Boot Failure & Bizarre ongoing problems

Legendiva · Rated PG Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

Current System: ( Brand new; basically never used, just 'tested'! )

Gigabyte GA-81955X Royal
Pentium D 820 Dual Core CPU ( 2.8 Ghz )
1 GB Dual Channel DDRII 667 RAM ( Samsung/matching )
Samsung SATA II 300 160 GB Hard Drive
Gigabyte GN-NX66256DP PCI Express 16 Video Card
Internal LiteOn Dual-Layer DVD/R/DVDRW ( +/- )
External TDK DED+440 Multi-format CDR/RW/DVDR/RW (+/- )
Seasonic S12430 ( 430 Watt ) Power Supply
New WinXP Pro 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 OEM
( Bought all this from the same vendor; they did all updates to Windows and BIOS. )

This is a complex and confusing one:
At the moment, the problem is Boot Failure.
( Bizarre situation ): due to numerous weird problems, log and file system errors I discovered, ( and everything still being under warranty ) this was returned to vendor for FDISK/reload OS, and general hardware check. It seemed to be working ok in the shop
( I did a preliminary run-through before I took it home. )

****( I won't get into the long list of bizarre, ongoing problems I have experienced with this system at this point, in this post.
They happened immediately in October, and have never stopped.
The original mobo was an Intel D945GNT mobo: this was replaced with the Gigabyte mobo,
RAM was replaced with the same kind
Power Supply was replaced with the same kind
2 more case fans were added
( This was due to the excessive amount of mysterious weird problems; in an attempt to cover all possible hardware problems and save time and money in diagnosis. None of us involved could figure out the real source of the problems. )

Monday night, the system was packed ( with foam supports ) into its box by the vendor, was carried out, and placed in the back seat of my car. No bangs, bumps, or anything that I am aware of. Drive home smooth, removal from car careful, removal from box careful. Tower was set on a table, monitor/keyboard/mouse connected, and it was powered up for testing. Immediate problems:

Start, no beeps. Post screen, then:

OC Fail. ( ???Not overclocked, ever )
Keyboard no lights, monitor intermittent light. No operation of CPU fan. DVD/CD drive would not open.

( Suspected loosening. Replugged plugs, connections, general tightening, removed and reseated memory. )
Reboot. Keyboard/monitor, CPU fan, and DVD/CD ok at this point.
No Boot.

( I tried BIOS "Load Fail Safe Defaults" and rebooted. )

OC Fail error no longer present. Boot Failure. Boot from CD/DVD. Insert System Disk.
( No hard disk listed in Post , but IS listed in BIOS. )

( Reset BIOS to "Load Optimized Defaults" )

Reboot. After Post, get WinXP presentation screen for a split second, and then the Startup Mode Selection Screen.

( I try Normal mode, and Last Configuration mode )

These both get flash of WinXP presentation screen, ( then a flash of a blue error screen, so fast I can't read it ); and immediate reboot.

( I try Safe mode, and Safe mode with Command Prompt )

These both get flash of WinXp Pres. screen, then scrolling boot.ini file screen, then the fast blue screen, and reboot again.
( Hard Disk IS on Post screen as well as in BIOS. )
On the fast-disappearing blue error screen I managed to see the following words ( not all of the text ):
"corruption" "terminated" "remove"

( I am a Computer Consultant ( hardware/software installations/diagnostics/ sytem building. ) I am not the ultimate techwizard, but I KNOW that there is ( and has been ) some ongoing sort of hardware failure, and/or weird conflict; and I think there may also be a corrupt WinXP Pro CD, and SP2 conflict issues woven into all this as well. A real mess, and an infuriating mystery. )

Anyway.....what are your thoughts on this latest Boot Failure issue??

Thanks, Legendiva

Kilamon · Rated XXX Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 811

I would suspect Ram, the power supply or, since you got past post, a bad windows install. The easist place to start would be the ram. Grab a copy Memtest86+ ver1.65 http://www.memtest.org/ and Prime95 ver. 24.14 http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm so you can do some testing. Have these handy. Start by running memtest (read the docs on it before you begin) and if you can boot and test out your ram with Memtest #5 and the long memtest for 8-10 hours, then move on to reinstalling windows. Assuming that you're successful, with that, run Prime in the torture test mode and see how long you can go with that. If you can get 16 hours and you're stable then congrats, you're all fixed.

If memtest fails, then replace the ram. Smile

Easy. Try moving the slots too. On my DFI, I run my ram in slots 2 and 4 (the orange ones) and they do better there than in the other slots. You can also try flashing the bios, but don't do both at the same time. Single steps, one at a time. If you can memtest stable, move on as above. If you STILL receive errors, or windows installs flaky even though you got a stable memtest, or prime fails, then you'll have a bad bios setting or bad power.

To be honest, with all those peripherals, 430w seems a little low and I'd move up to an OCZ 520w, but that's up to you. I'm using an Ultra 500w and it's running like a champ, though I'd like to see my voltages just a little higher to my components since I'm unable to overclock as much as I could due to that. *shrug*

Try the above and post back with your results.

Legendiva · Rated PG Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

Can't boot at all. Took video of the fast blue error screen I couldn't read; and froze frames so I could get the Stop Error #.
Strikes me as weird:
Stop 0X00000078.

Don't know much about this. Researched it a little: seems to apply mostly to Networks and Servers, and not to WinXP. Workaround requires Registry work and I have no access to the system.
I don't use a Network or Server; but the Vendor does. My system was in the Server Room, hooked to their Network when I got there to take a look at it, and take it home. So, am I on the right track in assuming that this happened to my System while it was in the Server Room at the Vendor's Shop?

Thanks,
Legendiva

ury2ok2000 · Rated PG Joined: 25 May 2006 Posts: 15

i had a weird boot problem (tho different than yours) what finally solved it was leaving the mouse unpluged from the front usb port. Dont know why but with it plugged in i would get the post beep on boot but it would stall right after that. Just freeze and wouldnt continue. So my suggestion would be to uplug everything but the necessary (so powersupply and monitor keep plugged in ) then boot. See how far you get. Then keep booting plugging in each new thing every time you re-boot. Amazingly thats how i solved my problem. well my Two Cents

anyway. Good luck.

T-shirt · Posted: Mon, 29 May 2006 13:35:14 Post Subject:

Your vendor screwed up! return it and make them fix it.
a couple things that message could refer to,
.ocx part of the windows dll loadig process
a network based profile, ie they set it up for a network based login no network, no boot
Windows OneCare live also generates OC fail errors but it should happen that soon in the startup process

I 'd vote for a network dependancy (#2)
they should have tried one or more stand alone boots, BEFORE they returned it to you.
I hope you don't need anything from the hard drive, or have a backup from before because the best solution will likely be format and reinstall ,AS A STAND ALONE MACHINE

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Mon, 29 May 2006 13:48:52 Post Subject:

Digging up old threads, are we? Smile

edvallie · Posted: Mon, 29 May 2006 14:22:56 Post Subject: