Okay..... Im running an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ on a Gigabyte GA-7VTXH+, i have the latest full release BIOS, 1 60 gig and 1 40 gig HD, CD-RW and DVD drive. I just changed my standard IDE cables to rounded cables bought from CrazyPC.com, very tight looking if i do say so myself, but when i went to boot it up afterwards i bluescreened as soon as the WinXP Pro bootscreen came up, rebooted about 5 times, did the same thing each time with a plethora of different error messages. i switched back to the original cables, same thing, tried booting linux aieee!!!! kernel panic shutdown, booted with a win98 boot disk, removed linux partition but not the win partition, win XP booted ok and i worked with it for about 10 mins then it bluescreened and went back to doing the same thing (oh, and i had put the rounded cables back in b4 that since they were obviously not the prob). Tried to run setup to re-install XP off the boot CD, loaded all the stuff needed to start and bluescreened when the starting windows thing tried to execute.... i tested both of my DDR RAM modules seperately and they appear to be fine. I deleted the NTFS partition repartitioned in FAT32 and tried to install XP again from a bootable CD, same thing, blue screen at "starting windows". does anyone have any idea WTF is going on? cuz i have NEVER seen this before in the hundreds of times ive screwed up my system. OH, and before i re-partitioned, i tried ALL the other boot modes for XP. not a one worked. H E L P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guy, sorry to hear it, this is going to sound bad but please don't take it to hard. One of the first rules for a sysadmin, (and a lot of what you are doing falls into the sysadmin realm), but one of the first rules is "Don't make it worse !".

You swapped the IDE cables, had a problem, swapped them back and still had a problem. Up to that point you were doing OK. But then you went down a crooked road my friend. Because you were working in the hardware realm, you probably have something wrong there. You have damaged something, put a cable on backwards and booted and hurt something, Got the devices mixed up and you have two masters on the same cable, bent a pin, something in the hardware layer is amiss.

Whether the damage is perminent is something that you need to find out, but because you have messed with the software and partitioning it will be tougher to find the problem.

First, verify the HD is OK by putting it into another machine and reformat it. Make sure it is a machine that uses the same OS if you can. If you can't format it in another machine then that is one, (but may not be the only), problem.

If the drive comes up good, then go back over the rest, start with the Master/Slave settings and make sure they match how you want things cabled. Look for bent or broken IDE pins on the devices and inside the ends of the cables.

This isn't everything that you will have to do, but it is a start, Good Luck.

remove everything in your system except for 1 stick of ram, cpu/hsf, vid card, cdrom, floppy, psu, cables and 1 hard drive (your bootable drive on 0,1) disable any non essentiial integrated components in bios (like onboard lan, bad nics are a big cause of boot failures in systems ive worked on in the past)

see if you can boot up and load your os, doublecheck and make sure you have the cables installed correctly with the red stripe on pin 1 and end with ide connectors closer, very end attached to bootable hard drive, configured as master. (please dont take offense at this, seems a simple mistake but it DOES happen even to the best of us) also you might want to check your case connectors to the motherboard, go over every onboard connection in your mobo manual

if you can get it loaded, start adding your pci cards one at a time, rebooting after each one you add, then start re-adding your extra drives.

uhmmm...... since you didnt read the original post.... my primary HDD was REPARTITIONED and i did just about everything that you suggested and it was all to no avail..... person in room next to me suggested i redo my heatsink cuz if i bumped it and screwed the AC3 hs compounds seal then it would heat up and phuck up all the processes cauzing freezes and blue screens......... any thoughts?

oh, icpiper, all the settings are good
tested drive in friends computer and it was all good, its some hardware prob other than cables and jumpers as i checked them all and did not change any of them anyway

This is one of those problems that is tough if your not there.

Because you know what your doing with a system, all I can suggest is to go back through it checking everything and assuming nothing. If the hard drive is good and allowed a Format, not just partitioning, then if everything is correct and undamaged then you should be able to reload.

Sorry guy but that is the best I have to offer. In the end I think you will find something wrong that you have already looked at more then once and missed, then not rechecked.

You can even clear the Bios with the Clear CMOS jumper, that is not too extreme an action to consider. Luck Bro.

So let me get this straight....your computer was running fine UNTIL...you made some changes. Right? And, it only BSODs when you begin loading Win XP.

If that's the case, then XP is having a problem when it loads, often a failing device driver will do that, but sometimes it's a faulty hardware component too. And sometimes, it's a startup app that XP is trying to lauch, that is conflicting with a hardware device's resources.

With Win 9X there was a file, bootlog.txt in the root directory that would list any errors during the boot process; I'm sure XP also has something similar...but if your system drive is NTFS formatted, forget it. You won't be able to get in, most likely.

You've tried as abyss suggested, removed ALL COMPONENTS except for a floppy, HD, and vidcard, and a single stick of RAM, and tried to boot? (Remember, if you cut corners at this stage, the REST of the suggestions we offer will be a waste of everyone's--and your--time.)

I don't believe in the "instant windows reformat and install" advice that far too many people offer. If you have a device conflict or faulty hardware, you'll most likely see the problem no matter HOW many times you reformat. Better to track that bitch down and smack it up than to let her keep on messin' with your head.

Actually I DID read your initial post. I was referring to the drive you intended to load your OS on. I wish you the best of luck with your system as it sounds like youve got a real turkey on your hands

coel....... i tested all the HW....... its all good..... and the things i changed were cables.... all the drivers were working b4, the drive was put in a friends puter and he did the most thurough scandisk test that XP can run it came up as good so none of the files were changed as the only way the could have would be if the hd was damaged while installing the cable. oh, and abyss..... which hd do you think i would be checking? THE ONE WITH THE OS!!!! IM NOT STUPID even tho you seem to think so ..... the 2nd HD is a media only drive, not trying to install anything on it

Is it possible that these are Maxtor ata 133 drives and your new cables were ata 100?

Or have you tried to fdisk the mbr? (yes i realize you were able to run in xp for 10 minutes, just thought id ask)

Have you actually used a thermal probe to test your cpu temps?

Or have you used a multimeter to test your voltages coming down on your psu lines?

When your pc posts does it ever beep more then once?

Have you checked out your autoexec.bat?

If its happening when proggies try to autoload, then perhaps if you backup your autoexec.bat and start deleting non essential programs...

I'm starting to run out of ideas hehe.

/shrug I've been in tech support for a long time, long enough to know that I shouldnt assume anything. I'm sorry if I offended you but since I dont know you, I have no idea how tech savvy you are. My apologies.

However, you seemed to think I wasnt reading your post, seems there was a break in communication between me and thee. I was simply trying to clarify the issue so there was no question.

Abyss, good tips there but let's ignore all that...why? Because he said his system was working perfectly before he just changed some IDE cables.

Sno, did you try changing back to the original cables? Did you connect the drives properly (very important nowadays to make masters go on the end black connectors, and slaves in the middle, and NOT a good idea to connect a master drive, all by itself on a cable, on the middle grey connector...because data first transfers from the blue IDE mobo connector to the black end (master) connector, and only THEN does it travel to the grey middle (slave) connector. Although most people would incorrectly assume data goes from the IDE connector to the first (middle grey) connector.

Why is this important? Because with high speed drives (ATA100, 133), the data is quite susceptible to crosstalk and interference (which is why 40 of the 80 cables are just plastic 'dead' wires, intended to separate the other 40 data cables to reduce interference). I read that some of those lower-quality rounded IDE cables actually WORSEN interference.

Let's try to figure out why your system STOPPED working...and configure it exactly the way it was BEFORE you made your changes.

I think he said he tried going back to the original cables, not sure if he had the cables on right or not, but he seemed hurt that i would question his tech knowledge so id think he knows how to install an ide cable. (i would hope)

yes, i did change the cables and i know how to hook up a god domned ide array ive built many a working computer, thank you for insulting my intelligence Coel, oh, and it really does not make that much of a defference where the drives are on an IDE cable, but they are set up how you said..... also, they are ATA100 drives and ATA133 cables, the nice silver ones from CrazyPC with the twisted pairs to eliminate crosstalk. and im thinking its something other than the drives as my friend was able to access it when i put it in his computer, unfortunately i decided to ignore my gut feeling and format.... all to no avail..... crashes when i try to install.... read my earlier posts about what we think is worng.

actually sno, with ata 100 drives it DOES make a difference, with ata66 and ata 33 you are quite correct however

not very much of one, ive tried

Actually it makes all the difference where the drives are on the cable. Make sure the master is on the end and the slave is in the middle. If you have them set for cable select, make sure the cables support that as well. No need to all bunched up. They are all trying to help .YOU.

Well if your rig isnt running anyways then you are correct, it really doesnt matter =/

I do speak from experience however as when I first built my Shuttle AK31 i had the ata100 cable for my 2 40 gig ata 100 drives in an improper configuration, changing the cable was all that was required to alleviate the situation. However, for every "rule" there can be found instances where those rules have been broken. Like I have a friend whose ECS K7S5A board will boot with both sdram and ddr ram installed. Dont ask me how, I dont know, but it does.

Just to get a better idea of the board...

Dude... not tryin' to insult yer IQ... but have you checked the following:

1. Checked out the mobo for places where a soldering point may have come apart. wigglin' stuff around on the board can cause breakage you don't even see unless your REALLY lookin'.

2. Reseated all your cards

3. Checked the pins to make sure all 42 are still there on the mobo and the drives.

4. Did you redo the BIOS at the same time as you did the cables? Could be a problem there.

5. It could be a heat-sink... try setting the BIOS to shut down if it gets to a certain temp... that should let you know!

6. Did you overclock? Sometimes over-overclocking will cause problems that don't show up until later even at safe temps. I ran my 1.5 Ghz P4 rig at 1.8 for awhile, and started getting all kinds of screw-ups... I lowered it down to 1.75, and they went away.

7. Did you make sure to ground yourself before touchin' the board? ESD can cause some serious problems.

8. It looks like the IDEs are REALLY close to the mainboard power plug... might make sure it's secure!



I'd have more, but I'm still thinking about the fact it runs for 10 minutes before crashing... could be your PSU is wheezing it's last, heat-sink problems, other heat problems in general, etc...

Sno buddy, just to clarify for me, after you re-partitioned the drive, did you format it ?

And will it allow you into the Bios so you can monitor temps/voltages for any length of time. Like put it there and go away, come back later and check it.

You can also try setting the BIOS options to default and just make the changes needed with no overclocking.