Cant load OS onto PC

[joddle]

Hi - I have a dell optiplex 755 which although running OK could do with a clear out - especially as the HD is very noisy and slow and I though a new HD and clean install would help. I have bought a new HD and so loaded it into the drive bay ready to do a clean install with XP Pro SP3.

 

All went well at first - the normal installation found the new drive and so I quick formatted it then it loaded the files to the HD and asked to be restarted to completer the installation. This all seemed to go OK but when it got the stage 3, loading drivers, after a few moments it crashed to a blue screen with:

 

Hardware malfunction -

NMI Parity Check

Memory parity error

 

I have since run several memory tests and Dells own diagnostics in full and no problems were found - however the error reminded me of some problems I had a while back which may give a clue to the problem.

 

If I try to close the PC into sleep mode the same message appears

On just one of my kids games the system crashes after a time with the same message

However all other programames seem to funciton just fine.

If I use my old disk the PC boots up fine and in fact I am using it now.

If I try and install the system again on a new disk I get the memory parity error at exactly the same time.

 

Any help please.

[PseFrank]

Hi Joddle, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help

 

BSOD's (Blue screen of death) are usually connected with hardware faults. Here's a few things to try....

 

Make sure that the case is free from dust and cobwebs etc. Buy a can of compressed air to help blow away the dust. Pay close attention to the Heatsink fins/fan. (Take all the usual precautions when working inside the case)

 

Remove the RAM and gently clean the connections with a soft rubber/eraser before reseating the sticks.

 

If you have more than one stick of RAM. Try installing just a single stick at a time to see if the problem still exists.

 

Remove the video/graphics card and clean the connections before reseating. If you have onboard graphics you can also leave the card out and try those. Or...try a known good graphics card.

 

Disconnect and reconnect all of the main connections to the HDD, CD/DVD drive, PSU (Power supply), etc.

 

Other posters will have more tips/suggestions for you. Please post back to let us know how things go.

[joddle]

Many thanks - I will try that - but my handbook says memory should be in pairs so I don't think I can remove just one stick - or can I ? when I tried that before the fan went mad so I shut the PC down and put it back.

[PseFrank]

How much memory do you have installed?

 

How many memory slots does your motherboard have?

 

It might assist us to know which motherboard you have installed. If you don't know, then use the link below to download Belarc Advisor. Running the advisor will tell you everything you need to know about your computer.

 

Belarc Advisor - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

 

Using Belarc, get your motherboard details and also the details about the ram installed.

 

Print off the Belarc details for reference.

[joddle]

Hi The details of the PC are as below

 

I tried removing one stick of ram but the problem is the same - did not try swapping for the other but someone asked me is the ram the right type? it was what the PC came with but it was 2nd hand.

 

Operating System System Model

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

Install Language: English (United States)

System Locale: English (United States) Dell Inc. OptiPlex 755

System Service Tag: D2BNG3J (support for this PC)

Chassis Serial Number: D2BNG3J

Enclosure Type: Mini-Tower

Processor a Main Circuit Board b

2.33 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo

64 kilobyte primary memory cache

4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache

64-bit ready

Multi-core (2 total)

Not hyper-threaded Board: Dell Inc. 0GM819

Serial Number: ..CN137407BR06T0.

Bus Clock: 1333 megahertz

BIOS: Dell Inc. A17 04/06/2010

Drives Memory Modules c,d

1000.21 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity

787.07 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-H653G [Optical drive]

3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

HITACHI HDS725050KLA360 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n ZAJK1TKF, rev K2AOAB0A, SMART Status: Healthy

MDT MD5000AACS-00D6B0 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 1, s/n MDT-MCAU40586908, rev 01.01A01, SMART Status: Healthy

2014 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM_1' has 1024 MB (serial number EA89A412)

Slot 'DIMM_3' is Empty

Slot 'DIMM_2' has 1024 MB (serial number 1E99A419)

Slot 'DIMM_4' is Empty

Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 500.11 GB 423.64 GB free

e: (NTFS on drive 1) 500.11 GB 363.43 GB free

[PseFrank]

Your computer can take a maximum 8GB of RAM in 4 slots.

 

Type of RAM: DDR2 PC2 5300......or DDR2 PC2 6400.........or DDR2 PC2 8500

 

Have you cleaned inside the case?

[bugsy_]

Ok i understand this is a new drive but i would choose to run a regular format on a volume, as files are removed from the volume that you are formatting and the hard disk is scanned for bad sectors.

 

like i said i know its a new drive but do a regular format and should you get a blue screen again try and get a error code, it should right at the bottom of the blue screen.

 

also just make sure everything is correctly seated drive/memory/graphics, make sure all cables and wires are connected.I know psefrank has covered most of what i said but do a regular format after checking everything psefrank suggested.hope it helps;

 

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

[Dalo Harkin]

According to Belarc there are 2 HDDs installed (2x500GB) - you stating you have removed and replaced one would indicate that the original setup was RAID

 

You need to confirm this, because replacing one half of a RAID array can lead to all sorts of issues

[joddle]

According to Belarc there are 2 HDDs installed (2x500GB) - you stating you have removed and replaced one would indicate that the original setup was RAID

 

You need to confirm this, because replacing one half of a RAID array can lead to all sorts of issues

 

Hi - not sure what this means - The PC came with one drive - and had blue screen problems then whenever I tried to make it "sleep" but as I don't use that facitlity I did not bother too much - perhaps I should have!. Anyway I have since added a second HD to act as a safety net for data - IE I copy important files to the second drive as and when I need.

 

I have tried to replace the original drive - the one with the operating system - but took care first to remove the second hd and close the sata (ie so it was exactly like when I got it) but whatever I do I still get the memory parity error half was through the OS installation - although by old drive still works fine!

[joddle]

Just to add - the blue screen has no numbers anywhere - it is at the top left of the screen and says

 

***Hardware Malfunction

call you hardware vendor for support

NMI parity check /

memory parity error

*** system has halted

 

This is the same message as when ltring to load the OS and also when I put the PC into Sleep mode - also it came up once several times during a game my son was playing - but only on one game

[Dalo Harkin]

This is under the assumption that RAID is being used

 

RAID means that 2 disks are being used as 1 (there are various methods of RAID but these are the 2 mosy commercially used variants)

 

in either mirrored mode (which basically means that everything you install on your C:/ drive gets duplicated onto the second drive incase the system drive ever dies you dont lose data)

striped mode means that you have 2 disks acting as 1 and data is written to each drive sequentially and this improves performance.

 

RAID is normally identified by 2 drives being used that are the same size (belarc lists 2 drives 500GB with seperate serial numbers)

 

Regardless which version of RAID is being used, you WOULD have to rebuild the RAID array in order for it to work.

 

Your manuals would tell you this.

[joddle]

This is under the assumption that RAID is being used

 

RAID means that 2 disks are being used as 1 (there are various methods of RAID but these are the 2 mosy commercially used variants)

 

in either mirrored mode (which basically means that everything you install on your C:/ drive gets duplicated onto the second drive incase the system drive ever dies you dont lose data)

striped mode means that you have 2 disks acting as 1 and data is written to each drive sequentially and this improves performance.

 

RAID is normally identified by 2 drives being used that are the same size (belarc lists 2 drives 500GB with seperate serial numbers)

 

Regardless which version of RAID is being used, you WOULD have to rebuild the RAID array in order for it to work.

 

Your manuals would tell you this.

 

 

As I added my second drive as en entity - ie with its own drive letter I suppose the raid situation is not relevent here

[Dalo Harkin]

So you have one 1TB drive then...

 

I doubt very much that you would get that to run properly on XP, XP for one did not support SATA natively and needed drivers to be loaded at the F6 stage of the OS install.

Also a PC/Laptop old enough to be running XP would not support a 1TB HDD without a BIOS flash

Edited January 6, 2011 by Dalo Harkin

[joddle]

So you have one 1TB drive then...

 

I doubt very much that you would get that to run properly on XP, XP for one did not support SATA natively and needed drivers to be loaded at the F6 stage of the OS install.

Also a PC/Laptop old enough to be running XP would not support a 1TB HDD without a BIOS flash

 

Now you have lost me - I had a 500gb disk c:\ on which is my current OS XP pro SP3 - this is how my machine was bought but I needed additional space for backups so added a second disk which is seen on the system manager as as another 500gb disk but e:\ - The PC only has SATA connections so both disks are SATA as is the DVD/CD

 

It matters not if i have one or two drives installed - I still get the same error when I try and make the system sleep. All I want to do not is use a new HD and do a clean install of XP but it fails with the same error message at stage3 of the install - all the files appear to be copied to the new HD but it is the installation process itself which causes the problem. I did notice however that some of the bios settings are not at the factory set level so over th next day or two I will reset the bios to factory and try again - unless anyone out there says it is not a good idea!

[Dalo Harkin]

Right -

 

Did this computer always have XP its not been downgraded from Vista in the past or anything?

 

Anyone been in the BIOS and playing with anything? if the system will not sleep then this can be caused from the BIOS either not being configured on the ACPI front (XP and Vista work very different hence the earlier question)

 

Ok - so the 1st HDD is for the OS and the 2nd for backups

 

To make it easier for you I would remove the 2nd disk completely, and then start the OS install, you WILL need to manually load SATA drivers at the F6 stage as I said before XP does not natively support SATA - so you need to find these and install them (unless they are slipstreamed onto your OS disk) if it is anything other than a DELL one, you need a floppy drive installed

[joddle]

Right -

 

Did this computer always have XP its not been downgraded from Vista in the past or anything?

 

Anyone been in the BIOS and playing with anything? if the system will not sleep then this can be caused from the BIOS either not being configured on the ACPI front (XP and Vista work very different hence the earlier question)

 

Ok - so the 1st HDD is for the OS and the 2nd for backups

 

To make it easier for you I would remove the 2nd disk completely, and then start the OS install, you WILL need to manually load SATA drivers at the F6 stage as I said before XP does not natively support SATA - so you need to find these and install them (unless they are slipstreamed onto your OS disk) if it is anything other than a DELL one, you need a floppy drive installed

 

Hi - the pc has always been running XP pro - at least all the time I have had it. At this very moment it is running XP as I write. It may have had another system in the past but not that I know of.

 

I am using a Dell os system disk XP pro SP3 to do the reinstall

 

I did as suggested, took out all the old disks put a new one in and then tried an install from the xpSP3 cd disk. It identified a new disk then formated it - it then copied the files to the HD then said it would reboot to continue intallation. It then rebooted and showed the windows screen and then showed a new screen with stages 1 and 2 completed - it would start to install XP saying the process would take 39 mins - but after about 4 mins it blue screened when it was "installing devices" at stage 3. - I never get to stage 6 to install SATA drivers.

 

re the bios - I installed the latest Bios from Dell a while back hoping that would cure the problem but it has made no diffference - I know the bios is not at the "factory" level - should I reset it again before installing? or does somthing need to be set specifically for an XP installation?

 

I do have a floppy drive on the machine but never used it.

[joddle]

Not sure if this is relevant but this particular PC has seems regularly to be engaged in a lot of HD activity even whilst nothing is actually happening - none of my other PCs all running XP and two with 2 disks do this - could it be a symptom of what is wrong or just another unrelated issue? I have virus checked and malware checked the PC several times over and also run all the Dell and MS diagnstics all of which come up with nothing.

[joddle]

At long last have found the problem and been able to deal with it. I tried all the solutions given so now I have a very clean PC with new memory (plus the old now) but it all came down to a faulty piece of Hardware. This came to light whilst using Dell "on line chat" as I realised my service tag still allowed a month for support. The nice lady there took me through many possibilities and then suggested I strip out everything which was not on the machine when it left Dell and she was Able to say exactly what that configuration was and after doing that hey presto - problem gone. I then started to put back the cards one at a time until the fault reappeared - and it was the fire wire card I had installed just after I bought the machine and really had thought of as an original component. Now no problems at all - I can load the OS fine and it sleeps OK and does not crash on my son's favorite game - totally sorted. However the dealings on this thread have prompted me to now consider a full rebuild using a RAID so I have an automatic backup of my data but I am not sure how I go about it. I intend buying another new 500gb hard disk and then starting from there (and removing the old hard disk so I have two brand new ones) Where do I find instructions on how to set up a RAID configuration? and do I need to buy/find new software for this?

[Dalo Harkin]

The issue with setting up RAID is that the drivers need to be installed at the F6 stage of the OS install (especially if an OS is being used on the RAID set)

 

You need to find and buy a PCI sata card unless you have RAID sata ports on the MOBO.

 

You can pick up SATA raid cards on ebay for about £5-10 and you then just wait for the BIOS to load, and the SATA card BIOS will come up and tell you to press some keys (silicon image is F2 or ALT and 2 from memory)

 

You then build the RAID array and then install the OS, making sure that you load the drivers at the F6 stage of the installation process (which HAS to be done via floppy disk)