Nightmare

[M31]

I have an Athlon XP1800 New Mboard Gigabyte 7NF-RZ
XP SP2 512DDR.

The problem. Windows loads ok then when i try to access things ie. My computer the page reloads upteen times upon itself. When I go to Start the PC goes straight into standby and turns off.

I've tried 3 different HDD's same problem. I've taken the cables off everyting but the HDD and taken the cards out. Still the same problem.

Anyone any ideas or is there a Util that can help me out.

Thanx in advance

[Shiromagius]

Hrm, interesting. Have you done the standard checks of the Power Supply and memory? I see you have swithced out HDD, so its probably not the instance of the OS install. My best bet would be on the memory... When you load my computer or click the start button, the OS has to move things into mem to display stuff and what not, and if your memory is borked, that would explain the hangups Try some other sticks of ram and see what happens Good luck, keep us updated

[M31]

Thanks for that. I hope it is the memory and not the chip. I'm going to try another stick of DDR.

Tried the power supply in another PC works fine.

[DoG]

The memory should do the trick, have had the same problems with quite a few boards. For some reason memory manufacturers can't decide on a pre-set PCB thickness and some boards won't work if the wafer is too thin- that info was straight from Tyan Computers

[M31]

I put the memory stick in my other machine and it works fine. I tried other memory in the problem PC and the same problem occurs as before. I have even changed the ribbons.

Anyone any other ideas.

The only thing I haven't tried is a brand new HDD?

[Shiromagius]

hrm, interesting. Have you tried switching the mobo? I would just start testing each component one at a time, and hopefully you can find something that works here but not there. Drats, thought the memory was the problem

[M31]

I wished it had benn the memory also.
The Mobo is brand new.
When I first had the problem I thought it was the mobo.
All the mobo drivers are up to date also.

I can't run any utils to try and identify the problem either. I'm supposing that as I can actually get XP with SP2 on the machine that the HDD is Ok. However, I did try and put an original copy of XP on and I got error messaging.

I think in all i've got to try a new HDD but before I buy one (and through this PC through the window) i'll give any other suggestions a go.

[DoG]

It could still be the memory, note the part in my post where i explained about the PCB wafer thickness. The ideal thing would be to find a friend who has different memory from you and swap his memory into your PC and vice versa, that way you can eliminate the memory as being a problem once and for all. There are a few dos based memory checkers out there, i'm sure a search either on this site or on google would find you one you could boot from a floppy and use.

Have you tried any programs like ERD 2003/4? They can be usefull tools diagnosing problems.

Try disabling any onboard sound, ethernet nic's and wireless adaptors, swap PCI cards into different slots or try starting the system without them.

Uninstall any nVidia display drivers, the 3 nVidia FX cards i have owned all had severe problems with drivers and refreshing the screen both on startup and during use.

There's lots to try yet

[M31]

Thanx for the help DoG

Tried using the DDR out of my other machine in the problem PC. Didn't solve the problem. There is nothing onboard on my mobo. Took all the cards out and the drives except the HDD.

I've put the memory out of the problem PC in this one and it works fine. The problem i've got trying to run things on the problem PC are that they won't. If I try and open a problem it opens 40 or 50 times upon itself. When I open start the PC goes into standby then switches off.

The graphics card is ATI. Put that in another PC ran a diagnostics everything 100%.

[Shiromagius]

hrm, maybe a m$ way would fix it. That being a format and start all over :-/