Many Problems with XP

McWhite · Jul 13, 2003

I just recently upgraded from an Asus P2B motherboard with a pentium III 450 and 768mb ram to a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP with a pentium 4 2.8ghz at fsb 800 and 1 Gb ddr 400 (pc 3200) corsair ram (2x512mb sticks). I reformatted my 120gb maxtor hard drive and reinstalled windows xp. I installed all the drivers that the motherboard needed and downloaded the nvidia drivers from their site for my geforce 3. I did windows update, and after rebooting whenever it needed it, I encountered the agp440.sys problem. I reformatted/reinstalled windows, installed motherboard drivers, updated windows, and am currently wondering how I go about updating my video drivers without getting the agp440.sys error that I got last time. I also chose not to install directx 9.0a yet or neverwinter nights (the game that I bought all this hardware for in the first place). Any suggestions for how to proceed?
Thanks,
McWhite

McWhite · Jul 13, 2003

my other problems are that install files randomly complain that they're corrupt or incomplete, internet explorer randomly crashes to the send error report dialog box, and windows explorer (in a previous installation of xp) wouldn't refresh after i deleted files. I've experienced only the IE problems since installing this time, but any help with the others would be appreciated since I'm sure I'll encounter them eventually.
Thanks again for reading,
McWhite

4Ryan6 · Jul 13, 2003

It sounds like RAM pairing incompatability, did you get the matched RAM, thats pretested purposely to run in Dual DDR M/Bs, if you didn't get the matched RAM, (and you should know because it cost more money), try pulling one of the modules and see if your problem goes away, if it does then you've found the problem.

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.

McWhite · Jul 13, 2003

I purchased the Corsair 1GByte TwinX Matched Memory Pair (Twinx1024-3200C2). I installed it in slots 1 and 4 of the motherboard so that it would run at the dual rate. I'm assuming that's the correct memory for the motherboard (DDR400) and I installed identical simms (they come in a 2 pack). The startup report (or whatever the intial bios report screen thing is) says its running in dual mode after the ram test completes on start up.
Thanks for the quick reply,
McWhite

kinetic_tw · Jul 13, 2003

You may need to consider the possibility of a faulty motherboard.

4Ryan6 · Jul 14, 2003

Lost and missing files possibilities:
CDROM read failure
RAM failure
M/B chipset failure
Hardrive Cache failure
CPU failure
Idadequate Power Supply(minimum 300W w a GF3 graphics card)

Your problem probably will be one of these items, you're just going to have to track down which one it is.

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.Edited by 4ryan6 on 07/13/03 09:21 PM.

McWhite · Jul 14, 2003

I'm new to troubleshooting those types of problems. Any suggestions for finding out which component is at fault? I don't have any extras of anything to substitute in unfortunately, and I can't afford to buy extras and return them.
Any help is greatly appreciated,
McWhite

4Ryan6 · Jul 14, 2003

Well I'd start by checking my Power Supply and see if its at least a 300W output, to eliminate that as a possibility, theres a label somewhere on the Power Supply, that tells you the output wattage, post what you find and we'll go from there.

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.

Codesmith · Jul 14, 2003

Basically you need to play decetive. I start out my suspecting every component then try to rule them out one by one.

When trouble shooting the first thing you do is strip your CP down to the bare essentials. Remove or disable as many unessesary devices as possible. Don't forget integrated USB, LAN cards and sound cards.

All you really need is a keyboard, mouse, video card, floopy drive, one hard drive, one memory module.

(if the motherboard isn't posting I actually go a step further and remove the floopy and hard drive and even the memory (to see if I get the no memory beep code)).

If you problem magically disappears then you know something you removed is causing problems. Add everything one at a time until you once again encounter problems.

It helps to have extra parts. They don't have to be great parts an old PCI video card that only does 800 x 600 would be enough to help determine if you current video card is bad.

And start with your motherboards failsafe settings. Then revert to the performance setting one at a time.

Corsair makes excellent memory but no manufacturer 100% perfect. It is also easy to damage a module with static electricity.

You definately should experiment with running just one memory module at a time. Try both separately. Try them in different slots.

I heard of people replacing their motherboards only to discover that the problem was caused by a faulty USB card reader.

---

To test your memory download Memtest86. It boots your system from a floppy or CD and does extensive memory testing.

If it does find a problem it isn't necessarily the memory that is at fault! A memmory error could still be caused by a bad motherboard or whimpy power supply.

Check to see what temperatures your motherboard is reporting and see if your CPU is running hot.

And please tell us the make and model of your powersupply, not just the wattage. Wattage alone doesn't mean much.

Thats all I can think of, good luck.

McWhite · Jul 14, 2003

My power supply is brand new and is an Antec True Power 430W.

4Ryan6 · Jul 14, 2003

Step 1
Well power should not be a problem, I'm running the same P/S, eliminate the memory as a possibility, download and run Memtest86 you'll find it in the Utilities section toward the bottom of the page, under Memory at <A HREF="http://www.bootdisk.com" target="_new">http://www.bootdisk.com</A>, run memtest first with both modules in the M/B, then rerun the test on each module independently in Slot1.

Step 2
If you got no errors running Memtest, remove the test floppy leave 1 module in slot1 and boot up the OP/SYS normally, check to see if the problem still exists, if it does then shutdown the machine and switch to the other RAM module in slot 1 run that module by itself and see if anything changes or stays the same. If the problem still exists with the modules running independently or paired up, and the modules pass Memtest then you can remove the RAM from the suspect list.

Memtest will discover RAM hardware failure.

Note: Memtest86 has a readme file with instructions, read the instructions and you shouldn't have any problems.

If you have an incompatability problem, running the modules independently will reveal an incompatability issue because that only shows up in the Windows OP/SYS environment.

Post what you discover.

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.Edited by 4ryan6 on 07/14/03 11:53 AM.

4Ryan6 · Jul 14, 2003

Memtest86:

Download the file from Bootdisk, save the file to My Docs, the file you download is a disk creator, a zip program is required to open it, double click the file to open it and extract to My Docs, which should be the default location anyway, a folder will be created in My Docs labeled(Memtest), put a blank formatted 3 1/2" floppy disk in drive A (which is the default floppy drive location), double click the Memtest folder to open it, at this point you can read the Read Me file before proceeding, or print it out if you want to, To execute the disk creator, double click the install Icon, a black screen will appear, it will ask you for the location of the install, Type in, A:\ as long as your floppy drive is the A drive, then press Enter, on the next prompt press Enter again and the disk will be created, the make sure the CMOS is set to boot from the floppy drive and reboot the machine with the disk in the floppy drive to run Memtest.

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.

Codesmith · Jul 14, 2003

It is possible for a motherbord problem to manifest itself as an apparent memmory problem since the memory controller is part of the motherboards chipset.

I have seen memory that tested bad test good on two other systems, and then test well on the original system once the motherboard has been replaced.

Of course maybe Memtest is smart enough to tell the difference! (I wasn't using memtest at the time of the above problem). I imagine with a controller problem errors would occur randomly and not repeatedly at the same address.

Same with any component. Everything works through the motherboard so if the motherboard is bad it can make it appear as though a specific compoment has failed. I have seen people replace their AGP card only to discover that its their AGP port that has gone bad. Same with floppies and IDE devices.

But 95% you should just assume its the memory and replace the module. If the replacement doesn't work, but then it works fine in another computer, then maybe you can suspect the motherboard.

McWhite · Jul 14, 2003

I ran memtest with the 2 dimms (or simms?) in it and on test 5, right at the end, it produced a ton of errors (a little over 7000). I let the tests continue running because I didn't realize they didn't stop. After half an hour I returned to find that my ram had about 30000 errors after 4 passes. I stopped the test, took the second dimm out, rebooted and let the test run again. I waited about 15 minutes so the test could do a couple passes using test 5, and there were no errors. I then changed the dimms so that the "bad" dimm was the only one in the computer and retested it. It again returned multiple errors during test 5. They were all towards the end of the memory test, right about 95% they started and continued until the end. I then replaced the bad dimm with the good one and retested it just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. The good dimm tested good once more.
Does this mean one of my two dimms is bad? I removed the "bad" dimm and so far I haven't had any problems, but my computer hasn't been on very long yet.
If one of the two dimms is bad, do you think I am better off returning them to newegg.com or dealing directly with corsair?
Thanks for all the help,
McWhite

Codesmith · Jul 14, 2003

You will want to replace both modules at the same time as these are matched pairs specifically tested to work together.

I have had only positive experiences with Newegg returns.

But they are going to want you to ship back both modules before sending you a new pair via fed ex ground. They may be willing to cross ship, but if you want 2nd day you will have to pay extra for it.

I know that Crucial will advance replace your memory via 2nd Day air (at their expense). Who knows, maybe Corsair has a similar policy?

So I would contact corsair first and newegg 2nd. If time is running out you can also request a newegg RMA, then cancel it latter if the Corsair Route is more convenient.

4Ryan6 · Jul 15, 2003

Yes you have a special situation there, whoever you go through to get it done, it was matched RAM and both modules will have to be replaced.

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.

4Ryan6 · Jul 15, 2003

This is a serious inconvenience for you, but thankfully you've found the problem and hopefully it'll be your last, with your new machine and you can enjoy it.Ryan

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.

4Ryan6 · Jul 15, 2003

Not to shabby in the advice area Codesmith! If you haven't learned how to add quotes and links to other sites yet, look to the left in the FAQ to learn how, catch you later. Ryan

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.

McWhite · Jul 15, 2003

Thanks 4ryan6 and CodeSmith for all your help. I really appreciate how you guys followed through with my problem and didn't just post one reply saying run memtest or something. I haven't been keeping up with technology so most of this stuff is either entirely new to me or I haven't experienced problems like this before.
Again, thanks so much for the help!
McWhite

4Ryan6 · Jul 15, 2003

You're very welcome, Glad to help!

Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.

Many Problems with XP

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