XP, Audigy and AWI cards. I suggest you head over there and read the thread. It discusses driver issues and where to get them and how to install if you have a problem. Link to thread

 

[MatthewF01]

Hiya Slapstick, could that 340MB download of drivers at the link you provided, work for me? Someone said if you dont have a compaq computer, to remove the CTOem.cfg from where you extracted it, does this work? And hopefully this wont TOTALLY 'F' up my machine again?

Oh, man I am sooo heated hehehe

Daveqb, thanks so much for the reply, your information is helping me out, not to mention giving me hope!


So I unplugged all my USB devices, stepped down my FSB to a nice safe 100, and put in a reg. PS/2 keyboard. The xp cd got further than before, and its now formatting my drive...

[I lost ALL my data on my 40GB; I switched back to the 40 to try to do a repair of the windows install, and this morning my dad formatted the drive, thinking i had the data backed up on the 60; not true heh]


So as long as the XP install goes over alright, my next order of business will to be to get full support of my Audigy without crashing my system again. Where did the problem lie? Was it the KX project drivers? (Has anyone else used them?) Was it Windows trying to configure it? Was it a matter that I accidentally installed BOTH, and on the SAME Windows session, without rebooting to test either driver set for functionality?





Ugh! THanks so much for your help guys, I appreciate it so much.

 

[daveqb]

no worries champ!

definately just get ya bare essetials (Chipset, VGA drivers etc) installed, and have a play with the different drivers,

that way u dont lose nothing

damn shame bout ya 40 gig though , that must sux!!

reminds me, *must back-up important data to that other HDD i got lying around here*


PS i got about 4-5 sites bookmarked that are driver resouces, let me know if ya need the URL's