The (new) Official PC building thread!

Rob, you have got it right. The fan should be around the memory area and blowing air towards the rear.

What are your room temps like?

 

I have a problem with a computer I'm repairing and maybe someone might have a answer for me. It's a HP Pavillion 794n, P4 3.06GHz Socket 478. The chipset is an 845G-B/ICH4. The computer will post, and all the drives show in the setup, but it won't boot from anything but the floppy drive. Even if you use a boot disk and enable CD support, it lists all drives but the A and the C as invalid. If you enter a C prompt it shows drive C and drive A being the same when you type dir! My thoughts is that the ICH4 has bit the dust.

It won't boot from either optical drive or the hard drive. If you just turn it on it posts and runs right up to the time windows should start. The cursor appears in the top left corner of the screen and then the screen goes black and it just sits there doing nothing. There's no attempt to access anything but the floppy even if you use the boot menu. No error messages, no nothing. The SB chip is ice cold! For the life of me I can't remember or find out on the net what controls the floppy. I don't think it's the SB, I think it more basic than that, but I'm not sure! Any ideas would be appreciated!

Sincerely,
Russ

 

thanks theonejrs


My PC is the same as the 1-4 motherboard link you sent me, so i'll be better off getting a pcie x16 card but the graphics card you have recommended is out of stock on the link you sent? i've tried to look for one flebay but with no joy. do you know where i can get one from or know of another replacement? I did notice on my old card it has a pin connector at the top of the card & this card has like a slip on clip?
Also i'm thinking of upgrading my memory as it only has 512mb at present, is it just a case of taking the old one out & installing the new memory?
all your help is apprieciated

 

any thoughts on this? sorry to ask twice.

 

RedRob personally I would just get the $19 pair and be done with it. If you get a 2GBx2 set you might get a little better OC but I don't see that being a serious limiting factor. I've thought about doing the same thing you're looking at but it seems futile really. I don't think we get enough of a memory bottle neck to warrant the purchase then again it sure is cheap, innit??

....gm

 

are the crucial tracer sticks the same as the non tracers? just the added led???

 

icemen,

Just input the model video card in Google and see who's got one and at what price.

As far as the memory goes I would buy a matched pair. As I recall, the memory that comes with it is slow. Here's a link for some good OCZ, Cas 2, 2x1GB. $5399 after MIR! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227210 That would be your best bet. two sticks will also allow you to run in dual channel as well.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Russ you forgot the link.

ddp I've had a similar problem that Russ is experiencing and I've replaced the cable and all except the HDD. It will boot into Safe Mode just fine... it'll drive you insane for sure. I'm betting my issue is a video driver issue but I haven't looked any further into it the last couple of weeks. A bit lazy and I'm just gonna add a small HDD and forget it.

....gm

 

GM,

Yeah well, you can blame the Idiots that designed AD's software as the Preview button is on the left and the Refresh Preview is on the right with the Post Reply button changing sides for each. Someone must have stayed up nights thinking up that one! LOL!!

Russ {;<}

 

Russ the OCZ you linked to is good stuff. I have some of that running in my AMD X2 3800 machine and it likes it. LOL. NOT only performs well but also looks dang good too.

...gm

 

Eh? They've been set up that way for ages, I'm used to it, so should you be, we both post often enough!

 

ddp,

No, It will only boot from the floppy. If you try to boot from the CD, the cursor blinks 3 or 4 times and the screen goes black! The bios sees the drives, but you can't access them even when enabling CD support with the boot disk. The fact that C: and A: read the same tells me that it only reads the floppy as the boot drive. It's not cables or power as it affects both IDE Channels, and the problem is not the video card as I've tried 3 different ones with the same result. Since the floppy is basic I/O and none of the IDEs work, and the SB chip is stone cold, I have to suspect it's bad, since it controls the IDEs and satas!

Thanks for your input,
Russ

 

russ you have been here a great deal longer than i, yet even i know the odd layout of AD haha

 

I can boot from a flash drive and CD on just about all of my systems. I prefer flash drive. I haven't had a floppy drive in any of my computers since about 2001-2002. A lot of the older boards won't allow you to boot into a flash drive although most will allow you to boot into a CD. I've been booting from a CD for close to a decade.

Some motherboard will search for standard boot up drives such as the floppy and if that doesn't happen then it continues to try and load windows. The fix is quite simple. Go into your bios and disable the floppy drive and the hard drive and then place your CD as first boot in boot order and I guarantee that it will boot into CD. Even though the Hard disk is disabled windows can still write to it.

 

shaffaaf,

The fact that I've been here a lot longer than you is the reason I know that we've had several software changes, over the years. I also used to use preview a lot, but haven't for a long time, and it's changed!


Sophocles,

It did boot! I'm going to try and install XP and see what happens!
Thanks Sophocles!

Russ

 

I'm looking at Seagate HDD and they all have Cache: 32MB,
Average Latency 4.16ms,Perpendicular recording technology Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive:
or
Average Seek Time: 16ms,Seagate SV35.3 ST3500320SV 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&SpeTabStoreType=&Order=BESTMATCH&srchInDesc=
so can you inform me as to which is the better, & more reliable Drive
The only difference that I can see is the Barracuda shows Proven second-generation perpendicular recording technology with a 5yr Warranty

 

rick5446,
Between the two I would choose the ST3500320AS. Performance is slightly better and it doesn't have all the power saving junk or the added security features. Both have the Perpendicular recording technology and it works real well. I'll probably get the 500GB version next time around as I don't much fancy a single TB drive. Too much to lose in oen shot, and I can have 6 if I want.

Russ