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Trouble with homebuilt pc

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6 replies

by pickle

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I have just built a new machine
Abit NI8 SLI motherboard
Pentium D945 CPU
512 MB Mushkin DDR2 667MHZ (single Stick)
PNY Nvidia 6600 GT video card
Seagate 300 GB SATA Drive
Cdrom and Floppy.

Problem is I cannot get the OS (XP) to install.
IT either locks up or Blue screens halfway through.
One strange thing I noticed is that when it start booting from the cd, random block of color happen on the left side of the screen, usually down near the first or second letter of the text showing the progress of the setup (lower left of screen)
I haven't built a machine since Pentium 233 MMX days and I don't know what to do short of removing all the non essential pieces and only have cpu, memory and cdrom and hard disk.

6 replies

by mjd420nova

This sounds like a possible corrupt video BIOS or maybe even a failed video card that is not compatible with the CPU. I'd try another video card first to attempt the install, then reinstall the questionable video card again, if it acts funny then, get a new video card. I've never had a problem with Nvidia BIOS, but there's always a first time and the video BIOS could be corrupt.

by thechas

I usually see this reaction when the RAM and motherboard do not work together.

While you do not often see conflicts with name brand RAM, it does happen.

Abit's compatibility report does not show your CPU as being tested with your motherboard.

http://www.abit.com.tw/test_report/NI8%20SLI/

So it could be a CPU conflict as well.

Check your BIOS revision.

They did add CPU support with the latest update.

http://www.abit-usa.com/downloads/bios/bios_revision.php?category=1&subcategory=203&model=280&product_name=NI8+SLI

The more Intel documents I look at, the more I suspect that your CPU is not compatible with your motherboard.

As a side comment, for Dual Core, and DDR-2, 512MB of RAM is a bit light for XP.

Chas

by pickle

I guess I thought initially the problem was an old Diamond PCI video card. After I bought the PNY card I was too disgusted to see through what the real problem was. thanks it is working much better now

by pickle

Of course the bios update fixed the issue. The thought had crossed my mind but I guess I was too disgusted with the machine to think straight. Thank you very much

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