Stupid computer problem (HELP!)

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-19 11:09pm

Uraniun235 wrote:Nobody's mentioned power supply yet... maybe that's the culprit?

How would it prevent me from getting into Windows? How would that explain the no IRQ value for the memory controller?

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2007-06-19 11:29pm

Holy shit, you bought a SAMSUNG hard drive? I'm so, so terribly sorry. Coudl be worse, but not by much, they've got a well-earned reputation as some of the least reliable hard drives around. Here's the diagnostic for their drives, good luck.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-19 11:33pm

White Haven wrote:Holy shit, you bought a SAMSUNG hard drive? I'm so, so terribly sorry. Coudl be worse, but not by much, they've got a well-earned reputation as some of the least reliable hard drives around. Here's the diagnostic for their drives, good luck.

Tomorrow I'm going to get another HD. Maxtor or WD?

EDIT: This will teach me to buy cheap parts at Micro Center.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-20 07:10am

*bump*

Computer still doesn't work. help!

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2007-06-20 02:39pm

I'm personally a fan of Seagate, but WD's decent. Maxtor's owned by Seagate these days, but I don't know if that's improved their drives any yet.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-06-20 03:02pm

Conversely, I've heard very good things about Samsung hard drives and used quite a few of them in the past.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2007-06-20 03:26pm

We used to carry Samsung drives at work. We stopped because we're also a tech shop, so when people have hard drives go bad, they bring them back to us to discover why their computer won't work, and, well, that's a fuckton more trouble than it's worth with low-reliability drives.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-20 06:01pm

I've come to realize that the problem is XP. I guess I must have screwed it up by installing the CPU and vid card without clearing the CMOS first. Plus from what I understand from googling HAL.DLL is that if that file is corrupted you are FUBAR'd and have to reinstall XP.

Nevertheless, I got myself a Seagate 320GB hard drive. Wheeee toys.

Let's see if this will work.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-06-20 07:46pm

White Haven wrote:We used to carry Samsung drives at work. We stopped because we're also a tech shop, so when people have hard drives go bad, they bring them back to us to discover why their computer won't work, and, well, that's a fuckton more trouble than it's worth with low-reliability drives.

How many Samsung drives did you sell in order to arrive at your conclusion that Samsung drives are of inferior quality? Were they all out of the same batch of drives? (i.e. did your shop order a big box of thirty and then sold out of that pile or did they order a few at a time?)

Basically, is your evidence really representative of brand quality, or is it closer to anecdotal than anything else?

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-06-20 07:52pm

Enigma wrote:
Uraniun235 wrote:Nobody's mentioned power supply yet... maybe that's the culprit?
How would it prevent me from getting into Windows? How would that explain the no IRQ value for the memory controller?

Faulty power supplies can cause system instability.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-21 05:19am

I installed the other hard drive and had set it as the main HDD. But now I have the problem of XP setup not recognizing it. It says that it cannot detect any hard drives. I do not have much experience in dealing with SATA hard drives. When I originally built my computer it was a fluke that I managed to have the first hard drive recognized.

What am I doing wrong?

Raven · Post by **Raven** » 2007-06-21 11:29am

Enigma wrote:I installed the other hard drive and had set it as the main HDD. But now I have the problem of XP setup not recognizing it. It says that it cannot detect any hard drives. I do not have much experience in dealing with SATA hard drives. When I originally built my computer it was a fluke that I managed to have the first hard drive recognized.

What am I doing wrong?

My friend had a problem like this. During the XP setup, there's a screen that prompts you to press F6 insert the driver for your hard drive (floppy or CD that came with it).

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2007-06-21 01:14pm

I base this conclusion on multiple batches of hard drives, some before, some during my employment here, as well as a higher-than-average incidence of bad hard drives among Samsung drives in customer systems. No, I don't have collected statistics, I'm afraid, usually been more concerned with getting people back up and running.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-21 05:15pm

Raven wrote:
Enigma wrote:I installed the other hard drive and had set it as the main HDD. But now I have the problem of XP setup not recognizing it. It says that it cannot detect any hard drives. I do not have much experience in dealing with SATA hard drives. When I originally built my computer it was a fluke that I managed to have the first hard drive recognized.

What am I doing wrong?
My friend had a problem like this. During the XP setup, there's a screen that prompts you to press F6 insert the driver for your hard drive (floppy or CD that came with it).

The only raid drivers I have is from NVIDIA. The new HDD didn't come with a floppy or a CD.

I had used the same floppy that I used for my first hard drive but I think I was doing something wrong since I got a BSOD.

Segate's website said that their HDDs do not need specific drivers but uses XP's generic drivers.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-21 07:29pm

Ok, the MB detects the HD but XP set up doesn't. If I use XP's generic SATA controller drivers I get a stop error and if I don't do anything and go straight for the setup it doesn't detect the hard drive.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-21 09:19pm

BUTTFUCK BUTTFUCK BUTTFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!

No matter which hard drive I use the motherboard recognises it but XP setup keeps saying it cannot detect the hard drives.

If I can get this done by tomorrow night then I'll have to fork over some money and send it to a shop. I really don't want to spend more money to get this computer to work. Please help.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-22 07:29am

*bump* Can anyone help me? I managed to get XP to actually start the installation but it hangs after 8 or 9% of the instalation is complete. What gives?

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-22 05:46pm

Stupid piece of CRAP! I manage to get passed 30% but then it goes BSOD with a stop error relating to setupdd.sys.

Why oh why is this happening?

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2007-06-22 05:53pm

Hmm. Try a different optical drive? Those can produce truly fucky installation errors.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-22 06:26pm

White Haven wrote:Hmm. Try a different optical drive? Those can produce truly fucky installation errors.

I only have one DVD-RW drive.

The latest problem during setup is a stop error from 0x000000D1 "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL".

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2007-06-22 07:45pm

Hmm. That usually indicates a crispy driver...and you say this was in the middle of a full fresh install?

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-22 08:03pm

White Haven wrote:Hmm. That usually indicates a crispy driver...and you say this was in the middle of a full fresh install?

20% into a setup to the fresh install.

I've even used Abit's latest RAID drivers but no difference. Still get the same error but this time with atapi.sys.

in the PCI listing during bootup, is the Memory Controller supposed to have no IRQ value? Is the Memory Controller the RAM?

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-22 10:19pm

FIXED!!!! Replaced my 2x 512MB DDR2 800 RAM to 2x 1GB DDR2 667 RAM.

Now it is up and running but now I have to figure out how to get XP to recognise my router and get net connection.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2007-06-23 12:32am

Done and done. Back up and 95% to where I want it to be. Now I have to find out what happened to my dad's computer. I shut down his computer through Windows XP and then after a few minutes went to turn it on but nothing happened when I pressed the button. I tried turning off the powerbar and then turn it back on and press the button and still nothing. Same when I turned off the power supply and turned it back on.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-06-23 12:38am

His PSU might have just given up the ghost.