computer will POST, but freezes on Windows install

[carpeliam]

After installing some new hardware, I went to install an OS, and it fails upon starting up. the weird thing is, it actually posts and i get partway through the initial loading of the setup before it freezes.

Here's my system:
Motherboard: MSI K8T Master2-FAR (supports 2 cpus, but not dual-core cpus)
RAM: 1 GB (2x512) Corsair PC3200 (CMX512RE-3200LLPT)
power supply: 400W Silverstone Strider (SST-ST40F)
hard drives: SATA Western Digital Caviar SE (WD1600JD), Seagate Barracuda IDE Ultra ATA100 (ST3120026A)
video card: ATI X850 Pro, AGP 8x

I was replacing my processor (AMD Opteron 242) with two AMD Opteron 248s.

The first thing I tried to do is install WinXP 64. I put the CD in, and it loads all of the drivers, but as soon as it gets to the "starting Windows" part, it freezes. I don't even get as far as being able to choose which hard drive to install on. (The first time I tried to install, it froze- the second time I tried it, it would reboot every time it got this far. Now, it freezes every time.)

I then tried to install WinXP 32bit, and was able to load the SATA drivers from a floppy, but after the drivers were loaded, I had the same problem: it froze when it got to "starting Windows", before being able to choose a partition.

I'm wondering if maybe I set something wrong in the BIOS, or maybe a jumper? Or am I drawing too much power? Or do you folks have any other suggestions? I haven't had a hardware problem with any of the other components before installing these new processors. Thanks all.

Liam Morley
Software Engineer
"light the deep, and bring silence to the world.
light the world, and bring depth to the silence.

 

[Lemon13]

does it load the multiprocessor HAL on startup?

 

[carpeliam]

Lemon13, thanks for replying- I'm not terribly familiar with HAL, but when the system boots, it does report that there are 2 cpus when doing a system test. is that referring to the same thing?

liam morley

http://www.carpeliam.com

 

[Lemon13]

not exactly, the report u get is from bios, HAL means hardware abstraction layer, its one of the first things windows loads.
does ur 64bit version support amd (i think 2 remember there is a 64bit xp that supports only intel (itanium) cpu´s)
is the 32 bit version home (supports only one cpu)?

 

[carpeliam]

if i remember correctly, winxp64 only supports AMD; there is a separate "itanium" edition that supports the intel. At least, there's a directory named "AMD" right on the CD, and I was able to run XP 64 beta on my machine last year before changing the processor, so I know that AMD is supported. Both versions are XP Pro.

As far as loading things in windows is concerned, it certainly doesn't complain about anything, though there were a number of drivers that were whizzing by on the bottom of the screen. It didn't fail until it got to the "starting Windows" screen.

(Sorry if I'm being vague, I'm just not able to look at the machine at the moment.)

liam morley

http://www.carpeliam.com

 

[carpeliam]

I think it might be a memory issue; I bought a new 550W power supply (a really nice one from Seasonic, pretty solid).

I've run memtest, and it reboots the moment that memtest starts. That is, unless I turn ECC off, it doesn't even get all the way through the tests before failing, but I know that this motherboard ONLY supports using ram with ECC turned on.

I hesitate to say that I have bad RAM, because this RAM worked like a charm until the moment when I installed these new processors.

After having these problems, I updated my BIOS (from v1.1 to v1.35b), but that hasn't had any effect on my problem.

Please, if you have any suggestions, I really don't know where to go from here.

liam morley

http://www.carpeliam.com

 

[georgewel]

The RAM answer is the right answer. Remember during the first install prior to picking the drive everything is loading into memory.

 

[BadBigBen]

I hesitate to say that I have bad RAM, because this RAM worked like a charm until the moment when I installed these new processors.

you had changed CPUs and then all went bad!!! ergo, CPUs are either not compatible (see:

http://www.msi.com.tw/html/products/server/svr_htm/9130-1.htm

) or they are damaged!



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."