First of all, specs:
CPU: Core i5 750 @2.66 ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4
RAM: 2x 2GB Corsair XMS3 @1600mhz
GPU: Ati Radeon X850XT 256mb
HDD: 2x Seagate 160GB SATA + WD Black 500GB
PSU: Corsair 550W
Other components: 1x no name DVD reader, 1x no name DVD burner
Case: Antec P180 Mini
All wires seem correct.
Now, here's the problems and what I have excluded:
* Every time I boot XP SP3 from one of the Seagate hard drives, I get a blue screen with a STOP 7b error after the XP loading screen has filled one "bar".
* When I boot Vista from a friend's hard drive, it sits in the loading screen for a while then reboots
* I have ran memtest86+, no errors detected
* The graphics card worked in the last PC, it's from another PC
* The two seagate hard drives are from another PC
* The DVD readers/burners are from another PC
* There's also a wireless network card plugged in, but I severly doubt this is the cause
* When I pop in the installation disc for XP (I have tried two separate ones), I have got these problems:
# Error at line XXXX (478 or 6591 for example), this occurs before it starts loading
# Blue screen after loading some drivers, I have got several different errors
# Sometimes it loads all the way through. I get to the formatting menu, and I try to format a hard drive. It jumps first to 20, then to 100% and says that it could not format. If I try to format a 160GB one, it does the above and I get kicked back to the menu. If I try to format the 500GB one, it tries to format the 160GB one with the above result - and then says that it could not format, and that Setup must be exited, where it automatically reboots my computer.
Another problem I have is that the RAM seems to be ran at 1333mhz at timings 9-9-9-24 in BIOS. I think it's supposed to be 1600mhz @8-8-8-24.
Thanks!
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All excellent suggestions there by dlethe, just thought I'd add that this is a very new board and there might still be some prblems with the BIOS, it's just possible that a BIOS upgrade might solve this problem for you, I did a quick search and found:
http://www.downloada
That might help
:)
First of all, I have my doubts it's the Seagate drive if the Windows XP DISC <- bluescreens, especially considering it worked fine in the other computer two days ago.
Secondly, how is it even a "frankencomputer" considering everything matches seamlessly, except for the graphics card which I plan to switch with the HD5850 once it's out? It's not like I cut pins to make them fit or something - Again, PCI-E is PCI-E, SATA is SATA, and thousands of people have i5 systems that work just fine. This problem is most likely simpler than the problems I had on my old Fujitsu Siemens box - yeah, those that led to me having to replace the whole motherboard and a hard drive. :/
Why should I throw away the DVD reader, wasting environmental resources, when it works? There's basically very few computer manufacturers that have i5 boxes now without trying to price rape the customer, don't have bloated, horrible software like HP StartWhatever and iTunes, or bad components (no name PSU, cheap leadings, etc).
Third, I did a lot of research to make sure the components work. I didn't have to come up with any gimmicky tactics to make it work, the assembling went seamlessly.
I'd never use incompatible hardware and then complain about it here. ;)
Again, thanks for typing out such a long answer...
And yeah, I can't get a diagnostic card, really; that's how it works living in Sweden without abilities to import due to horrible US shipping.
@Sci - I'll try a BIOS update, thanks. We'll see how it goes ;)
Until then, I'll try running Ubuntu or Sabayon - hopefully it'll install. If not - meh, I don't plan to have them permanently either.
Thanks for the answers, both of you.
I should have clarified that the peripherals are likely not the problem. Just unplug power connections to make sure. But PCI-e is NOT PCI-e; SATA is not SATA, even your slots are likely not the same as they are probably tied to different busses. Using qualified memory is vital on a system such as this.
Here is link for the memory compatibility. You did not supply specific model numbers, only generic part numbers .... But curious? IS the memory qualified? Exact part number match?
http://www.gigabyte.us/Fil
Here's what happened in my attempts on running Sabayon Linux 4 (x84)
First attempt: Booted into LiveDVD fine, everything but mouse froze when I right clicked the frozen installer
Second attempt: Black screen
Third attempt:
#RAMDISK: incomplete write (-28 != 32768) 16777216
#crc error
# Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(1,0)
Also, I was wrong about the timings part - the RAM runs at 1600mhz, but the timings are 9-9-9-24.
And yeah, the RAM is qualified, and the default voltages are set to i5 levels (1.65v)
Try using the embedded graphics card, and disable the interrupts for all components you don't use .i.e, parallel printer port, serial ports. The CPU could also be faulty, so check for the intel diagnostics. Still, I think that this is a frankencomputer, which is one of those inherent combination of devices that just don't work together , but hopefully this will prove a productive test
When you buy one of those hardware-based testing boards, you get software/firmware that tests CPUs in depth, and wasn't thinking that you didn't have a hardware-based testing product. There still may be a freebie program on the Intel or Gigabyte site. Sorry,at the time I responded, I wasn't thinking that you didn't have test hardware. Unfortunately the software-based only testing methods won't tell you if the CPU is good, it will tell you if it is bad. Hardware-based testers can go deeper and find things that software-based testers can't look at, because you are effectively booted to their CPU so they can get much more aggressive.
Anyway, I think this is all I an offer you at this time. You know where I stand. I am not trying to be hard on you, but I know the law of diminishing returns, and this just looks like something you can spend days and days on, and likely will never solve the problem. At very least you should figure out an upper limit on time you will spend on this before giving up and getting another motherboard (different make/model. It could very well be CPU or a bad motherboard and have nothing to do with incompatibilities. Figure out what your time is worth and know when to walk away. Sorry, it is hard to do that, but I have seen a lot of people burn 100+ hours on certain problems then give up with nothing to show for their time other than a lot of aggravation.
A really, really handy diagnostic boot CD (which runs everything off CD and doesn't need installing to HDD) is HawkPE 42 is the most up to date at the moment, there is both a CD version and a DVD version (which has a few more tools) If you don't already have this tool in your arsenal it makes an incredibly handy addition!
All the best
Sci-Fi Si
OK. Simple fact: BSOD is almost always hardware or driver error. The "STOP 7B" error means your registry could be corrupt, but it propbably means that your assembly is wonky, most likely with respect to the hard disk partitions or XP installation disk..
You are building a system using parts from other systems.
1. If the hard disks already had an OS on it and you install mutiiple drives you may have multiple active boot partitions. You also may have a conflict with AHCI/IDE switch in bios.
a. The RAM setup could be wrong. Try the defaults in the bios. Gigabyte makes good boards and the i5 is a good CPU, Corsair is good RAM, Seagate are good drives. Everything is good good good. What could be wrong? Be humble. "Installer error" is always possible.. Your computer should boot into default BIOS settings with no hard drives installed, just ram and viideo. Try that and look at your settings. A lot of ram will work at more than one setting. I doubt this is your poiblem but you need to satisfy yourself.
b.Remove all but one drive then boot the XP CD and format that one hard drive from scratch with a clean install from the CD. If you are trying to do some kind of RAID this can be tricky, but if you can get one drive formated and working you know your MB, RAM and one drive are OK. If you want to do RAIID 0 on the Boot drive you can just add a second one and configure the RAID and let them mirror each other. Then add the 500 GB. If your XP CD is not SP2 or SP3 then that is another problem. XP original build version will not format more than ~137GB for IDE.If you are using an early build of XP it doesn't have SATA drivers. There is also probably an IDE/AHCI switch in the BIOS that you will need to flip if you want to boot an IDE drive. (You can slipstream SP3 onto an old XP disk and burn a new install disk)
c. The problem when you are setting up a new computer is that there can be more than one thing wrong..Obviously SOMETHING is wrong, so go back to the simplest possible working combination and make it work. If you can't get it to work with RAM and video alone then your problem is MB or RAM (since you know your video worked before.). Then add the rest of your components one at a time.
2. I'm not sure what your comment "when I boot Vista from a friend's hare drive" means. Is this a fourth drive you have inserted into your machine? Swapping is not a good idea because Vista is even more sensitive to driver incompatibilities. This will definitely not work if your video card is different that your frineds'. Probably just a waste of time trying his drive in your machine.
3.I'm not sure I agree with dlethe that you need a hardware diagnostic card but America is not causing your shipping problems. You can get a diagnostic card from HONG KONG like Americans do (starting at less than $3 USD including shipping)
http://www.dealextreme.com
It will also take about 2 weeks for the card to arrive from HONG KONG. Even with a diagnostic card you will need to interpret the error messages it gives.
Hey Lewko2;
I'll try your message step by step.
You mentioned AHCI/IDE in the beginning of the message;
When I boot the computer, I get the message "SATA is found running at IDE mode", and it asks me if I want to change to AHCI. Which should I pick?
Secondly, the XP version shouldn't be a problem - it's SP3 with drivers and all that jazz.
Third, I'll try unplugging the Seagate drives leaving only the new WD drive, and also run with only one RAM stick just in case.
I'll tell you how it goes later, now I need some beauty sleep. Goodnight and adios, and thanks!
Generally speaking, AHCI will be the same or faster but XP doesn't always have the right driver for the hardware. You can probably find the right driver, maybe on Western Digital's website. The trick would be to install XP using IDE, then install the driver, then try switching to AHCI. If need different drivers for the Seagate drives you should also try to install them. Read this site (ad others)
http://expertester.wordpre
Before running AHCI the article recommends reading Microfsoft KnowledgeBase article 922976 which is about SATA on Vista and Windows 7.
If you stay with IDE everything should work with the drivers you have. If you want to tweak for maximum performance you have further research ahead. You will probably want to slipstream the Seagate and WD SATA drivers onto a new XP intall disk. Here's a link for how to do that:
http://www.winsupersite.co
As for RAM, if you only put one ram stick in you may not get the same ram setuip as with two. Putting one in at a time is a way of troubleshooting the sticks, but you may not be able to test the final ram latency setup with only one stick. Again, this shouldn't be a problem unless you want absolute maximum performance..
Your i5 750 will sttill give you smoking performance on anything that can use 4 cores.
First problem is it sounds like both the operating systems you have tried were originally installed on different systems, which means it won't work properly on the new hardware. The fix is to do a clean reinstall of the os you want to run With xp you are going to need to install the sata drivers(unless you use IDE mode then no drivers are required, but i suggest using AHCI so you get all the benefits it offers) or 1 of 2 things will happen it will bsod(during or after setup) with a 7b stop error or the installation won't see a hard drive to install to, you are either going to need to install the driver off a floppy using f6 or slipstream the sata driver onto a xp cd(www.nliteos.com). For Vista it may or may not have the driver if it doesn't similar error's will occur but with vista you can load the sata drivef off a usb storage device, cd or floppy.
Oh, it might be the AHCI mode struggling - I never realized having it on usually gives it BSOD's without drivers.
I'll probably go with the IDE mode until I get everything to work; in the absolute worst case, it's a performance loss I'm ready to take.
Also, I found this at a AHCI vs IDE website
"Enabling AHCI in a system BIOS will cause a 0×7B Blue Screen of Death STOP error (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE)
I think we pinpointed this problem out - we'll see this evening. ;)
Okay, here's the problem now:
I have deactivated AHCI mode, or at least the BIOS claims so.
I've tried booting the XP disc. The first time, I got an error at line whatever. The second and third times, after it begins loading drivers, I get Error Code 7 (about some file called Ntkrnlmp). Google says this is due to some AHCI thing.
what i wpuld do is strip the pc to it's basics :
mobo + cpu + 1 ram stick, 1 HDD, video card keyb + mouse this will eliminate many other possible causes of problems)
see if you can boot normally; if not, start swapping parts : ram, video card; HDD
also, when you installed XP, you did load the sata drivers?
Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 318729 states:
"This behavior can occur if either one of the following conditions is true:
There are incorrect settings in the computer's basic input/output system (BIOS) configuration.
-or-
One or more of the random access memory (RAM) modules that is installed on the computer is faulty."
Be patient. Don't skip steps that are being recommended. You need to start with the simplest, most basic configuration possible. One RAM stick, default BIOS settings but make sure you are using IDE. One disk drive.
Change the settings to the defaults, save them and reboot. Do the settings reflect what you changed them to? If not you may have flaky flash ram problems on your mb.
Leave the machine turned on and untouched for a whille (an hour or wo) Does it lock up, crash or reboot? That is definitely a sign of RAM, power supply or MB problems. Check your cpu health, (if you can) in the bios. CPU running coool. If not you have the heat sink on crooked..
The way you are reporting errors is sloppy. You got an error at line "whatever". No no no. Sloppy. Tell us the line number. You had a problem with "Ntkrnlmp" . Wasn't it really Ntkrnlmp.EXE? It may be hard to get a screenshot because you can't save it, but please write down the error message competely and report it.
Keep a log of what you did every time you boot. Be consistent. Don't do extra steps that you dont log because you think they will save time later. They won't. Your problem is right at the root of your system. Either your hardware (RAM & MB) is good or it isn;t. Either your BIOS settings are right or they aren't. You need to know exactly how your computer is set up when it fails. Tells us exactly what steps you are doing, even the little tiny ones so we know you are not leaving anything out. Tell us every setting in the BIOS. There is a clue there that you are not seeing and the experts here can't help you with because you aren't giving us enough information.
# The way you are reporting errors is sloppy. You got an error at line "whatever". No no no. Sloppy. Tell us the line number
At the above thing: It was different lines, and different random files all the time - sometimes it's some Dell keyboard driver, and sometimes it's some .sys file - a hundred reboots would give hundred different results.
Alright, I tried another session and really thought it would work:
* Went into BIOS, put the hard drive settings to IDE
* Checked temperatures, CPU idled around or just under 40c
* Let the computer be on a couple hours, no differences
* Booting the XP Disc
* Gets to pick between hard drive (the 500GB WD Black one)
It starts formatting for about 1.5 hours (which made me hope it would work), and after 99% it gives me "Windows was unable to format this hard drive, pick another hard drive". I pick the one I can choose, and then it tries to format again, giving me the same error, but prompting me to exit setup instead of going back to that partition manager.
--
I only ran with one stick of RAM in this installation.
I'll type down all BIOS settings in a whim in the next message.
Hi fratey: Did you ever run full diagnostic suite on the disk as I stated in my first post. step 0? If so, what tests exactly did you do? Can you please humor me and try to install the O/S on a small USB flash disk? This takes many things out of the equation. The diags you ran could be just very poorly written, incomplete tests. You need to perform a full destructive media verification test as part of the diagnostics.
Here's what I'd do next. Enable AHCI in bios, download an extract the sata driver in the link below(it's a self extracting .exe file) and use Nlite to slipstream the driver onto an xp cd. Try the reinstall again with only the hard drive you want to os installed on(unplug the others).
http://america.giga-byte.c
Motherboard info
MIT>
MIT reports proper frequency and timings (2.66 ghz, 2.8 ghz with turbo mode, temperatures ranging from 35-42c, 9-9-9-24 on RAM)
CPU Clock is set at 20x (133x20 = 2.66ghz)
Base Clock control is disabled, leaving the RAM frequency at 133
System memory multiplier is set to Auto
PCI Express Frequency is set to Auto
CPU Clock Drive is set to 800mV
PCI Express Clock Drive is set to 900mV
CPU CLock Skew is set to 0 ops
Vcore is at 1.248 V
DRAM Voltage is at 1.584 V
Motherboard Voltage control:
CPU Vcore: 1.29375V
QPI/Vtt Voltage: 1.100 V
PCH Core: 1.050V
CPU PLL: 1.800V
DRAM Voltage: 1.500V
DRAM Termination: 0.750V
Standard CMOS Features>
IDE Channel 0 Master:
(Seagate 1)
IDE Channel 1 Master:
(Seagate 2)
IDE Channel 1 Slave:
(WD Black)
IDE Channel 4 Master: Philips DROM6216
Halt on: All but keyboard
Advanced BIOS Features:
Quick Boot is disabled
First boot device is hard disk
Second is CDROM
third is Floppy
Num-Lock bootup is on
HDD SMART Capability is disabled
Limit CPUID Max to 3 is disabled
No Execture Memory Protect is enabled
HDD Delay is 0
Init Display First is set to PCI
Integrated peripherals>
SATA RAID/AHCI Mode is disabled
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode is enabled
USB controllers are enabled
USB Legacy function enabled
USB Storage function enabled
Azalia codec enabled
Onboard H/W 1394 enabled
Onboard H/W LAN enabled
Green LAN disabled
Onboard LAN boot ROM disabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Device enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode set to IDE
I tried running Damn Small Linux and it kicked me into some very limited shell, I'll try booting XP or something from an USB drive.
First attempt of running this disc:
"Setup cannot load the keyboard layout file KBDUS.DLL, setup cannot continue." <-- aka the average error I've got every now and then, just replace that DLL with anything else.
Second attempt of running this disc:
"Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer."
What can be the reason for this? I plugged out all other hard drives, only the Western Digital is the one plugged in. BIOS is set to AHCI mode where applicable.
Okay, now I am about 90% certain something in this computer is defect.
After enabling the AHCI thing and trying those two times with that disc, I am unable to get into BIOS. I get into the standard boot menu where it shows my options (TAB for POST, Delete for BIOS, F12 for boot menu, etc) - but I am unable to do anything and it attempts to boot the hard drive, which of course fails because there's nothing on it.
I feel I've basically had enough of this computer, and I have absolutely no clue what to do anymore. I just want everything to work...
Really now, isn't GPU, 1 RAM stick, CPU, and one HDD "the bare basics"? I already did that, it still gave me problems...
I'm so frustrated over this problem that I couldn't even install back the second RAM stick, I think I'll just call the support tomorrow when I'm less worked up over these problems... in the worst case I'll just send it in.
I'd like to thank you all for the wonderful help you've given me. No other site would give me so many qualified responses in such a short amount of time - it's very appreciated. ;)
I'll keep in touch on any updates..
Sorry if I am going over old ground with this one- I have read through the comments and couldn't see this as a test-
Can you get hold of a nother XP install disc- not a copy of the one you are using- and try that to eliminate a 'Bad Disc' issue. Also have you tried installing to an IDE HDD- I see that the mobo in question has an IDE interface.
Again, sorry If I am covering old ground- I'm playing catch up with this one.
Let us know how you get on.
I've got it! The case is cursed!
The last time I had to eliminate every possible component it turned out to be a slightly defective ATA cable.
I take it you've now stripped the system down to bare bones. The process of elimination will win out in the end it has to. There's not a lot I can to add to the preceedings as every base has already been covered - Just thought I'd add some emotional support - we've all been there.
All the best
Sci-Fi Si
I am impressed with how hard you have worked on this problem. You now have a slipstreamed XP disk with all the drivers so you should be able to install everything pretty quickly on your next mobo.
I think there is something wrong with the mobo. Maybe you could reflash the bios, but I'm not sure that I would trust it. You paid for a brand new mobo and I think you need to get a working one. You swapped the RAM so that is probably OK. I don't think your problem is the cable, you tried different drives on different SATA cables, although I agree with SciFiSi that it could be something simplelike a cable. Maybe you tightened one of the screws holding the mobo too much. When you put the next mobo in you won;''t have that problem. Good luck to you..
Turns out it was the damned DVD reader - it works, it runs awesome now, and it's been doing 3d stuff for 4hours and it still blows out air that is cooler than the surroundings!
Thanks for the help everyone, now I got one small problem left...
The DVD reader that still works doesn't get detected at all - I can open and close the disc tray but it doesn't get detected in either BIOS or Windows.
Thank you very much for all your help, I admire your patience! I'll send out points once I figured out how to split them out... which would be tomorrow when I'm sober.
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by: dlethePosted on 2009-09-20 at 09:43:47ID: 25377820
Well, there are so many *possible* things it could be that I will just have to answer generic things to do
0. I assume you ran Seagate disk drive diagnostics. If not do so, you could just have a bad disk drive.
1. To eliminate the disk subsystem entirely, get a big USB stick and load XP on it, and see if system behaves. If system works when booted to USB, then you know it is seagate disk or disk controller/cabling. Otherwise continue down this list.
2. If this is a system you bought that was fully assembled, just take it back, not worth the effort to debug (maybe this is a full commercial system, and you just swapped out the graphics card?
3. If this is a fully homegrown system then based on what you have already tried, then you probably have interrupt conflicts, timing issues, or basic hardware incompatibility that just prevents the entire system as a whole from working. Sorry about the soapbox, but you just learned why PC manufacturers like Dell, HP, IBM spend tens of millions of dollars designing any new computer .... they check compatibility. So even though every component works perfectly stand alone, the system as a whole fails. You have a frankencomputer, and have probably spent way to much time trying it to all work. Here is what the pro's do ..
Go to http://www.uxd.com and get their diagnostic card. (There are many other companies to choose from, I am just naming one that I have experience with). This card has it's own processor, memory, display, etc ... and will figure out where the problem is, whether it is interrupts, signaling, memory, cpu.. All guesswork is removed, and it will tell you exactly what the problem is ... which may or may not be fixable.
Now, there are many other PC diagnostic cards, and the uxd family is expensive. It may not even be cost-effective. Look on ebay for PC diagnostic cards and go to websites to find one that you can afford that you think is good enough to diagnose the problem.
But just don't waste a whole lot of time trying to run further diagnostics. Based on your question you pretty much ran all the diagnostics you can run that are based in software. Component incompatibility problems rarely show up in diagnostic software. This is a classic example of when you need to purchase diagnostic HARDWARE.