The problem is I can't load or repair Windows XP. I'm pretty sure I know the answer I'm just looking for someone to backstop me. This problem began with a new motherboard install not recognizing the memory in DDRII slot 1 at it has snowballed badly from there. Below is a copy of my most recent email to ASROCK tech support. It outlines well what's happend and where I'm at. In his last (2nd) response he, they asked if I had tried other RAM. I have 2 identical sticks of Super Talent DDRII 677. Both are fine in SLOT 2 neither are fine in SLOT 1. Now I long for the day when THAT was my only problem.
the email:
Yes, I tried other RAM . . .
and it turned out, to be a really BAD idea.
I had some highly rated G-SKILL DDR2 800 in my other machine, (how Im still able to DO THIS).
I read a user review of this MOTHERBOARD at NEWEGG stating that he was using this exact RAM
(the G.SKILL) in this exact same motherboard with no problems.
Now it may have been some fluke coincidence that was waiting to happen anyway, but
I put one DIMM (the G.SKILL) into DDRII slot one, same beep-beep-beep post failure. So I shut it down and put it back the way it was,
(both Super-Talent DDR2-677s in both DDR2 slots).
BUT NOW I cant boot at all. (post-up is fine) but Windows has now developed system file corruption of some sort and only boots part way before force-restarting itself.
The first time only, I got an error message about the missing or corrupted file and further advised me to try a repair , no problem, I was going to load a clean copy on a
new hard-drive anyway.
UNFORTUNATELY I CANNOT REPAIR OR load a clean copy of Windows XP-(32 bit) or Windows 2000.
Heres what I think is happening,
Setup loads the Windows Setup files from the CDROM into the 1GB of physical RAM, (which it seems to me its doing slightly slower than normal).
It gets all the way up to Starting Windows, select: Continue installing Windows or Repair and regardless which you pick, youre done.
I think at that point Setup is defaulting to looking for its files, its next instruction, in the DIMM in DIMM slot 1. (which of course the BIOS isnt recognizing)
Set-Up intelligently loaded its files into what ever ram it could find, (the 1GB in DIMM SLOT 2), BUT the first/(second) step in actually installing Windows is assuming
those instructions are in DIMM SLOT 1. &Just my guess
Yes the BIOS is set to NON-RAID , it was default but I checked it anyway.
Yes the BIOS is identifying all devices, SATA and IDE perfectly, precise correct identification of makes and models.
First things I tried in order:
Original set up, boot-drive was IDE-0 (Primary Master), with 2 SATAII drives serving as DATA drives.
I removed the SATA drives from the mix. (power and data cables) No change.
I removed all but the FIRST SATA drive, which had a Pre-setup, formatted, empty ACTIVE-PRIMARY partition as its first partition (intended for my next clean install). No
Change.
I removed ALL pre-existing hard-drives and placed in the first SATA slot, a BRAND NEW as it came from the factory, (presume unformatted), SAMSUNG 500GB SATAII
drive. No Change.
I reset the BIOS to default set-up *values* and then re-tried all of the above.
*except*, there is no floppy. I can add one if you think thats possible culprit.
The BIOS is set to disable both Floppy devices.
I tried a different XP-SETUP DISK, (and retried all the above arraignments) no change.
I tried a WINDOWS 2000 SETUP DISK. (and re-tried all the above arraignments), you guessed it, no change.
I re-tried all of the above using a different CD-ROM DRIVE! No change.
I found a drive-strapping pin and RESET the CMOS (via CMOSRST1 on the motherboard), (first one I ever saw that didnt come with its own strapping pin), and, while it did
reset the CMOS (I had to re-set the date and time) it DID NOT result in any change to the Windows Set Up dilemma.
Interesting side note, AFTER I reset the CMOS, I could no longer boot from the CDROM, except by using the F11 boot menu. Setting the main BIOS first boot device to
CD-ROM no longer worked. It posted up, ok, then black-screened, blinking cursor upper left corner.
I also tried to SAFE MODE in to the original install. It got about a 3rd of the way and appeared to stall. Having had some experience, since it wasnt giving up or returning
any error prompt, I tried letting it SIT there, about 45 minutes. It was stalled.
I ALSO TRIED a (known good) 1GB DDR-400 PC3200 in regular DDR DIMM slot 1 and guess what? BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, that slots not working either.
As I type this, I have it like this; best possible arraignment in my opinion,
Both DDR2 DIMMS back in BOTH SLOTS, (oh yeah, I tried vacating the non-functioning SLOT-1)
1 SATAII drive in the first SATA slot (the drive with the pre-formatted empty primary-active partition as its first partition) (for the record it is a WD-750GB) 2 connected IDE
ROMS on the IDE-2 controller. (device IDs: IDE-3 and IDE-4)
And its been trying to do this:
I boot from the CDROM, no problem, it, (I think a little slowly), loads the setup files somewhere, ( I assume into the FLASH memory),
It says: Windows is starting up then theres an almost 3 second black screen, and the first choice screen appears.
( Continue , Repair or exit , Ive tried everything but exit& hmmm&)
Anyway well over an hour ago I selected continue and the response is:
Examining 715403 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi . . .
and Ive been letting it sit there at that stage for WELL over an hour now. There is no HD activity light.
It flickers once when I first hit enter to continue from then on, nothing. It does not appear to be examining anything.
Sorry about being so long but, prior to the Trying a different RAM-stick-trick I had a nicely working system, except for the fact that I had paid for 2 GB of DDR2 DUAL-MODE ram and was running on only 1 GB in single-channel-mode .
If someone actually solves this to the stage of "DUAL-MODE" memory functioning, both slots recognized I will kick the points WAY UP. Right now I'm assuming the answer is "FRISBEE that POS into the nearest dumpster!"
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From your first description it does sound like the first slot is corrupt. Reading briefly the whole saga it sounds like either corrupted memory, bad hard disk or a bad motherboard.
Download the UBCD from http://www.ultimatebootcd.
And prepare to use the warranty if those tests succeed.
Well ok yes but....
Yes the motherboard chipset drivers DID get loaded albeit ON TOP OF a Windows installation left over from my previous ABIT motherboard which originally the ASROCK DID boot from. (yeah I know bad idea)
However the reason I'm not fond of the faulty slot is this, this MB is an RMA replacement from newegg, the first board being RMA'd for EXACTLY the same problem. Now unless they sent me the same board BACK again (after 'chscking it out' of course), it would seem not likely two in a row had a bad DDRII slot 1 you know? and also, what are the odds the DDR 400 slot 1 right next to it would also be bad? Also I read all 171 customer reviews at newegg, only 1 person described a similar experience. I think the root of the memory issue is ASROCK lied. They market this board as being "DDRII-677" but that's not really true, it will accept any 240pin sim you put in it but it's going to down-clock it to 533. If you want to ensure max compatibility, give it 533. I'm assuming THERE IS NO fix for the memory slot issue. And the fix for the Windows set up issue is as follows: REINSTALL THE ABIT motherboard, under THAT board, repair Windows, there at least returning me to stage one, a partition the ASROCK was able to boot from. Assuming the installation of the ASROCK chipset drivers don't diss-allow this.
Staics sound def fine and if chip set drivers are fine and this is your second mobo with exactly the same oproblem you have either been really unlucky or you have solved your own issue in that there just is no compatibility, id be surprised if that was the case.
be interested to find out if the reinstall works but i cant see any other option from where you currently stand
SLAM:
Me either. That's why I'm doing that. NOW. If I have to I can install a clean copy on a NEW hard-drive. it SHOULD then (the ASROCK be able to boot from, it did before. it even had a different video card the first time. This time it will be the same one. Once I get it booting again we can turn focus back on the memory problem.
I only hope the flimsy little plastic clips on the CPU heatsink continue to limp along.... on good thing i discovered a good trick recently. When installing a new MB, IF POSSIBLE attach the heatsink&fan BEFORE putting the MB IN TO the CASE....! I think this heatsink's clips would be toast now otherwise.
as I was pulling it apart I'm not sure if the Primary IDE cable might not have been a little loose on the MB connector. So mashed it back in good and tried to boot normaly, instead of the round and round retstart behavior it just locked with the windows-starting-up black background screen. Safe mode died as before also. Windows re-install choked as before. The fear now is if THIS ALL DID BEGIN with a loose IDE cable I could now be looking at a damaged on-board IDE controler. Slam: gotta make a run now so I won't be done with this in under 4 hours now.
Uh oh if that is the case pull the board and if you have warrenty get a warrenty replacement you may be able to bodge it together but wouldnt like to think how long it wil last, unless yoru any good with teh soldering iron?
ill try and hook up a bit later on tonight at homeprob about about 8gmt to see if you have posted back
you mean warrenty direct through ASROCK? I forgot all about that possibility!!
I've been dealing so much with NEWEGG I forgot all about any other warrenty.
I'm actually not BAD with a soldering IRON but it would never occurr to me to attempt somthing like that.
I'd just ship 'em back the whole thing and let them replace the whole thing. if that's possible.
We'll see what the tech support guy says after seeing the email that is this question's base.
(we don't have to mention "damaged-IDE-controlers" it should be exchangeable based on the RAM-SLOT "issue" alone)
So far it's been taking them 48 hours in between responses.
I have just completed re-installing the old ABIT (SD-80) and am about to fire it up.
i'll be back.
Check
It Out.
It booted right up to the original partition. Same one the ASROCK WAS booting to ok and then stopped. And I now know how to proceed. I will install a clean copy of XP. on another drive, just the very base, what have after only one re-start. No patches no AV no nuttin cept SP1, and certianly NO ABIT MoBo stuff. The ASROCK if should boot pointed to THAT. This will be on a SATAII dive, but if the
IDE controler is damaged I could still have a problem if the SATA controler is in SERIES with and AFTER the IDE controler. we shall see.... to be continued!
Hey Slam, not so good to go. This is becoming the nightmare I you never wake up from.
The new clean install went smoothly, gave just the one restart and shut down normally. And again the ABIT booted right fine on the ORIGINAL opsys partn the one the ASROCK had beed liking, then stopped liking right after testing different memory, (a test which never made it past the f'ng POST so it shouldn't ever TOUCHED Windows). I looked in add-remove programs for any ABIT dirivers to to uninstall, I saw none. So that was it. I reinstalled the ASROCK, all devices intact, (2 SATA HD, 3 IDE CD/DVDROMs and one IDE HD, and attempted to boot from the NEW clean install. Initially it didn't "see" it at all, even though in the BIOS I had selected that exact drive to be the "first boot device". Apparently you have to ALSO under "hard drives" specify that drive as the FIRST drive. So now I get a Windows genorted BOOT menu. It's unknown which intall is doing it but NEITHER ONE or the two choices will boot. One of which, (presumably the new 'base' install originally returned a "missing or corrupt hal, I think dll file error but that has since "gone away" and now both choices start to load Windows, you get the first black-background with the color Windows logo, and then... one locks up there, and the other gets little further, locking up during the first black-out 'blink' that normally comes between that fist screen and the fist BLUE background screen. Neither will safe mode, but that DOES tell you which is which. The OLD install chokes on, you guessed it an ABIT file. ABIT-IO.sys to be exact. The new install locks a bit sooner on "MUP.SYS". And the, boot-from-WindowsSetUP ROM/INSTALL/REPAIR is STILL a NO GO. I don't get it POSTS perfectly! All devices seen and identified PERFECTLY. (save the DIMM In DDRII Slot 1). I don't get why SETUP can't get all the way in. First of all the MANUAL says you only need a floppy disk driver, (made from the MB CD ROM), if you doing a RAID set-up. Otherwise you just make sure the BIOS too is set for NON-RAID (which is the default) and you should be able to install Windows on any Partition you want, SATA or IDE and big as s#!t the BIOS sees the SATA drives just fine. And SO DOES the XP SETUP DISK because the last thing it says it "examining 715403 MB Disk 0......" and that's one of the SATA drives. If I switch the cables on the 2 SATA drives it "sees" the OTHER and says "examining (other one) Disk.... PLUS which even if, for the sake of argument, SETUP DID WANT that "F6" driver floppy, and you failed to give it, THAT STILL wouldn't explain why SETUP can't bring up partition/drive-select choices ON THE IDE PRIMARY MASTER.
NOW, I've had boot issues in the past which manifested similarly, giving no indications of what was wrong just locking or black screening, WHICH turned out to be VIDEO CARD and or DRIVER related. Fact is I didn't install the the clean install on the same card. The ASROCK is using a PCIE and the ABIT had only PCI and AGP, WHICH it initially refused to "see" so went ahead did everything using the ON-BOARD Video. Perhaps in hindsight it would have been better to switch it off in the BIOS, and install drivers for my oldest 64 MB ATI PCI card and then put that card in the ASROCK. but whats done is done. No plans to go back around the block at this time. WHAT I DID TRY was booting the ASROCK, both Winowds installs using a wide range of DIFFERENT Video cards. AGP, PCI, PCI-E, (all ATI) and a GeForce PCIE.
THE ATI PCI card had intermittent VIDEO. (now you see it now you don't). all the others worked fine but had no effect on the base problem. I'm just about done playing with this DOG. I recently upgraded both my two of my 3 main desktop machines, I maintain one INTEL and one AMD system. Then Intel got this ASROCK, and the AMD, got a BIOSTAR T Series which has been an absolute dream. So I'm looking at a BIOSTAR TForce TP35D2-A7 for the Intel system. $40 bucks more than I paid for the ASROCK but sometimes ya really do get whatcha pay for. I will also look in to RMA'ing the ASROCK through ASROCK.
but since NEWEGG as already given $30 and promised $12 more back on the $59 ASCRAP I'm not real motivated to go to any trouble to RMA it. Like it I gotta pay $15 to mail it? at this point I've only got $18 invested in the durn thing.
Slam, as far as "taking it out of series", I don't know for sure if it IS enginerred that way, but it is, I have no clue how you'd go about "taking it out of series". But you did get me thinking, One OTHER possibility if the problem is now a damaged onboard IDE controler, I should be able to get around it this way. REMOVE all IDE cables from the machine, then DISABLE the IDE controler in the BIOS, (seen that).
NOW pull out a spare new SATA DVDRW drive I just happen to have, put it in SATA slot 2 and any SATA HD in the SATA 1 slot and attempt Windows boot-from-rom-SET UP, SATA to SATA. . . If it works, the good news is well, it worked and we know the problem for sure. The BAD NEWS is, with only 2 total available SATA ports, the motherbord is not worth using. AND if the IDE controller was bad why would it POST with no ERRORS? still it's a fairly simple test...
Wat I Dun next...
I tried booting from the ASCROCK MB drivers disk. Sum bidg actually booted from it, sort of. It only a routine to create a RAID-drivers floppy ("Y") or "any other key to restart" No command prompt. SO just for grins I slapped on a floppy drive, dugg up a usable disk and let it make me one of those. Then I tried running a Windows Setup -F6- and gave it the drivers. They were specifically RAID drivers like the book said. and it made no difference. Not when I put the SATA drive first in line to be 'seen' and not when it was IDE up first. SAME-O-SAME-O-SAME-O. SO OUT comes the SATA ROM drive!
Disabled IDE contoler in the BIOS, pulled out the IDE cbls from the MB end, (since the devices all still had PWR to them) and with one SATA drive on 1st and the ROM on 2nd ran Windows XP setup again. Once with F6 give-it-the-floppy, once with out. both times same as all 111 different combinations before. Stalled in exactly the same spot. Which doesn't prove the IDE controller ISN'T still messed up.
Just for the record here, I am TOTALLY open to suggestions.
My next plan is:
My #3 desktop lives where I WORK, where I gotta be tonight. I have a spare never used new SAMSUNG 500 GB SATAII drive. The machine at work is an INTEL system with a near match CPU,
(a Celeron 3.2ghz vs the "true pentium" P4 3.0 GHz Throughbred core i have in the sick system here at home). I can use the puter at work to load a clean copy on to the SAM 500, and while I'm at it I'll try and force feed it some ASROCK drivers. Probably won't let me but I'll try. The system at work HAS a PCI-E card in it. When I done I will BRING THAT CARD home with me and test that new install, with that same card in the ASROCK.
At which point if that fails I might just be done. I can't see investing in 533 memory when the pending BIOSTAR replacement will be a TRUE DDR2 800 memory standard.
Well... no bush. The new clean install from the PC at work, intalling proper video drivers and then bringing the same PCI-E card home with me, a bust. It do de-"round and round" begins boot, Windows first black background screen, 3 maybe 4 seconds more and it's Posting again. Safe mode, same deal.
Right now it's sitting, Booted from SETUP ROM attempting to find the HD, (promt is "please wait") my experience has been when SETUP needs a DRIVER to recognize a drive and you didn't give it, the prmpt is quick and clear, "SETUP could find no DISK DRIVES attached to your computer" or something really close to that. In all cases I've come accross, AMD or INTEL chipsets, if the BIOS can SEE IT then SETUP will also SEE IT. (stop me if I'm wrong)
ANYWAY turns out, there IS ONE more worth a try thing to try I'd forgotten all about. Normally when it comes to BIOS updates I'm big fan of the "if it ain't broke, REALLY BROKE, DON'T FIX IT" school-of-thought. Well I dare say, it's safe to say dis dog be broke. AND neither of the only 2 available updates for this motherboard, refer in their short-version descriptions to fixing anything similar to either of my 2 problems but it's a fresh start and best and I really have nothing to LOSE at worst. The drag is it means hooking up a floppy drive to my functioning PC, since I no longer ever maintain one on ANY of my machines. Waste of case realestate. BIOS UPDATE on the way.
Good news bad news.
BIOS FLASH, no problem. All Good.
Bad news is, so far it doesn't appear to have changed anything. The existing latest Windows install from the machine at work still round and rounds. (safe mode same) It's sitting now SETUP running, stalled at the usual "please wait..." and yo, of course, memory in slot1 still = none...
Just about done here.
RMAing through ASROCK is out because If I understand their RMA page correctly it cost more than the board is worth NEW. First you pay to ship it to them ($12-$15) then you have PAY THEIR shipping cost back TO YOU! (+$15) THEN There's $35 SERVICE FEE! It only cost $59 for a new one from NEWEGG.
And with the money back NEWEGGS already given ($30) + promised ($12) I'm only invested at this point in it for $17. AND I've already gotten one REPLACEMENT that failed to satisfy. For what I want a 3rd?
asCrock. see ya. it's been 'fun' it's been real. but it hasn't been well, you know the rest...
really sorry couldent get it soretd for you do think we exhausted every possible avenue and i did state earlier i thought we might be looking at having to return the board.
Again sorry couldnt help more, if you want to close teh question attribut points as you deem necessary and if i can help at all in the future i will be glad to
First, somehing new just learned. AS far as the WINDOWS SETUP snafu. Turns out SPEED is a big factor. when it finishes loading up all the files and say's, "SETUP IS STARTING WINDOWS" and that first make-choice screen appears, a seconds hesitation kills. But if you hit ENTER without skipping a beat, it GETS IN. The catch is you have to hit F8 next JUST AS quick. and it will keep going. the FIRST time you hesitate it will lock. I'm more convinced than ever that SETUP is looking for it's next instuction in the DIMM in SLOT ONE. if you're FAST enough it doesn't drop the bone but the second you let it take a breath, it's lost. I just figured this out this afternoon with no time before I had to go to work so I haven't had time to really TEST if I can sneek in to a successfull repair this way. But I did make it 2 prompts and 2 answers further along than ever before.
Second, the one install that it originally was booting from and SHOULD have the ASROCK MB drivers loaded, has been choking, in safe mode, on a file called "ABIT-IO.SYS". I brought that drive in with me tonight and accessed it on another machine as a data drive, found and deleted the offending file. There could be 15 more waiting in line to halt the boot, or none. we shall see.
NOW you're right Slam, This 'quest' has long passed the point of reason in that CLEARLY WIN OR LOSE this MoBo is not worth using even if I can get it booting again, since, with it's defective memory slot issue, it can't accept a standard Windows reload/repair it's a disaster waiting to re-curr. It's strictly the thrill of the hunt now. Just to see if I can... long as I still smell the slightest WIFF of possible victory I can't stop. Today I actually DID learn something new. So it nawt for naught. I gotta answer some questions and get my points up....
TBH i have been on this site for about 5 months, joined as i had a couple of questions i was stuck with and ive found ive learned so much more by getting invovled trying to answer peoples problems.
i love the idea of you trying to get through teh entire install process by not pausing for breathto alllow a lock and if yu achieve it ill open a question for max points and give you grade a cause that would be awesome but as for this initial problem i whole heartedly agree that you are now in a side project that I dont think i can assist you with anymore
Feedback never ceases to be of use. Two heads are always better than one, even if one is serving mostly as a sounding board. But better yet, responsive.. . I'm not sure why you'd think you can no longer be of assistance. I'm sure you can't think I'm beyond you. Seriously, no way. The only bad suggestion is the one you don't make.
you mean physically move the hardware? As in unsolder, pull the plastic brackets out / swap / & stuff 'em back in...n' re-solder ? heheheh! no, not surprizingly enough that has occurred to me. the likelihood of EITHER one still working after that does not seem... too good. I thought most components of that sport these days are built by robots and most of what they build is not intended to be by-hand-solder servicable. I could be wrong but.... ANYWAY the idea DOES bring up another good thought, I wouldn't HURT to break out a good magnafying glass and have a really GOOD LOOK at those slots, the connectors, and the board around them, front and back possibly there is a visible flaw I can TRY to correct. I mean before I frisbee the thing.... WTF?
OK, ok check it out... I came very close to getting in using the rapid-have the response waiting for it before it asked the question-meathod. I even got at far as the blue "Welome" screen before locking on a load from another (AMD) machine. At some point I figured out, the only sure thing would be a load perforemed by/under an IDENTICAL CHIPSET or if not identical, VERY VERY close, ANYTHING short of THAT and it's a total crap-shot. So I tried a load from my AMD box and it almost got in. Ok before I tear it down for now, if not forever, here is my latest brainstorm. I am (right now) loading WINDOWS 2000 on to a clean, new, un-used, SAM 500GB SATAII. (25GB C partition) on my spare machine here at work. IF the AScROCK boots OK from that I will attempt a "from-within-Windows" UPGRADE to XP. I suspect that will fail, that even if the 2000 partition boots ok, the upgrade will choke because once you hit the key to exicute that it re-boots the machine almost immediately, most likely before any real changes are made, so I predict that reboot will choke. But it sounds like a hell of an idea to me!
I heard back from AScROCK tech support. They are saying the motherboard is defective. whether they know that for reasons OTHER THAN what I told them, (inside knowledge of a known-defective batch?) or not I don't know. There was no offer of a replacement or RMA, they advsd me to get with the merchant. I told them about it already having beed RMA'd once and this was the second, presumably, defective MB. And the pretty much 0 chance I would ever buy ASROCK again.
You got a shoddy board again from ASROC it had a dodgy ram slot and the whole thing became a nightmare that was FUBAR'd before we started?
you might have got round this if you had an exact replica machine, loaded the OS onto teh hd in the spar machine and then put that HDD into the faulty machine, but you would still have been working at 50% capcity of RAM and still would have had a FUBAR'd MOBO
slam, yes the REAL (short) answer to the original (long) question was defective MobBo.
What I was looking for was the answer to why it WAS able, originally, to boot from a partition loaded with windows under the original ABIT MoBo, then stopped, and hence forth, would not accept a Windows load, from any of several different machines. I even tried a drive I had on the shelf loaded with a known good install of Windows 2000. It BSOD'd. Even in Safe Mode. Why boot ok at first and then stop? I even got the ASROCK drivers in and was using for about a week. Suddenly.... What exactly changed? Obviously a system file in Windows changed. But was that a result of :
a.) a fluke, truely spontainious?
b.) as a result of a pre-existing issue with the mobo that just took time to manifest?
or
c.) was it triggered by someting in the MoBo changing or "cascading" (further deterioation) from the original "known" issue with the RAM slot? OR "D".... (new fact) possibly a result of a something, cascading damage from (due in part to) the original RAM slot issue which became exasporated by me OVERCLOCKING the CPU. It was a comparatively CONSERVATIVE overclock, still when you overclock it automatically puts a greater "strain" on RAM and the HD's as well. It was overclocked for sever days and in that time showed not even the slightest hint that it was anything other than ROCK SOLID on that setting.
ANYWAY, it's over. The Mobo has been removed from the case. Newegg replaced it once and then gave me a $42 credit and told me to KEEP the second one, which it looks like I won't be able utilize at all but I guess I can't be too mad at newegg except the for the obvious consumer logic, "I gave you $60 plus shipping, you give me a product that works or you give me my money back" That would be the answer any brick and morter store. But then the mobo probably would have been $10 more to start with. Still worst case scenario, the answer would have been "store-credit= to full price paid"
Since pulling it out I HAVE gone over it with a really nice magnafying glass, no visible flaws can be found.
Pinpointing what caused the error after a few days of solid use is a little tricky, id lean twoards an exacerbation of a pre-existing condition ossibly caused by the load placed on teh system from the point of first boot, your over clock may have brought forward the point of Fubar'dness but id be inclined to think it was going to happen anyway at some point so better off early than further down the line.
Saying that it could have been spontaneous or even caused by martians, simple answer is we can make educated guesses but sometimes we just cant be sure but im pretty sure you knew that anyway
Slam69:
Well said. agreed.
Actually, what I was looking for when I said: "...My last "Windows 2000" brain storm was a bust. (see above post for details) Just as was a way of closing this one out,
I'll give the points to the first person who can tell me what happened and why.
you can be short and genneral but but I am looking for certian specific references..."
WAS, "Windows 2000 setup can't partition a SATAII drive".
It can SEE it just fine if the BIOS see's it. But even after formatting the target partition( originally created by XP) it still came back and said, "what the hell IS THAT??" I then deleted the partition, and all the others on the (new) drive, so Windows 2000 could make it's own from scratch right? But when I got to the make a new partition stage it said, "unpartitioned space" = to the correct size of the drive, fine there, but, "Minimum size of new partion 0 MB", "Maximum Size of new partition 0 MB" and so amount you put the desirered size block was ignored. It had no trouble deleting the partions that were there but it couldn't creat new ones. It would have been interesting to see if I'd strapped the HD down to 1.5 mbs (SATA-I) drive if that would have made any difference.
yeah, (previously mentioned) I did try a single 180 pin dim in REGULAR DDR slot 1 to no avail. I assumed it would have been ok over in slot 2 but that wasn't the issue at that point. I was about proving it wasn't the slot itself that was bad but associated electronics or wiring, as for "winding the ram down in the bios" there was only "533, 667 and AUTO to choose from. and it was automatically defaulting the 667 ram TO 533 WHICH I've heard it does even on 'healthy' versions of this board. No I never gave it any "true" "533" ram. (667 is the listed "standard") and this board's replacement will be 800 or 667 so I saw no use in investing in 533 ram.
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by: netmonPosted on 2008-04-11 at 02:42:19ID: 21332527
Opps. The Mother board model:
ASROCK 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0