please help! crazy corruption issues

[kaiser79]

hi

i've had this computer running stable for about 7 months. I went on vacation for 3 weeks and upon my return it is riddled with hardware problems. It WAS unplugged the entire time I was gone. When I first turned it on I noticed the fan was not up to its usual squeal and the PC never POSTed. I kept trying to restart it, sometimes the CDROM and HD would come on, sometimes not. Anyway I guessed the maybe power supply was screwed so I went and bought a crappy CompUSA one (300W). Sure enough it started. But now I am having corruption issues. Applications keep complaining that the executables have been modified, IE keeps crashing, sometimes the whole system crashes. I thought maybe my hard drive got messed up from the faulty power supply so I spent too much on a new one. But I can't install an OS on it cause Setup keeps having trouble copying files from the CD-ROM. I have tried multiple OSes from different CDs.

I'm guessing I have a mobo problem? Is this a good assumption? Can anyone reccomend any diagnostic tools that may help pinpoint the issue?

My System:
Abit KT7A (non-RAID) (KT133A)
Thunderbird 1.0Ghz (not overclocked)
2 Sticks PC133 SDRAM
WD 7200 ATA/100 (old drive)
Maxtor 7200 ATA/100 (new drive)
Creative CDRW
Zip 100
GF2MX AGP card
SB Live
Linksys Network Adapter

Windows 2000

thanks!

 

[kaiser79]

*bump* anyone out there?

 

[jmagg]

Start with harddrive diagnostics. Go to the Western Digital site and download their utility. Than try the harddrive on a differant controller, maybe you can salvage some data.

 

[Yonux]

Did you have any Storms go by while you were on vacation?,.. but on to my suggestion.

I would reset the BIOS setting to default and remove all PCI cards along with 1 of your ram sticks. I would leave only your Video, CD Rom, Floppy and 1 stick of ram in your system and try to re-load windows. I would also replace your IDE cables if you have any extra laying around. I hope this helps and you can diagnose your problem to 1 component (crossing fingers that it's not the mobo).

Yonux

 

[RNG]

I had same prob awhile back. I ended up doing a complete format of HD, It sucked! But I think now that maby one of my problems was a bad stick of RAM. I've got two Corsair ddr2400's and it turned out that one was bad, and giving me corruption messages. Just a suggestion try it.

 

[Bovinicus]

Try installing Windows with only the bare essentials necessary to do so. Good luck.

 

[kaiser79]

thanks for the replies!

all i did so far was set BIOS to fail-safe defaults (I can't figure how i didn't think to do this FIRST) and as of yet I can't reproduce the issue.. But only time will tell. I had tried a new IDE cable to no avail. Thanks for the all the help!

 

[kaiser79]

Arg! Still having problems!

Well it seems to stabilize only when I take down the FSB to 100Mhz and set the multiplier to 10. But it is a 1Ghz 266FSB CPU it should run at 133FSB x7.5! I am going to return this CompUSA power supply and get the Enlight 400W one they have instead. Maybe that will help. Otherwise, can anyone provide input about how I might stabilize the system?

Thanks again!