Dream rig becoming a NIGHTMARE, HELP!

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Sovereign

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Mar 21, 2005
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I bought a $3k computer thinking I would be able to have some fun this summer. Instead, I have embarked on a journey to Computer Hell. Windows installed, after a fashion. Then, I started installing drivers for various devices. All was well for a while, then a "PCI Modem" showed up with a big exclamation mark in my Device Manager. I found that a BIOS update would make this go away, but had a heck of a time flashing the BIOS because MSI's Live Update HATES Firefox 1.5 and my computer can't boot from floppy for some reason even though the BIOS is configured correctly.

The next issue arose when Windows XP Pro SP2 started hanging ENDLESSLY at the splash screen. After enabling /NOGUIBOOT and /SOS I found that the driver loading stopped after "MUP.SYS." Upon examining the Boot Log, I discovered that the system attempted to load "ACPI Multiprocessor PC" driver after MUP.SYS but did NOT load this driver. The OS then repeatedly attempted to load drivers for my 7900GTXs, X-Fi and other things but failed. The system tried two, three, four or five times to load each driver. Now, the system will only boot in Safe Mode. Trying to boot into regular XP gets the Hang of Death. I have tried the following:
1. Remove drivers with Driver Cleaner and reinstall. Could not complete because the system only boots into Safe Mode and some installers don't work in Safe Mode.
2. Remove X-Fi. Heard some PCI cards cause issues, but removing the X-Fi was just an annoyance that did not help.
3. Tried installing the AMD Dual Core Driver on my Opteron 170. Either did nothing or made it worse.

I thought I had the problem solved until I went to install drivers for my MX1000, then the problems resumed.
Specs:
Opteron 170 @ stock
2GB DDR500 G.Skill
150GB Raptor and 2x250GB WD Caviar RAID0
MSI K8N Diamond Plus
2xeVGA 7900GTX SLI
NEC 3550a DVD
BenQ 52x32x52/16x
PCP&C TurboCool 850 SSI
Thermaltake Armor black version
X-Fi soundcard
 
Do you have any other ram to try? just a first thought. This will be quite a nice system when you get it going :).
 
Nope, not the RAM. Ran memtest for a while...no issues. Same issue with two other sticks of RAM from my old computer that I know work.
 
Just a thought but maybe you could go into the BIOS and disable anything you don't need (serial ports, game ports, modem firewire etc). See if that helps at all, and if that doesn't help try another reinstall? I've always found Windows to constantly get finickier as you tweak more stuff on it, and its really a balance of which things to install.
 
Another not so fun option would be a reformat and reinstall. From what you have said it doesn't look like you have too much installed so far.
 
daphatgrant said:
Another not so fun option would be a reformat and reinstall. From what you have said it doesn't look like you have too much installed so far.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same, since the bios upgrade messed the windows HAL, then why not start fresh with a quick format and OS reinstall?

oldmx
 
"I bought a $3k computer thinking I would be able to have some fun this summer."

It's summer outside. Leave your house.
 
would also consider running everything at stock speeds till you get the thing figured out.
 
Reformat and install can determine whether or not its a hardware or a software problem.
 
general said:
"I bought a $3k computer thinking I would be able to have some fun this summer."

It's summer outside. Leave your house.
Click to expand...

LOL

Someone always has something funny to say... :p


Clean install and I'm assuming you're running stuff at stock.

If you still have problems... try testing piece by piece.
 
yea... reformat... next time that ghost pci modem comes up kill it. dont let xp search for its drivers....

but yea you can swap out peice by peice. and you say you have no internal speaker, meaning you cant hear a beep even if it does post correct?

i know this is smelt technical support type of solution, but is your monitor toast?
 
Another thing you can try is setting the ram timings in the bios manually. I know it sounds funny but worth a shot.
 
The latest thing I have noticed is a lot of the following:
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation.
in the Event log following an unsuccessful boot where I reset and then boot again.
And as for this PCI modem, it turns out it was a known error in the BIOS of my K8N Diamond Plus. Flashed the BIOS and that went away. Do these errors mean my Raptor needs RMA? I used SpinRite6 on it but that did not cure it. (CHKDSK found nothing)
 
sounds stupid,, try removing the X-FI and any drivers.

I had a similar problem with my mainboard, removed the card and it was fine after reinstall windows. upgrading the bios sorted the problem in the end for me.

*** please ignore this post, should have read the whole topic before posting.
 
Hmmm, seems to be an SLI issue. Regardless of which 7900GTX I use, it works fine with one card. No errors in event log, PC can power down by itself without me using the manual switch. Does it matter which way the SLI connector goes on?
 
I am running into the same issue with 7800GTX's in SLi... its the second time...

I cannot even get to the point of repairing windows as it gets stuck at "Setup is starting WIndows" when booting off the WinXP SP2 CD.

I too am leaning towards it being an SLi issue or possibly a hard drive issue?... but does anyone know the fix?

EDIT: Browsing google has returned the same problems on many different motherboards, many different RAM sets, and many different hard drives.
 
Now I can shut off the computer, but get nasty errors in the Event Log when I reboot. I moved the RAM to slots 3 and 4 (farthest from the processor). My mobo is a K8N Diamond Plus and the RAM is G.Skill DDR500. I am taking out and reseating EVERY component except the processor....
 
Just got off the phone with microsoft tech support... Had to give him a BS schpele about what I was doing with the computer.

But he believes that if you happen to run a program of anysort that causes the system to max out for a certain amount of time, it somehow is corrupting the boot sector of the drive.

Now on my own time, the only solution I have found for this was to remove the drive, place it into another machine, and reformat... but I am weary of doing it again... There has to be something that is causing this to hang on several different systems with different hardware.
 
I don't know what to do. I'm going to reformat again (sigh) and reinstall XP with only one videocard and one stick of RAM tomorrow.....hope it works. I'm going to install one component at a time till the problems start....this may not help because the problem shows up somewhere in my install sequence, which goes ---
Like this:
1. Install Windows
2. Install Chipset drivers so I can use the Internet (nV Gigabit)
3. Update Windows
4. Install DirectX
5. Install Videocard drivers
6. Install Soundcard drivers

The problems (not booting correctly, not shutting off etc.) start occurring RANDOMLY somewhere within these steps. No one thing seems to trigger it.
 
Well, after discussing this with several of my other buddies... We have somewhat of a theory behind my problem, but are not sure about some other systems.

We figured out that there was one constant in the works on my machine that may have caused this to happen to the Win XP install. It was rumored that on my motherboard, it did not like 1T timings, thus having to suffice with 2T...

The first time the pausing at Mup.sys happened after I had gone to 1T, and restarted the machine and tightened the RAM timings.

The second time had happened after I had just gone to 1T timings and restarted (windows ran fine)... And was running for about 1 day. The next time I went to boot, it paused at Mup.sys...

Therefore, our theory for why it is happening to my machine could be that the boot sector of the drive is becoming corrupted due to the motherboard not transfering data correctly with 1T timings.

I am going to reformat one last time, and will leave the RAM at 2T timings and see how long windows XP goes without corrupting... if at all. I will be sure to post my findings.
 
I have mine on 2T. I installed WinXP with minimal hardware. The paging errors occurred ONLY after installing videocard drivers (7900GTX). Both cards cause errors. Is it the drivers or the cards?
 
I just saw a similar problem on a friends system. The HD error followed by the Delayed Write Failed was being cause by a bad stick of RAM. The error wasn't in the HD but in the Page File as it was being swapped around. It caused all kinds of nasty things to happen including Windows rapidly pooching itself as all info it copied into that piece of RAM was eventually destroyed.

You may not have bad RAM, but it is possible that you have configured it improperly in the BIOS. Make absolutely sure you have the timings set correctly for your RAM. Don't let the BIOS detect it for you, do it manually using the settings of of the G.Skill website for the exact model of RAM you have in your box.

IMO, with this top of the line example of ass kickery, I would have splurged and bought a better quality of memory. Call me old fashioned, but I only trust companies that have been around for a while and have repeatedly demonstrated they know how to make quality RAM. After being disappointed in some other companies both personally and through first hand experiences with friends, I will only ever recommend or buy Mushkin and Corsair.
 
blackrino9 said:
IMO, with this top of the line example of ass kickery, I would have splurged and bought a better quality of memory. Call me old fashioned, but I only trust companies that have been around for a while and have repeatedly demonstrated they know how to make quality RAM. After being disappointed in some other companies both personally and through first hand experiences with friends, I will only ever recommend or buy Mushkin and Corsair.
Click to expand...

I personally am a huge OCZ fan... great products from them... But this is actually the third set of GSkill RAM that I have dealt with, the other two sets ran flawlessly up to ~290MHz FSB (not bad for being specced at 250). Not to mention that I have memtested this RAM and received 0 errors. And my problem was not with page file writes and such... just after restarting, windows would pause while loading in safe mode at Mup.sys.... No blue screens. I have received some PM's on other people who have experienced the same problem and their solutions, I'll be working on it tonight, so I'll post my finidings to see whats going on tonight.
 
Update:

I've reinstalled and have been wailing on the machine as much as possible. It seems that the person that sent me a PM suggesting I up my RAM voltage to help with the 1T corruption has helped, though the board is still flaky with 1T timings (I await the first bios update).

Several instances going back and forth from 1T to 2T and at various FSB speeds has yet to corrupt my drive.

What I've done: I went in and manually set my RAM timings rather than using Auto, as well as upping the voltage to 2.8V.
 
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