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PorkTornado
06-08-2005, 02:02 AM
i'll start with system specs.
-a64 3500
-asus a8v mobo
-antec truepower 550w PSU
-2x 512 corsair 2-2-2-5 ram
-eVga 6800 gt
-160 gig SATA Seagate hd (7200rpm)
-audigy 2zs
-win xp pro

ok, i wanted to reload windows and have a fresh start for the summer. my computer was cluttered with school junk, that's the only reason i wanted to reinstall. my windows disc isn't pirated, but it is a burnt copy of xp corporate. it had worked 3 times before for me and god knows how many with the previous owner.

anyway, when i go to reload windows, i get the blue screen of death. ok, i'll try it again. same thing. there are numerous files missing when it actually tries to format and when it reformats it goes from 0% to 100% in about 1.5 seconds.. seems WAY too fast. a few times it made it to the second part of reformatting, the part where you enter your name and key code and junk, only to get the BSOD.

seeing how it isn't an official copy of windows, i bought an OEM version of xp pro from new egg. i thought this would cure the problems. it didn't. even with the brand spakin new copy, it still tells me that files are missing and or corrupt when i try to format the drive.

eventually, a friend used my CD-RW insead of the primary DVD drive and, after a couply of BSOD's, it worked with the original <burned> version of xp. i still get BSOD's often, this is my 2nd draft of this thread because i lost the first.

i think it's a hardware problem, probably HD related, that's why i posted this here. so what do you think? what could be the problem?

oh, the parts were purchased last august and have shown no real signs of failure.

ps- i've done NO overclocking EVER on it. i did get a message that "my overclocking has failed and i should return my settings to normal."

Mav451
06-08-2005, 02:19 AM
Its the RAM.

Take out both sticks and use something else, b/c I've had exactly the same experience. I was using Ballistix at something as slow as 133FSB @ 3-3-3-8.

It still crashed. Put my CH-5 back in, and installation went right through.

Its the RAM.

DougLite
06-08-2005, 12:15 PM
MemTest86 <-- Google for this

You can download a bootable ISO image, burn it to a CD, and run it. Reset your BIOS to setup defaults, boot from that CD, and let it run all of the tests. You have a RAM problem if you get any errors.

Also, please post the power supply you have running that setup.

PorkTornado
06-08-2005, 12:39 PM
thanks, i'll get working on this today.

i was hoping it would be HD related, much cheeper. my corsair xms ram was expensive ($300?); i wouldn't expect something that expensive to go down so soon.

thanks,
PT

oh, sorry. i forgot the PSU

antec truepower 550w