HELP - New system won't boot at all now!!

[JimmyBoy]

update that psu when u next get the chance

[bravestar]

Is the PSU not particularly stable or just underpowered? Any recomendations?

JimmyBoy, how far have you managed to push your CPU without any problems?

[bravestar]

Have just had a call form the supplier of my SATA drive, it has been tested and found ok?!?!?

Since the SATA drive I have just sent back wouldn't boot at all, but an old IDE one will... is it possible that there is a problem with the SATA connectors on my MSI MB??

[Purple]

it is a problem with the XP installation not with the HD the clue is in the error NTFS.sys

boot from your old hard drive with the new hard drive attached as slave - format the new hard drive. remove the old hard drive and boot from windows CD, install windows on to the new hard drive.
you OCing capers would not have broken anything - the crash would have corrupted the NTFS driver as it was booting or something

[iranu]

Purple has the answer!!

[bravestar]

Nicely done Purple!!! Problem all sorted and back up and running XP - just got to do all the updates again now... cheers.

Any ideas how far my OCing capers will get me on a standard heatsink & fan?? Is 2.6Ghz pushing the boat out too far for consistant stable running?? (CPU is a XP3500 Winchester).

[Purple]

no problem mate, the winchester should OC nicely - it really does depend on your specific processor - i have been getting the impression that week 42s are really good, you can get this from the code on the top of the processor. just keep trying higher settings like you did before - i think that the ntfs corruption was a really freak occurence.

dont forget if it is unstable at a particular frequency you must turn up the voltage incrementally little by little until it is stable. every time you turn the voltage up you take a month off your processors life, just like smoking i think your max should be 2.55volts with standard cooling bfore you start makeing glass bowls from your die. keep an eye on the temperature at full load each time you increase the voltage. and set the auto power off in the bios if the temp goes over 70 - 80 degrees, it may save your processors life.

OCing is risky, i wouldnt do it until you start having to turn options down on games. The last thing i overclocked was a K6-2 400

[Rave]

dont forget if it is unstable at a particular frequency you must turn up the voltage incrementally little by little until it is stable.

Well, if it's the CPU causing the instability that is.

every time you turn the voltage up you take a month off your processors life, just like smoking

This is debatable. In any case, with moderate voltage increases you're probably shortening the processor's life from say 20 years down to 10. Big deal.

i think your max should be 2.55volts with standard cooling bfore you start makeing glass bowls from your die.

I think you mean 1.55V.

OCing is risky, i wouldnt do it until you start having to turn options down on games. The last thing i overclocked was a K6-2 400

Despite my best efforts, I've never killed anything through OCing. I personally do it because I run FAD 24/7 and also use DVD Shrink, so the more processor speed I have, the faster things get done. For people who don't needs lots of power though, I recommend using OCing skillz to undervolt the processor, you can often run processors well under spec if you're not OCing (or not OCing much). This keeps things cooler and reduces power consumption (and hence saves money).

Rich :¬)

[Purple]

yes sorry 1.55, i have no idea exactly what measurement the CPU lifespan is reduced i was just informing incase he was unawares. I thought the instability will be the processor beacuse IIRC the K8N FSB runs indepenently from the RAM and pci bus?

[mystxx]

Hi! Didn't wanna post a new thread but just to continue bravestar's post. I'm having the exact problem as he did but seems mine is more complicated. (MBO is Abit NF7-S, will flash bios as soon as I get my hands to windows). I have also WinXP installed and the "ntfs.sys" error. I have tried to do what Purple said but I can't load the SATA disk as a slave. In other words, if I connect first (IDE-Master on IDE1) disk and second (SATA-corrupt) disk and wanna install windows from CD, I get the "ntfs.sys" error again (When I press Enter to continue).What to do? Hope some1 could help!
Thanx

[Spritzup]

You must format your SATA drive first. To do this, once your in windows (by using your IDE drive) you go to 'My Computer' and right click on your SATA drive and select 'format'. Don't do a quick format, let it scan for bad sectors. Once this is done, unlpug your IDE drive, put in your XP cd and give it a go. You should be able to install windows now.

[mystxx]

Thanx Spritzup!

[switchmode]

I have just built a new system with MSI K8N Neo Plat, A64 3200 and when I plug my router in to the realtek lan port the machine randomly re boots, sometimes gets to winxp sometimes not i just use the nvidia lan instead all ok then, realtek are a bit flakey some say. you could disable the realtek in the BIOS as a possibility, I,m no expert this is what happened to me not sure if this is common or a one off, had me pulling hair for a while till I tried the nvidia lan port.