Hi, I hav just built a computer on a real budget, the spec is: P4 3.4ghz PQI 1GB RAM SATA Maxtor 80GB Azus Motherboard NEC IDE optical + hard drive on IDE and external however when I try to install windows xp, the files go not copy across. The format happens, but when it copies the files across before the install it always fails to copy across files. If you restart the process, it will fail on different files. I am trying to use the SATA as C: however this also happens when I try to load windows onto the IDE hardrive. Any ideas as to why this is happening? I think its the memory, got it really cheap and its some weird make. Regards Dave
PQI isn't a 'weird make' but it's not exactly top quality stuff. Firstly the obvious, is your windows CD clean and free from scratches/marks?
i have tried a couple of xp cd's, my original then a copy i made of it on another computer. the copy was clean\scratch free, and it still had the same problem. I had never heard of PQI, so to me it was weird...not anymore
The only other potential cause is if the hard drive has bad sectors on it. Do you have a single stick of RAM or is it a pair? If it's a pair, try taking one out and see if you can resolve the issue. If neither of the RAM sticks are at fault, I'd look at the hard disk. If you only have a single stick, try a spare.
thanks for your reply. I have tried 2 hard drives on SATA, and one on IDE....its a single stick RAM so I think my next bet would be to get another stick and see if that works. Do people think this is the logical way to go?
Well, if you've tried different CDs, and different hard drives, there's only one other part in your PC that can store memory, which is the RAM, I'm betting that's the culprit. Memory is really cheap now, so you can afford to go with decent brands like Crucial and Corsair.
thanks for your help....im eyeing up some crucial memory now.... think i might got for 2 x 512mb rather than 1gb......... will post later on in week \ weekend with update.
2 stick is better because if your motherboard support dual channel you can use it that way. If you use DDR2 this is a good deal. I have the same memory, just with LEDs. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146566
just purchased two 512mb kingston ram .... thought it was worth it with the lifetime warrenty should be with me in a couple of days!
As promised an update ..... new memory works great, all up and running. One annoying problem I got is when I scroll down a webpage or in windows explorer, its very jolty and not smooth like it was??? any ideas?
It might be your CD rom drive. I have the same problem with an old CDrom drive I have in a test computer I had to take my drive out of my regular computer and put it in the test computer to install windows. would not copy all files and had a hard time installing windows
Yeah I would have said the same thing, but it seems like he just changed the RAM out. BTW if you re-installed Windows it is the drivers 100%. Even if oyu haven't try it anyway.
spot on knowledge, re-installed the driver and graphics are fine = THANK YOU! Final question.....sometimes I occasionally get a blue screen, sometimes the computer restarts itself. This normal of do I have another fault developing??
Hmm, well that's either a hardware issue, or again a driver issue. If you installed the latest graphics driver, then it may not be the graphics card causing the problem, but it's very likely if it only just started happening. Can you try a slightly older driver?
I used the drivers that came boxed with the card? Would have thought that would have been ok?? Will look on manufacturers website and see what I can find.