NF&-S v2: Blue screen after reinstalling Windows, HELP!!

[M C STORM]

Hi all,
My PC was running fine for about 12 months, overclocked nicely too.

About 3 months ago it started randomly rebooting itself, no real pattern, temps were good but I downclocked it anyway, no difference so yesterday I finally got round to reinstalling Windows.

I'm using an NF7-S V2, Barton 2600+ Mobile, 1gb (2x512mb) Crucial Ballistix and a 120 Maxtor SATA HDD

First problem ... when booting from CD and it asks "press F6 to install sata/raid driver" when I press F6 nothing happens?? I thought it might be the keyboard but I tried another one.
I could sort of get past that as a little later it says something like "no hard disk found if you have an install disk for your hard drive put it in the floppy drive now" so I enter the raid/sata floppy disk (latest version) and it installs it, then it goes through the whole copying windows files etc etc then on the first reboot the Windows XP loading screen flashes up just for a second then I get a blue screen "stop" error.

I have tried this several times.
I have flashed the bios from D26 Black MantraRay back to the latest one form the Abit site.
I have removed everything from the computer including the processor and rebuilt it just with essentials.
I have tried the memory in different slots and tried only using one stick at a time.

No idea what to do next, it could be the memory, hard disk or the motherboard, dont have the money or the means to test them all.

HELPPPPP??!! :bang:

[Spud1]

I have had this problem before Last time it turned out to be the drivers I was using.

make 100% sure they are for your specific chipset first of all, and if you are sure that they are then try the versions for different OS's. That is, I assume you are trying the XP ones, but try the 2k ones too, or the win2003 ones. For me I have always had better luck with win2003 drivers than XP ones..no idea why but it seems to work

[just_laze]

The point where he's receiving Blue-Screens suggests he hasn't even got around to installing the chipset drivers.

As for using drivers designed for one operating system on another, i'd strongly advise against it.

laze.

[Max Tractor]

The only way to trouble shoot this is with other kit, although you can test the memory with memtest, and you can use powermax from the maxtor site to test your HD. I would also check the NB fan, these are notorious on the nf7 for craping out

[M C STORM]

Not the northbridge as I have an aftermarket cooler on there.

I guess I'll try Powermax, but dont I need to low level format the drive with that first? I really dont want to lose all the stuff that is on there!

Memory should be fine, its Crucial Ballistix that ive been running at 200fsb with not much voltage for ages when its rated to run at nearer 250

[just_laze]

PowerMax will allow you to run an advanced test without formatting the drive, definitely run memtest86, a good CD full of utilities for attacking hardware problems can be found here.

laze.

[BUFF]

the SATA RAID BIOS & SATA driver tend to have to be "matched".
If you have the latest Abit BIOS it will have a later SATA BIOS (it's integrated into the main BIOS) so you need to use the drivers for that not the original Abit driver floppy.

btw what parameters are on the BSOD?

[M C STORM]

Ok, ran PowerMax ... its not the hard disk.

The BSOD goes on about some crap like IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO whatever the hell that means, google seems to indicate something to do with memory but that could be the board making the memory malfunction or the memory itself.

[M C STORM]

Have run Memtest on both sticks seperately and I'm almost 100% convinced now that its the memory, my Ballistix has died on me!

Anyone ever had any experience of Crucial's warranty process?

[just_laze]

Crucial aren't particularly enthusiastic about taking memory back, at least not in my experience but if you mention you've ran the memory at the stated voltage and timings as outlined in the specification and memtest86 has produced errors i'm sure they'll gladly take it back and replace it for you.