What a great forum - full of valuable info, and I hope I can contribute too!
I've several dozen computers over the years, for myself and friends, and usually little problems pop up, but I'm always able to solve them.
This week I put together a brand new system for myself and helped another roommate do the same. Mine's working ok, but his is just crazy - thought I'd ask you all to help me brainstorm solutions.
First, the problems arise when we first install XP Home SP1 on a fresh format. From the beginning, it takes the load screen 15 to 25 or MORE passes of the little green thingy to start up windows - in other words, way too long for a brand new 3200+ Athlon 64 system.
Furthermore, the USB devices work weird from the beginning. Often, an attempt to plug into the front panel USB ports will short something and the system restarts (and the BIOS gets reset to an extent, I think). As far as other USB devices, the mouse, plugged into the back works about 1/2 the time after startup. Installing SP2 pretty much eliminates all USB functionality all together!
In addition to SP2 seeming to cause trouble, installing the ATI Catalyst drivers/programs seem to agitate things as well.
Any insight or help you can give me on these two issues would be greatly appreciated!
Here's some more info:
350W Power Supply
ASRock Dual939-Sata MB
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU
2x 512MB DDR400 RAM (in dual-channel mode)
250GB Samsung 7200 IDE HDD
ATI Radeon 7200 AGP 32 MB RAM
There's also a second ATI PCI video adapter (Sapphire 7000 or something), 80GB HDD, and wireless network card that we have uninstalled in an effort to more effectively troubleshoot.
I've checked and double-checked all the connections to the motherboard and from the power supply. We've updated the BIOS, drivers, and installed all available windows update. We've reinstalled windows three times. I'm just at a loss - please help!
Thanks!
I've several dozen computers over the years, for myself and friends, and usually little problems pop up, but I'm always able to solve them.
This week I put together a brand new system for myself and helped another roommate do the same. Mine's working ok, but his is just crazy - thought I'd ask you all to help me brainstorm solutions.
First, the problems arise when we first install XP Home SP1 on a fresh format. From the beginning, it takes the load screen 15 to 25 or MORE passes of the little green thingy to start up windows - in other words, way too long for a brand new 3200+ Athlon 64 system.
Furthermore, the USB devices work weird from the beginning. Often, an attempt to plug into the front panel USB ports will short something and the system restarts (and the BIOS gets reset to an extent, I think). As far as other USB devices, the mouse, plugged into the back works about 1/2 the time after startup. Installing SP2 pretty much eliminates all USB functionality all together!
In addition to SP2 seeming to cause trouble, installing the ATI Catalyst drivers/programs seem to agitate things as well.
Any insight or help you can give me on these two issues would be greatly appreciated!
Here's some more info:
350W Power Supply
ASRock Dual939-Sata MB
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU
2x 512MB DDR400 RAM (in dual-channel mode)
250GB Samsung 7200 IDE HDD
ATI Radeon 7200 AGP 32 MB RAM
There's also a second ATI PCI video adapter (Sapphire 7000 or something), 80GB HDD, and wireless network card that we have uninstalled in an effort to more effectively troubleshoot.
I've checked and double-checked all the connections to the motherboard and from the power supply. We've updated the BIOS, drivers, and installed all available windows update. We've reinstalled windows three times. I'm just at a loss - please help!
Thanks!
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