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New build having problems

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pbnjonny

n00b
Joined
Jan 7, 2008
Messages
18
Around mid-August I built a new rig since my laptop died and I needed it for school. It worked wonderfully until last friday when it started to just hang for seconds even doing really simple things like clicking the start menu. I had Vista 32bit on it just to get the wireless card working, but with 4 gigs of ram I decided why not format and throw XP x64 on it. Well the XP disk couldn't format the hd saying there were errors on it, so I tried to just install over XP, about halfway through it threw out a bunch of errors each saying some file couldn't be copied. After it finished through the computer restarted and couldn't see my hard drive. After some random diagnosing I tried removing a stick of ram and then it could see the hard drive again. Twice while trying to install I got "dumping memory" errors. Eventually I got XP64 on it, but it ran very sluggishly and I still couldn't get the wireless card or a usb wireless dongle to work, even with 64 bit drivers. So once again I went back to Vista 32. It took several resets and moving ram sticks around before it could find the hard drive again. But eventually it did and I reformatted and partitioned the hard drive from it. That was last night and it was running just fine, got it to install the wireless and all the important windows updates. When I woke up this morning it was just sitting at the bios post splash screen, stuck there.

In between some of the OS installs I tried to load Ubuntu or Backtrack from a livecd to see if I could get any kind of diagnostic to run. But none of them would load. Ubuntu 7.04 (feisty fawn) I get this error
Code: 
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-2ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)

with 8.04 (hardy heron) it gives the same error except without the "/bin/sh...." line. Backtrack 2.0 just says something went wrong and can't load. I tried loading the livecd both with and without the hard drive connected and I get the same errors.

I'd prefer not to just throw money and parts at this because I don't have any right now, but I do need to get this working for some projects I have to get done soon. If anyone know of any tests I can try to run to determine whats bad that would be great. Right now I have Memtest 1.70 running from the Ubuntu cd, when I left for campus it had been running for about an hour and was 1.5 passes through with no errors.

system:
E8400 C0
Asus P5Q Pro
2x2 GB G.Skill pc2-8000
MSI Radeon 3650
Seagate 500 GB 7200.11
 
Nobody with any ideas?

-Memtest86+ ran for 12 hours with no errors.
-Attempted to load Ultimate Boot CD and I get a similar error to Ubuntu and Backtrack except with isolinux in the name.
-Tried to run Seatools for Windows, the HD passed the SMART test and the Short Generic test, but refuses to complete the Short DST, it doesn't pass or fail, but it will just get to the end of the test and start over without ever finishing. I let it run for 30 minutes and it never finished, the help said it should take 20-90 seconds.
-Ran some diagnostics with HD Tune quick error scan didn't show any damaged areas. I have it running the full error scan now. The read diagnostic shows something funny though. it takes about the first 10% of the drive before it will get up to normal speed and then it jumps up and down a lot. The health report also shows some things that I'm not sure what they mean.

At this point its looking to me like the hard drive health is just deteriorating quickly. From reading one of the threads in the hot deals (LINK) it looks like there was a batch of 7200.11 drives from Thailand (where mine was from) that was bad. Is there anything else I can try to figure this out quickly?

HDTune_Benchmark_ST3500320AS.png

HDTune_Health_ST3500320AS.png
 
Try using a different cable for your optical drive or try a different optical drive altogether to load the LiveCDs.

Also, what power supply do you have?
 
I can do a different cable, but I don't have another optical drive here at school with me since I just replaced my laptop.

Power supply is a Corsair 520HX
 
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