please please please please help

[sam_justice]

Ok, this has been going on for 6 months, I have refrained from using forums, until I knew that it was bad, and today I knew it was, it all started out when I finished building my new pc

Gigabyte GA-7s748-l
Amd Athlon XP 3200+
1gig (2x 512mb) sticks of DDR 400 ram
1x 40 gig hd
1x 120 gig hd
DVD burner,

and I tried installing some games, some worked fine, others it came out saying it couldnt read from the CD , but it said that in the windows installation as well but I managed to get through it, so I tried another CD Drive, didn't work, so I tried some new IDE cables, Didnt work, tried a new hard drive, still didnt work, so then my motherboard shorted , and I thought great a chance to get a new one and it should all be working, but I got the exact same model, because I didnt want too do all the installations again, but I thought the IDE controller on the other one might not be working, but whne I received the new mobo, it still didnt work, so I thought right dead ram so I sent the ram back, and they sent me some new sticks, still didnt work, so I thought the worst, the processor isnt accepting CRC checks in installations, so I sent it back, and today, the day i realised it has gotten terrible, was the day when I recieved the new processor, and still nothing, I am dumbfounded, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can you guys help me !!

 

[Quad]

hmm maybe tech support forums?

 

[sam_justice]

I have, but I also trust you people in these forums

 

[sam_justice]

and you guys are mighty fast at replying

 

[DevgruSeal]

I came in this thread hoping for somebody needing help with a question they had on the up and coming game, HL2.

The correct forum is here. Which is for your question.

Try going to windows and checking out that you have all the correct updated drivers.

 

[poseyjmac]

maybe the cd is bad? what OS

if you haven't updated to latest bios and latest motherboard drivers thats also something to try.

 

[Frank]

You know - a videocard would help...

 

[chriso20]

you might have an incompatable mobo/cpu/ram etc.. so i'd suggest borrowing a friends mobo (lol its a big job i know) and trying that. Basically mix and match then note whats in the pc when it works and change a component at a time until it works.

Good Luck!

 

[sam_justice]

X800, and also ive tried it with many cd's and downloads

 

[chriso20]

You know - a videocard would help...

rofl

(10 char)

 

[sam_justice]

hmm yeah cheers chriso20, I might go and buy a new one tbh

 

[MetalliMyers]

The people in this forum know what they are talking about. I am sure you will get help there:

The Screen Savers

 

[mjrhzrd]

Are you using parallel ATA? If so are the Harddrive and CD Rom on different cables? if you have two devices on the same cable, is one have a jumper(s) to set it to master and the other Slave.
Also, is the CD scratched or dirty?

 

[Interloper]

Almost definately memory problem. DDR400 on 32bit AMD processor is notoriouly unstable, even though it says it takes it. Believe me, go into your BIOS and turn down memory speed to 333 (usually 83%) of full speed.

I've seen this odd behaviour many times.

NB - if you ever get error messages when installing xp, you have a problem. Don't think it will fix itself.

The reason it is unstable with the 3200+ is that it is the ONLY cpu in the family that actually runs at 400fsb with the memory.

EG - You may find that a 2800+ runs ok that's because the cpu runs at 333.

Good luck.

 

[MajorPayne]

Almost definately memory problem. DDR400 on 32bit AMD processor is notoriouly unstable, even though it says it takes it. Believe me, go into your BIOS and turn down memory speed to 333 (usually 83%) of full speed.

I've seen this odd behaviour many times.

Dead straight Interloper... The only times I have EVER seen systemic problems like this it was always memory. Try another brand of memory (some MOBO manufacturers list compatible memory brands/modules) or as Interloper suggested, clock it back

NB - if you ever get error messages when installing xp, you have a problem. Don't think it will fix itself.

Also correct here. If your installation of XP is giving errors during the installation itself, then you have a major hardware issue, which WILL come back and bite you in the ass.

Since it will not boot currently, you may want to check and see if your setup overloads the power supply. If you can get it booting, run Memtest86 (which can be found at http://www.memtest86.com/) to check your RAM, which I think was the cause of your original problems. Usually if you have no errors by the end of test 4, you are good to go (you do not need to run ALL of them, which would take overnight on some systems).

 

[sam_justice]

the thing is i dont have the money for new ram, so shall i try clock it back ?

 

[sam_justice]

ok I underclocked the ram, and it's working, thanks so much you guys, you know a lot more than the people at tech supprt forums

 

[CTTcrew_MrBlue]

Gigabyte boards tend to overclock the ram by default causing lots of problems. I had a similar problems with my Giagbyte mobo.

 

[Inanimate]

Be absolutely SURE to use IDE port 1 on your motherboard for Harddrives ONLY. And IDE port 2 for optical devices ONLY!
You could´ve put ém wrong.
HDD = port1 on mobo - CD = port2 on mobo