thrash;243612 wrote:
leave the DVD drive out of it long term and see if any of the problems reproduce [happen again].

the scrolling lines at the beginning was what i was referring to. I was expecting one of the kernel drivers to take a long time to initialize/load and was going to start with that as further troubleshooting info.

Do you have a different HD you can swap in?

I'd hate to think a 650w power supply is insufficient for this rig. I have a kill-a-watt you can use to measure your actual power draw. I'm guessing its not even 400w.

I'll see if that works. I was planning on ordering a second HD to dual boot Vistaids, so I'll see if maybe that's the problem if it comes back.

I know a guy that runs SLI with 8gb RAM and 4 HDs and he only uses an 800w PSU, so yeah, lack of power shouldn't be the problem.

the scrolling lines at the beginning was what i was referring to. I was expecting one of the kernel drivers to take a long time to initialize/load and was going to start with that as further troubleshooting info.

Do you have a different HD you can swap in?

I'd hate to think a 650w power supply is insufficient for this rig. I have a kill-a-watt you can use to measure your actual power draw. I'm guessing its not even 400w.

thrash;243439 wrote:
add /SOS to the end of your default boot entry in boot.ini

then reboot the box and watch to see if there is a huge pause as the kernel is printing out device load messages. Remember the lines printed before and after the long pause.

Also, remove all IDE or SATA devices from the machine except the default boot disk. Ensure its master/slave/CS mode is set appropriately. Remove any external USB/1394 storage devices.

After I changed boot.ini, it simply flashed a bunch of lines and then went to a blue Microsoft screen that said the Windows version, followed by "4 system processors [3327mb memory] multiprocessor kernel." It stayed there for a little bit, then went to a black screen that said:

"Checking file system on
The volume is clean.
Windows has finished checking the disk."

It didn't go through any sort of check that I could see, unless it was instantaneous. It stayed at that screen for at least two or three minutes, then went to the Welcome screen. The only other drive in it besides the SATA HD is the IDE CD/DVD drive. I unplugged it and it booted just fine. It almost seems like it's not getting enough power - like whenever I disconnect some component that uses power it'll boot just fine a dozen or so times, but then it'll act up again. It's not THAT beastly of a machine that it should use that much juice.

then reboot the box and watch to see if there is a huge pause as the kernel is printing out device load messages. Remember the lines printed before and after the long pause.

Also, remove all IDE or SATA devices from the machine except the default boot disk. Ensure its master/slave/CS mode is set appropriately. Remove any external USB/1394 storage devices.

Link;243398 wrote:
So it boots fine until window's starts to load?

Yeah it POSTs just fine. I've reset the BIOS to default configuration, optimized configuration, and changed things around myself. It'll sit at the Windows XP screen for about a minute with the little bar going across the bottom, and then it'll go to a blank screen for at least 2 or 3 minutes, and at no point will it show any HD activity. Then, it'll slowly load the welcome screen and then the desktop, and after it sits at the desktop for a couple minutes, it runs just fine. If it has a problem booting, the CD/DVD drive won't open, otherwise it'll be fine.

After I posted this yesterday, it booted just fine about a dozen times in a row, but then it started acting up again.

Rexwagon;243266 wrote:
ask cmk or Zbrown. they seem to know everything. (FAGS)

It's a tough cross to bear, but Zac and I gotta do it.