[BWX]

Well, I think my PC may have died, not sure how, not sure why. I rewired it only to tidy up the wires- then I get nothing but beeps out of the mobo-- Strange, was working great before. Do Abit's have beep codes? I'm not any where near my PC, and won't be for a couple days, when I get back I won't have internet access at all until I get it fixed. So if you don't hear from me, you'll know why....


I'm thinking power supply, but I've been running a dual PSU setup for a long time- and it's worked great. All I can think is that I crossed some wires somehow, but I don't think I did- I'm very careful. Both lights come on at the bottom of the mobo (green and red), but then the damn thing just beeps, then it doesn't then it beeps.. beep, pause, beep, pause, beep, pause. Long beeps too...

I thought maybe I had an IDE cable backwards or something, but I checked, and I didn't. Then I though I had something completely messed up in the wiring of the dual PSU's, but I checked every single one (about 50) and they were all good. The I took every wire and molex connector about of the case to start over- and then I had to leave..

I've been saving for part for that thing for months, now this.. Bran new OCZ ram in it too- I hope nothing is damaged. I'm always very careful about static and everything.

Hopefully I can clear the cmos and start up with on stick of ram, and no fans connected, and maybe just one PSU to get it to boot into the BIOS at least.. Other wise it beats the hell out of me what happened...

I'm gonna be rebuilding this PC I'm typing on all day tomorrow after long hours of backing up data, then I'll be reinstalling XP. Hopefully someone will have some clue as to what it could possible be. I might be able to respond later on today. Cross your fingers, I am.

[Electroe]

Originally posted by BWX232
......del............
Hopefully I can clear the cmos and start up with on stick of ram, and no fans connected, and maybe just one PSU to get it to boot into the BIOS at least.. Other wise it beats the hell out of me what happened...

I'm gonna be rebuilding this PC I'm typing on all day tomorrow after long hours of backing up data, then I'll be reinstalling XP. Hopefully someone will have some clue as to what it could possible be. I might be able to respond later on today. Cross your fingers, I am.

Ya, that's what I'd do. Start from square one. Try to boot up from the basic components and work your way up.
If you're careful with static and didn't smell any burnt plastic, especially white/black smoke. Then you shouldn't've fried any thing.
However, you never know.
Wish you luck on the debugging. Sux to reconnect after you rewire.

[kinetic]

Good luck! My fingers are crossed!

[Zardon]

ive had an abit die on me recently. check the wiring and your connections - turn off the power (leave it off for a few minutes), pull out the battery, reset cmos. then try one stick of ram (if you have two).

I used to love abit, now im not so sure

[Judas]

.....first revisions.... i've learned to try and stay away enless i know for sure...

[tek]

Reseat your heatsink, make sure there's nothing between the heatsink and the cpu.

^ what fixed my no-bootup problems with the NF7-S 2.0 ( also had the same beeps ).

[zerodamage]

Zardon, how goes that RMA?

A single beep code.... make sure the power going to your video card is good and reseat your RAM.

[BWX]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll try them all. I do have 2 sticks o ram- so I'm going to start with just one, without a dual PSU setup, and with no PCI cards. I didn't have time to clear cmos before I left, so that might be all it needed...

It was OC'd from default 1533 to 2150mhz at the time, with I think a 206 or 208mhz FSB... I can
t blame this one on Abit though- you would all laugh very hard if you saw what I was running in that box- it looked like spagetti. I don't have time now, but after I get it back up and running I will try to describe what kind of overkill I was putting the 2 PSU's through..

Basically, I need to get a quality PSU, and I think w/ that, I will still run a dual PSU, but I will solder up a custom wire harness to avoid all the ridiculous Molex connectors..

Actually, after i rewired it, I did have a few more devices conected to the main PSU for neatness, and it was probably to weak to handle it..



I think I'll get a Sparkle Power, I just finished building up this PC I'm on right now, and it's working excellent w/ a 250w sparkle Power. Rails are solid- running 1800xp with stock cooler -AS ceramique, 768mb ram (2 sticks), Geforce 2 GTS, DVD, CDRW, 30 gig WD, 0ne 80mm case fan. All default voltages and speed -

I could OC this thing, but no need. It's a large step up from my mom's 750mhz socket A athlon, FIC AZ11, and 256mb pc100. This thing is snappy enough.

So if a little Sparkle 250 can take this with stride (and I'm sure I could OC)- I bet a 500w will be fine for my rig. Well, Monday or Tuesday I will know if something died, no smoke, no burnt smells, so I should be OK.

[Judas]

..that's sparkle 250 will push it.. good PSU.... but it's probably maxed out... if not working as hard as it can....i wouldn't want to run it to long with that..

[kinetic]

How's it going?

[BWX]

Originally posted by kinetic
How's it going?

Well I'm home now, and I am running on my system.

Nothing is fried, but something definitely happened.
I have everything running stock right now, all it needed was cmos clear, BUT, when I tried to boot up from the same HD I was running (WD 40gig ATA100 7200rpm) I got the:

"Invalid system disk" error. As soon as I see that, I put in the startup disk to check out the partitions. Everything is fine. I take out the IDE cable to my hard drive and chack all the connections, then I look a little closer and see a small hole in the cable insulation on the IDE cable.. It isn't all the way through the wire, and none of the wires are cut-

I think that must be the problem so I replace it with an old round cable I have and still the error. At this point I think maybe the cable messed up my boot sector or something so I put in an old slow 6gig hard drive I have in a box with an XP installation for this exact reason..

I boot up with that drive and everything is fine, so now I'm going to try to run this drive as master and the original drive as slave so I can save my email messages and IE favorites before I repair the installation. All my other info is on a separate partition, so that should be fine if it's still there.

I still can't figure out what happened, but the small tear in the IDE cable probobly messed up the info on the disk somehow. Now if I could only repair it without losing info i would be all set. Last time I tried I couldn't run that disk drive in slave mode with this one (the 6gig) in master mode for some reason..

The only thing I would really want to save is my IE favorites and my outlook express messages- I know I could do that if I could get the 40gig running in slave mode. I hope I can get it to work, then I'll probably just do a quick repair and update, and all will be back to normal..

[BWX]

Oh, and I'm buying a new PSU as soon as possible too, I just have to find a good deal somewhere. I'm still going to run a dual PSU setup, but forget all the damn molex splitters, I am going to solder up a custom wire harness for my PC from now on. I have wire, and have solder, I have a solder gun, there isn't any reason to have all those big ugly molex extentions all over my case.


I got 2 new Tt 80mm blue led smartfans I'm using in the case like these and I have two 92mm fans and then 2 regular 80mm fans in the case. I also have some other blue cold cathode lights and whatnot, and all those things will be run by the second PSU- I'll just have the mobo, 9700p, HD, CD, and CPU cooler fan connected to the main PSU- all the fans and crap on the second one.

After I get a Thermaltake cooler for the CPU, I'm gonna use one of the Tt smartfans on that. Hopefully no more crazy problems like this will happen after I get a good quality PSU for my main one.

[PangingJr]

Originally posted by BWX232
"Invalid system disk"

the boot.ini file is missing from you boot disk partition or its path is missing or damaged, make a boot disk using steps you see on this - http://www.driverheaven.net/showthr...?threadid=34417

connect only the 40gig disk as master.

boot direct with the floppy, and select the 1st (1st choice on boot menu) partition when booting,
if not, try the 2nd partition and so on, you should be able to boot into XP, after that you can make a new boot.ini...

[BWX]

Originally posted by Judas
..that's sparkle 250 will push it.. good PSU.... but it's probably maxed out... if not working as hard as it can....i wouldn't want to run it to long with that..

That is running my mom's system I built for her-
-the xp1800+ Palamino w/ stock cooler, AMD761 Gigabyte ga7dx+ mobo, DVD,CDrw, HD, Geforce2 GTS, sound card, ethernet, one 80mm fan. It's rails are the most stable I've ever seen, they don't move at all, ever. I think I would rather have that sparkle 250 than any generic "500". I plan on letting that PSU run that sytem for the next 3 or 4 years, and the PSU is already 3 or 4 years old- But I think it's up to the task.



But anyway, For my PSU I'm looking at NewEgg right now, I'm trying to find the best PSU for the money- the +12v rail is the most important to me, but noise and accessories are also something to think about.
Maybe if I get one with a high enough 12v rail rating, I won't need to run a dual PSU at all. But it would have to be pretty strong, I run many fans and I like to run blue cold cathodes, it just seems stupid to run all that stuff off the same rail my CPU is powered from, whether the PSU can handle it or not.

Here are some I am looking at

Sparkle:
550w MODEL FSP550-60PLG
Output: +3.3V@27A,+5V@29A,-5V@0.3A,+12V@36A,-12V@0.8A,+5VSB@2A
$90


460w MODEL FSP460-60PFN
Output: +3.3V@27A,+5V@29A,-5V@0.3A,+12V@15A,-12V@0.8A,+5VSB@2A
$79


Antec:
550w
Output: +3.3V@32A;+5V@40A;-5V@0.5A;+12V@36A;-12V@1A;+5VSB@2A
$100


480w
+3.3V@30A;+5V@38A;-5V@0.5A;+12V@22A;-12V@1.0A;+5VSB@2A
$79

Enermax:
470w Noistaker
Output: +3.3V@34A;+5V@40A;+12V@16A;-12V@0.8A;+5VSB@2.5A
Special Features: Smart fan, Separate 12V rails, S-ATA connectors, Extra Power connector, Copper-shielding
Has two 12v rails- plus extra features.
$90

100 doolars is pushing it for me right now, so higher price models would be nice, but are out of the question- It's tough, any of these would probably do just fine, but lower prices are better, and I don't really think I need a 550w PSU, but it couldn't hurt.
Then again, the Enermax is probably going be nice and quiet, the fans stay on for a few minutes after shutdown, it has separate 12volt rails, and is future proof. I know some people don't like enermax as much as Antec, but this PSU looks pretty nice..


edit-
or would I be better off finding any PSU with Active PFC at the best price I can? It seems like that funtion would be a great one to have..

[BWX]

Originally posted by panging
the boot.ini file is missing from you boot disk partition or its path is missing or damaged, make a boot disk using steps you see on this - http://www.driverheaven.net/showthr...?threadid=34417

connect only the 40gig disk as master.

boot direct with the floppy, and select the 1st (1st choice on boot menu) partition when booting,
if not, try the 2nd partition and so on, you should be able to boot into XP, after that you can make a new boot.ini...

Hmm, I think that link is broken, but after I do find it and make a boot disk, how do I make a new boot.ini? Are you talking about goign into WinXP and just going into

system properties\advanced tab\startup and recovery\settings\system starup and edit button- then changing whatever is in there to :


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect


-or is there another way to do it? I have never actually had to do this before.


(I have no idea why this forum keeps putting the "S" in WINDOWS in a new line- but you know what I mean..

[PangingJr]

modify folder option, so you can view hidden files, then you can see the boot.ini file on your C:\

if the file is not there, create a new one by typing in this command on the Run box and hit enter.

notepad c:\boot.ini

click OK when asked for create a new file, then just copy/paste the info into the file and save it on exit.

if the file is there, run the same command, the command will open the present boot.ini file,

delete everything in there, then copy/paste the new info into it and save it on exit.

Now, what's the boot.ini file info you should use?? depending on your HDD/system configs,
you'll have to tell me..

if your setups is using one disk one partition as same as the 6gig setups, you can copy the file onto a floppy or something and use the info or you can replace it with this one.

sorry for the bad link, here's - problem with windows

note-- booting from the floppy wont cause any damage to your files nor more prob to your HDD partition than you've alrady had,
all it'll do is to help your PC to boot into XP by using boot files from floppy during booting then using the rest of system files on your HDD...,

-------------------

if you can boot the XP on the 40gig with the floppy disk, then changing or create a new boot.ini file, and reboot with no prob then it is okay. but if you cant boot it then you'll need to use your mentioned method to get your files from the disk. try it and see...

here's hows the boot.ini looks - for one disk one partition setups

i've this pic up on the other thread.. if you use XP Pro just change Home edition to Professional..

[HawK]

If I hade to choose i would go for the Enermax,
outputs look very good, and the separate connectors who knows when they come in handy or needed

Sparkle:
550w MODEL FSP550-60PLG
Output: +3.3V@27A,+5V@29A,-5V@0.3A,+12V@36A,-12V@0.8A,+5VSB@2A
$90

460w MODEL FSP460-60PFN
Output: +3.3V@27A,+5V@29A,-5V@0.3A,+12V@15A,-12V@0.8A,+5VSB@2A
$79
these 2 look much the same, so what is the difference

[BWX]

Originally posted by HawK
If I hade to choose i would go for the Enermax,
outputs look very good, and the separate connectors who knows when they come in handy or needed

Sparkle:
550w MODEL FSP550-60PLG
Output: +3.3V@27A,+5V@29A,-5V@0.3A,+12V@36A,-12V@0.8A,+5VSB@2A
$90

460w MODEL FSP460-60PFN
Output: +3.3V@27A,+5V@29A,-5V@0.3A,+12V@15A,-12V@0.8A,+5VSB@2A
$79
these 2 look much the same, so what is the difference

Here is the pic from the 460watt- it look like it might have 2 12v rails- a 16.5amp and a 15amp.



Here is the 550w pic



it looks like it has a larger capacity, but in one rail.

The Enermax doesn't just have a separate power conecter- it has a totally separate 12v rail for the mobo/cpu/and PCI deviced, and another 12v rail rail for fans and crap- as seen
here -

I think that is a great idea, and probably will reduce the need for a second PSU- that is why I always like to use a dual PSU setup- to keep fans and cold cathodes off the 12v rail- I guess Enermax thought the same thing- It looks like the Sparke 460 has the dual 12v rails too- I'll have to check the product link to see. But the enermax has some other cool things like cooldown, extra power outlet (like you said), quiet smart fans, copper emi sheilding. But it is expensive compared to the Sparkle..

[HawK]

OH, well yes... I think that is a smart move from Enermax

"Separate 12V rails:Independent 12V rails supply to MB/CPU and drives in order to provide stable and clean current to noise-sensitive devices, such as: CPU, add-on cards.Meet UL 240VA safety requirements"

go for it i'd say, I would

[BWX]

Originally posted by panging
modify folder option, so you can view hidden files, then you can see the boot.ini file on your C:\

if the file is not there, create a new one by typing in this command on the Run box and hit enter.

notepad c:\boot.ini

click OK when asked for create a new file, then just copy/paste the info into the file and save it on exit.

if the file is there, run the same command, the command will open the present boot.ini file,

delete everything in there, then copy/paste the new info into it and save it on exit.

Now, what's the boot.ini file info you should use?? depending on your HDD/system configs,
you'll have to tell me..

if your setups is using one disk one partition as same as the 6gig setups, you can copy the file onto a floppy or something and use the info or you can replace it with this one.

sorry for the bad link, here's - problem with windows

note-- booting from the floppy wont cause any damage to your files nor more prob to your HDD partition than you've alrady had,
all it'll do is to help your PC to boot into XP by using boot files from floppy during booting then using the rest of system files on your HDD...,

-------------------

if you can boot the XP on the 40gig with the floppy disk, then changing or create a new boot.ini file, and reboot with no prob then it is okay. but if you cant boot it then you'll need to use your mentioned method to get your files from the disk. try it and see...

here's hows the boot.ini looks - for one disk one partition setups

i've this pic up on the other thread.. if you use XP Pro just change Home edition to Professional..

Well, I'm running 3 partitions on my 40 gig drive-

C is main, I think the second is G (or was G) and it is about 1 gig, I use it for page file only, then there is the D partition for storage.


I used partition manager to vreat the small "G" partition after the system was already up and running a few months ago- that's why it has that letter- I have a CDrw that took up the "F" letter.. I guess I'll see if I can create that floppy and boot up into windows, and see what that boot.ini file looks like, if it looks ok, then I wonder why the drive won't boot? If it is messed up looking, I'll try to figure out what to replace it with.
Thanks, I hope this works..

[HawK]

don't think it matters how many partiton there are on disk 0
i only looks for the boot drive.. or did i misunderstand this:
here's hows the boot.ini looks - for one disk one partition setups

anyway they all are much the same for disk 0
this is my boot ini with 3 partions on it:
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microso ft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

[BWX]

Originally posted by HawK
don't think it matters how many partiton there are on disk 0
i only looks for the boot drive.. or did i misunderstand this:
here's hows the boot.ini looks - for one disk one partition setups

anyway they all are much the same for disk 0
this is my boot ini with 3 partions on it:
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microso ft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

hmm, so you have 3 partitions and it looks the same as my ONE partition setup (I am on right now)-

That makes sense though, sinse it is only pointing to the partition w/ the OS on it...



Now I need to figure this out-

i suggest you to make an XP custom boot disk. just incase you cant do a regular boot so you can use this floppy disk to boot XP... so do it now when you can!

format a floppy within the CMD window (Start/Run/cmd)
put a floppy disk in drive and using this command "format a: /u" (no "" when typing)

then make a custom boot.ini file from below and place the file along with NTLDR, NTDETECT (files off your C:\ or the system drive) in the formatted disk.

how to make a custom boot.ini--> open notepad and copy/paste the below in it and save the file as boot.ini



code:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[boot loader]
timeout=-1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW
S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="NT, First harddisk, first partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="NT, First harddisk, second partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="NT, First harddisk, third partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="NT, First harddisk, fourth partition" /sos
C:\="Previous Operating System on C:\"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


make sure this will be in one line (No Wrap) and no empty space in front of the line


code:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\
WINDOWS--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


----------------------------------

here's more info about this XP custom boot disk (not for XP installation - use it for booting only)

quote:

----------