Viewing Thread:
"A (Big) Problem"

Right-o.

Just finished (yesterday) my most recent build.

Specs:

3.2Ghz P4
ABIT IC7-G
2x 256MB RAM (1x 2700; 1x 3200)
1x 512MB RAM (2700)
Connect 3D ATi Radeon 9600XT
Creative Live! 5.1
Hitachi Deskstar 120GB HDD (IDE)
SAMSUNG CD-RW (IDE)
SONY CD-R / DVD (IDE)

Cooling: 2x Case Fan (1x Exhaust, 1x Intake); 1x CoolerMaster Aero4 Lite

And I boot up, having cleared the CMOS, and boot up via the Windows XP (SP1) CD.

Then, I formated the HDD, and re-installed Windows XP - a completely clean install.

Now, after the restart in the middle of the Windows XP install, the BIOS hangs at "Verifying DMI Pool Data..........". About 7 minutes later, the screen goes blank. A couple after that, a white "loading bar" appears, and takes aaaaggggeeeessss.

About 20 minutes later it gets into the second half of the install, and that all goes swimmingly.

It finishes and restarts again. Same problem.

Now, it's all fine once it loads into Windows, but man, 20 minutes? Surely something is wrong?

Is it the HDD?

Mind, BootVis etc wouldn't be any help, seeing as it happened from a clean install....

Tried all the sticks of RAM in seperate install and boots.

No luck.

Argh, and now I'm back to the laptop having re-formated the HDD...

Would a new S-ATA HDD fix it? I was thinking of buying one at some point anyway, just now would mean a cheaper one (£30-50), rather than an £80 or so HDD...

Yeah because of mixed RAM types you are going to need to run the RAM at PC2700 aka DDR 333 speeds. That translates to a front side bus speed of 166 MHz normally. However, your CPU runs at a 16 mutiplier, so if you set the FSB to 166 MHz, instead of the 200 MHz it would normally be with that processor, then you end up running at 2.65 GHz instead of the rated 3.2 GHz. With me?

So to get the CPU to run at normal speeds, you will have to run the system using a divider. A 6/5 divider if you have one, so that the RAM runs to spec at 166 MHz with the CPU frequency being 166 * 6/5 * 16 multiplier.

Ah, ok, I'll give it a go...

Cheers for ansering, by the way...

Coin - I think it might have something to do with the way you have mixed diffrent types of RAM, the prescott is designed to go with the PC3200 type. Try removing the PC2700 sticks and only use the PC3200 stick, disable dual channel mode.

Didn't quite work...

Mmmk, thanks.

Coin wrote:
> Wait - so just the install without a stick of RAM?
>
> So, like, I can add the RAM back in after?
>
> Aaaah.... Afraid to get excited, just to have my hopes and dreams
> dashed against the searingly heat of my Prescott...

Something like that, just give it a try.

Wait - so just the install without a stick of RAM?

So, like, I can add the RAM back in after?

Aaaah.... Afraid to get excited, just to have my hopes and dreams dashed against the searingly heat of my Prescott...

Just try and install windows with one of your sticks of RAM in. I had a similiar problem once and I took a stick of ram out and installed windows, worked fine.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm

Go through those solutions one by one.
Extraordinarily long boot times are sometimes a symptom of windows taking an age to identify hardware (either because the hardware is damaged or what windows finds doesn't match what the bios claims to be there).

I take it after you cleared the CMOS you went back into it and set it up again before installing windows? :)