Woke up to a broken Comp.....

L

lost0822

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 10, 2004
Messages
270
...i hate these kinds of mornings.

I woke up this morning to my comp. being stuck at the screen where it says there was some sort of failure so it had to do an emergency shut down (the computer was working fine last night when I went to bed). It gives me the option for several different ways to restart:

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode (with something else I can’t remember)
Last known working configuration
Start Windows Normally.

I tried each one of those and every time it goes to the motherboard splash screen as normal (MSI) then I see the Windows logo for a split second and then the screen flashes a bunch and it goes right back to the Emergency Shut Down screen again with the same options above.

I can get into my BIOS and I looked around in there and everything seems to be fine as far as I can tell. The motherboard is seeing all of my parts fine and everything is running at the speeds they should be….i also am not overclocking anything either.

I had a problem many months ago where I think my wires from my power supply were shorting on something and causing the computer to freeze up once I got into Windows. I cleaned up some wires and that seemed to fix it…..until today that is. Now my wires are still kind of messy and I guess some of them could have moved in the past months.

Any guesses to what it could be…..could it just be it’s shorting again and I really need to clean up the wires REALLY good this time? Or maybe a hardware failure?

Here’s my specs:

Athlon 64 4000+ SD
XP-90 w/Vantec Tornado
MSI K8N Diamond Plus
520w OCZ
eVGA 7800GT
Corsair XMS 2GB
160 Samsung SATA
DVD+/- RW
DVD-Rom

Thanks for any help….if you have questions for me please let me know.
 
I'm guessing that it's not a hardware issue, but Windows one. Try using your Windows cd to repair the system.
 
which is on the windows install disc correct? (sorry for noobie question, i've been out of the loop lately)
 
lost0822 said:
Any guesses to what it could be…..could it just be it’s shorting again and I really need to clean up the wires REALLY good this time? Or maybe a hardware failure?

Here’s my specs:

Athlon 64 4000+ SD
XP-90 w/Vantec Tornado
MSI K8N Diamond Plus
520w OCZ
eVGA 7800GT
Corsair XMS 2GB
160 Samsung SATA
DVD+/- RW
DVD-Rom

Thanks for any help….if you have questions for me please let me know.
Click to expand...

My guess is a "subtle" hardware failure. Are you overclocking? A seemingly stable overclock can, over time, corrupt anything from files to your Windows install. I experienced this personally with my Athlon XP system.

However, if you're not overclocking, I would place it on your source of power. Either the PSU or your line (from the socket) is not clean. In the mean time, I'd try to put that hard drive in another PC and pull off the crucial data.

And probably the least possible, is that your hard drive is dying. I have a 160GB Samsung (IDE) that can run for days or a matter of minutes before taking down Windows. These days, it just sits on my desk, laughing at me.
 
the one problem i have is this.

i have one other computer to use...an older Gateway that i believe has the old 24 big white ribbon connector for the motherboard.....and the hard drive that is "failing" is a SATA connection......anyway around this?

i was going to put the SATA as a slave drive on the old comp to get important stuff off but i don't think that will work because of the connections....
 
You shouldn't lose your data if you run a repair install.

SATA and IDE are different interfaces, there's no Master/Slave with SATA. Check in your other machine and see if it has SATA connectors on the motherboard. If it does, you can just plug the drive in. Windows will see it and you can backup your data.
 
ok i got home and tried the Windows install disc repair.

well i booted from my cd/dvd drive and i got to the part where it says:

Press any key to boot from Cd....

did that and the next thing i see is this:

Line 19894 of the INF file \i386\txtsetup.sif is invalid

i have no clue what that means....anyone know...i could'nt go any farther then that...thanks so far for the help by the way.
 
i would goto the recovery console of xp cd, and do a chkdsk /r then a fixboot then a fixmbr
If that does not fix it, do the 2nd option repair
 
-(Xyphox)- said:
i would goto the recovery console of xp cd, and do a chkdsk /r then a fixboot then a fixmbr
If that does not fix it, do the 2nd option repair
Click to expand...


i'm kind of noobish when it comes to this stuff.....but anyway the problem is i can't do anything else (or at least it does'nt give me the option) anything after it tells me that stuff about the Line error. There's no options on screen after that....do i need to press a certain key or something to get to what you are talking about?
 
Sounds like bad memory. You would be able to get into Windows setup even if the hard drive is dead. Bad memory would also explain how your Windows install got hosed in the first place.

Try using one stick of ram and booting into Windows setup.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Sounds like bad memory. You would be able to get into Windows setup even if the hard drive is dead. Bad memory would also explain how your Windows install got hosed in the first place.

Try using one stick of ram and booting into Windows setup.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure about that. Bad memory would have prevented any kind of intensive task in the first place (the initial Windows install, ANY kind of gameplay, encoding, etc.)
 
Not necessarily, I've worked on a system that would boot, load the windows installer, and then crash during the install or soon after. It drove me nuts until I replaced the memory.

Besides, its easy to check the memory. Try to install with one memory stick at a time or run memtest.

The install problem might also be a bad Windows CD, like Mayo said.
 
I think the ram went bad, too. You could also try another cable, another optical drive, and also try resetting you cmos.
 
mayonaise 812 said:
sounds like the cd's scratched, clean it and then try it again.
Click to expand...


someone on another forum suggested that as well....i looked at the CD and it looks great, no scratches...just minor finger prints that i cleaned off....same thing happened again, same Line error....even tried to boot from a different drive and got the same thing.
 
enginurd said:
I think the ram went bad, too. You could also try another cable, another optical drive, and also try resetting you cmos.
Click to expand...

damn i hope it's not the RAM. I tried another brand new cable i had....same thing.

I'm going to get a new HDD after work.....does anyone think that's a dumb idea or no?

people on other forums have been telling me that they think the HDD has a bad sector or has died....does that sound right?
 
Nah it's not a dumb idea.

1) If the install goes smoothly, you are sure either it was a physical (HD) or software (Windows install) problem.
1b) If the install does NOT go smoothly, you confirm that other hardware is the cause (RAM, PSU, hell mobo, etc.)

If you do get to Step 1b, then first I'd do:

2a) One RAM stick (try to install), then the other. I still don't believe memory goes bad. Now, memory slots on the other hand? Sure. If you really had time, you'd memtest the RAM, individually, in their respective slots and then swap them to test vice versa. Swapping them rules out bad memory slots.

3) If you find that one memory slot is dead...you've found the cause.
 
^thanks for your input

i'm hoping that it's just the HDD, if not i'll do the RAM thing.....i memtested those when i got them early last year and had no problems then....i guess something could have popped up though.
 
lost0822 said:
ok i got home and tried the Windows install disc repair.

well i booted from my cd/dvd drive and i got to the part where it says:

Press any key to boot from Cd....

did that and the next thing i see is this:

Line 19894 of the INF file \i386\txtsetup.sif is invalid

i have no clue what that means....anyone know...i could'nt go any farther then that...thanks so far for the help by the way.
Click to expand...

If this is occurring before you get any prompt (i.e.: Enter to continue, R for repair console, etc) then it is impossible that the issue is the hard drive, because you will get this error message with no hard drive plugged in. Pretty easy to test, unplug hard drive and try to boot from CD.

I am not saying the reason for your Windows install becoming corrupt could not be the hard drive, just the reason this error message is being thrown. I would imagine bad optical drive or disc.
 
when booting from the windows cd, the system reads data through the optical drive and stores what it needs into ram (detects hardware and pulls whichever driver it needs, stores that driver in ram). since you're getting an error before it finishes loading to ram, then you either have bad ram, bad ram slot(s), bad optical drive, bad optical drive cable, or a bad disc. eliminate what you can... try another disk, try another cable, try another optical drive, try another ram slot, try some other ram. you've already tried some of those things. i'd suggest running memtest overnight to test the ram.
 
DING! UPDATE:

so i could'nt take it and went home for lunch. I also made a Memtest floppy before leaving work. Well i got home and took one stick of RAM out (of slot 2 and left the other in slot 1) and booted from my floppy. Pretty much right off the bat Memtest started adding up the errors right away....it was up to test 3 with about 63,000 errors before i said that's enough and shut it down.

Took that stick out of slot 1 and put the other stick back in it's place. Booted from the floppy again and Memtest started testing......after about 4 or 5 tests no errors still and i decided to just try to boot into windows again with the one stick. Well it booted right up no problems!

i had to leave to go back to work but would you all say it's safe to say that it's the 1 stick of RAM? or should i still look for other problems. It could'nt be the Motherboard slot because i tested each stick of RAM in the same slot with only one coming up bad.

also the other thing is i got this RAM last March from Newegg and i'm wondering if they will let me RMA it at this point......this is expensive RAM (about 220 bucks) so i'm hoping they do....or maybe Corsair will let me

again thanks for all your help guys....Hardocp people come thru once again!

if anyone has any other suggestions i might need to watch out for please let me know.
 
Mav451 said:
I still don't believe memory goes bad.
Click to expand...
So uh, this belief towards ram... is it like a see-it-to-believe-it thing? :p Most ram sticks come with a lifetime warranty, simply because they usually don't go bad. However, whether it be the chips themselves or the pcb they sit on, it is still possible for ram to go bad, whatever the cause.

Did you leave memtest running on the "good" stick while you're at work? That one bad stick should have solved the issue. Try installing when you get home.

I believe newegg will replace it within a year. If not, corsair will definately replace it. BTW, you might want to look into what caused the ram to go bad, hehe.
 
enginurd said:
So uh, this belief towards ram... is it like a see-it-to-believe-it thing? :p Most ram sticks come with a lifetime warranty, simply because they usually don't go bad. However, whether it be the chips themselves or the pcb they sit on, it is still possible for ram to go bad, whatever the cause.

Did you leave memtest running on the "good" stick while you're at work? That one bad stick should have solved the issue. Try installing when you get home.

I believe newegg will replace it within a year. If not, corsair will definately replace it. BTW, you might want to look into what caused the ram to go bad, hehe.
Click to expand...

i did'nt leave it running but i will tonight when i get home for safe measure.

the one thing that might have caused it is months ago i think i had a short somewhere in my case with and extra power cable was touching the metal case and made the whole comp shut down or for the CPU fan not spin....anyway i thought i took care of that by cleaning up the case wires....maybe that caused the RAM to go bad...is that possible?

also i will not be telling newegg or corsair about my short problem..lol.
 
enginurd said:
So uh, this belief towards ram... is it like a see-it-to-believe-it thing? :p
Click to expand...

Yeah pretty much :)

This is my experience. Either the sticks are outright DOA (I got dead Ballistix from Crucial), or they work for far longer than we use them. I had people telling me that my RAM sticks were dead, when it turned out that the slots had went bad. Because of misinformation (not on this forum), I almost would have thrown away a perfectly good pair of RAM DIMMs. I haven't forgiven those people for that terrible bit of misinformation, which is why I rest on the doubting side.

Test for bad slots first, then bad DIMMs. Besides, doing the one stick at-a-time + swapping slots actually tests for both bad slots and DIMMs anyway. Just be sure you keep good notes.
 
enginurd said:
.

I believe newegg will replace it within a year. If not, corsair will definately replace it. BTW, you might want to look into what caused the ram to go bad, hehe.
Click to expand...

well Newegg is letting me return them....but i have to send back both since they came as a pair.....which kind of sucks.....i hope i have spare RAM sticks laying around that work that i can use on my motherboard while i wait for my new replacement sticks....
 
Good to see you found the problem Lost. Doesn't Corsair have a lifetime warranty?

Either the sticks are outright DOA (I got dead Ballistix from Crucial), or they work for far longer than we use them.
Click to expand...
Your actually right in most cases Mav. Stuff generally doesn't just up and die. I've found that most hardware problems that don't stem from DOA hardware are usually memory related.

Test for bad slots first, then bad DIMMs.
Click to expand...
Think about it though, is it any more likely that the ram or ram slots will die? They are both solid state, but you touch the memory a lot more while you put the system together. I always check for the more common problems first.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Think about it though, is it any more likely that the ram or ram slots will die? They are both solid state, but you touch the memory a lot more while you put the system together. I always check for the more common problems first.
Click to expand...

Yeah, maybe, but I've seen alot of people kill their mobos from over tightening the screws, or putting something where it doesn't belong. Or the most common of all, I've seen people touching a live board (didn't turn off PSU/unplug the power cable), and often times that RAM is still good, but the board is dead.

E.g., my mother had a craptacular Compaq box from work. One day it just stopped turning on. All the components were fine (RAM, optical drive, HDs, etc.)...but the mobo and PSU were dead. Hell, I have the SB Live! from that box sitting next to me.
 
Mav451 said:
This is my experience. Either the sticks are outright DOA (I got dead Ballistix from Crucial), or they work for far longer than we use them.
Click to expand...
Well, almost... they work far longer than we use them as long as we take care of them.

lost0822 said:
the one thing that might have caused it is months ago i think i had a short somewhere in my case with and extra power cable was touching the metal case and made the whole comp shut down or for the CPU fan not spin....
Click to expand...
That would cause some concern, lol.


Glad you got it all sorted out.
 
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