poss bad HDD, DRAM or mobo?

[imperialreign]

Alright . . . eariler I was running Everest cache and memory bench when the rig all of a sudden crashed (rig setup was per my profile). No BSoD, just a reboot . . . once back up, BIOS POSTed, but right after POST, I recieved a message stating "Error loading operating system". So, I reset BIOS to defualts, booted - same thing. Opened the case, checked all connections, booted and again same thing. So, I went a step further and pulled the CMOS battery for 1hr. Re-installed, setup BIOS again, same error . . . BIOS still recognizes both HDDs, though, so I used the XP CD and boot to the CD drive and went into WIN repair. I can get onto both drives, but no directories on C: stating bad enumeration, tryed running chkdsk and reports back the drive has too many unrecoverable errors to be fixed. D: seems alright, all directories intact, so I'm thinking bad HDD - although very, very rare for a HDD to just outright die like that with no prior warning and yet still be acknowledged by BIOS . . . :wtf:

Alright, so I yanked the HDD and plugged in a spare with XP on it - boot to the WIN GUI load screen, then crash and reboot . . . threw in the XP CD and attempted to format/install the OS on my spare HDD. It makes it to about 6% of copying files, and BSoDs stating "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" which is a typical MEM related BSoD. So now I'm completely thrown for a loop! I retried the format and install with each stick individually, but same error . . . :wtf:

I'm about lost at this point, what do y'all think I'm missing?

[Exeodus]

Sounds like possible bad memory, try to run memtest and see if you get any errors.

[keakar]

i think you have a board problem but im just guessing here, try with a spare board if you have one.

also can you try your hdd and ram in another computer to confirm they are ok?

[imperialreign]

Sounds like possible bad memory, try to run memtest and see if you get any errors.

if I can somehow manage to get to DOS . . . but my 10yr old 3.5" has been getting a bit shoddy recently . . .

i think you have a board problem but im just guessing here, try with a spare board if you have one.

also can you try your hdd and ram in another computer to confirm they are ok?

I was somewhat thinking the same thing on the board, mostly because the one ASUS sent back from my RMA looked like it was fairly worn in and used . . .

I hooked the HDD up to my father's rig, and XP said the HDD was unformated :wtf: Odd, to lose a whole drive's format and partition . . . anyhow, had that rig reformat the HDD, and the drive seems alright.

Sadly, though, neither of my father's rigs use DDR2, so I have no other way of checking the DRAM. I was able to get the rig to re-install XP onto the HDD, but right after the first boot, when it was starting to setup WIN it crashed again . . . so, I'm starting to think it's more of a problem with the MEM. I'm almost wondering if the Everest bench I was running on it didn't somehow corrupt the mem or corrupt the SPD . . . if I can get XP setup long enough for me to run a couple of programs from a USB, I might be able to re-write the SPD if it's incorrect . . .

[imperialreign]

sorry for the double post here . . . update:

well, for no apparent reason I had decided to re-flash the mobo BIOS to ver2206 (same as before). Not sure why I thought that'd be a decent idea, really . . . but it seems to have worked :wtf: I managed to get XP through it's installation and setup, and through a defrag of both installed HDDs. So, I'm going to go ahead and let the HCI version of MemTest run overnight, before I go ahead with driver installs and the nefarious 10^n XP updates.

What I don't understand, though, is if the BIOS had become corrupted . . . how in the world did I manage to corrupt the BIOS on the mobo PLCC when I was within the XP enviornment? The sys BIOS is loaded into RAM at that point, if I'm not mistaken, and the PLCC is near about inacessable . . .

[Nothgrin]

Sounds like possible bad memory, try to run memtest and see if you get any errors.

Corrupted / Unaccessible memory usually tends to turn on the motherboard speaker and give a annoying beep.

[keakar]

well you did say "the one ASUS sent back from my RMA looked like it was fairly worn in and used . . " maybe you had an old or corrupted bios since this and it finally turned belly up?

[imperialreign]

well you did say "the one ASUS sent back from my RMA looked like it was fairly worn in and used . . " maybe you had an old or corrupted bios since this and it finally turned belly up?

possible, but this would lead me to think that the PLCC itself is bad, unless there was some change to the actual bin that isn't adjustable from within BIOS setup . . . I just don't know, it's very odd, IMO.

Well, I let mem test run all night and through the work day - 12+ hours, and no errors yet, so I'm thinking that the DRAM is alright. I guess this evening I will get XP back up and configured and all . . . hopefully this was just a fluke occurance.

[keakar]

Its Evil Gremlims Out Early Doing Holloween Tricks :roll::roll::roll:

[imperialreign]

found it:

enabling Hyperpath3 in BIOS for the DRAM is causing all the crashes. Sys can't even make it to the desktop with everything else at stock settings.

It didn't do that before, cause I used to have it enabled all the time. Unless, either the DRAM itself went bad, or somehow the SPD got corrupted . . . I copied the SPD dump of both sticks, I might PM W1z and see if he'd be willing to take a look at it for anything unusual . . .