[bc022372]

Also...I have an extra 1GB kit that I have not put in yet. Unfortunately, the memory does not have any timings listed on it. I tried googling the memory and couldn't find it anywhere. All I could find was the voltage (1.8V). Anyone know where I can find memory timings for KVR800D2K2/1GR?

I just wanted to get that info for the time when I eventually put the extra memory in.

[Advertisements]

It sounds like it may be the hard drive that's the problem, you should be able to find a manufacturer's diagnostic test on the support page and it will run a test on your hard drive.

[Troy]

It sounds like it may be the hard drive that's the problem, you should be able to find a manufacturer's diagnostic test on the support page and it will run a test on your hard drive.

[bc022372]

Here’s the overnight results.

Memtest ran overnight and completed 8 passes with 0 errors.

Before I talk about my work on the hard drive, I need to clarify one point. I am still using the hard drive that was in my old XPS Gen 3 (Maxtor 80gb). The 2 drives I listed above are in the case and hooked up to the motherboard. However, they do not have any data loaded on them yet. So all my testing is on my old hard drive which has worked fine for many years now in my old system.

Anyway, I loaded the diagnostic software for my hard drive onto a bootable CD and ran some tests on the hard drive. The long test passed with no issues. The only red flag regarding my hard drive is that it said “Has Been Overtemp at 253”. Now, I’m no computer building expert but I doubt that hard drive has ever achieved 253 degrees C. Nonetheless, since the test said the current temp was 253, I opened the case and put my hand on the hard drive and it felt like the same temp as my other 2 drives (which register very normal temps).

So I decided to put my hard drive back into my old system to see if there was any corruption since moving it to my new system. The old system booted up fine with no issues whatsoever. I tried to run the diagnostic software on the hard drive in my old system but unfortunately it doesn’t appear the FreeDOS recognized my USB keyboard.

Before I put the new hard drive back into my new system, I decided to boot the system to Vista Install DVD without a hard drive installed to see what results I got. After loading the Window files into memory, I was able to see the Vista startup progress bar. After one pass of the status bar (from left to right), the screen went black and the system rebooted. This happened repeatedly.

At this point, I put my old hard drive back into my new system and I got very similar results except this time I got a blue screen (after one pass of the status bar). So a boot to hard drive equals blue screen and boot to CD equals black screen. While I can see how trying to boot my new system to hard drive from my old system can be a problem, I’m inclined to dismiss that for now given how when I can’t even boot from the DVD as well.

Anyway, that’s how far I was able to get this morning before coming into work. I’m interested to hear your thoughts.

[bc022372]

Here's another update. I flashed my mobo with the latest update. That has helped a little bit. Now, when I boot up Vista via my DVD, I no longer get a black screen/reboot. Instead, the progress bar actually completes about two passes and then the Vista background screen for logons appears with a mouse. However, nothing else happens after that. When I boot from hard drive, I still get a blue screen. Very puzzling (at least to me).

[bc022372]

Yep...updating the bios did the trick. When I got back home, the Vista Install screen was waiting for me. Unfortunately, I was unable to repair my current Vista installation so now I'm having to re-install my OS from scratch. Oh well, probably for the best.