Help me with this damn PCs -Please , I'm stuck!!!!!

[Scabby]

QTECH 2.2ghz, 80Mb
XP service pack one (I think)

I'm genuinely stuck with this PC I have been given.

OK story,

A neighbour gave me a PC. He said it was broken so he went off and purchased another. When I cleaned out the USB female plug it appeared to clear the short and the PC turned on.

Great, quick check of the CPU revealed a 2.2ghz Pentium 4 and 80 Gig hard drive. All was working and seem fine so I was smiling! So I started to set this one up for the kids and this is where I hit problems.

I put in some cards in and installed a copy of Battlefield1942 It was then I noticed that Battlefield 1942 was loading really slowly, If I was to guess I would say the access time of the hard disk was down, it seemed generally slow in anything related to hard disk access time.

In the end I decided the best thing to do was reformat, new system and build up the drivers from base up so I knew the new PC inside out and it was cleaned.

The damn thing will not install XP now. I have used the OEM(QTECH recovery v6) disk that came with it, it will take about 4 hours and lock up! So I figured I would try another copy of XP instead of the CD that came with it. This crashed after a few hours also, blue screen this time.

Now I don't have any ideas, I have tried three XP copies, none work!

I have tried searching for any company called QTECH that make computers! - no joy!

anyone

help!

please!

grovel!

 

[occdavid]

I think we are going to need some more info. You say - "I put some cards in..." What does this mean? I assume some add-in PCI cards like sound or nic card? I wouldn't try installing XP with extra cards if they are not needed right away. You can always try to install them one at a time after you get XP installed and patched up.
What's the bios look like? Did you check to make sure all setting in bios look o.k.?
Can you ID parts from a look inside? Any markings to lead you to knowing more about the main parts? Brand of HD, memory specs, and MB (for chipset id).
If you have an XP install CD and this thing is a Pentium 4 at 2.2 it should only take 30-40 mins tops to install XP.
Do you have or can you make some test boot CDs for Memtest86 and if the HD is a name brand (W.Digital or Seagate) can you make a test CD for their tools and test/format the HD. Would be good to test these parts first so you can rule out bad hardware.

 

[goldragon_70]

Put everything back to the way it was and reseat everything, and then see if it's still running slow. If it speeds up then slowly add the cards until you get the problem again. (could be bad hardware or a power problem) If it's still giving you problems, with all the hardware back to the way it was before, then everything will need to be tested.

 

[MrMr]

http://www.qtechcomputer.com/

 

[PCD]

If a USB port has been shorted the Southbridge might be damaged.

 

[moonsite]

From my experience with installation failure, it would be the memory or the hard drive. Download Memtest86 and run the test first. If that works out, use the hard drive diagnostic utilities from the hard drive vendor and run it.

 

[Mugz]

Try and disable USB in the BiOS. If that does sort it, then drop in a USB port card into a PCI slot.

I doubt that's the entirety of the problem though, or even the problem. Just my guess.

Er, more details?

 

[Scabby]

Firstly, thanks everyone for your replies. Good to see an active community.

When I say I put some cards in I mean I never expected any problems so I placed a sound card and video card in (pci) to allow it to play BF1942. When this didn't work for the third time I took them out just in case it was one of them. Still no joy.

I have NO experience with BIOS except changing the boot order and I think I have re-flashed other machines once or twice, I would not know how to change this so would require a little guidance, although I suspected something in this area may be suspect, the computer came with a motherboard CD driver disk, this is titled:

AMD & VIA & SIS MOTHERBOARD DRIVER INSTALLATION CD VER: 6070010B00030-2002.07

My problem with identifying really is access to this computer as it no longer has a system.

Does Memtest86 run on a boot disk? (yes just checked|)

Thanks for the link MrMr but, well would you buy a PC from them if this is their site? I did an exhausting search for this computer with no joy., there seemed to me to be a few QTECH computer manufacturers at least one of which is no longer trading.

VISUAL SEARCH
external - nothing except QTECH and badge
internal -
On the motherboard it states QT-4SDM2+
BIOS Screen flashes up something about it being AWARD v6.0 BIOS

Ask and I will find out.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this

[EDIT]
The hard disk seemed to format with the XP disk ok, I done the lower level (slower) format NTFS

 

[Scabby]

UPDATE
The hard disk manufacturer label is hidden but an ID number: 3902C585 reveals that it's more than likely a Western Digital. I have a program that should shed some light on it, I'll post here in a while.

In the meantime I have the results for the Memtest86 and they are as follows:

Celeron (0.13) 2205Mhz
L1 cache 8k
L2 cache 128k
Memory 224
Chipset SiS650 / 100Mhz

pass complete, no errors

[EDIT]

Ok results of the Western Digital output
This is a 40Gb drive model number: WDC WD400EB-00CPF0
and I'm now re-formatting with their own software

My gut feeling is this is lower level than system, prolly BIOS. Software wise its the only thing I have not touched, oh and for the record I re-set the BIOS to factory reset after a few unsuccessful re-installs of XP to see if it was a setting there (with the exception of the boot order.)

Just an observation, I'm now re-installing XP again! and even when XP Installer is copying the files from the CD it takes more time than normal, the CD drive is spinning away and the %age is creeping up slowly. This is why I suspect a BIOS somewhere isn't right. I have tried the install from both drives on this PC.

 

[Scabby]

UPDATE

The first time I installed XP there was no difference, same error. Out of frustration I tried one more time and this time it worked, !!!

I still have to put SP2 on but so far so unsteady I guess

I'll post here with probs