Hello and thanks for taking a look at this thread....... I have built a number of computer systems, but found a shop in SoCal that would assemble a computer for the same money that I could buy the parts for. They shipped the computer, but it did not show up...... they claim there was an accidental damage with UPS and the package was returned to them. Finally the box shows up and I have had nothing but problems......... If you can give me a clue as to what direction to head I would appreciate it.
Basics
Antec 1040B case/ amd approved 400watt power supply
shuttle AK31A with latest bios revision
AMD XP1700 /Volcano 5 fan
1 Gig Micron DDR 2100 Memory
2 IBM GXP60 Hard Drives
VisionTek GeForce 3 Ti/200
Creative Labs Audigy Sound Card
Creative Labs 52x CD-Rom
Added after arrival....
D-link 10/100 Ethernet Card
Promise FastTrack 100/TX4 Raid card
Plextor 16x CDR/RW
I was very anxious to get this baby up and running after all the good reviews I have read about the XP/Shuttle combo.
The array set up fine, and I could copy files to the array, but if I tried to run Windows98 setup after coping the files to the HD I would get an error that said that the file allocation had to be set to at least 442xxx and terminated the setup. If I tried to run setup from the bootable CD it would start the setup and after a few minutes either freeze or go to a blue screen. After trying a several of different copies of windows (each time I reformatted before attempting an install) with the same results I figured the problem must be the Promise Tech card. So after numerous calls to Promise Tech Support (I think I know them all by their first, middle, and last names)... nothing could get the system to load. I ran a full test from Norton Disk Doctor on the drives and they reported back as perfect.
So I pulled the Promise Card, the network card, and the sound card. I hooked up just one drive to the onboard IDE controller and tried again. Once again exactly the same results. Either the computer would feeze at some random spot during the installation or go to a blue screen. I pulled each one of the ram sticks and tried installing four more times with just one DDR dimm in (changing each time, after re-formatting). I reflashed the BIOS with the latest version from the Shuttle web site. Went into the BIOS and selected "fail-safe defaults" and tried again. This time (all the ram was back in) the OS mostly installed.... one time during the restarting procedure the computer hung, but with a little encouragement it finally completed the install. At least now I was at the normal Welcome to Windows screen Yipeeee. I loaded the Video Drivers, the audigy drivers, the network drivers, and all was well..... sort of. I went back in and selected the Optimized Defaults and restarted. So far so good......... Then as the computer detected a plug and play monitor I set up the monitor. Now to connect to the internet I had to reset the gateway so the network card would find my router. After doing this the computer had to restart of course......... except it would not.
This time the blue windows splash screen had the top 1/3 cut off .... just black.... The start would get to the logon screen, but no matter what you selected at this point you get an "illegal command" message and the computer freezes. So I restart in Safe mode so I can delete the monitor setting in case they were the problem....... I also went back and reset the BIOS to "fail-safe defaults," but to no avail..... The error message said the Kernal32.DLL was bad......... so I extracted a new one and replaced it....... this time Explorer.exe was the cause, so I extracted a new one and replaced it..... no change. In fail-safe mode I reformatted the drive 4 more times, once with each single memory chip in place.... no change... the install either freeze's or goes to a blue screen.
This is the craziest set of results I have ever seen.... My only thought at this point is that there must be some type of a problem with the MotherBoard itself. I have attempted to eliminate and or isolate every other potential problem area. If any of you folks on the forum have seen anything like this and can point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful. I am planning on sending a copy of this to the folks that put the computer together for me and see what they have to say. Supposedly the computer was burned in for 48 hours prior to shipping, but I would sure like to know how they did it!
Thanks again for taking the time to consider such a long tale of woe!
Steve
Ps. Oh yes, I have also changed drive cables about 3 times.....
:Q
Basics
Antec 1040B case/ amd approved 400watt power supply
shuttle AK31A with latest bios revision
AMD XP1700 /Volcano 5 fan
1 Gig Micron DDR 2100 Memory
2 IBM GXP60 Hard Drives
VisionTek GeForce 3 Ti/200
Creative Labs Audigy Sound Card
Creative Labs 52x CD-Rom
Added after arrival....
D-link 10/100 Ethernet Card
Promise FastTrack 100/TX4 Raid card
Plextor 16x CDR/RW
I was very anxious to get this baby up and running after all the good reviews I have read about the XP/Shuttle combo.
The array set up fine, and I could copy files to the array, but if I tried to run Windows98 setup after coping the files to the HD I would get an error that said that the file allocation had to be set to at least 442xxx and terminated the setup. If I tried to run setup from the bootable CD it would start the setup and after a few minutes either freeze or go to a blue screen. After trying a several of different copies of windows (each time I reformatted before attempting an install) with the same results I figured the problem must be the Promise Tech card. So after numerous calls to Promise Tech Support (I think I know them all by their first, middle, and last names)... nothing could get the system to load. I ran a full test from Norton Disk Doctor on the drives and they reported back as perfect.
So I pulled the Promise Card, the network card, and the sound card. I hooked up just one drive to the onboard IDE controller and tried again. Once again exactly the same results. Either the computer would feeze at some random spot during the installation or go to a blue screen. I pulled each one of the ram sticks and tried installing four more times with just one DDR dimm in (changing each time, after re-formatting). I reflashed the BIOS with the latest version from the Shuttle web site. Went into the BIOS and selected "fail-safe defaults" and tried again. This time (all the ram was back in) the OS mostly installed.... one time during the restarting procedure the computer hung, but with a little encouragement it finally completed the install. At least now I was at the normal Welcome to Windows screen Yipeeee. I loaded the Video Drivers, the audigy drivers, the network drivers, and all was well..... sort of. I went back in and selected the Optimized Defaults and restarted. So far so good......... Then as the computer detected a plug and play monitor I set up the monitor. Now to connect to the internet I had to reset the gateway so the network card would find my router. After doing this the computer had to restart of course......... except it would not.
This time the blue windows splash screen had the top 1/3 cut off .... just black.... The start would get to the logon screen, but no matter what you selected at this point you get an "illegal command" message and the computer freezes. So I restart in Safe mode so I can delete the monitor setting in case they were the problem....... I also went back and reset the BIOS to "fail-safe defaults," but to no avail..... The error message said the Kernal32.DLL was bad......... so I extracted a new one and replaced it....... this time Explorer.exe was the cause, so I extracted a new one and replaced it..... no change. In fail-safe mode I reformatted the drive 4 more times, once with each single memory chip in place.... no change... the install either freeze's or goes to a blue screen.
This is the craziest set of results I have ever seen.... My only thought at this point is that there must be some type of a problem with the MotherBoard itself. I have attempted to eliminate and or isolate every other potential problem area. If any of you folks on the forum have seen anything like this and can point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful. I am planning on sending a copy of this to the folks that put the computer together for me and see what they have to say. Supposedly the computer was burned in for 48 hours prior to shipping, but I would sure like to know how they did it!
Thanks again for taking the time to consider such a long tale of woe!
Steve
Ps. Oh yes, I have also changed drive cables about 3 times.....
:Q