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URGENT! HDD file system fubar, PSU to blame?

S

sykopath79

Senior member
OK, yesterday my Windows XP started telling me that it couldn't read or write to C:\$MFT, C:\Documents and Settings\<my profile>, and a crapload of other locations. So I shrug and format the drive NTFS, reinstall Windows, start reinstalling my drivers, and when it reboots after installing my Audigy2 drivers the same disk errors begin again making Windows unusable. So I nuke the drive and install Windows again, install some drivers in a different order this time but again after installing the Audigy2 drivers the file system craters once more. So, once <I>again</I> I format the drive (FAT32 this time), reinstall Windows, reinstall drivers in yet a different order, and again when it reboots after installing the Audigy2 the file system is f00bar.

Here's what I think might be the problem:

I bought a new case (the Enermax with the 2 vertical light tubes on the front panel and a cold cathode inside) and the Audigy2 early last week, then a few days later the Radeon 9700 PRO that I'd ordered the week before came in and I installed it Friday night. I notice that from a cold boot, my system speaker does the "I can't find a VGA card" beep, but I hit the reset button and then the 9700 kicks in (yes, its aux. power is plugged in). I also notice that it's rather slower than it should be in benchmarks. So I take out the 350W PSU that came with my case and replace it with the 450W Rhycom PSU I had been using before I got the new case & cards... some off-brand PSU I found for $25 online several months back and had not given me any problems when running the same system minus the lights and with a GF3 Ti200 & SB Live instead of the current hardware. After switching to the new PSU I don't have the VGA error anymore but I do start getting these file system f*ckups.

Is it possible that my cheapass 450W PSU isn't pushing enough juice through to feed all my hardware and this is causing drive failure?

PLEASE help as quickly as you can.... this really sucks because I cannot use my system at all until I resolve this issue. Click in my sig if you need to know what's in my PC.

UPDATE: I just put a brand new 120 GB WD in last night to see if the old hard drive was the problem, but I eventually got the same errors... so it's not the hard drive that's the issue. HELP!!!!!!!!
 
Yeah, it could be a PSU problem, but also i have heard of a lot of people having driver issues with sound blaster sound cards. make sure you are installing the most recent drivers from the website, if you are just using the cd that came with the card it might not be the most recent version. other than that, try to disable some stuff to not draw as much power and see if that helps.
 
Is it only after you install the audigy drivers? Am I reading that correctly? If you have onboard sound try that. Could be the Creative drivers messing it up.
 
Originally posted by: PraetorianGuards
Is it only after you install the audigy drivers? Am I reading that correctly? If you have onboard sound try that. Could be the Creative drivers messing it up.
Click to expand...

See, that's just the thing, I don't know; because I got my Audigy 2 last Monday or so, installed it & it ran fine with my GF3 Ti200 while I waited for my 9700 PRO to come in; got my 9700 PRO Friday evening and installed it & the cards and their drivers coexisted peacefully until I decided just for the heck of it to wipe my hard drive and put a clean Windows install on. After that everything started going to hell after I would get both sets of drivers fully installed.

But like I said, I also swapped up to my 450W PSU from the 350 that came with my case b/c it seemed my 9700 wasn't getting enough juice (from a cold boot I would get that long "no VGA detected" beep from my BIOS, but if I hit Ctrl+Alt+Del right away it would reboot and bam, there's the video. So I'm not sure if the PSU has anything to do with it or not. And I *still* get the beep occasionally when cold-booting. And yes, the power cord is plugged in to my 9700 PRO, always has been.

I'm trying again right now, this time with no power running to the light inside my case.

Although I would not be at all surprised if this is an issue with the Audigy2 drivers. Creative has quite a history of problematic drivers and software, I for one would think they'd have figured it out by now. I had lots of problems with my SB Live! 5.1 back when I first got it, and especially when Windows XP first came out.
 
Yup. I got the most recent updates for everything. I just reinstalled Windows again last night and this time I made sure to install the most recent AMD AGP driver and VIA 4-in-1's for my motherboard (it's one of those AMD/VIA hybrids). So far so good, but the last few times this problem's happened it's taken a few reboots before it shows up, so I would not be at all surprised if when I turn it on this evening the same ol' shyte happens.
 
No, it's not a BSOD, it's a yellow triangle warning symbol in the system tray accompanied by a balloon warning, as well as the dialog boxes with the red circle with the "X" in the middle. Both of these things tell me that it's unable to make changes to C:\$MFT, C:\Documents and Settings, and any of a number of other random directories. Although, one of the times this happened it would kick up a BSOD if I tried opening the Control Panel folder from the Start menu.

It hasn't happened again (yet) and I didn't get screenshots when it did, but I'll try to get a few if it happens again.
 
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