[Dieseldahl]

first of, my setup.

OS: win xp pro sp2
Motherboard: MSI P45 Diamond
CPU: Intel Core 2 duo E8500 (stock)
GPU Radeon HD4890
Ram: pc10666 2+2 gb (dont renember the brand)

Sound card: (dont matter, but anyways) Creative SB Live! 24bit (from my first pc, Several years ago)

OK, so here is my problem, 2 actually..
first of, "booting"

my pc will not boot on the first try, nor the 2nd... it always boots after x number of times.
what happends is: i get past bios screen, and on to the loading screen for windows, then it freezes, same thing happends 5-8 times, then it boots and works "almost" perfectly.
Ive noticed that if i boot, and dont do anything after it freezes, just let it run for 5-7 minutes before i hit the reset button, it boots normally.

as far as i can work out, its either the HD or my os thats corrupt, but its wierd that my HD works perfectly other than when im booting.
(if i reboot after it has booted sucsessfully it boots like normal)

2nd thing thats not working at all is updating GPU driver, when im about to install the latest driver, it seems to be going fine up to a point, then the HD powers downs and my pc reboots. cant work out why.

i have never used the os im using now, so i fear its the problem, used my old xp pro on the same computer earlier and worked, other that it was really old so it didnt work 100% with my new parts.

Tired right now so im sure im missing some details, anyway, thanks for any reply that might solve this problem.

(i have NOT tried to format and install another os verson, have some backuping to do first)

 

[capo_2k]

Really sounds like a power supply issue to me. I would say it's maybe not powerful enough or a cheap bag of s**te. Test it out on another.

(Could be the cause of the driver issue too because when you install the drivers it may fully activate the card and draw more power? Who knows, I'm not an expert. But I've dealt with crappy PSU's before and you can find strange things start to happen with them, like not turning on all the time, supplying inconsistent voltages, system instability, etc.)

 

[Dieseldahl]

dont think its my power suply, Enermax Liberty 550W, runs perfectly with 100% gpu load and cpu load all day long.

i have tested it and it delivers more than enermax claims, over 600W and thats more than enough for my PC.

Also, it worked fine right after installing the os, for a few days, then it started to go aginst me.. the booting issue was the first problem, from day one... on my old xp, "same parts" it always booted, no problems at all other than that xp was really old so it didnt support everything.

PS: Enermax dont make crappy PSU's

 

[capo_2k]

Have you tried doing memory tests and all that jazz?

Memtest86+ (Boot from CD or floppy)
Prime95 (Run in Windows)

 

[Princess Garnet]

Enermax is the opposite of crappy PSUs, but even quality PSUs can go bad.

The first thing I'd check is the RAM.

If the motherboard has onboard video, try removing the GPU.

After that, try a clean install of an OS on the same hard disk (this rules out the HD and the OS). Make a new partition for it if you must.

The motherboard or PSU are also possible causes.

The bit that really confuses me is the whole "old" and "new" XP. It's all the same thing, so I don't know why you installed XP over XP to cure the issue that it didn't support everything. I'm not getting that. I could understand reinstalling it just because it's been a few years and may be starting to act funny, but functionally, it's the same exact thing.

Unrelated, but is there a reason you're not running SP3?

 

[Dieseldahl]

well, its all about uptates and stuff, i do not use windows update crap, it ****es up my system, so the old xp i have dont support all the things that my updated xp does.

i cant stand sp3, tried it and hated it..
take GTA IV as an example, games for windows s***, thats the sort of game you play when your bored and/or your internet dont work, thanks to windows live it dont work unless your connected to the net.

I will try and install a fresh os sometime soon, and hope that solves my problems.
it may be some of my parts thats gone bad, but they are all good quality and known brands, so the chance is low.

i downloaded my current os from the piratebay, never been tested so i still think its the problem, still wierd.. but thats how electronics is.. Wierd

 

[Princess Garnet]

What's to hate about SP3? It doesn't really add anything over SP2 besides updates, and, oh, one important feature of actually performing better due to improved memory management. Seriously, microsoft could have listed "improved performance" as a feature of this service pack (but they didn't because then people would blast them for every case it didn't, and it's hurt their campaign for trying to sell Windows Vista against it at the time). There was actually a thread in the PCSX2 forums made about how SP3 improved frame rates in PCSX2, and that is saying something. Otherwise, it's your call. I just see how you can hate it when it adds nothing on the interface end that you'll see or notice. It's nothing but some updates and a performance boost.

Also, if Windows Update is messing up for you on a clean install, there are some more pressing issues at hand here. It sounds like the whole PC has issues.

Edit: Oh, I started replying before I finished reading the entire post. If the OS came from online, then there's two reasons it's messed up.

1. Illegal copies can't be run through the Windows Update site (unless you circumvent that, too, I suppose).

2. You don't know what else is wrong with them.

I'm pretty sure talk of piracy isn't allowed here either since threads involving such in the emulation forums always get closed.

 

[Lasnap]

i would agree about the whole not downloading a pirated version i download a cd version of windows 7 beta that had far to much stripped out of it that it couldnt update at all. my cd writer was the only thing i had at the time and no dvd writers int he house

 

[Dieseldahl]

Well, my old xp is a copy of a real xp, but its still not legal because of the serial key.
the xp im running on now is cracked.

so thats maybe why i hate sp3, because it was on a pirated xp so i guess it was messed up, anyways, ill try and see what i can find, want a legal copy of xp but i dont have the money right now so i have to make the best out of things.

But it seems like a legal OS is the way to go then

 

[Phil]

Yep. Don't skimp on th OS unless you know what your doing

 

[Princess Garnet]

I wouldn't buy Windows XP right now, even if your current one isn't legal. If I were to buy now, get Windows 7, and with that hardware, make it 64-bit.

 

[Demigod]

pc will not boot on the first try, nor the 2nd... it always boots after x number of times.
what happends is: i get past bios screen, and on to the loading screen for windows, then it freezes, same thing happends 5-8 times, then it boots and works "almost" perfectly.
Ive noticed that if i boot, and dont do anything after it freezes, just let it run for 5-7 minutes before i hit the reset button, it boots normally.

as far as i can work out, its either the HD or my os thats corrupt, but its wierd that my HD works perfectly other than when im booting.
(if i reboot after it has booted sucsessfully it boots like normal))

That actually sounds similar to a problem I have with my laptop. It would almost always freeze up when booting Windows the first couple times (and even when it manages to get into Windows it doesn't function properly - network doesn't work, system behaves abnormally/unstable). I find that I have to let the system "warm up" before it'll run things properly.

It's a rather old laptop with lots of other problems (such as randomn shut-downs) so I'm not sure what the exact issue could be (it just started happening one day). I'm suspecting it's the RAM, GPU, or mobo. I very much doubt it's the hard drive or software since the hard drive is relatively new and reinstalling the OS didn't resolve it (it's definitely a hardware issue).

If you have issues updating the GPU drivers then I suspect it might be the GPU. I would recommend starting there (try swapping with a different GPU if you can - make sure to completely remove the drivers prior). The next thing to try would be the RAM. If that fails then it might be the mobo.

 

[Haithm]

After reading the thread and member posts especially when you said the windows updates destroys Windows XP. I say it might also because you're installing Windows from a damaged CD. Try downloading a trial copy of Windows XP and install it and try to update it and see if gets corrupted.

 

[StriderVM]

Wait, that happens to me sometimes, it's caused by the..... 4-pin molex being "old"... It's lacking full contact, which sometimes causes the HD to not fully "start" but being detected ok by the motherboard, but causes the BSOD on Windows startup. Try changing the 4-pin molex being used.