Building PC - Help Plz

[Gangster No:1]

Building a PC for a m8. Have done a few before with no problems but I am really stuck with this problem.

Components:

Athlon XP2400
MSI KT4V-L Ultra Mobo
512mb PC2700 DDR RAM (1 stick)
Gainward GF4 MX440 gfx
40gb IBM HD
Plextor CDRW

Put it all together. It booted, Found the Win XP CD (original and new) in the CDRW and booted from it. Formatted HD. Set the partition. Started the XP install. Did first part of installation. Re-booted as requested. Started the XP install. After a while the XP install seemed to hang, mouse pointer frozen, activity lights on screen frozen, no HD activity. Reluctantly powered it down and swithched it back on.

It went through the first part of the detecting devices stuff but then wont go any further in the boot process and wont go into the BIOS when I hit delete.

Odd stuff then started happening. Suddenly on power on after detecting devices, a mobo alarm goes off and it says that the CPU fan aint running. It is, and it is plugged into fan header 1. It gives the option not to shut down and ignore the alarm so I do. Alarm stops. Get an error message about CMOS settings and then an option to load defaults and boot or go to the BIOS setup. Loading defaults leads to another freeze and going to setup gets me into the BIOS. I can make changes but none seem to have any effect and most result in system not even booting so I clear the CMOS jumper and start again. Cant get out of this loop.

I haven't a clue what the problem is other than maybe the crash midway through install is the problem. Cant see anyway to get to running FDISK to format the drive and start again (have tried a boot disk from another system). Have thought about sticking HD in my system and formatting it from there but I have a nagging feeling that there is a hardward problem.

Any ideas or help gratefully received. :mad:


I'm =[CM]=FatBoy for anyone that remembers, just got a new name.

[Dalehead]

Errors like these are usually one of a number of things m8.....

1. Dodgy ram.
Can you try the ram in another machine, or another machines ram in this one?

2. Power supply.... is it a decent PSU, or a weaker one which came with case? (I doubt its PSU though from what you describe)

3. MB shorting out on case.... make sure there are no points where the MB touches the case and that all the studs are correctly fitted with washers.

Should all this fail..... Remove all components except gfx, HD mem and cpu, boot from a floppy and run scandisc, with thourough disk surface check.... Its not the disc you actually want to check, but running this will take long enough for you to see if there are any real hardware issues.

Then try intalling a different OS.... just to see if it works, and of course upgrade the bios on your mobo to most recent.

[Gangster No:1]

Thx for the ideas Dalehead, will try tonight.

Worried that I cant even get it to boot from a floppy though - cant run scandisk without this bit :(

[Dalehead]

Do the fans spin up?
Are you actually getting to see a bios screen?

[Gangster No:1]

Yes to both questions m8.

But - I have given up now. Have tried booting with just the floppy and just the CDROM and it goes nowhere with either. I can only get into the BIOS after the CMOS error message - pushing delete does nothing - it just hangs at the screen where it is trying to detect the primary IDE, etc.

Am going to take the mobo back to Scan as I reckon it's faulty.

[Dalehead]

urgh, scan.
I had loads of problems with them.

Hope you can take it in person, they usually replace it then.

GL

[Psymonkee]

never had a problem with Scan tbh :)

there webby could be better with live stock levels i guess...

worst part is citylink to deliver stuff :(

[Badger]

They were actually alright with my ram, even though when they tested it they said it didnt have a fault (didnt work in my pc though), they replaced it anyway. Shame about citylink being the worst couriers in bracknell :mad:

[Badger]

lol PsychoSi :D