Re: Baffling problem with Asus M2N32-SLI based machine

#1

"alisonnic" <alison.hine (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

I have a baffling problem with a computer I built about six months
ago, based around an Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard.

After a series of problems (see history, below), this computer ran
fine for several weeks. Then, a couple of days ago, after several
hours of heavy use, when I exited a game, it suddenly began to run
extremely slowly. I patiently waited for it to work its way through
closing programs, and then tried to reboot it, but it repeated the
extremely slow behavior and then, when it finally got to Windows, it
spontaneously rebooted and started the whole process again.

I tried powering off and rebooting, I tried hitting the Reset button,
I tried just letting it run. With minor variations, it continued to
repeat this failure mode until finally it failed to even get to
Windows. Finally it just displayed the Asus logo and then the screen
went blank, with no futher activity.

Ok, I thought, another hard drive failure (see below). Time for
another new drive and Windows reinstall. I stuck in a new drive and
my Windows XP Pro CD, and attempted to install Windows. This was on a
brand new drive I'd previously partitioned and formatted while it was
in an external SATA/USB case, but I deleted the partition, created two
new partitions, and formatted the C: partition and attempted to
install windows.

A little over 50% of the way through copying files to the hard drive,
the Windows installer (running from the CD) stopped and complained
that the copy of a file to the hard drive had failed. I told Windows
to to retry, and it did, but then it gave many more errors copying
other files.

I've tried to install again and again, using:

1. Two different optical drives.
2. Two different Windows XP CD's.
3. Two different brand new hard drives.
4. Two different IDE cables.

No matter what the combination of hardware, I get identical behavior,
with the only vairation being the point at which the disk copy
failures begin. Sometimes it begins as early as 50%, other times it
makes it to 57% before failing.

The only logical thing I haven't changed yet is the motherboard, but I
have a hard time understanding how the SATA controller could begin to
fail copying files at the same point each time, no matter what optical
drive, XP CD, hard drive, and cable I'm using.

Does anyone have any idea what could be happening here? Should I
replace the motherboard? What else could it be?

--- Windows Install Error Messages ---
first message:
ntdll.dll
The file Setup placed on your hard drive is not a valid Windows XP
system image. If you are installing from a CD, there may be a problem
with the Windows XP CD.

If I retry on this and continue to retry on succeeding error messages,
eventually I get this message:
Setup cannot copy file shell32.dll.

The file names vary but it always begins to happen within 50 to 57%
completion of the copy of the Windows system files to the hard drive.

--- History ---
10/18/06 - Computer built.
12/11/06 - System hard drive failure.
12/13/07 - Reinstall Windows on New WD 250 SATA hard drive. Installed
APC Back-UPS ES 550.
01/29/07 - Installed Electronic Specialists surge surpressor upstream
of UPS.
02/08/07 - System hard drive failure.
02/28/07 - rebuild computer with new Seagate SATA hard drive, new
motherboard, new Thermaltake PSU.
03/23/07 - unexplained failures; recovered after CHKDSK runs corrected
bad index entries.
04/07/07 - failure described above (slow executions, spontaneous
reboots, blank screen).

Please note that I've build over a dozen computer prior to this. None
of them gave me problems anything like this.

Also note that I've monitored the tempuratures via the Asus
motherboard monitoring program and the nVidia control panel. The
motherboard, CPU, and graphics card stay well below upper limits even
when run hard by a demanding racing sim. The LAN Boy case has two 120
mm fans and the Athlon has a large fan as well.

Also note that I've checked the wiring for the 110v outlet the
computer is using with a three-LED type outlet checker and it's fine.

--- System Configuration ---

Antec LAN Boy case
Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W; replaced on 2/28/07 by:
Thermaltake PurePower 2.0 500W
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual-Core
Corsair 1 GB PC2 6400 DDR2/800
eVGA GeForce 7600GT 256 MB PCIe x16
system disk:
WD Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
replaced on 2/28/06 by:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s
backup disk:
WD Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Lite-On 16X DVD+-RW+CD-R/RW
Sony 16X DVD ROM
on-board SoundMax
Rosewill USB Media reader
Windows XP Pro
case lighting & controller

Had a similar problem with a customers Dell (it had overheated), I had
stripped the machine and pulled the BIOS battery and let it sit for two
days, instead of throwing it away I put all back together.

I fired the PC up and it has run like a charm ever since
Go figure!

Mich...

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Re: Baffling problem with Asus M2N32-SLI based machine

AMD x86/64bits Processors alt.comp.hardware.amd.x86-64

Re: Baffling problem with Asus M2N32-SLI based machine - 04-20-2007 , 03:36 PM