New PC Build Troubles

Hello. Recently, I decided to build a new, more powerful PC for myself so I could render 3D graphics effectively, but I've been running into a few problems along the way.

The following components are in my custom built machine (operating system of choice is Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit):

AMD Phenom II x6 1100T Processor w/ Heatsink fan.
MSI 880GM-E43 Motherboard. Has on-board audio/video.
1x4GB (Was 8GB, but one 4gb stick contained 7 errors) DDR3 1333 RAM.
500GB Seagate Barracuda HDD. Factory Refurbished.

The latter mentioned has been properly installed in my PC case, however I am experiencing the following issues when installing and running Windows:

-Clean install of windows on my hdd often fails during setup (error messages appear saying that the data being accessed may be corrupt or windows fails to configure final changes at the end of the installation). The failure usually happens when windows is expanding the files for setup.

-If the install is successful, Windows' tasks and operations behave abnormally. Installing drivers for the motherboard may fail, or background processes crash (e.g. explorer.exe). In addition, web browers (IE, Firefox, Chrome) constantly crash without warning when surfing the web. At first, I thought it was because the system is 64bit, but I reinstalled using Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit and XP Home Edition 32bit and both showed similar issues. They even blue screened a couple times. I looked up the stop codes and they seem to be related to hardware issues. If memory serves me right, the last code was:

0x00000024

After running some diagnostics, I've come to a conclusion that it's not a software issue. Also, the installation discs are not damaged in any way. I've tested them multiple times on my virtual machine and they have always been successful, and they performed just fine (no crashes, etc). I ran memtest on each of my RAM sticks and, as I mentioned previously, one contained 7 errors so I removed it. I also ran chkdsk and results came clean. All that's left is the processor and motherboard. I'm sure the processor is fine, because it's not over-heating or rebooting my system randomly.

All that's left is the motherboard, but I'm not sure what could be wrong. According to the specs and user reviews, a six core processor can be ran on it. I flashed the bios to make sure it was up to date to support a six core or to see if that would help, but to no avail. My plans are to return it and try another, but I figured I could get some input from you guys here before doing all that. See if this issue can be corrected at all.

If I forgot any information, let me know. I'm pretty stumped by this, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

*My apologies if this is in the wrong section.

I ran the test, but the results came clean. Long test was successful, DST completed without error, and the test results were PASSED.

I have already attempted to do a full format + reinstall, but it deemed the same results as before (windows may fail to install, crashing applications, etc).

I just bought this hard drive, but then again, it's factory refurbished so it may be compromised in some way.

theog said:

Try a full clean & full format in command prompt.
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation


But you may find your HD is going down.

Hello Britt, welocme to Seven Forums!


A format is not at all the same as a complete wipe secure erase of the HDD, the clean all outlined in Step One of this tutorial.

Bare Foot Kid said:

theog said:

Try a full clean & full format in command prompt.
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation


But you may find your HD is going down.

Hello Britt, welocme to Seven Forums!


A format is not at all the same as a complete wipe secure erase of the HDD, the clean all outlined in Step One of this tutorial.

My bad. I didn't clarify that in my post. What I meant is that I've already done a clean/erase and format of the drive before installing the OS. There was still no improvement.

cmd187 said:

Why would you buy a factory refurbished HDD? Chuck it and buy a brand new sealed one. Also any reason why you went with an mATX board? It has less options to expand and less cooling potential if you decide to overclock.

I'm not worried about expansion. The board states that it can support a 6 core processor and 16gb of RAM max, and that's really all the specs I'm interested in. The amount of PCI slots (etc.) and such isn't a major factor, nor do I plan to overclock the CPU.

MarkJ said:

Hi Britt, I'd just like to add some suggestions. First, from your opening post you were not certain about the error code of 24 which does indeed point to a problem with your hard drive. As the manufacturer's diagnostics have shown no errors could that code have been 124? This code is undefined in as much that it is a very general hardware fault, meaning that it could be any hardware in your system causing the Blue Screen. This link may offer some help in finding the problem. Stop 0x124 - what it means and what to try

I also see that you tried to use Windows XP but had the same problems. I believe your hard drive is SATA, XP does not have much in the way of SATA drivers and that alone can cause BSOD's unless you installed the correct SATA drivers for your motherboard during the XP installation. Windows 7 has full built in support for SATA drivers but you still need to install all the chipset drivers for the motherboard be it with XP or Windows 7.

Finally, the Seatools diagnostics you have already used has a built in facility to write zero's to the whole drive. It is listed in the drop down menu under the Advanced Features tab as Full Erase.

I actually confirmed the error code from my browsing history (when I looked it up the first time). It was indeed 0x24.

XP was able to pick up the SATA drive just fine though. And when the OS installed, I checked device manager and it was labeled correctly (same as it was on Win7). The chipset drivers were also installed too.