Need a lot of help with Windows installation/custom build - Sealed Game for solution

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Capn Stabby

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Hello,
I'm pretty desperate at this point, so I need CAG's help.
As payment, I offer a factory sealed copy of Street Fighter: Alpha Anthology to the person who gets my stupid computer working.

Here's the situation:

I bought a tested Abit AB9 Pro + E6300 Core 2 Duo combo to go with all the other parts I bought from Newegg listed below:

500W Power supply (gotta look up the brand later, but it's working fine)
2 x 1GB G-Skill DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) ram

I grabbed a 7900GS from woot, and salvaged a hard drive and two dvd drives from my old computer.

I'm trying to install Windows XP Pro and I run across a ton of errors, and I spend hours reading up on people's troubles with Abit's AB9 Pro motherboard. Apparently you need to install a whole bunch of drivers off provided floppies for Windows to work.

I got that going, but I kept coming across BSODs, such as the 0x7A, 0x7B error, and the worst came during the final stages of Windows installation (I was 20 minutes away) - the IRQL not less or equal to error. 0x24A, or something like that.

After trying multiple methods of loading the drivers on (sometimes the floppies didn't read, so I needed to restart the entire setup), I come across Nlite, which allows me to preload those drivers onto a Windows setup disc. Even using that, Windows had a problem loading those drivers, so I was forced to skip them. BSODs appear again.

So finally, I give up and run memtest to try and figure out if it's a RAM problem.
I get 120,000 errors and the test just stops. I guess it gave up on me.
I ran both sticks, and both failed all the tests.
I'm mildly happy because I figure, it's just my RAM failing but I later read online that a failed memtest doesn't always mean the RAM is screwy, but could be something else and it'd be impossible to tell with memtest.

So, I'm going to RMA the RAM, but does anyone have any idea what's going on?
 
The RAM is actually what I was thinking before I got to the end of your story. Those problems certainly sound like issues that occur with bad RAM, anyway. Like everyone else has said, the best solution would be to test in another machine if possible, and if not try one stick at a time.
 
Try taking the RAM out of the board and reinserting it. I had something similar happen to me with this computer, turns out the RAM wasn't fully slotted or something... Does your BIOS recognize all of your RAM (should say XXX memory on startup or in the BIOS menu)?

I don't *think* you'd need any drivers to install XP itself. If you're HD is SATA you might need to setup drivers for that but XP should ask you to press a certain key when you install to do that (no outside software needed, IIRC). Also, I'd make sure to reformat the drive before installing XP on it, if you didn't already do that.

You might try burning a cd version of Linux that can be run off of a cd. Here's one I've heard good things about (http://www.gnoppix.org/index.html?direction=/downloads). If that works for you it might be a driver problem or a bad XP cd.

Hope things work out for ya :(
GF
 
[quote name='gaelan']do you have another machine to test the ram? one stick at a time preferrably.[/quote]

No, my old machine takes the old school PC 3200 RAM. :(
I ran memtest on both sticks at once, got 120k+ errors, ran one stick for 11k errors, and ran another one for about the same amount before I stopped the test. I switched it around and it didn't help either. I was running in dual channel mode.

[quote name='gamefreak']
I don't *think* you'd need any drivers to install XP itself. If you're HD is SATA you might need to setup drivers for that but XP should ask you to press a certain key when you install to do that (no outside software needed, IIRC). Also, I'd make sure to reformat the drive before installing XP on it, if you didn't already do that.
[/quote]

Yeah, the Abit AB9 series motherboards were being jerks about Windows installation. They didn't even tell you in the documentation that you need the floppies, but everyone on the forums and tech support say you do.
I'm going to RMA the RAM and hope I didn't break the motherboard or something.

Updates when I get the RAM. Thanks a lot, and once I get it working, I'll put the game out there.

Vince
 
You only need to use the floppies if you are using the RAID mode of the southbridge controller. Turn off all the RAID options in the BIOS and your need for a floppy during install will disappear.
 
make sure you have no peripherals plugged into the usb ports . try to use keyboard,monitor, and main system

that was my problem installing windows anyways, i had a printer and other stuff connected via usb and it screwed up the windows installation
 
ok... considering i just went through this.... the irql error is memory based, BUT, it can be ram, hd cache, motherboard cache, or processor cache. i had this problem on a laptop and after new memory, new hd, and a new processor, hp is replacing the motherboard to see if that's the issue. most of the time it is the ram, but not always.

here is the link from the msdn database that explains this error (as well as many other bsod errors and causes)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d..._92ed1f1a-43b9-453a-af0c-06260d719a7d.xml.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d..._f55acfed-3296-4e84-8885-c3162fd0ddbf.xml.asp

also, it could be the ram slots themselves....
 
you have the latest bios revison for that mobo corrert? And it is unlikey it is an IRQ error because most comps are plug and play these days..
 
When I get my new RAM, I'll try turning off the RAID like FriedSpam said, and hopefully that'll ease things along.

The only thing I have in the USB Slots is that external floppy drive.

I sure hope it's not the RAM slots htemselves, I woulda figured the company that put together the Computer + Mobo tested it. Hopefully they did.

Yeah, I have the latest BIOS.

thanks for the help! Hopefully I'll get the RAM soon.
 
I'd try to get new ram first off.

Secondly is the HDD SATA? I was having a bunch of problems because of that when I was trying to get XP Pro up on a new computer a few days ago. I had a Gigabyte mobo and all the documentation assured me I needed to load SATA drivers from a floppy, I was also using a copy of XP Pro without SP2, everything seemed to install fine but I kept getting BSOD's usually Unmountable_boot_volume errors.

I solved my problem by getting a copy of XP Pro with SP2 and NOT loading SATA drivers from the floppy, windows picked up my HDD just fine and booted right up after the install.
 
[quote name='jimbodan']I'd try to get new ram first off.

Secondly is the HDD SATA? I was having a bunch of problems because of that when I was trying to get XP Pro up on a new computer a few days ago. I had a Gigabyte mobo and all the documentation assured me I needed to load SATA drivers from a floppy, I was also using a copy of XP Pro without SP2, everything seemed to install fine but I kept getting BSOD's usually Unmountable_boot_volume errors.

I solved my problem by getting a copy of XP Pro with SP2 and NOT loading SATA drivers from the floppy, windows picked up my HDD just fine and booted right up after the install.[/quote]

Yeah, the hard drive is SATA and I'm trying to load XP Pro with SP2.
Hmmm, I wish the documentation mentioned something about the floppies. They say absolutely nothing about em.
Well, I gotta ship the RAM back on Monday and we'll see what happens.
 
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