I apologize for the long post in advance, but I like to be thorough and try to fully describe problems in order to avoid mis-understanding. I've had too many experiences with people telling me simply "My computer doesn't work,"to inflict it on anyone else.
Despite not building a complete system by myself in several years, I decided to order a bunch of parts and build an allendale-based PC. For the most part, everything works, but I am seeing some odd behavior. Nine times out of ten, the keyboard is not detected on boot, whether it is a ps/2 or usb keyboard. Unplugging it and plugging it back in works sometimes, sometimes resetting the PC works. I got Windows installed, in spite of problems with the optical drive. Even when in Windows, the keyboard will suddenly not be detected anymore and I must unplug and replug it to get it going. Sometimes it gets undetected again after a few seconds. It's maddening, to say the least.
Now to the optical drive. I use a GParted livecd to use parted as a partitioning tool for my hard drives. Seeing as I was using a new hard drive, I loaded that up first. In the middle of it loading up, my optical drive just stops reading the cd, I see a message stating "GParted livecd not detected!" and everything hangs. I reset, rinse and repeat. In spite of this, I decided to try to Install Windows anyway. The drive still seemed to just stop reading the cd for long periods of time before starting up again, and the installation would not continue until it had. In all, it took over an hour to install Windows, the longest time I've seen an installation take since perhaps the days of win98 and my 300mhz celeron.
Once I got into Windows, things seemed to be fine. I pretty much only installed my vid card drivers and Oblivion, since that's the only graphics intensive thing I play. Oblivion took ages, to install too, probably three times longer than it takes on my other system. But then, once I started playing Oblivion, the keyboard again would stop working, needing me to unplug/replug it. Sometimes it stays detected again only a few seconds before going back off again, sometimes quite a while. It's not just while playing Oblivion that it stops working, either, it's just pretty much the only program I have on the new system that I would notice it not running. I have not connected the new pc to the net yet, wanting to get things sorted out before I started loading it up with updates and all the programs/games I use.
So far this is all driving me nuts. I have some experience troubleshooting software issues myself, but hardware always gets me. Now, a parts list, just to be thorough.
Antec P180B case
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 mobo
Intel e6400 CPU
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
Sapphire Radeon X1900XTX
2gb Corsair DDR2 ram (Twin2x2048-6400C4)
NEC DVD-Burner, model # ND-3550A
500W Enermax Liberty PSU
250gb WD hdd
I have BIOS version F3, but as you'll note, I don't have a floppy in that rig to update it. I'll have to grab it out of an old machine, if I can find one that still works. Besides these issues, the PC seems to run quite well, far better than my Prescott rig. CPU temp is read at 30 C in BIOS when I boot up, and since it's 60F in my apartment, i can't imagine it gets too much hotter.
Despite not building a complete system by myself in several years, I decided to order a bunch of parts and build an allendale-based PC. For the most part, everything works, but I am seeing some odd behavior. Nine times out of ten, the keyboard is not detected on boot, whether it is a ps/2 or usb keyboard. Unplugging it and plugging it back in works sometimes, sometimes resetting the PC works. I got Windows installed, in spite of problems with the optical drive. Even when in Windows, the keyboard will suddenly not be detected anymore and I must unplug and replug it to get it going. Sometimes it gets undetected again after a few seconds. It's maddening, to say the least.
Now to the optical drive. I use a GParted livecd to use parted as a partitioning tool for my hard drives. Seeing as I was using a new hard drive, I loaded that up first. In the middle of it loading up, my optical drive just stops reading the cd, I see a message stating "GParted livecd not detected!" and everything hangs. I reset, rinse and repeat. In spite of this, I decided to try to Install Windows anyway. The drive still seemed to just stop reading the cd for long periods of time before starting up again, and the installation would not continue until it had. In all, it took over an hour to install Windows, the longest time I've seen an installation take since perhaps the days of win98 and my 300mhz celeron.
Once I got into Windows, things seemed to be fine. I pretty much only installed my vid card drivers and Oblivion, since that's the only graphics intensive thing I play. Oblivion took ages, to install too, probably three times longer than it takes on my other system. But then, once I started playing Oblivion, the keyboard again would stop working, needing me to unplug/replug it. Sometimes it stays detected again only a few seconds before going back off again, sometimes quite a while. It's not just while playing Oblivion that it stops working, either, it's just pretty much the only program I have on the new system that I would notice it not running. I have not connected the new pc to the net yet, wanting to get things sorted out before I started loading it up with updates and all the programs/games I use.
So far this is all driving me nuts. I have some experience troubleshooting software issues myself, but hardware always gets me. Now, a parts list, just to be thorough.
Antec P180B case
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 mobo
Intel e6400 CPU
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
Sapphire Radeon X1900XTX
2gb Corsair DDR2 ram (Twin2x2048-6400C4)
NEC DVD-Burner, model # ND-3550A
500W Enermax Liberty PSU
250gb WD hdd
I have BIOS version F3, but as you'll note, I don't have a floppy in that rig to update it. I'll have to grab it out of an old machine, if I can find one that still works. Besides these issues, the PC seems to run quite well, far better than my Prescott rig. CPU temp is read at 30 C in BIOS when I boot up, and since it's 60F in my apartment, i can't imagine it gets too much hotter.