putting together new members computer problems

[zaneyard]

well, we got the chassis and everything put together, but we are having issues installing a Windows OS
Windows XP pro 32 bit recognizes a 300 GB hard disk as a 130 GB hard disk. (linux live CD's recognize it properly)
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit either blue screens after it "loads" the first white bar thing (before the MS logo and that loading screen shows up) or once got to the colored MS loading screen. (sat there w/o DVD access or anything.)
now vista just keeps restarting if it doesn't blue screen (each in the same place)

I have tried very many memtests and they all pass. tried installing with just one stick in, in different slots.

I have been able to successfully boot into Puppy Linux (dingo)
gparted sees the hard disk properly
several memtests on the Ultimate Boot CD succeed

System:
Intel Core 2 Quad
4 GB of OCZ ddr2 800 RAM (timing and voltage is proper)
300 GB WD Velociraptor
Nvidia GTX 280


I can post back with exact model numbers and such if anyone needs it
also, the blue screens are different each time w/o any change in between attempts

one specific one is IRQL_NOT_OR_LESS_EQUAL (or something like that)
another is "Bad Pool Header"
another says something about trying to read write only memory
one is just a generic blue screen
all of them are kinda random when they decide to show up

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on a possibly different note, the bios reports the CPU temp to idle at 90 degrees F
a real thermometer sees the case temp as about 70 F
we have water cooling running on a loop from the CPU > NB > GPU
That CPU temp is very hot, but like i said, i got into linux fine and was running some stuff and it didnt seem to stutter at all
is this possibly a bad temp sensor or something, or do i need to take a look at the thermal paste?

thanks in advance everyone.

[Mission Difficult]

Your hard drive problem sounds like a lack of 48-bit LBA support on the windows disk you're using. I think you need a disk with at least SP1 on it to get it to work upon installation. Otherwise you'll have to install and use a partitioning utility like partition magic after updating your OS to at least SP1.

Also, 90 degrees Fahrenheit is good for a cpu. 50 degrees Celsius is pretty typical, and that's about 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

[zaneyard]

Your hard drive problem sounds like a lack of 48-bit LBA support on the windows disk you're using. I think you need a disk with at least SP1 on it to get it to work upon installation. Otherwise you'll have to install and use a partitioning utility like partition magic after updating your OS to at least SP1.

i think its XP SP3
and that was before and after i gparted the partition to the full size
tbh it doesnt really matter if i can get XP to install properly, i thought it was worth mentioning and possibly helpful information. the objective here is to get vista on. it was kinda a plan B to get XP pro 32 bit on and upgrade to Vista home premium 64 bit if you can actually do that.

Also, 90 degrees Fahrenheit is good for a cpu. 50 degrees Celsius is pretty typical, and that's about 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

good, i was really worried cause i looked on google for temps and i saw some shit about 90 being way too hot

thanks Mission


also, bump for some edits

[Mission Difficult]

You could just install windows and if you can see the rest of the space in disk management then use swissknife or something to resize the partition. Not sure what the problem is.

[zaneyard]

You could just install windows and if you can see the rest of the space in disk management then use swissknife or something to resize the partition. Not sure what the problem is.

yeah, i could take it from there, i just the issue might be relevant to why Vista doesn't wanna install.

[Wedge]

XP reads any drive as 130gb max on the installer, if you actually install it, it will be fine.  If Vista is exploding, it's worth trying to install XP first to see if Vista works as an upgrade install then.

[Blues]

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1447749/36236358/

burn to CD, install, done. Yes you can upgrade, but I wouldn't bother. Just wait for Windows 7 to release and the usual release bugs to be worked out, it's not like you absolutely have to upgrade now.

[zaneyard]

XP reads any drive as 130gb max on the installer, if you actually install it, it will be fine.  If Vista is exploding, it's worth trying to install XP first to see if Vista works as an upgrade install then.

thats the plan right now, im going over there to do that now.
hopefully we will be up and running sometime today. hes gotta work 3-10 so we might be doing some gaming tonight.

[zaneyard]

problem solved???
we got vista to install, as with XP
but i tracked back all the problems with blue screens and restarts to having more than the first core enabled in the bios.
as soon as i turned off all the other cores XP and vista both stopped whining.
problem now is, do we have a factory defect?
anyone else ever run into this problem??

[zaneyard]

If anyone could share this link with anyone they think could help, I would greatly appreciate it. We would really like to get this rig running the way it is supposed to. Please post this link in any forum that could help out.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261178...s#t1895398

[at0m]

wtf would you want to disable the cores for? thats the whole point of having a multi-core CPU, is being able to physically process multiple threads simultaneously. I would blame either the MB for being faulty or the CPU for having a broken core, and send them both back.

[zaneyard]

wtf would you want to disable the cores for? thats the whole point of having a multi-core CPU, is being able to physically process multiple threads simultaneously. I would blame either the MB for being faulty or the CPU for having a broken core, and send them both back.

thats the problem, that was the only thing that would allow us to pass. and obviously we dont want that.
anyways, it wasnt my computer and my friend wasnt paying me to do it so i gave up and brought it to a local computer place. it was prolly the mobo or cpu so...

[zaneyard]

FINALLY DONE

we are playing TF2 tonight if anyone wants to join
ill be yelling at him to make an intro post on the forums here soon


the problem ended up being that the power supply was sending too much something and it fried the mobo ram and cpu

theres a faster CPU in there along with some different ram

Was having some problems installing Vista on it, but the previous install still worked, so we just installed the drivers and everything is working all right
It works, thats all we care about right now