strange install problems with both xp and vista

<TommyG> · 17 Apr 2008 at 15:56

Hi guys, up untill a few days ago my pc had been running vista 64bit nice a smooth, but i wanted to go back to xp 64bit, so after my new hard drive came from ocuk 3/4 days ago. the idea was to format my other drive which had vista on it and run xp off the new drive and just use the second for storage.

So i followed the install as usual let it create its partition on the new drive and then begin installing, Then it reboots as it should BUT when it boots up again it got stuck at the motherboard/bios screen. so i shut down and reset the cmos to see what happen. it would boot past the bios and start to load up as normal.

But this continued every time ! i would have to reset cmos in order to get past bios screen. so becuase i obviously dont want that happening i reinstalled xp. this time i would again get stuck at the bios screen but after reseting cmos, blank screen.

So after getting ****** off i tried reinstalling vista, but after installing vista it would again reboot as normal, get stuck at the bios screen, of which i would then reset cmos and it then came up with windows was unexpectedly restarted, please restart your machine and start installation again.

My system is less than a year old and the new hard drive i bought was from ocuk, its an hitachi dekstar.

Here is my system spec:

Q6600 2.4ghz
Abit Fatal1ty SLI mobo
4x 1GB sticks of OCZ 6400 800mhz Ram
8800 GTS 320mb
Western Digital Caviar 250GB
Hitachi dekstar 160GB

i have tried several things to try and over come this problem:

unplugging both HDD'S
swapping SATA cable order
installing to different hard disk while the other is unpluged

i did read that it could be my mobo's cmos battery ?? could this be ??

please help

Cheers guys

JonBev33 · 17 Apr 2008 at 16:33

Looks like your BIOS in its default setting is causing the problem. You ahave done the right thing by stripping the system to basic components to operate - one HDD and minimal RAM etc

I would also check your BIOS RAM voltages to make sure they match the figures stamped on the sticks.

MAllen · 17 Apr 2008 at 17:03

When you reset the CMOS - did you go into the BIOS and "Load Defaults"?

<TommyG> · 17 Apr 2008 at 22:55

I did not go into bios and set defaults no ? Should I? I spoke with a friend today and I held a LAN party at my house. There were 6 of us, would the fact that we hooked up all r pcs to a shared network have put r pcs at threat and maybe caused this problem? Because my friend has just told me he is having very similar issues !

MAllen · 18 Apr 2008 at 10:53

If you reset the CMOS, it would have been a good idea to go into the BIOS and set to defaults.

The problem would not of been caused by the LAN. If your PCs were all connected, then it would have had to be a bizzare viurs indeed to do what you are seeing. Viruses don't like to kill PCs - they need they running so they can send out Spam, etc.

If you didn't set the BIOS back to defaults after resetting the CMOS, does that mean you havn't checked JonBev33's comment about the RAM timings?

You say "get stuck at the BIOS screen" - which part? Does it get to the point of attempting to boot from your hard drive? Is the BIOS set to boot from your hard disk correctly? Or is it getting stuck earlier - i.e. when checking the hard disk or memory?

Have you made sure your hard disk is set to Master if an old IDE PATA.

etc...

<TommyG> · 18 Apr 2008 at 12:22

Tried what you said about setting to defaults didn't help

Didn't think it would have any thing to do wit the LAN but me mate got me finkin LOL

As for where it gets stuck its the point of when u turn the pc on and the motherboards screen pops up I.e mine is all red says abit in the top left and says fatal1ty in the middle.

Iv tried the hard disk order and the ram voltages there fine. My hard drive r both sata so the rules out the IDE question.