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I built my new p.c. on Saturday.
Took an hour to put it all together.
Then the problems started (heheh).

They don't all go this way but I thought I'd start a thread about the problems I'm having anyway so anoone else thinking about making their own can see what I go through and how I solve them (if I ever do, lol).

Apart from everything on this list, there is also a Gigabutt GV-NX76G512P-RH NVIDIA GeForce 7600GS 512MB DDR2 PCI-E DVI graphics card which I'd already purchased (used but nearly new and unclocked).




Twenty six hours to install Vista 32-bit doesn't exactly sound right, or bode well for the future.

Anyway, basically, my new system hangs at will, which I think must be because of a hardware conflict, rather than Windows itself.
I've ignored each of the error messages (of which I must have run through the entire gamut of M$ errors available for Vista) and BSOD's.
These include the following non-exclusive list:
On boot (Popular though incorrect)
BOOTMGR IS MISSING
Thereafter
0x0000001a
0xC0000096
0x000000024
0x000000D1
0x00000019
0x000000BE
0x0000007E
0x0000008E
I got kind of bored making notes of 'em after that. Musta had over 50 installs fail during this time.

26 hours in, and I've managed to install and set up Vista (32-bit), but not much else because now it hangs inside the vista environment as well.

The only thing I've been able to eliminate so far is that it's not a heating issue (if the cpu isn't properly cooled the motherboard will shut the whole system down before it reaches a critical temperature, preventing permanent damage).

Tonight, I'm going to try reseating my RAM and remove the graphic and audio cards I added and see if just using the mobo on its' own makes a difference (it has onboard audio/visual).

*Fingers crossed, counting to ten...

Incidentally, much as I hated Gigabutt board I used previously, I have to say I think the layout of the Asus board I'm using this time leaves something to be desired. Tidying the cables afterwards is going to be a nightmare.

OH NO!! That sucks! I bet it's got you thinkin' XP now...lol

Nope.
Gave up after twelve hours and tried to put my ole XP Pro on it.
That didn't work either so I reckon it's either my RAM or sound card.
Will start unpluggin different stuff tonight n see if I can narrow it down.

XP didn't work either?

Yep, sounds like a hardware/driver issue then. Let us know what you find out..

Nope, goes so far and then interrupts.
My money's on the RAM or soundcard (my favourite at the mo').
Will advise.

A bit of silly advice but the Bios is the latest to support dual core?

Unfortunately yes, but thanks for the suggest.


Incidentally, anyone suffering from a hanging computer should not flash their BIOS. If it hangs during the flash process, or you have to turn it off and back on it will cause serious harm to your system.

Thanks Shades. Had all the parts selected to build my own and now your post

lol
And it still ain't fixed yet either.


Tonight I'll be running memtest.
If that doesn't show anything wrong, there's only one thing left which is flashing the BIOS* and, bearing in mind the symptoms I'm having, I might be grumpy immediately after coz there's a good chance of stuffing it up completely.

*After kit's suggestion I double-checked to make sure it would support my Conroe. It does but I can't think of anything else to try. If it survives the Flash and still does it, I think I'll have to RMA the mobo as 'faulty'.

(Just thought of something else it could be as well, although it's remote; Could be a faulty PSU, but it's Antec so I'd be verrrry surprised if it is.)

Well, none of that worked:-

My USB keyboard and mouse don't respond until I get to the Vista log-in screen which means I can't adjust or flash the BIOS. Need to adjust it to make the floppy the boot device. This may point to a faulty mobo. I'm going to use the PS2 connetions tonight to try and bypass it.

Also, found the GPU had zero thermal compound* left on the seal. So I'm going to have to clean off what little remains and re-apply fresh Artic Silver to it tonight.

*All processors heat up and require that heat to be dissipated somehow or they can be damaged. The thermal compound between the processor and heat/fan assembly enables the heat to transfer from one to the other.
Only the smallest amoun is required as too much can, perversely, restrict the process.

Got the keyboard and mouse back by swapping USB ports.
Still keeps hanging at ad-hoc intervals before post, after post, during boot, in Vista environment.
I've had so many error codes I should probably keep the list of error codes for M$!
I've tried the drives in different S-ATA ports, disconnecting the sound cards, swapping the RAM around.
I've uninstalled the audio device (showed some kind of conflict but won't let me fix it).
Can't get the floppy recognised so I can neither run a memtest, nor flash the bios (although i would be unhappy
doing this anyway because I can't guarantee it would run right the way through anyway).
As soon as I try and install / update any drivers it's usually a cue to crash / hang / BSOD.

I suspect something (mobo / cpu / RAM) will be getting RMA'd next week, coz I've just about had it now.
And I keep telling folks how easy building your own computer is... GEEZE!

Egadddddddzzzzzzz.... Talk about frustration. That reminds of the early AMD days.

I think you're on the right track Shades. Send that stuff back and try again.

Okay, haven't had to send it back but OMG! what hassle I've had the last two days.

Knowing it was going to be running on Vista with a double boot option on XP, I bought "Vista Compatable" components. However, the supplier advertising them as Vista Compatable (ebuyer UK), neglected to clarrify this by adding, "These components are all Vista compatable; That is they will all work with Vista if you have the correct, updated, Vista drivers. Coz' otherwise, they've been sitting in our warehouse since before Vista was announced and we're only sending 'em out with the drivers that work on XP!"

Anyway, Long and short, I took some shortcuts to get myself access to the web enough that I could d/l the Vista drivers for everything I needed.

There's still a problem with the RAM but it's not faulty (nor is the mobo), it just won't run as Dual Channel so I need to find the problem in the BIOS for my P5N-E SLI mobo and change it. At the moment I can only run 1 x 1Gb stick (the other one's lying on the dining room table, wondering what's for dinner).

Can't wait to sort that last bit out coz it's running AWESOME on a single stick and a basic gpu (nVidia 7600-GS).
LOL

Sorry Shades but I gotta state the obvious again, well you just never know...

You are putting the ram into 'odd' slots i.e. DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1

Don't apologise bud; Any and all contributions gratefully recieved.

I found the BIOS was using the wrong settings.
I left the timings on 'Auto' but it chose 5-5-5-18 instead of 4-4-4-12 (which they should be).
I also have a "Command per Clock" setting and I have no idea what that is.
I'm told it should be "Disable" but I don't have that option (a lot of the manual doesn't match the options I have, lol).
The only options I have are "Auto", 1 Clock, or 2 Clock".
It's on Auto atm.

The problem is, I'm a chicken and I don't wanna fry my RAM by 'experimenting'.