Throw some Ideas at me ... !!!

[Paladin*]

I have this Liquid Cooled Intel P4 3.4 Ghz Computer that went down a few days ago. The PC has been giving me intermittent problems for quite some time now and finally it just gave up the ship I guess ...

When I woke up the other day the PC was in a boot up state with the boot up screen showing, I couldn't get it to boot into Windows. So I tried reinstalling the OS but I kept running into it either wouldn't Format any of the Drives it has (3 SATA 120 GB Drives) or when it decided to change it's mind and actually Format a Drive it wouldn't load all the Files during Setup ...

I've tried 2 Different XP Pro CD's and tried them in both of the DVD-CDR Players it has with the same Results. So on some advice from somebody I changed the Mother Board thinking it might be the Disc Controller on the Mother Board causing the problem. No dice, same problems only more so, it actually loaded the OS 1 Time but I can't get a mouse to work in the Desktop, I tried several different ones but none of them would work. Also once in the Desktop I get a couple of File Missing Errors.

So I Re-formatted the Partition again trying to Re-install the OS again but it stops during Setup at the same place saying in can't load a certain file (ariblk.tff) ... If I tell it to skip that file it just tells me it can't load another file & so on ... Anybody got any ideas on this ... ???

[willebenn]

Well, couple of things,
- Does memtest load and run?
- Try an IDE drive instead of SATA
- Try to load and run KNOPPIX (or similar Linux live cd, no install or anything is required)

[PCZ]

Test your memory.

Errors extractng the cab files during windows install is nearly always bad memory, or memory running too high an FSB.
Setting the wait states on the RAM too aggresivly will also cause errors.

Try running memtest.

[IronBits]

Bad capacitors...

[Paladin*]

Okay, thanks for some Ideas guy's, I was going to pull the Memory out of another PC to see if that was it but I have too many other things to do right now to mess with it.

If all else fails I'm going to shut down a different PC thats running ok with the same Motherboard & CPU and pull the Motherboard out of the PC that won't run right now & start from there swapping parts.

I'll start with the Memory swap first then a CPU swap & then if need be swap out the Motherboard, I would think sooner or later I would hit the right part ... But it'll have to wait until tonight before I can get to it ...

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

another vote for the memory

[LAURENU2]

My vote in the penny pool is a Bad Sector in the hard drive

[Paladin*]

My vote in the penny pool is a Bad Sector in the hard drive

You may be right Lauren2, I didn't really think that was the problem because I was getting the same Error on 2 different Hard Drives. But late last night after I got home from visiting a Relative at the Hospital I tried a few more things before going to bed.

1'st I tried a new SATA Cable from the Hard Drive to the Mother Board with no success, then I pulled the Memory from it & put some Memory from another PC that was running all right into it with no success either. I put the Memory from it into the other PC & it runs just fine with that Memory in it so the Memory's not the Problem either I wouldn't think.

Finally just for the heck of it I Deleted the C:\Partition on the First Drive & tried installing the OS on the D:\Partition, well to my surprise it went ahead and installed the OS ...

So quite possibly theres a bad Sector on the C:\ Partition, if thats the case then there must be a bad Sector on the other Drive I tried a few times to install the OS too. If thats the case & I have any more problems with it I'll just get a couple of new Hard Drives & see what happens with them.

I'm going to start installing the Device Drivers now & see what happens from here out, the only problem I have with this is that the OS is on the D:\ Partition instead of the C:\ Partition, I don't know if that will lead to other problems with any Programs I install, I'll Update this later on & let you Guys know how it went & or if I have any other Problems with it ... Thanks

[Paladin*]

It's Alive ... It's Alive ... For now anyway

I finally found the time to mess with the Computer long enough to get it back up and running the Projects again Everything seems alright for now other than the OS is on the D:\ Partition, but if it runs ok there thats fine with me I guess.

The Hard Drive seemed to be the problem with a bad sector on the C:\ Partition. Once I went ahead and tried installing the OS on the D:\ Partition everything went smoothly. It's a 120 GB Hard Drive and the C:\ Partition only takes up about 24 GB of it so theres still plenty of space on it. Plus theres still 2 other 120 GB Hard Drives in the PC that can always be used if need be.

I think the Main Hard Drive either had a bad sector from day 1 or shortly after because ever since I've had the PC I would get a Disk Write Error every so often & the Computer would just up and Randomly reboot itself every so often too. So the problems been there for a while now I guess ... I'll run the Projects with it 24\7 & see if it keeps running or goes belly up again ...