Old system...

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CrazeD

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I'm trying to get my old system running again. My sister f***ed it up, and I have no idea what she did to it. :rolleyes:

It's an old eMachines that I got like...five years ago. It's got:

AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.6GHz
nVidia GeForce Ti4600 128mb
512mb DDR400 RAM
2x 40GB IDE HDD
yadda yadda....


So, I'm trying to install Windows. Now, it's got two 40GB IDE hard drives. If one of them is plugged in, it takes FOREVER to do anything. Like the POST screen stays there for at least five minutes, then it eventually gets to a black screen and sits there...

The other HDD, I managed to create a new partition and format it, then start installing XP. About the time I'm asked for my CD-KEY, it BSoD's.

Is the HDD dead or something?

Things I've tried:
New IDE cables
Different power supply
Different RAM, and both DIMM's


Any ideas?
 
It sounds like a motherboard problem to me more than a hd one. That's because it's having problems halfway thru it's own post before it's really interacting with other hardware too much.

Here's what I'd try:

-Try installing xp on another hd if you can, this will rule out the hard drives as the cause.
-If this works run a chkdsk /r on the two hard drives to clean them up
-If this doesn't work go to your mobo manufacturer's website and download and install the latest BIOS on the mobo

Is there any way you could post some info about your bsod or even a pic or something?
 
I'll do it again later to get a picture.

Just to clarify: One HDD makes it slow, the other does not...but it won't install Windows.

If the HDD was set to slave...would it cause a BSoD?
 
It sounds like that one of the HDs is either dead or the jumpers are wrong. Go into bios and see if both are being detected, even if they both are one could still be bad. Is there only one hd on the primary ide channel and the other drive on the second with say a cdrom drive? ...or what ?
 
I had them both on the primary IDE channel. They are both recognized as I formatted both with Windows. Just after the fact, one slowed the system down to a stand-still, and the other BSoD's on the Windows installation.
 
how are the jumpers configured on each drive ?
does the flat ribbon cable say anything like master , slave or drive1 and drive2. If it does both drives must be configured for "cs" if no, then standard master , slave configure. You can also DL from the manufacturer a floppy based or iso to burn to a cdrom, free diagnostic tools.
 
I have a boot CD with a ton of boot utilities, including all the HDD diagnostic tools.

But no, the drive was on slave, lol.

Odd, though...never done that to me before.

EDIT: It's fixed, by the way. Thanks for the suggestion. :)
 
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