XP Install Problems, BSOD'S, chkdsk hangs,files not copied, etc

To rearrange the resource allocation, change the location of the PCI cards in the slots. You may need to change once or twice before Windows will reallocate them (the PCI card shuffle ). No success, try disabling onboard hardware like the ethernet/LAN or audio.

Matt

 

Well, I'd call that good news at least comparatively speaking. You can find out what your CPU is by downloading Everest (Matt has a link in his signature). I'd suggest that you go one step at a time here re: any changes/fixes so you can best isolate cause and effect. There have been a lot of suggestions thrown at you and now that it appears you have found some relief, lets go real slow as to changes. Re: memory settings, I'll give you a little paragraph below, but hold off on making any of those changes at this hot second. And, as to Matt's last post re: a memory address (different from the memory stuff I referenced), if your motherboard supports it, you can reset the configuration data (usually on the plug and play page - PNP/PCI configuration) and it should reassign interrupts which should permit one to avoid moving cards around. Either way - as Matt has identified, its a problem that needs to be corrected.

Now, again - hold off on these for right now but re: memory in general - You should have an option in the BIOS to manually set memory or to auto set or to set by speed. Your motherboard should "read" the embedded code in the memory sticks to identify them and ordinarily an auto setting would be the safest way to go. However, you've used both 2700 and 2100, so I was just trying to determing what CPU you were running and give you a couple of pointers re: setting some optimal timings because again this acts just like a series of memory errors to me (based upon your problem descriptons). I would suggest that you try setting your memory "by speed" so it is synchronized with your processor speed. The SIS chipset isn't as good as some re: running asynchronous speeds (processor at one speed & memory at a different speed).

Now, to clarify basic memory timings - CAS is a basic memory speed setting. It's an abreviation for column address strobe (commonly referenced as cycles) and most DDR memory is 2.5 or 3.0. Fast memory is more often 2.0 but thats only one of many measures and this gets highly technical. More advanced boards will reference 4 basic memory timing variables and high end boards will make one's head spin - we won't go there for now, lets keep it simple. If you have CAS3 memory, you may have an option to set your CAS timing to 2.5 as most standard motherboards do. Quite often it will run better this way and its one of those undocumented "tips ".

So, enough tech talk - lets get back to your machine. At this point, I'd be more inclined to add one device at a time back to your mix, but go slow and test each one thoroughly before going to the next. Consider it a good weekend project. Keep us posted and good luck.

 

Hi - just a quick update. I have held off on the memory stuff for the moment, but I will do these things when I have an operational system again. At the moment I have the speakers plugged in in a different combination from the one recommended by C-Media. They have 3 jacks plugged into 3 sockets (the two "output" and one "mic" socket). When I have the sub and centre speakers plugged into the "mic" socket, the bsod's happen. This is the configuration I have been using as recommended by C-Media Xear 3d. When I have the sub and centre plugged into anywhere else, the system is suddenly stable, no problems at all. I can't get it to blue screen no matter how I try.

I'm struggling to believe it is as simple as this, so I'm going cautiously as you suggest. However, when I plugged them back in as recommended after hours of problem-free computing with them the "wrong" way round, I got a bsod within 30 seconds!

Anyway, I have my dial up modem (why I don't know, I suppose because it's there) and my floppy disk back in, CD and DVD to follow, but VERY much one at a time with fingers crossed.

Thanks again for your help, here's hoping this was my problem. Do any of you know why C-Media would suggest plugging into mic socket if it's not working? At the moment I have only 4 speakers plugged in, which I can accept if it means my computer works again.

 

This is why I said two "outputs" and the "mic" socket - I know this is generally an input socket. However, when I have the sub and centre plugged into an output, and the jack from other speakers plugged into the mic socket, I get output. When I run their speaker test, the speakers are all swapped around though, and sub-woofer is getting output from front right, right surround from centre, etc. The only way to get the right output to the right speakers is to do it the way they suggest, then they test correct. The "typo" is actually a graphic on the C-Media Audio Config program, and the graphic changes when you choose 4 speakers to 2 output and 1 mic socket, so presumably in some systems this will work??

As you can imagine, I feel quite stupid for doing what seems like such a basic error, but the bsod's did NOT start happening immediately on installing the speakers, and have got progressively worse over time. I did quite a lot to my PC at the same time as well, hence the trouble diagnosing. I can't believe I've spent so long over this (it has been ongoing for months, getting worse and worse) when it seems so simple.

 

You might want to look around for different C-Media drivers and see if you can find some kind of a user forum specific to C-Media. I think you should be able to configure your mic jack as an output or an input depending upon speaker configuration and I believe there is a setup tool within the software to accomodate various setups. If it originally worked without BSOD's then you might want to go back to the Audio drivers that came with your motherboard. There is a utility called Driver Cleaner that should help you get rid of any updated drivers that may not be working before you go back to an older version.

This is great if you nailed the problem but I'd still suggest that you go one step at a time and proceed cautiously.

 

Couldn't agree more, I'll be taking it slow. Its hard to understand how plugging a speaker into an output socket can cause so much grief, but there we go. As for rolling back drivers, etc I will do this in time but at the moment I'n over the moon with 4 speakers, as long as everything else works. I'll post again when I get all my other bits plugged back in and everything is (hopefully) in working order.

Thanks for all your help and advice, if I have any more issues I know who to ask. I'll keep using this site as it has loads of helpful hints and tips on it, I wish I'd found it years ago!!

 

I usually don't use onboard sound with surround speakers, but I have. It seems to me that on some of the older systems, the aux in could be swapped for an output but I'm trying to think of the last board that permitted mic jack to be swapped. Its been at least 8 years since I've seen this and I wouldn't bet the ranch on it by any stretch. Could be that Pete is dead on when he raises a question re: this. You definately need to do some reading in order to get that howling without any hiccups.

 

I think I'll just buy a decent soundcard and stop being a cheapskate!

 

If it helps at all.
The audio on my Abit motherboard is AC97 and it has 5 jacks. If I go to "Sound Effect Manager" in the system tray it has "Connector Sensing" on one of the tabs. It looks like the mic in can possibly be configured as a speaker connector. You need to set the connections according to if you want 2, 4 or 6 channels.

Anyway, it may be that the audio software (manager) is causing the wrong connection arrangement (as opposed to the drivers), and in turn, causing the blue screens.

Matt

 

I think this is where the problem lay. In my manager program (Xear 3D Audio Config) when I set the connections for 6 speakers, the graphic changes to:

Audio Jacks
Jack Configuration
o L R
o Ls Rs
o C Sub


When I set it for 4 (as I have it now and it's working away happily) I get:

Audio Jacks
Jack Configuration
o L R
o Ls Rs
o L(mic) R(mic)

For 2 speakers it has:

Audio Jacks
Jack Configuration
o L R
o L(speaker) R(speaker)
o L(mic) R(mic)

The (speaker) and (mic) are the symbols for these.

In my naive gullibility I was happy to accept this as having changed the configuration, and away I went.

I'm interested in what Rockster2U said about going back to my original driver, as I said before it worked originally so maybe the driver update has altered its ability to configure the input jack?

Anyway, I have ordered a sound card which should be here at the start of the week so that should be problem solved I hope.

Thanks again for all your input.

 

According to Everest:

Memory timings:

CAS Latency: 2.5T
RAS to CAS Delay: 3T
RAS Precharge: 3T
RAS Active time: 7T

Is the CAS Latency the one you refer to? I hope so. I'm going to try changing the BIOS to set the memory "by speed" as well.

 

You got it. I'd be more inclined to hold off with any changes until you have determined your CPU bus speed and what speed in MHz, your memory is currently configured as. (266 vs 333?) Did you ever run Everest?

 

Yeah, that's where I got the CAS latency from. Incidentally, I checked in the BIOS and it's set to AUTO, but as it is coming out at 2.5 I thought that was ok so left it alone. I tried to find the 'set by speed' setting, but couldn't find anything.

I can't find anything for a bus speed under CPU, but under motherboard it has 'Front side bus properties' and 'memory bus properties. The bus width, real clock, effective clock and bandwidth of these match exactly (64 bit, 168MHz(DDR), 336MHz and 2688 MB/s respectively). Is this what you're looking for? If not, where do I find the CPU bus speed?

I am really enjoying this thread, it has given me confidence to try new things with this damned machine of mine, and is teaching me things like the above. Thanks again.

 

What a nightmare!!!

I put everything back in its place one by one, it was all working perfectly. I thought "ok, I'll put the graphics card back in (ATI Radeon 9200SE Atlantis)" so I did that and installed the drivers. Worked fine for a while but then BSOD.

The graphics card has been out of the system for months, before my last reinstall of XP as I thought it might be the problem, so it wasn't the cause when I started this thread.

Anyway, XP wouldn't get all the way through start up after this, so I removed everything but the card, to isolate and identify if that was the cause. Sure enough, BSOD. I took the card out, and lo and behold I have Windows again without problems.

I then uninstalled the ATI drivers, and tried to update the AGP drivers for my motherboard, as soon as I tried to run the update, BSOD. I have since put the rest of my hardware back into the system, (excluding graphics card) and we are working again.

So, I think the graphics card is faulty as well as the speakers causing me problems. Does anybody have any experience of what I can do to resolve this issue, I would like to have a working graphics card but not at the expense of my system. I don't want to buy another one either unless I know this one is faulty and its not a motherboard issue.

 

Double-check those jacks and maybe look at the symbols beside them. The information for mine does not exactly match the way the jacks are placed. Mine seems to be a general description of the jacks, but the motherboard manufacturers put them in different places.

The ATI card, I have just been through getting an ATI card to run on a motherboard with SIS built in graphics. My solution was to disable the onboard ethernet/LAN and install a NIC. I suggest you try disabling both ethernet and audio in the BIOS settings and see if one of those has resources that are conflicting with the ATI card.

Matt

 

Ok I'll try that, however (.... the nightmare never ends).

Having removed the graphics card and uninstalled the drivers, I thought everything was ok, it seemed to run fine for a while. All of a sudden when I was accessing a floppy, BSOD!!!!!

I removed everything again to the stage it was at before (or so I thought) but was still getting BSOD. Each time Windows Online Crash Analysis said it was a video device driver (it has never said this before and said it 3 crashes in a row).

I checked the BIOS, and the Primary Video (I think thats what it said, I'm at work so can't check) was set to PCI, the other option being AGP. As my graphics card was still out, I left it at PCI but realised I had forgotten to take out my PCI dial up modem. Also, the AGP speed was set to auto, with options for 4x, 2x and 1x. I have an 8x AGP slot, does this mean anything? AND the graphics mapped memory was set to 64 Mb (which is what I have onboard), should I set it to 128 for my graphics card or will the driver do that???

Anyway, I think I will play around with that lot, and also what Mattman suggests, but when I took out the dial-up modem it SEEMS TO run ok but I don't want to tempt fate so I'm still apprehensive.

 

Are we having fun yet?

OK, sounds like you still have an unresolved issue or two. First off, if you aren't using a dial-up connection, I'd lose the modem permanently. Secondly, when using an AGP graphics card, the first PCI slot should not be used for any device because these slots share interrupts. If you had something in PCI #1 when you were trying to use that ATI card, that would potentially have contributed to the problem. Third, when using on-board video, there should be a setting for on-board video other than the PCI setting you have referenced. I believe most on-board video is AGP but you haven'y given us a motherboard manufacturer or model #, so I have to speak in generalities here. The 64MB mapped memory you referenced is memory being allocated to your on-board video and when your ATI card is in use, it has its own memory so this setting is totally irrelevant unless you are using the on-board video.

Now, where do we go from here?

OK, lets leave it out for a while longer until we get some stability back. Since you've moved some cards around which may have affected interrupt settings and the resulting memory addresses (again, different than what we were talking about before re: RAM) you should try navigating back to that PNP page in your BIOS and enable the reset configuration setting before saving your settings and exiting the BIOS. Lets go slow and not try doing too many things without thoroughly testing each change made. Hopefully, you are getting closer but I also realize this can be very frustrating. Your earlier post re: DDR memory settings which you left alone appeared to be fine from my perspective.






Edit:

You need to run that DriverCleaner utility to thoroughly remove the leftover remnants of your ATI drivers. I believe there is a link in the sticky at the top the Hardware forum which will lead you there. If not, post back and I'll get you a direct link.

 

Don't panic.
Don't change settings that you have not made a record of (written or mentally).
Change a setting then test it, if the system seems stable, keep testing it. Change back if it does not seem right.

____________________________________________________

For me, it's nearly bedtime (I start early). Let me review your last post in more detail tomorrow.

Matt