PC Repair

Jak

Well My first proper attempt at building a PC has ended in ... well this post.

I got my nice new ASUS A7V mobo .. and an Athlon 900 Tbird and a rake of PCI junk. Did well enough putting them all together. Then I nailed the rest of the bits frmo my old PC into the new case and well it sorta works.

Im using it now, however there are a lot of problems .. multiple crashes when CD drives are used .. new 2nd HD detected on boot but not showing up in Windows ... Windows hanging on boot up ... Monitor not clicking in .. all the new PCI bits are being detected (which Im happy about) but I can't get the drivers off the CD's without crashing etc ...

Anyhows it needs a vet.

Any of you reccommend any shop that might help fix it up?

Cheers,

JAK.

SickBoy

The new 2nd hard drive isn't been seen in Windows because it hasn't been configured for use in Windows with "fdisk" Run fdisk and change to the 2nd hard drive. Create a primary partition and exit and reboot. Then the drive will show up in windows, alls that needs to be done then is to format it. Easy peasy...
Not sure why the PC would lockup when the CDROM is accessed but try making sure that DMA is enabled in control pannel/system/device manager/devices/hard drive controllers/ check the secondary ide controllers properties and look for a DMA. If its not ticked tick it. That might help that problem. Its also worth checking that DMA is enabled for the primary controller too.
Hope this helps some.

Stephen

My pc has similar problems with cdrom access - it doesn't matter whether i'm using the regular 24x CDRom or the CDRW - when copying large amounts of data (100+ mb), ie when installing games and the like, it ALWAYS crashes. I've downloaded VIA's 4-in-1 driver set for the motherboard, and I've got up to date drivers for the rest - I've tried the cd's with DMA on and DMA off and it appears to make no difference. Its doing my bloody head in. Note this is only since I installed win 98 - back in my Windows '95 days, I never had any such problems.

---

- Munch
- Sh33r l33tn35$, i tell you
- Fortress.ie

[This message has been edited by Stephen (edited 29-08-2000).]

Gerry

I'll fix it up, and for much less than any shop. I very much doubt whether any shop in Ireland could fully fix it up anyway.

Also, stephen, you should swap your motherboard for an intel chipset board. That will solve the problems with the ide, and the machine will run faster

[This message has been edited by Gerry (edited 29-08-2000).]

Jak

Well Cheers Sickboy, that first part worked nicely for fixing up the HD.

I'll try to fix up the CD drives before taking it anywhere .. cuz I reckon if i get them working well, I can get the rest of the drivers in ... and that should be it.

Cheers,

JAK.

Hecate

you say your running an athlon Tbird?

What sort of psu do you have, 300watts is the best option if you want a stable athlon system. Check here for a list of approved psu's.

Also check the ram, make sure its not a dodgy brand, check the asus site for approved memory, Athlon variants are well known for being picky about such things.

Other than that, whats your cooling setup like?

[This message has been edited by Hecate (edited 29-08-2000).]

elexes

i had the same probloms but all i had to do was re fdisk the drive and it solved every problom .

Jak

Ram and all seem fine.

PSU is approved.

As for cooling .. big fan on chip ... 5 bigger fans in case ... and 2 on the Voodoo 5500. I could leave my beers in there at this stage

Im gonna have a go at the CD's later.

JAK.

Chubby

Try to fix it up yourself first. Use a little patience and reassemble the machine piece by piece starting with just the mobo, cpu, ram, graphics card, a cd-rom and 1 hard-drive. Don't connect the cd-rom and hard-drive through the same ide cable etc.

Reinstall windows and see if you still get the same problem with the cd-rom after installing windows. If you can't install windows at all because cd-rom keeps crashing out, try to borrow a cd-rom from a mate to make sure it's the cd-rom that's borked and not other parts of the system like the mobo etc

Start with the bare minimum and make sure it runs stable without any problems then start adding in other cards one at a time.

[This message has been edited by Chubby (edited 29-08-2000).]

Borric

Originally posted by Gerry:
I'll fix it up, and for much less than any shop. I very much doubt whether any shop in Ireland could fully fix it up anyway.


[This message has been edited by Gerry (edited 29-08-2000).]

hey gerry

this offer stand for all

any chance you can fix up my comp???

sutty

You did install the IDE drivers for the the Athlon system didn't you? just make sure you'v done that befor you go and spend money on it. also if you want some one to fix it pick me, me and gerry do this together(sort of) but i know the amd systems better(he's a intel muppet)

---

Ciaran Sutcliffe
aka: sutty
[HIV]sutty
For a good time goto:
http://www.hotinternetvirgins.com

Gerry

Yes, I am an intel muppet, I dont know why I bought a p3, what with the lack of problems and the extra speed. Kali: stephen referred to win95 running on the same machine, so I presumed he did not have a thunderbird. If intel did make a chipset for the thunderbird it would be far superior to vias mediocre efforts.

Kali

gerry is there an intel chipset that works with thunderbirds?