Q: Long time reader, first time poster .
Ok, simple set-up.
ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 MB
Athlon 1964 3500 977 503 Corsair Value Ram DDR400 2.5
Seagate 300GB drive via an IDE master on 1
Writemaster DVD-RW drive as master on IDE 2 (w / brand new IDE cable ) 977 503 (tried as slave on IDE-1)
GeForce ti4200 (remember those?;))
Fresh installation of XP SP2. Goes as planned, but on re-boot hangs midboot until the CD (even if nothings in there). Start-up as planned. Once it starts, no luck trying to get the CD drive, it just hangs the machine (“not responding” from Explorer) and it is done.
No overclocking, almost everything here is new. Nothing connected with the exception of the KB, mouse, and monitor.
So, any idea what is goin on? It must be something simple, but it makes me insane.
Thanks,
Tom
Best Answer: You might want to try running some benchmarks and tests. The best tool for a system with no OS would be the UBCD.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
Test the RAM, test the HDD (full test with appropriate HDD test, the IBM test works on all HDDs)… and anything else you might think could cause it.
Perhaps try installing with minimal hardware.. like only one stick of RAM and use on board video.
That's the most advice I can give with the information you've given. Well maybe not, but if the above advice doesn't help, give the benchmark test results here.
Re:Appears to be a bad drive. Dropped in a spare DVD-RW and all is well. Strange though that it worked for the install, but not once it was complete – repeatedly.
-Tom
Re:About to, but strange that it would work fine for the install (several times) and then not work once the install of XP SP2 is complete. Argh!
Thanks,
Tom
Re:U tried a spare drive?
Re:Yeah, tried those. It's something with the IDE on this board, with, no just the HD attached, and using a USB CD-RW all's well, just not very practical.
Thanks,
Tom
Re:I know you probably tried all these, but check page 23 here (http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/200407/20040712093452453_TS-H542A_E-User.pdf)
Re:The DVD-RW drive is a Samsung Writemaster TS-H542. It loaded fine on install, but hangs the boot and then, if you eject the CD tray, it completes the boot, but once you try to use the optical drive, bingo, dead.
Reading reems of posts about this board right now, hopefully I'll find the answer hidden somewhere in there.
Thanks,
Tom
Re:If it was reading the drive during the install fine then the issue might be software. What make and model is it?
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