Self build nightmare!

[divil_a_bit]

I managed to successfully build my first PC (HTPC) and install Vista on it with no problems. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.

I had it running perfectly for one day when the trouble started. For some reason, the DVD drive and Hard disk have become unreliable! Both are connected via SATA. At boot up, sometimes the BIOS recognises the DVD drive and Hard disk, other times it doesn't. Also, when it does recognise them, it might fail to read them properly.

Here are the steps I have taken so far to try figure out what's the underlying problem.
■ Windows Vista install DVD in the DVD drive and boot. "Fails to load BOOTMGR". I gave up on Windows it gives me zero visibility into what was causing the problem.
■ Knoppix (live Linux CD) in the DVD drive with and without hard disk connected. Each boot is different in this scenario - sometime it fails to verify the kernel because of CRC errors, other times it manages to load the kernel but fails further along the boot process ... kernel panics, etc ... (different each time I boot!).
■ Got an IDE hard drive from another computer with XP and Ubuntu on it (dual lboot) and stuck it in with no other drive connected. I tried to boot Ubuntu in debug mode so I could see the kernel message to the screen. Again, it wasn't the same each time I booted. Sometimes it go further that others but at no time did it boot successfully.


Has anybody seen anything like this before? Any ideas where I can look next?

This evening I'm going to put the SATA DVD drive and SATA Hard Disk into another PC and verify they are both OK but I suspect they are fine because it fails with the IDE hard drive also.

The complete spec for the PC is here:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/shoplist.a...83997&su=32C590FF-3136-4089-AA5B-383DC5EA7BD1

 

[night_wolf_in]

it is strange indeed. you considered loose wiring of cables? thats the only thing popping up my head right now.

 

[divil_a_bit]

I tried the SATA cables initially but no luck. Then when I switched to the IDE cables/drive I figured it definitely wasn't the SATA cables.

What other cables could be loose?

 

[Alvertte]

Check your RAM with memtest or windows Memory diagnostic tool (included in the OS disc).
Run it and see if the memory modules check out OK .
Good luck.

 

[divil_a_bit]

Check your RAM with memtest or windows Memory diagnostic tool (included in the OS disc).
Run it and see if the memory modules check out OK .
Good luck.

Thanks for that - problem is I can's run a memtest because I can't reliable run things from the OS disc (Windows or Linux)!

It's really strange, all was working fine for 1 day, even wireless networking! Now nothing works.