Q: A friend helped me to build my PC. He finally Windows XP is installed and that was a drag (see the “Need Help build the first PC” thread posted by me to see what Im talking about) and here is the thing. He was installing Windows on the desktop and I was tryin to get some stuff when it was just froze up install. So I restarted and same thing happened after about 5 minutes of that on the desktop. So I went to try reinstalling Windows. So I put the CD-ROM to boot into windows to install. It checked the HD and said it needed to restart and then the monitor never came on again. So the next time I just went to the windows already installed repair and hung up 27%. Im not quite sure what to do . I was thinking about changing the tension as one guy said in another thread. PLEASE hit me back with some suggestions. Here are my parts
DFI Lanparty Nf4 Ultra-D Athlon64 3200 + Socket 939
AMD
Twin MOS dual-channel DDR PC-3200 512×2
Rosewill Radeon PCI Express x800xl
ViewSonic 17-inch LCD monitor 8ms
LiteOn CDRW combo drive Screen + DVD-ROM
Powersupply . 160GB 7200rpm SATA 530W Frtrn
HD WD
Windows XP Professional
Best Answer: The key to troubleshooting is narrow down the possibilty space of things that could be going wrong. So unplug everything that you don't absolutely need to start the computer. So – take out most of the memory except for what you need. Unplug all of the hard-drives and dvd-roms from the motherboard.
Then one by one plug it all back in until you have a problem. Then you know whats causing the problem.
Also, most motherboards will give you an audible error code telling you why they aren't starting properly. You have to have the motherboard connected to your pc speaker for this to work.
Good luck!
Re:ha, alright…thanks for all your help
Re:i hear you. its too bad he doesn't have an extra storage he could back up and let you try. good luck, see ya in a day or 2
Re:The thing is i just wanna know if the hard drive is THE problem and not just one of the problems…i really hope other hardware isnt gonna turn out to be messed up and just make more hassle. I guess that's where an extra hard drive could help out…but i dunno. We'll see how it works out.
Re:thats too bad man. let us know how it works out. it does make sense as the increased volts got rid of your "IRQ not less…" error and allowed your install even if it didn't hold.
Re:yeah i did have bad sectors…so i guess im just gonna replace it.
dont think he has one we can just swap in
Re:didn't you say you had bad sectors before? i agree with pr0digy at this point. you friend have an extra you can swap in and check?
Re:you think it could be the RAM not getting enough voltage that's making it lock up? cuz i think it is prolly the HD from what the prodigy guy said
Re:Is the Twinmos UTT?
I'd give it 2.8V.
Try 2.9, and 3.0V if that fails.
You can push up to 3.4V and still be safe.
Re:alright guy…I'm just gonna take your advice and send the dang thing back for a new one. it froze on a long format so im pretty much fed up with it (it had never done that before) I'm guessing it's pretty much fried. oh well…just the way it goes sometimes i guess…thanks for all your help anyway guys.
Re:hmmm…that sucks…the hard drive had windows xp installed on it…but then it kept freezing on desktop so i thought i'd try reinstalling. so why wouldnt it accept it again?
the hard drive definitely wasent DOA at first because it had it installed…but i don't know what's going on now
Re:Sounds like a bad hard drive. My Windows install was hanging too, especially in the format portion, and I found out my Raptor was DOA. You might want to setup an advance RMA for the drive.
Re:dont mean to sound cocky or rude…i just dont understand why you guys think it is warez
oh yeah…just ran the long format…it did it and now it's copying the dlls and stuff…but it might have just hung on 57%…
Re:How can it be warez I bought it from newegg…it's legit…Ive installed it before
last time i checked they dont sell pirated software… could I be wrong??
Re:ten dollars its warez'ed……sticking is a classic sign of it….
Re:When i did the long format it got to 100% and then just stayed there for like 15 minutes….about an hour and a half of format and it sticks on 100%…what the heck is with this thing?
I'm gonna try formatting again….*sigh*
Re:how'd the format turn out? still errors in chkdsk?
Re:if that means that i stole it or something….then no…it's perfectly legal bought from newegg….
I also did a chkdsk and it found that the HD had one or more unrecoverable problems….i dont know if this means it's messed up completely or what…I'm running a full format on it (not quick)…any ideas are helpful
Re:i hope your winxp is not "warez"…?
Re:sure hope someone hits me with some info…:-D
Re:well i changed the voltages to what you guys said and at least the monitor comes back on when i reboot ha. but now when it gets to the part where it's going to install stuff to prepare it to install XP it hangs at 11% (driver.cab) everytime. so….any suggestions on this?
Re:With the DFI thre seems to be a lot of problems with memory and voltages. You MIGHT have to up the volts for that board
Re:just go with everything stock, and only plug in one stick of RAM, an optical drive, hard drive, and maybe plug in some old PCI video card in it and see if you can install stuff for now. check jumpers, check power connections, etc etc
Re:Alright, I'll try these things and post later tonight…I gotta work all day
Re:Set the memory voltage to 2.8 volts too. edit: yeah, or try 2.7 to start with if you want.
Re:i'll say it again. add some volts to this thing. your board is undervolting anyway, at least give it the 1.4v it needs.
last i saw, your friend said the core is reading 1.38 in bios. i'm not talking 1.6v or anything. set in genies this voltage
vid-1.35
special-110%
ldt 1.2 (the lowest)
chip 1.5 (the lowest)
dram 2.7 minimum. it would be fine with as much as 2.9 but you probably don't need that.
the post i linked you to at dfi.street has been used by many people in your shoes. thats from a dfi tech who wrote that. you need to give it proper volts and those are perfectly safe. the vid and the special should give you a reading of about 1.45 core in bios.
i'm not trying to give you something that will fry your board or chip i'm just telling you my experience. if you want to be ultra careful, just set it to vid 1.4 and special 104% which should give you around 1.42 but from the problems you've been having in your shoes i'd just as soon get the rig running and then back off the volts.
heres a voltage table,
http://www.angrygames.com/AMD_CPU/AMD_64/AMD_64.htm
edit=btw i'm not sure this is the entire problem but you need to give it a fighting chance 
Re:dram-2.60
yes all 4 are plugged in
I tried it again and it got to 42 and locked up…
Re:Whatever you do don't mess with the voltages. I have never had to adjust voltages in all the years of building computers. If it doesn't run stock something is wrong.
Sure looks like an overheating problem. Did you ever run memtest? It boots and runs off a floppy or CD, so no OS or hd is required.
edit: I haven't yet worked with a DFI LanParty nF4 Ultra-D, so do what guy suggests too.
Re:Could you edit your post to include what memory voltage you're using? And you have all four power cables hooked up, right? 24-pin, 4-pin ATX12V, 4-pin HDD-style, 4-pin floppy-style?
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