DESPERATE! ASUS Barebones problems!

[Jay]

i think its a memory issue but its best to turn everything off you don't need. RAID, Firewire etc. Install windows and then turn these things back on when you need them.

[dbh]

Philip or who ever else can at Scan could you please ask your system builders how they setup those machines as the parts are basically identical except Im only using one DDR2 stick and its a Western Digital HDD.

I seriously don't understand why this thing should be giving so much problems really annoying me now

[Agent]

Doesn't DDR2 require 2 sticks of RAM?

Where do people get this idea from ?
No, you dont.
2 sticks has not been needed since SIMM days.

[dbh]

Update:

I've flashed the motherboards bios from the 305 version to the latest 504 version. I installed xp again and it rebooted to do 2nd stage then I got a "error loading operating system" message. Googled that, found out changing SATA drive access mode from "Auto" to "Large" helps. So reinstalled again got past that error loading operating system message...

XP Load screen appears but now it sits there on that loading screen continiously and there is no HDD activity.

[Jay]

is this a faulty HDD then?

You have disabled firewire... I had problems with many ASUS Boards and firewire while installing XP. Disabled it, installed XP, rebooted, enabled it and reboted again and bingo windows installed and firewire back up and working.

[dbh]

I'll give that ago Jay. Thanks for the tip.

Any news from the Scan side of things the system builders, im interested to hear their side of things as Scan itself uses those same components to make a 3XS am2 machine with just 1 sata HDD...

[Gibbo]

Where do people get this idea from ?
No, you dont.
2 sticks has not been needed since SIMM days.

I'm sorry - it must be that in dual channel mode it needs 2 sticks of RAM...at least it says so in my mobo manual. [Asus P5LD2]

If it's not in dual channel mode it's not really DDR2 is it?

[kalniel]

If it's not in dual channel mode it's not really DDR2 is it?

Of course is it

It's still double data rate with a single stick.

[Jay]

Dual Channel is really just a bench mark tool, in the real world it does nothing for performace.

[Gibbo]

OK

I'll go hide under my stone again, then.

[dbh]

I think this HDD is the culprit for sure. I formatted it after having it hang after the windows screen (see previous update post) and now after I do the quick format NTFS and it begins to copy the files to the HDD it locks up and hangs on driver.cab without fail.

I think its time to just order a bloody IDE HDD and RMA this.

[amjedm]

I think this HDD is the culprit for sure. I formatted it after having it hang after the windows screen (see previous update post) and now after I do the quick format NTFS and it begins to copy the files to the HDD it locks up and hangs on driver.cab without fail.

I think its time to just order a bloody IDE HDD and RMA this.

I did have similar errors with the faulty RAM module. It would crash when copying files during install.

Can't you run WD disk tools (don't know what it's called) program to check if the HD is faulty?

[dbh]

Well it was copying files continously all of today to the HDD fine and now all of a sudden its not working so Im guessing the drive is the cause.

[Jay]

just ask a friend to format it in their system and then use the WD Disk tool on it, that will tell you.

I had a dodgy WD drive once but it had a major problem.... the old "click, spin, click, spin"

[dbh]

Ok i just did another test I chose my external USB HDD as the install drive and it copied over fine but then i got the original 0x000007B error.

I really need to get this machine built by monday so you guys reckon its the RAM and HDD, I really don't have time to faff about figuring out whats what now.

Just want to go with what works.

Can you guys help me find some proper compatible ram for this mobo then please?

M2NPV-VM

I think i will send back the HDD and RAM stick.

EDIT: Just ran WD Tools with quick test and it fails 9 seconds into it with error code 0003 ?? wtf lol

EDIT2: Ok tried to do a Low level format on the thing and got error 0132... googled that and it says the drive is bad. grr.

[Danishwonder]

New hdd then m8
sorry to her all the touble you had
but get a new hdd and yuo should be fine and still ready for monday
god luck