System hangs

[nugget]

Originally Posted by Sparky

Does the CPU show up ok in device manager or does it say 'unknown'?

It shows up exactly as it should (all four of them ).

Same with the other components.

Thanks for the IDE disk idea. I'll try it tomorrow and let you know how it goes. It's my only hope at the moment.

[ffreeloader]

This almost sounds like the problem Linux has with having multiple SATA drives in the system, and the root partition is not on an IDE drive. The solution in Linux is pretty simple though. All you do is label all the drives during the OS install and then edit /etc/fstab so the drives/partitions are referenced by label rather than by device. Then edit /boot/grub/menu.lst so that the root partition is looked for by label name rather than device name.

This happens in Linux because the kernel doesn't know which partition is the root partition until it sees /etc/fstab to get device names, and /etc/fstab is on the root partition.

Until you edit /etc/fstab the system will boot very inconsistently. It has to guess correctly as to which partition is the root partition, and when it doesn't guess correctly it won't boot. So, you just keep restarting the system until it guesses right and then do the edit. After that it all works like it should.

[Mathematix]

Originally Posted by nugget

Most of them say (after following the codes) that the installation failed due to BITS being turned off (set to manual startup), I don't know how this happened or why. A bunch of others give the event ID 0.

A whole bunch of the warnings relate to installing .net framework v2 (event id 0) Also, since when does IIS need to be installed as a pre-requisite to the framework being installed?

Would need more details.

About IIS being a prerequisite to .net framework 2, I couldn't answer because I don't know enough about web development.

Originally Posted by nugget

This is what I mean by it's driving me nuts. There are so many little things for so many areas that I can't pin it down and I have to guess.

A wild stab in the dark, could it be that XP Pro (as a client system) just has problems with the newest quad core cpus? Would a server system work any better as they are designed for multiple cpu usage?

It appears to me to be a software issue. If you have the opportunity to install the OS again in your troubleshooting, don't install any drivers bar the graphics driver and use the PC in the same manner to see how it behaves.

[Gaz 45]

A wild stab in the dark, could it be that XP Pro (as a client system) just has problems with the newest quad core cpus? Would a server system work any better as they are designed for multiple cpu usage?

I'm fairly sure that if XP had problems with quad cores it would common knowledge by now ;)

I'd try a clean install on the existing kit, but install the mobo SATA drivers (if you don't have a floppy with them on, they should be downloadable from Asus' website) when prompted before the install begins. If the same things happens, then try it on an IDE disk and/or test your disk data cables.

After that, maybe you got some dodgy RAM? Tried an extended POST?

[nugget]

OK this is now really getting on my nerves.

I managed to make a floppy with the sata drivers on it and started to reinstall the system again. I loaded the drivers from the floppy as per instructions and it seemed to access the hdd a lot faster (faster switching between the config pages too). So, all going a little better than previously, or so I thought. Halfway through the install the system freezes and hangs itself. Bugger.

So, determined as I am I changed the system around so I could install to an IDE drive. The install goes as usual until, bugger, it hung itself again.

So, now I'm trying to install for the third time tonight. I've now connected one of the sata drives to a different connector to see if that will make a difference.