New build, weird problems, I'm going nuts

[tygirwulf]

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.

 

[TheMostWantedPolishTwin]

I'd take everything out of the case, and try booting outside with just vid card, memory and cpu.. and start from running memtest86, just make sure the optical drive you're using isn't defective.

 

[jacuzz1]

If you unpluged the ps 2 keyboard hot and plugged it in you could very well have fucked up your mobo.thats a no no. Another obvious but often over looked scenario is that if you have a usb keyboard that has a ps2 donlge , you dont plug both in. If you do , it causes your symptoms .............Hope that helps

 

[TheMostWantedPolishTwin]

If you unpluged the ps 2 keyboard hot and plugged it in you could very well have fucked up your mobo.thats a no no. Another obvious but often over looked scenario is that if you have a usb keyboard that has a ps2 donlge , you dont plug both in. If you do , it causes your symptoms .............Hope that helps

I've hot plugged/ unplugged ps/2 peripherials don't know how many times as I was working at local computer store.. and nothing bad ever happened...

 

[G'ßöö]

I've hot plugged/ unplugged ps/2 peripherials don't know how many times as I was working at local computer store.. and nothing bad ever happened...

2nd that

 

[tygirwulf]

Yeah, I've done it tons, too, so while that warning briefly freaked me out, I realized that probably isn't why the keyboard is freaking out. I've switched between my Saitek Eclipse and IBM model M keyboard numerous times on my sig rig with no problems.

I reinstalled the chipset drivers off the cd, this time ignoring all the new hardware dialog boxes that kept popping up. It must've messed with something the first time through, because after I finished that, my dvd burner stopped being so crappy, at least in windows, and my keyboard stayed detected. I'll continue to test things out a bit to make sure the problem doesn't pop up again. The dvd burner is still cutting out on loading linux livecds, so I cannot format the drive the way I want it. For some reason Windows setup made a 20gb C drive, then installed Windows on the 210gb E: partition. Nothing that Gparted and a drive letter reassignment wouldn't fix, but the Gparted part is the problem atm.