XP startup problems

[Aolish]

Hello all, I am hoping that someone can help me out here. I've been having a lot of problems getting XP to boot properly on an old XP2000+ machine. It seems to freeze on startup every single time. This is after a full format, AFTER a ram upgrade had gone wrong.

I had purchased some crucial ram of 2GB (1GB stick each) sometime last week. I was trying to upgrade the old XP2000+ machine from its very small 512MB of ram to 2GB. The installation went just fine until a couple of days later the machine started displaying BSODs and black screens on startup at random times. After trying to find some off time to diagnose the problem I used memtest86 on each stick to see if I can find a defect. It turns out one of the sticks were showing errors while the other wasn't. I'll be returning the bad ram shortly as soon as I can find the time to do it.

Unfortunately my problems just doesn't end there, upon installing in the one ram that didn't show errors the system just simply refused to boot. When the power button is pressed the system POSTs just fine, however after that nothing else happens. The display only showed a black screen every single time. Last known configuration did not work, the only thing that worked was Safe Mode. I decided it was then a good idea to do a full format. I thought maybe upgrading from 512mb to 2GB down to 1GB might of corrupted the OS install, so I thought a full format was a good idea. Unfortunately that didn't help either. When I got to the Windows Setup screen at about 35 mins left remaining where the setup "installs devices" it froze every single time there. Even after reboot after reboot it froze at the same spot. I just didn't understand what was going on till I did a search where a person I found on another forum was having the same exact problem as me. It was suggested to go into the F8 advanced menu and choose the debugging option.

The debugging option somehow worked and setup continued installing without any other problems. However, after finishing the install...... during the first initial boot of XP it freezes up again, but this time I am able to see the windows logo, but the progress bar freezes. I don't even see the progress bar make a first pass. At most I'll see 3 boxes on the progress bar then it will freeze. Thats the farthest its ever gotten. I spent about half my day off from work in trying to solve this problem with no success. Any help on this problem is really appreciated.

System Specs:

A7V333 v1008
Athlon XP 2000+
Original Ram install: 512MB
Recently bought crucial ram: 2GB (1GB per stick each)
WD 120 GB Hard Drive
Antec 430w
Geforce 6600 GT
Game Fortissimo III sound card
Trendnet NIC
XP SP3

There are a few other things I have yet to do to solve this problem and was wondering if these will work:

-Will updating the bios fix my problem? The A7V333 does have an extremely outdated bios v1008. According to asus's site they have up to v1018 beta, v1008 isn't even listed on there site. Is it advisable to update the bios? The reason why I ask is I know updating the bios can be risky and I want this to be a last resort as there is no second chance.

-Is it possible that the one ram that ISN'T showing any errors could still be bad? Is it a good idea to use the old 512mb stick and see if this will resolve my problem? I will try and use the 512mb again whenever I have the chance.

-Is it possible that the bios did not detect the new crucial sticks correctly? Maybe wrong timings or voltage settings? Because if this is so then I won't be able to fix this as I have no clue on how to adjust timings and voltages when it comes to ram settings in the bios.

 

[MrWizzard]

Bios could help; new bios versions can increase compatibility of hardware. You usually don't have to get just these but is your new ram from qualified ram list for your motherboard?

If I were you I would start with putting in the OLD ram and seeing what happens. If it returns to acting normally you have your answer.

Yes some ram requires more voltage and the motherboard will not detect it correctly causing instability, it's rare but happens. THis was common for me with OCZ ram.

Start with putting the old ram in. When you make a change and it causes problems, a good place to start is going back to the old way then slowly repeating the process of upgrading to find out the problem.

Good luck.

 

[Aolish]

Bios could help; new bios versions can increase compatibility of hardware. You usually don't have to get just these but is your new ram from qualified ram list for your motherboard?

yes, i chose the correct ram from the list on crucials website. ASUS A7V333. I'll try and use the older ram and update the bios. Is it possible to update the bios through the cdrom? For some reason I read somewhere that updating the bios through cdrom is a bad idea. Is this true? The reason why I ask is because i think the floppy drive is a little bad, obviously can't take any chances.

 

[Matt1970]

Try running CHKDSK on the drive.

 

[Bubbaleone]

...For some reason I read somewhere that updating the bios through cdrom is a bad idea. Is this true? The reason why I ask is because i think the floppy drive is a little bad, obviously can't take any chances.

All available downloads for your mobo, including the full Users Manual, are on the "ASUS Support For Motherboard A7V333" webpage:

A7V333 Beta BIOS 1018.004_Latest beta BIOS

Here's a good article on voltage settings that's not in the ASUS manual:

How to adjust DDR and CPU voltage settings on the Asus A7V333

Just Google for creating a DOS bootable CD, or you could just get BootDisk.com's CD which costs four bucks:

Bootable BIOS Flashing CD For Adding Your BIOS Files To

 

[MrWizzard]

yes, i chose the correct ram from the list on crucials website. ASUS A7V333. I'll try and use the older ram and update the bios. Is it possible to update the bios through the cdrom? For some reason I read somewhere that updating the bios through cdrom is a bad idea. Is this true? The reason why I ask is because i think the floppy drive is a little bad, obviously can't take any chances.

Try using the old ram 1st before messing with the bios.

I have never had a problem using a floppy disk for a bios update. I have used a CDrom USB stick and a hard drive. So I am not sure. It just depends on the bios update utility and what it allows. I have always dreaded a bios update going bad but have never had it happen.

 

[Aolish]

So after finding some time to fiddle around with the PC, it seems that going back to the old 512MB stick worked. PC seems to be operating just fine right now. I even completely formatted again and it didn't freeze up at the 35 minute mark where it was installing devices like the crucial stick did. The second stick that was showing errors I sent back to crucial and they are sending me an exchange. But really if the stick that I'm using now (which has no errors on it according to memtest) was giving me problems, I'm guessing the exchanged one that is coming soon won't work either right?

So what does this mean for the new ram? Does it mean that the new ram is bad even though it wasn't showing any errors with memtest? Could it be that memtest missed some errors during a scan or could it be the severely outdated bios? Current version is now v1008 while the asus site has v1018.

EDIT: okay so it looks like its not the new ram that is causing the issue (I think). Even going back to the old 512MB stick the system still for some reason froze right at the boot screen when XP is about to load. Again first pass never seems to happen on the progress bar.

UPDATE 2: So after fiddling around even more by taking out one expansion card after another, for some reason every device or two I remove seems to help the machine boot but after another restart it freezes at the boot screen again. This is starting to sound like a PSU problem?

UPDATE 3: Alright, I'm up to the point where I'm running out of devices to take out. I only have an optical dvd, hard drive and a video card left drive left. I went ahead and removed its IDE and power cable and the system (once again) is able to boot. I rebooted several other times to make sure and it seems to be booting every single time now. I'll update as this goes on.

 

[Binky]

If the system won't even initialize properly with the old ram, you might have broken something when putting the RAM in. Is it possible you zapped something with static, or physically scraped or broke something on the motherboard?

 

[MrWizzard]

If the system won't even initialize properly with the old ram, you might have broken something when putting the RAM in. Is it possible you zapped something with static, or physically scraped or broke something on the motherboard?

Yea the more he writes the more I wonder.....

Have you loaded on a new driver that was not being used before this whole thing started, after the initial WINXP install does it seem to work then you do updates or driver installs and the problem starts?

 

[Gs dewd]

Does sound to me he borked the board some how.

 

[Aolish]

If the system won't even initialize properly with the old ram, you might have broken something when putting the RAM in. Is it possible you zapped something with static, or physically scraped or broke something on the motherboard?

I'm almost positive that I didn't break anything. I always taken anti-static precautions but touching the metal casing on the case. All I did was take out the old 512 stick by pressing on the side clips, it popped out, then put in the new 1GB stick and pressed 'hard' in. Both clipped snapped on the sides. After that, opened up the clips on the other ram slot next to it and snapped in the other crucial 1GB stick then closed the sides.

Yea the more he writes the more I wonder.....

Have you loaded on a new driver that was not being used before this whole thing started, after the initial WINXP install does it seem to work then you do updates or driver installs and the problem starts?

No new drivers were installed before all this started. The only change I did was install in the new ram sticks is when all this started. Granted, one of the ram sticks was showing errors, but I have never ever heard of defective ram causing board damage.
============================

Okay so, after spending nearly the entire day trying to fix the PC yesterday I think I just about gave up. Whats very strange is nearly each initial idea or two I did seemed to make the system boot just fine but only after a little while later it would not boot again. Just like i mentioned on a previous post when I kept on disconnecting 1 or 2 component at a time the system would boot but upon the next restart it would freeze up again up to the point where I had no more components to take off. I thought maybe it was a ribbon problem to the IDE hard drive so I switched that and that didn't work

I then had no choice but to finally update the bios, bios upgrade went just fine from what I saw and guess what.... the system booted!!! lol ... infact the system operated perfectly and just fine for the rest of the night! I thought the problem was FINALLY fixed! I was like, all this time all I had to do was update the severely outdated bios. I then went ahead and connected the rest of the components back in, new crucial 1GB ram still in (still worked) downloaded all the necessary drivers (still worked) and restored some files back in (still worked) that my father uses. My father then comes home, turns on the PC, and it boots just like its always did. I thought everything was fine.

Until this morning when my father boots up the PC again and it freezes on the Windows logo now LOL! Whats strange though is that last known good configuration works and the PC is able to boot up just fine. But after some while it won't boot again, I'm sure of it. I'm just about out of ideas right now, not sure what to do next. Could this be a dying hard drive or maybe a dying PSU? Anyone know?