PC build gone bad. Any ideas??

[PlaneCrazy]

The system: Asus A8N SLI (regular), EVGA 7800GT, 2x512mb Crucial Ballistic PC3200, 2xIDE hard drives, Athlon 3700+ SanDiego, Antec True480w PSU, few case fans.

The first 3 hours were troubleshooting MoBo grounding issues.. The next whatever hours were trying to install windows one two totally different HD's.

It would Blue screen eveytime. Some blues would be "MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION", other times it would say that the HD had a virus - which isn't true.

So, I'd format again, and try again.

A couple times it started installing windows. I'd name the machine, the workgroup, the time/date, then it would go some more, and blue screen and reset.

Still haven't gotten it to recognize both hard drives, just one at a time. I figured I'll tackle that after I get windows in.

Maybe I have a bad CD. I'm trying to get a new one with SP2 slipstreamed for tonight's battle. But then again that bluescreen is usually a hardware issue. I'll try pulling one stick of RAM out and see what happens. I don't have a PCIE vid card I can swap in either to see if that's it. Or maybe I can try installing from a different CD drive.. I dunno. I guess I can re-seat the CPU/HSF too.

Any other ideas? They'd be greatly appreciated. I just want to play BF2 with my buddies tonight!

 

[discochan]

Its possible that the HD is messed. Is it new or old?

Try to install XP using a friends disc instead and see if it installs. Maybe you have a bad CD

 

[PlaneCrazy]

Tried on two different HD's.

Yes, I got a new CD with SP2 coming tonight to try.

 

[my84mcss]

Ygpm

 

[TheMostWantedPolishTwin]

did you check memory? ...whenever you bild a computer using brand new parts - run at least one loop of memtest86 before installing OS.

 

[PlaneCrazy]

How do I do that?

It's registering as 1gb in the BIOS/POST.

Thanks

 

[PlaneCrazy]

Any other ideas?

So far tonight I'm going to try:

A new XP CD
testing the memory
installing with only 1 memory stick
re-seating the CPU/HSF

Anything else?