Me new systems fudged

ScumLord

I could really use some help on this one folks. Just recently built a new pc (specs below) and it's having allot of trouble getting going.

Symtoms are,
Won't install just about anything, it installed an old version of windows the first time around but none of the drivers for the parts. I can't even get the old version of windows to upgrade to SP1.

Got win XP SP2, but it wouldn't even get through the install without saying it can't find such and such a file, eventually the install grinds to a halt saying it can't load diskdrive and cdrom.

When I did have windows on it for a while the standby button wasn't available and the power switch didn't begin a shutdown.

I've tryed two different cd/dvd drives and tryed installing on each of the hard drives but the same thing happens, so I don't think there could be a fault with the hard drive/cd rom.

I'm thinkin' it could just be a bad setting in the bios relating to the hard drives, there both sata I think I did have problems with them at first and set them to act like IDE drives.

Any ideas? I'm lost.

gigabyte GA_965P_DQ6 (Motherboard)
Core 2 duo E6600
Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC6400 2048MB CL4 Kit
Western digital Raptor 36gb WD360ADFD 10,000
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
Sapphire Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB GDDR3
Seasonic S12 Series 600W

b0bsquish

check that you dont have a faulty stick of RAM, failing that could have been just a dodgy install of windows?

Cuddlesworth

Use only 1 stick of ram when installing windows.

marcphisto

When installing windows you will need to install a 3rd party device for windows to see your SATA drives. You should have got a floppy with the drivers on it for your drives.

I have a machine with 2 WD SATA2 drives and when installing WinXP SP2 this is what I had to do.

You need to press F6 early on in the installation to install the drivers. Once this is done you should have no problem.

ScumLord

I didn't get any disks with the drives they just came rapped in bubble rap, I've downloaded a driver from gigabyte and will try that tonight. What option should I use for the hard drives, just continue to use the IDE setting?


I had heard that thing about using more than 1gb or two sticks of Ram but never tried it, will do tonight.

failing that could have been just a dodgy install of windows?

I've tried two different disks and get the same result.

ScumLord

No Luck.

I removed one of the sticks of ram and began the install, but the sata driver only made things worse!

I did notice that I might have (not sure exactly) the hard drives plugged into the wrong sata port. There are four sets of two on the mother board, I have them plugged into the only purple one now but I'm not sure which one I should be using or if it matters.

I tried a number of things like disconnecting one of the hard drives, I had the drives set to IDE, so I tried setting up a raid array, with and without the drivers installed blue screen every time.

The blue screens I got where mostly near the end of when windows is copying files in the first part of setup, These are some of the errors that came up "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT", "USBPORT.SYS", "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT", "DRIVER_ IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", "atapi.sys"

The error seem to be completely different everytime.

b0bsquish

have ye tried the other stick in instead of that one? has to be seeing your drive if you managed to install on it before, so drivers shouldnt be an issue....

ScumLord

I can try that but I'm beginning to think theres something very wrong with it. I fairly new to Sata though so I get the feeling I might have something set up wrong in the bios there.

I have hed hat Linux 6 in small business here I might try installing that tonight and see if the same thing happens.

Is there any diagnostic programe I can install to check that the hardware is actually working properly? But the computer seems to be working fine up until I try to install something on it.

I'm assuming if there is a hardware fault it's with the motherboard maybe I should start Emailing gigabyte and see what they have to say.

marcphisto

ScumLord wrote:

But the computer seems to be working fine up until I try to install something on it.

Does that something include windows? That could be a problem alright

If you built the system yourself I would suggets taking it apart getting all the manuals out and making sure that everything is put together correctly. Making sure that you ground yourself while you are doing so.

If might be a pain in the arse to start again but it may well solve your problem.

Is everything not colour coded for you?

Just a quick note on the SATA front. When I installed WinXP Pro on any machine with SATA drives I have to use a driver for the drives, which was installed by pressing F6 during the windows install, and everything works ok.

I have installed Ubuntu on similar machines and never had a problem with it.

Maybe using a live cd of Ubuntu to see what it can see of your system might help you out.

ScumLord

Does that something include windows? That could be a problem alright

Ya windows won't install atall. It did the first time but the install was very buggy and always crashed, now it won't install at all.

If might be a pain in the arse to start again but it may well solve your problem.

Is everything not colour coded for you?

I guess I could disconnect all the front audio and usb ports, I have tried switching around hard drives, they are colour coded one is purple and called GSATAII0/GSATAII2 controlled by gigabyte sata2. The other is called SATAII0 /1/2/3/4/5 and is controlled by ICH8R, the ICH8R driver says its for winXP64. I had the drives pluged into this one at first then plugged them into GSATA with no improvement.

ScumLord

It wouldn't have anything to do with the CPU, conreos are 64bit aren't they? Have people installed these things without any trouble?

Ginger

Hi

First off get yourself a floppy disk drive and disk if you dont have one..

Download this http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Driver_DownloadFile.aspx?FileType=Driver&FileID=2790

This is the SATA drive controller drivers for Preinstall on Windows XP

You will need this for Windows to actually see the drives if you are not using IDE.

Secondly.. make sure that the controller is active in the BIOS.. you dont need to enable raid... make sure that they are running as SATA and not IDE r whatever compat you put them in. If all else fails just reset the BIOS. Also what BIOS version is it?

When you are installing Windows.. it will ask you do you want to install a third party raid controller driver press F6 (its at the very start).. Insert the floppy disk and press enter for it to load the device drivers...

Install this driver and now windows should be able to locate the drives ...

Then it will copy over the files to the hard disk and begin the install

The problem at the moment is this..

Windows checks the IDE controller for disks locates nothing as you dont have hard disks on the IDE controller. It cant see anything so goes to the great modem in the sky and dies...

By installing the driver at the very start it will be able to see the sata disks and do its install from there...

Also check in your BIOS that you can see the hard disks correctly.It might be a case that the disks are residing on the wrong controller. Possibly your GSATA is the primary one and it should be marked on the board which is SATA1 and SATA2.. use SATA1.. Check your manual as well.. This is all down to entering the BIOS and just making sure that there are boot devices and that your machine can see them from the start before you can even install windows

HTH

N

ScumLord

I'm hoping it's just something I've done wrong in the Bios. I've downloaded that driver, I was using the one off the cd that came with the motherboard but it didn't do any good.

I have the latest Bios installed F4.

Is it the "Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl mode" I need to set? In the Motherboard manual (page 38) it says I've 3 options,

IDE mode: Set SATA channel to IDE mode (default)
ACHI mode:
RAID/IDE mode: Set SATA channel to raid mode and IDE channel to IDE mode

I pick the last option or the first? And select Enable under "Onboard SATA/IDE device"?



I'll give all this a go this evening in the mean time I think Red Hat might have given a better error message when it failed to install.

"VFS: Cannot open root device 08:21"
"Kernal panic:VFS: Unable to mount root FS on 08:21"

But I'm not sure what that means I looked it up and I think it has something to do with the wrong partitions being set up.

8T8

First option IDE mode require no drivers during the XP install as it emulates a legacy IDE device.

The driver is only needed if building a RAID array.

Reading your symptoms it really sounds like the old issue of defective RAM have you run Memtest+ on the RAM ?

Try increasing the timings of the RAM in the bios it may be for whatever reason it cannot handle the stock timings.

ScumLord

Memory timings you say..... Ok then...... memory...

I downloaded memtest86+ I'll run that thisevenin' see what the story is, I'm looking for some sort of guide on memory timings.

8T8

Oh boy

Read this it focuses on DDR not DDR2 but the principles are the same.

Okay how to put this easily, basically the RAM module is programmed with certain timings to operate at.

The bios reads the SPD of the RAM module which contains the timings so it knows at what settings to run the RAM at when plugged into the motherboard and ensure stable operation.

In some rare instances due to bios bugs or mixing/matching different brands of RAM you can encounter issues, sometimes these can be eleviated by increasing the timings of the RAM e.g. default
CAS latency = 5 (try changing to 6)

So with that in mind if Memtest+ finds nothing wrong with the RAM, then go into the bios change the control of the RAM timings from Auto/SPD to manual and start increasing the timings and see if anything improves, simple

Ginger

I wholeheartedly endorse this service or product!

If your memory timings are too agressive it could be throwing the whole thing out altogether!

ScumLord

8T8 I owe you a pint shaft, your a fuppen ledged so ya are!

Ran memtest and it went up to 500000 errors. I had gotten a load of guides on memory timings but I threw caution to the wind and just started changing settings. The only way of changing it was throught the "system memory multiplyer", it was set at 800mhz so I tried most of them and it started running perfectly at 888mhz.

Ran Fear first, couldn't run it with all setting maxed out but most setting where at least at medium.

It's not perfect yet one hardrive and the cd rom I installed from are missing but I should be able to get those up and running.

Thanks for all the help lads!

8T8

Thats what I suspected but..

If your getting errors registered in the RAM with memtest+ it is a strong possibility the RAM is defective and you wont have stable operation until it is replaced.

Your Crucial BallistiX RAM is specified to run at DDR-2 800 but is running at 888Mhz so you are overclocking your RAM as this is DDR. You see everything is double clocked so DDR-2 800 = 400Mhz so 888Mhz is 444Mhz.

Why it would be stable at 888Mhz instead of 800Mhz is a bit of mystery and doesn't sound right.

Try running the RAM at DDR-2 533 speeds by setting the system memory multiplier to 3.00 under the 533Mhz section (I'm working off the manual here so that may not be exact).

Also while in the bios if you press the Ctrl+F1 keys it will reveal the hidden settings in the bios which Gigabyte hide these include the RAM timings.

ScumLord

Ok heres a pic of me Bios.



The SMM was originaly set to 2.66 I think, I tried 2.5 but that stalled the PC during Memtest, then I tried 4 but the PC wouldn't even post, then I tried 3.33 and it worked! 3 and 2 are the only ones I didn't try.

The problem is everything is on Auto so I don't know what the current values are.

I'm going to go to Eason this evening to get PCFormat or something like it, they should have some of that bench marking software. I also have PCdoctor. I'm guessing that at this stage it's going to be a matter of trial and error??? At least I have a working PC now. :cool:

Changing these setting won't blow up the PC will it. I've already had one of my builds go on fire. It was only a little fire though and it still worked.

8T8

No wont set it on fire as long as you leave the voltage controls alone

Run CPU-Z and take a screenshot of the CPU, memory and SPD tab (in the SPD tab you must select the bank the RAM is in to see the timings programmed into it)

That should tell us what exactly the system is running at.

Do you get a clean pass with memtest with the system running at DDR-2 888 ?

ScumLord

No, not yet I've been to busy loading games on it to see what they look like.

I'll have a chance to sit down with it tomorrow and and Sunday to spend the day mucking about.

Opened up the performence tab in task manager and it actually had two CPUs in it doing different stuff.

8T8

Oh yeah in regards FEAR make sure you disable v-sync and soft shadows both hurt performance in that game (& soft shadows aren't worth the penalty they incur)

ScumLord

I forgot to take that CPU-Z home with me on Friday but I ran Pcdoc and memtest and it passed with flying colours.

The only problem with it now is the 2nd Hard drive and 2nd Dvd rom won't show up in XP. The hard drive shows up during boot up and I've even installed Windows Vista on it but there's no sign of it at all in XP, It's not even in disk management.

I tried searching for new hardware and it found the dvd and it loaded but when I restarted it was gone.

8T8

So there is no sign of the drive even as an unformatted volume in disk management ?

Have you only got one DVD drive or more than one either way try setting the drive(s) to cable select, then in the disk management make sure the drive letters are ones that will not conflict e.g. try setting them as x, y or z.

Try removing the IDE controller from the device manager to which the DVD drive is attached same goes for the HD and see what happens when Windows re-detects it.

ScumLord

Yup the disk don't show up at all.

It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that theres only supposed to be 2 IDE thingies with two things on each thingie (sorry my brains mush today, long weekend)? In effect I'd have 3 thingies because each sata drive is a seperate thingie isn't it?

I'll try deleting the IDE controller and see what that does.

8T8

A real IDE controller allows two devices per channel hence the reason for setting one as master and the other as slave.

The SATA controllers are not "real" IDE controllers they emulate one so the bios treats it essentially as a single channel IDE controller with the HD as the master.

But none of that should affect the drives showing up in the drive manager.

Thinking on the DVD drive issue double check the master/slave settings that they aren't wrong as it sounds like that problem when they are set incorrectly the machine boots but you get all sorts of weirdness with the other drive not showing.

Try swapping the jumpers around with the second DVD drive as the master and the first drive as the slave.

Snake Plisken

think i had a similar problem on my Abit board, think its as your emulating IDE on SATA, it overwrites the native IDE controller on your MB, think your going to have to mess around a bit, maybe even install the SATA controllers on an XP reinstall and then you system should see the Optical and missing harddrive.

Snake

ScumLord

Tis working! Deleted the Gigabyte controller restarted and everything was working fine. Well that's it now she's up and running I can start copying all me booty over from my old PC now.

Man that gigabyte board was a bit of a hassle I wonder are these problem common or did the board just not like the look of me.

Cheers for the help lads

8T8

I've used a fair few Gigabyte boards over the years and never really had any trouble from them though I have heard complaints from various quarters that in general the Intel 965 chipset was rushed out the door and certain issues are not contained to just one brand.


But at least you are up & running now


BTW you did after installing Windows install the Intel chipset drivers ?

ScumLord

Em, no. will do tonight.