BIG PC Problems!

[Nova_Tek]

It's a long story but please bear with me :).

Firstly the spec:

ECA Pheonix L4S5A/DX+ Mobo SiS Chipset
P4 3.06GHz HT 512k L2/533MHz FSB (XP recongises as two core CPU)
2 x Memzilla DDR333 1GB CL2.5 DDR RAM (replaced original 256MB CL2.5 DDR RAM 2 Years ago)
Seagate 20GB HDD 5,400 rpm ATA 133
Samsumg 40GB HDD 7k rpm ATA133
Geforce FX 5200 128MB AGP Graphics card
Realtek Ethernet Card
Samsung Dual Layer DVDRW +/- drive
LıteOn Dual Layer DVDRW +/- drive

I'm by no means a novice when it comes to PC's, I can happily build, strip, fix them with no worries, but this has got me well baffled.

I use this pc only for music production and I only run XP (SP3) with two audio programs, absolutly nothing else.

The problem started a few days ago. I was happily using Pro Tools for about 2 hours. My phone rang and 5 mins into my convo, the system blue screened. The system was totally idle (there was no processing going on and I wasn't using it at all. It was just waiting for me to resume where I left off). I reset the computer and a message came up saying that XP system32/config folder was corrupt. So I thought 'great, reformat time'.

I rebooted the system to go boot from the XP disc but this time nothing would happen. PC would power on, all drives would spin, but nothing on screen and the green power LED would stay off with the red HDD constantly on. I tried troubleshooting the issue and tired almost everything (except what I've written below lol)

I had enough and took it to a mate that fixed pc's for a living (when I say 'mate', someone I've known for a good few years who has a shop. He gives me a big discount whenever I need stuff sorting (which is hardly ever)) .

He removed the RAM sticks, cleaned them up and reinserted it. That seemed to unlock the hang and it would then allow us to access the XP disc. I then reinstalled XP, and as it went to do a first boot it blue screened again and on reboot gave me the same error. We concluded that the RAM was faulty. We tested the RAM one by one and found that on of the sticks crashed the system. We removed that RAM in question, leaving us with an identical single stick and installed xp and was running ok, but although all was ok the green power LED wouldn't come on :confused: .

I got home to start installing programs and the PC blue screened again. Same error. This time I removed all the RAM and stuck in the original RAM that came with the system, which I know for a fact, when I removed 2 years ago it was in 100% working order. Since then it was stored in a proper RAM casing in an antistatic bag.

I have tried so many times to reinstall XP with the known working RAM but it don't wanna know. It sometimes lets me boot with the CD and sometimes will just pause at the 'booting from CD' page. It sometimes goes into XP setup and stays idle at the 'copying executive files' stage. Sometimes it'll start copying those files and say 'fastfat.sys' corrupt, other times 'hal.dll' corrupt, and sometimes 'acpi.sys' corrupt.

Now I've used my original XP disc for this particular pc, then the XP CD from my other machine, thinking that the corrupt message could be from a bad disc (even though the CD's all virtually unscratched and almost like new).

I've tried totally wiping the HDD's blank, using a proper wiping software (takes ages to do). This sometimes allows the setup process to go slightly further ahead but I still get nowhere. I've swapped RAM sticks and tried them on different slots (3 slots in total).

I'm getting to the point that I'm wondering if the mobo is on it's last legs. I really want to get this pc back up and running as I was doing a few mixing projects for a couple people. Just hope the issue is something I've overlooked and hopefuly won't cost a packet to repair as I really don't need this and what with the Nova using up a good slice of my money, it won't leave me with much.

Thought I'd ask on here maybe to get something that may shed some light as I know tehre are a few PC boffins in here.

:thumb:

Oh and sporry for the longness :p !

[mowgli]

i know its a long shot.... have you tried unplugging it & leaving it for 10 minutes.....then plugging it back in???????

thats what the idiot, who my missus rang, reckons works every time


seriously, it sounds like the mother board is shot...

[NOVA_LEE]

i kept gettin the blue screen of death like last year on me comp, was cos i updated to sp3 an computer couldnt handle it no more an decided it would run better with an older service pack

[NathanSRi]

i know its a long shot.... have you tried unplugging it & leaving it for 10 minutes.....then plugging it back in???????

thats what the idiot, who my missus rang, reckons works every time

That's not as stupid as it sounds. Even when the PC is shut down, if it's plugged in some of it's still powered up. If you unplug it if gives the PC a chance to "reset" itself.

[L14MNP]

I'm asking my mate who knows a bit about them. He says:

Adam says:
Mobo or Proc
The Blue Screen will have an error on it
he says its the same
but what is it?

well if he's tried all the momory, chances are its the motherboard not addressing the memory correctly, new motherboard should be cheap enough - just cross your fingers it's not the processor.

If he wants to get it up and running again tell him to try one stick of memory in each slot until it works, if that doesnt work, try another stick.

[Jon_nova1]

have you tried installing windows on both cd drives? or tried disconnecting them when windows was installed?

[Prey]

Id guess at mb as well, only way to know would be to swap everything out - does your mate have a test setup you could borrow for a bit maybe.

[NovaLad]

Have you tried buying a mac?






lol oj.

My PC sort of did the exact same and it turned out the processor went and took out the motherboard.

Good luck.

[Welsh Dan]

Need to know the code when it blue screens. It'll be something like 0x000000YY. We need to know the YY bit. Chances are it is the motherboard though. Socket 478 ones to fit yours should be pretty cheap. Without getting my hands on it to test everything though its hard to say.

[Nova_Tek]

i know its a long shot.... have you tried unplugging it & leaving it for 10 minutes.....then plugging it back in???????

thats what the idiot, who my missus rang, reckons works every time


seriously, it sounds like the mother board is shot...

Yep mate, tried that many a time.


I'm asking my mate who knows a bit about them. He says:

Adam says:
Mobo or Proc
The Blue Screen will have an error on it
he says its the same
but what is it?

well if he's tried all the momory, chances are its the motherboard not addressing the memory correctly, new motherboard should be cheap enough - just cross your fingers it's not the processor.

If he wants to get it up and running again tell him to try one stick of memory in each slot until it works, if that doesnt work, try another stick.

Tried that already. Got 3 sticks of RAM, 2 are identical one is OEM. Tried all in each slot individually. With the identical 1GB RAM the pc would turn on but nothing on screen. Funnily enough though when these RAM sticks are used the power LED light would come on. It runs but nothing on screen and the HDD light stays firmly lit. Put the OEM RAM and it'll run show the bios and get you to XP setup but stop there and with this RAM the power light will be off. Really is funked!

Hope it isn't the processor mate as it took me ages to find the fastest possible P4 533FSB. It used to have a P4 single core 2.4GHz. I still have the old processor with me so I could try it out.


have you tried installing windows on both cd drives? or tried disconnecting them when windows was installed?

Yep, tried installing from both drives thinking the drive was knackered (which I thought was highly unlikely as I've must have used it about a total of 3 hours since new).

Tried oth the HDD's too.


Have you tried buying a mac?






lol oj.

My PC sort of did the exact same and it turned out the processor went and took out the motherboard.

Good luck.

Yes mate, me and my bro bought an iMac 6 months ago. Love it! But this pc is what I use for when I'm not next to the iMac and Pro Tools is both Windows and Mac compatible which is great for me (when the PC works lol).


Need to know the code when it blue screens. It'll be something like 0x000000YY. We need to know the YY bit. Chances are it is the motherboard though. Socket 478 ones to fit yours should be pretty cheap. Without getting my hands on it to test everything though its hard to say.

Wish I could tell you mate but both drives are blank and trying to install XP is proving to be impossible on the above PC. I wish it would install XP just so it would crash and give me the blue screen codes.

[Jack]

Haven't read the thread as I'm in a rush, but sounds like your motherboard is pongoed.

[Nova_Tek]

So you just slicked on last post and said 'mobo is naffed' lol

Express analysis by Jack. I'd rep you but gotta spread it first :(

On a more serious note, those are my thoughts too.

[Dar]

Try a minimal system to install on. I have had HDD's & Optical drives screw up systems when they are just sitting there doing nothing.

Pick one stick of ram and then one optical drive and one hdd. Run the hdd and optical drives on different controllers to start with. As said above I had a very similar problem once and it turned out to be one of the optical drives that I wasn't using screwing up the comms.

[Jon_nova1]

I too have had similar issues with drives, but suppose if you've had drives disconnnected, i'd be looking at acquiring someone elses motherboard to test, theres a few options, so swapping things related to and including the motherboard is the best thing to do

[Nova_Tek]

Try a minimal system to install on. I have had HDD's & Optical drives screw up systems when they are just sitting there doing nothing.

Pick one stick of ram and then one optical drive and one hdd. Run the hdd and optical drives on different controllers to start with. As said above I had a very similar problem once and it turned out to be one of the optical drives that I wasn't using screwing up the comms.

I already run the HDD's and CD drives on seperate controllers. But I'll remove one of the CD drives and try installing. I always reformat and install with on HDD then add the other once the installation is done.

[Nova_Sean]

SP3 is poop

[Welsh Dan]

SP3 is poop

I love how you backed up that statement there :thumb:

[Nova_Tek]

I've been using SP3 since it first got released and never had any issues.

Just about to try again but this time removing he spare dvd drive.

[Sloth]

burn it and buy a bbc micro, works for me.

[Nova_Tek]

Righty,

I tried disconnecting the dvd drive and using one at a time.

Removed the LiteOn DVD Drive and used the Samsung drive, it got to the extracting of exec files in XP setup and gave me 'ntkrnlmp.exe' could not be loaded, error code 7.

I then removed the Samsung drive and reconnected the LiteOn drive. That went a bit further but paused about a minute into extracting the exec files. I tired the LiteOn again and this time it said setupdd.sys cannot be lodaded error code 7.

It's always a different file that cannot be loaded.

On both occasions only one HDD was plugged in.

[Welsh Dan]

I've had similar issues with bad ram or a bad ram controller (motherboard).

[Nova_Tek]

I have just tried installing XP on to the Samsung HDD using my dilay PC to do it and the LiteOn DVD Drive.

It installed first time flawlessly.

I even had it running for a while and did a defrag. Connected the HDD back onto the PC in question and the LiteOn drive (made sure nothing else was connected).

Booted it up, and where you'd expect the windows logo to come up and load windows it would crash at that point, endless cycle. Boot up, go to load windows, crash, boot up, go to load windows, crash etc.

So I know that all devices work fine. May need to go borrow another known working RAM and try it out (but I'm certain this 256 stick works).

[Nova_Tek]

I've been wondering about the PSU... The whole power LED not coming on is just making me think. It comes on when the PC is first switched on then about 5 secs later it'll go out but the pc will continue to run through the load stages.

And I've just noticed that plugging in the RAM stick which we think is faulty, the power LED comes on and stays on as it should but this time the PC will just power up but not do anything, nothing on screen, no action but it's on.

It's making me question the PSU.