New Install, Slow Boot, Explorer Crash!

[Guest thepurplecrayon]

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread but I really dont know what the problem is to figure where to out it!

Ok so my boyfriend and I have been building our own PCs for a few years now and we're pretty experienced at fixing our own problems but this one has got us worried...

 

Had a perfectly working PC but with 4 Gb of Ram we wanted to install the 64bit version of vista instead of the 32bit like we were using (Windows incompatibility issues) so we decided to upgrade our pc while we were doing this. We upgraded the Motherboad and PSU and added a (clean) HDD we had lying around. Install went smoothly until the restart came...

 

PROBLEM:

It freezes at the 'detecting IDE drives' right after it idenifies the CPU and RAM, this can last two minutes. Then when the windows loading screen appears, the screen goes blank for between 5-10 minutes before explorer even appears and continues loading VERY very slowly. After which the computer is either incredibly slow or crashes.

 

To rectify this we sent back our motherboard thinking it was a problem with that. We set it up with the new motherboard and the slow bios thing still happened. We unplugged the IDE drives from the board which seemed to fix the problem. Sorted out the master/slave settings plugged them in again and that seemed to do the trick for about 5 hours...

Then..

Out of the blue it started again after a restart w/ the whole slow explorer thing too. (we were installing drivers etc for the last 5 hours with no problem)

 

What we're stuck with is the fact that it can't be a software issue as it happened with a clean HDD with a fresh install. And there's not one hardware problem that I can think of that would cause this aside from, motherboard (which we've changed) and HDD (we've unplugged all but the boot one)

 

PLEASE HELP!!!

[Seth]

Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Crayon.

 

Vista is precarious enough in 32 bit, let alone 64.

 

As a test, try installing XP or 32 bit Vista.

[Tony D]

Sounds like the hard drive to me. If you have another hard drive, try it.

 

You can also run chkdsk /r on the HD that you're usning now.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

"Windows incompatibility issues", with what?

[Guest thepurplecrayon]

@ Seth

 

Thanks mate and thank you for replying so fast.

We will try to install XP or 32bit but i'd rather do it as a last resort.

 

@ Kelly

 

Thank you we're trying that now.

 

@ Wolfeymole

 

Microsoft have admitted that inll their 32bit OSs they dont support 4Gb of RAM which is why in SP1 of Vista x86 they have brought out a patch to effectively hide the fact that it will only acknowledge 3Gb. This is why we decided to go with the 64 bit Vista which supports up to 16Gb or somethin of Ram.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I might be wrong but Microsoft appears to disagree with your last statement.

 

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed

 

It will support it but you just don't see it all unless you have 64 bit.

[Guest thepurplecrayon]

That basically means that it will show the 4Gb (or more) but can't actaully USE it. I've done the System Information thing and seen for myself. 32bit OS just cannot use that much RAM. If you read carefully thats what Microsoft are basically saying. They brought out the patch in SP1 to make it look like you have 4Gb but the computer itself wont actually use it. Refer to PCFormat 217.

Anyways this isnt an issue anymore cos 64bit Vista is compatible with up to 16Gb of RAM.

[Seth]

Thanks mate and thank you for replying so fast.

We will try to install XP or 32bit but i'd rather do it as a last resort.

 

It won't take too long and will provide a definitive answer as to whether you have a software or hardware problem.

[Guest thepurplecrayon]

@ Seth

 

We just tried loading with a different HDD and the exact same thing happened so we reckon its hardware.

In fact we're thinking RAM now but its p1ssed me off cos we bought a motherboard that is specifically compatable with our RAM (ATI Crossfire) and this really shouldnt be happening.

Trying clearing the CMOS now and unplugged pretty much everything except one HDD that we know works and 1 stick of RAM (1Gb).

No idea what other hardware could cause the Bios to go so slow except motherboard and as i said before we actually sent back the other mother we had (totally different make) because we thought it was that!

Argh really starting to panic now!! And hating this old stupid laptop that Im having to use!

[Seth]

If it is hardware, then it's most likely to be the ram or HD. So, good call on addressing such.

 

Have you tried loading a different OS yet?

[Guest thepurplecrayon]

Haven't bothered with putting a new OS on because we ruled out software being the problem as it is starting in the POST screen and just continuing to be **** in Vista. Even with a completely blank HDD in (SATA formatted no OS on not even any data whatsoever) on its own the problem still occurs (although obviously vista doesnt load..)

The RAM we have is automatically 1.8v but it is under warrenty to 2.1v and online is recommended to put up to 2.1v we have tried both ways and it doesnt change anything.

I have a friend coming round soon and he's bringing with him 'memtest' which apparently will tell us if it is the RAM or not. Fingers crossed it is cos DDR2 is quite cheap now so we could probably replace that...if its not then its back to the drawing board...

I'll keep you informed.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Pull all hard drives completely and tell us how long it takes for you to get the "hard drive/operating system not found" error message.

[Dalo Harkin]

Ok there may be a point with the RAM as the RAM that you have bought is meant to be used with an ATI card and not an NVIDIA one - it should still work.

Also as you have 4GB of ram you WILL need to manually set the timings for the RAM in the BIOS and 2.1V seems very high especially for PC6400

PC8500 normally runs at that Voltage.

[Seth]

Are using the same cpu that you used for the original mobo?

 

One other possibility is a psu fault in which the board or cpu isn't getting enough voltage or amperage. If you can, swap out the psu.