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.

0x00000024 is a bad HD error code.

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

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

Try a full clean & full format in command prompt.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html


But you may find your HD is going down.

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.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html


But you may find your HD is going down.

Click to expand...

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.

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.

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. http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/35349-stop-0x124-what-means-what-try.html

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.

Bare Foot Kid said:

theog said:

Try a full clean & full format in command prompt.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html


But you may find your HD is going down.

Click to expand...

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.

Click to expand...

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.

Click to expand...

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. http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/35349-stop-0x124-what-means-what-try.html

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.

Click to expand...

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.

Try a brand new HDD?

I have another suggestion. Your memory, you ran Memtest and found errors on one of the sticks, did you test the same stick in a different slot. That may be worth doing as it might be picking up on a motherboard fault in the related circuitry. As the other stick passed Memtest you could also try running a test of at least 8 passes with the good stick in the other slot.

Memtest is not 100% and can miss minor faults. Running the PC on some new or borrowed memory may also be worth a try.

You could also try running Prime95 and Furmark.

Prime95 (32bit) - 25.11 Download - EXTREME Overclocking
Prime95 Setup:
- extract the contents of the zip file to a location of your choice
- double click on the executable file
- select "Just stress testing"
- select the "Blend" test. If you've already run MemTest overnight please run the "Small FFTs" test instead. (run all 3 if you find a problem and note how long it takes to error out with each)
- "Number of torture test threads to run" should equal the number of CPU's times 2 (if you're using hyperthreading).
The easiest way to figure this out is to go to Task Manager...Performance tab - and see the number of boxes under CPU Usage History
Then run the test for 6 to 24 hours - or until you get errors (whichever comes first).
This won't necessarily crash the system - but check the output in the test window for errors.
The Test selection box and the stress.txt file describes what components that the program stresses.

FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net

FurMark Setup:
- If you have more than one GPU, select Multi-GPU during setup
- In the Run mode box, select "Stability Test" and "Log GPU Temperature"
Click "Go" to start the test
- Run the test until the GPU temperature maxes out - or until you start having problems (whichever comes first).
NOTE: Set the alarm to go off at 90ºC. Then watch the system from that point on. If the system doesn't display a temperature, watch it constantly and turn it off at the first sign of video problems. DO NOT leave it it unmonitored, it can DAMAGE your video card!!!
- Click "Quit" to exit

I have already tested the memory in each of the slots on the motherboard. The results were still clean for the one stick of memory, and 7 errors for the other one.

I just obtained a newer motherboard from a friend and I'm currently installing the hardware on it. I'll post back after everything is set up and working.

I really appreciate your help on this, guys.

I suspect the ReFurb HD, also

It will be interesting to see if the hard drive is the problem after it passed the manufacturer's diagnostics.

Yeah, it could very well be the hard drive. I just want to test it on another motherboard to see if the MSI mobo is malfunctioning at all. If I get the same issues, then it must be a hard drive problem.

I've got all the parts together and I'm installing windows 7 64bit on it now. Let's see if anything is different.

EDIT: Okay. Windows blue screened when the setup was completing (when it boots from the hard disk to finish installation). Unfortunately, the screen went too fast to catch the stop code. I'm going to put this HDD in another PC that I know is working and try again. If problems still persist, then I'm just going to have to get a new hard drive.

If install is failing at final stages try accessing Device Manager during install to uninstall any devices in error to let installation complete, then install/update the device driver from the desktop: Device Manager - Access During Windows 7 Installation

Where did you get the Win7 installer? Did you burn it yourself? If so, confirm the ISO HASH and burn another at 4x speed with Verify using ImgBurn. Or write the ISO to flash stick using this tool with Win7 in the dropdown menu: Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux to eliminate the installer.

This is not XP. I would not change out drivers which are already in the installer or quickly updated via optional Windows Updates after enabling hardware auto-updating, unless performance issues are traced to a specific driver: Automatically get recommended drivers and updates for your hardware.

I don't believe drivers are the issue in this case. I've connected the hard disk to another computer and installed XP home edition and things seem to be working alright. Installation was successful, and nothing has crashed/blue screened. The setup for the motherboard drivers went smoothly.

When I tried the Windows 7 64/32bit at first, it gave me an error saying Windows cannot read the "Program Files" folder on the hard disk. The Windows 7 disc appears to be in working order though. After that error came up, I put the disc in my brother's PC and installed 7 on a partition and it worked just fine. I also used it multiple times on my virtual machines and none had errors reading and installing from the disc.

Can it possibly be bad ram in my new PC then? I would test with another stick, but all my other PC's are DDR2 or laptops.

Side note, the PC the HD is currently connected to does not support booting from a USB in the BIOS.

EDIT: I just bought a brand new HDD and a new 4gb ram stick. I'm going to try the windows 7 x64 install on the new PC again. Here's hoping...

Bingo! The problem was the hard drive. Windows 7 x64 installed without errors on the new HDD. The motherboard drivers also installed smoothly. My web browsers are not crashing as well. I switched out the new RAM I got with the previous ram and things are still working fine, so the RAM doesn't seem to be a factor in this predicament.

This brings another question though. Should I use the RAM that contained errors? If the hard drive was really the only problem, would those errors in the one stick of RAM prove to be a major issue?

Test each stick individually for at least 7 or 8 complete passes.


RAM - Test with Memtest86+

If you bought new RAM, use that. What brands of RAM were they?