More computer problems!!!

[VR-04-TT]

I swear I'm just going to bin this one and get a new one!

Before I say what's happening, just keep in mind I have not added any new hardware, not changed any settings, not removed any hardware and haven't installed or removed any programs before or after this issue occured...

Comp specs are:

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4ghz
2g RAM
Gigabyte GA-N680-SLI DQ6 Rev 1
ATI HD4850
Western Digital 500gb hard drive
Windows XP SP3

Late last week my computer showed the 'found new hardware' logo in the system tray and popped up "IDE Controller" and then it changed to "Gigabyte GBB36X Controller"

When it starts to install I get the driver not passing 'logo testing' window with "Continue Anyway" and "STOP Installation" as the options.

If I click continue, the driver won't install as it asks for a disc that has never been required for this computer (as I built and installed everything myself about 3 years ago...the video card changed about a year ago, but it was fine) and therefore, I can't install it. I did a quick search on the net for the driver, but I can only find Windows 7 drivers and a whole bunch of issues associated with this driver.

If I click stop, then it just keeps finding the hardware again and again...

I tried disabling the hardware in device manager, but it still keeps finding it.

It's driving me absolutely bonkers. Is it format time? If so, I'll just get new pooter as I'm sick to death of this thing!

Cheers Techos!
-Paul

 

[OVR444]

Bit of a lame question; have you checked the Gigabyte website for a IDE controller driver specific to your motherboard? I had something similar with one of my old ASUS boards; ended up installing a specific driver from the manufacturer website and it left me alone after that.

I didn't initially install the bundled drivers from the disc that came with the mobo; I went to the website for the latest versions. So I guess I missed it.

Perhaps something similar?

Screenshots of your device manager would be helpful.


EDIT:

Try this: http://download.gigabyte.asia/FileList/Driver/motherboard_driver_intel_nvidia_mcp55_xp.exe


Here; you will find the drivers for WinXP: http://www.gigabyte.com.au/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=2460&ost=xp#anchor_os

 

[mchieff]

Your chipset driver would have installed this as part of the package.
Sounds like a possible disk issue, check your system event log for any disk events in case your hard drive just developed a bad sector, 3years is around the money for a drive to be on its way out

 

[Slinz]

For all of my PC builds the mobo drivers have been included on disc with the mobo - do you still have the packaging from the parts? If not I'm sure you could contact Gigabyte and request the correct driver if it isn't already on their website.

EDIT:

3years is around the money for a drive to be on its way out

And this, lol. You would be able to grab a much higher spec box for a grand.

 

[BuzzPuppy]

Also, check the BIOS if the IDE is set to RAID (0 or 1). It may be calling on a RAID driver since it may be enabled.

Setting it back to standard IDE (master-slave) may resolve the issue.

That being said... I'm banking on Brett's suggestion of updated IDE drivers specific to your 'board.

If you're gonna sell up and move to AMD's Phenom II and try your luck unlocking a dual core 555BE (Black Edition) to a quad core 955, or onto Core i3/i5/i7, Let me know how much you want to see your rig for

 

[VR-04-TT]

I've tried the driver's from Gigabyte's website. It doesn't install and won't work.

I haven't changed any hardware settings, so there's no reason why the BIOS settings would have changed. I will check it nonetheless.

 

[Peter_D]

Paul, I ain't no PC wiz but as you said that you HAVEN'T added any new hardware or removed any for that matter for quite some time, I gonna say that you've got a flaky motherboard issue. In particular the IDE hard drive module. I'm gonna guess you've either got a capacitor or a resistor which has changed its value or a hair line crack in the board at that area which is changing the voltage. Actually it could be a simple power supply issue also.
If you can swap out the power supply and see if it keeps occurring. If that doesn't work try another M/B of the same type, good luck in getting another one if it's 3 years old already. You may as well get a new M/B and install all your drivers.
Good luck.

 

[bradc]

I would actually guess that there is a chance that you had disable the additional raid controller on the motherboard originally and for unknown reasons it has re-enabled itself. I have the same device listed in the device manager of my PC which has a Gigabyte X58 chipset board.

I would go into the bios and disable the additional raid controllers that control the purple SATA ports (assuming you aren't using them at all)

 

[king_panther]

I agree with the above posts ^^

All this talk though of drives failing after 3 years is a little worrying.
My home computer just clocked 7 years usage & still going strong with not a single problem in the world

You know now having said that......

 

[bradc]

7 years? So it is a Pentium 4 2.8 or similar? Ewwww

Ignoring my cases (Silverstone TJ-03 and 2x TJ-07's) the oldest computer part I own that is in use is my P5N32-E SLI motherboard!

 

[king_panther]

7 years? So it is a Pentium 4 2.8 or similar?

Pfft as if ......

Read these specs & weep baby;

Pentium 3 Tualatin - 1.4Ghz
1.5Gig PC100 SDRAM
620Gig total HDD storage (1x 300Gig, 1x 320Gig)
AGP 4x ATI Radeon 9550
Dual 3DFX Voodoo2 Cards running SLI
Pioneer DVR-105 DVD Writer
ISA Soundblaster AWE64 Gold.

 

[bradc]

ok, major props for having a Tualatin, especially a 1.4! How much cache does it have?

The sound card and voodoo's in SLI is kind of cool too

 

[Nitephyre]

Ahh, a monster from days gone by... don't hear of many VooDoo SLI setups still running

 

[BuzzPuppy]

---> has Voodoo SLI 12MB PCI cards. Not installed though!

 

[SiliconAngel]

I really hope someone gave you that Tualatin - they were never available at any reasonable price point. I had a PIII 1GHz, the very last of the PIII's before the Tualatin, in my main rig until around 2006 when my second CUBX kicked the bucket (freaken rubbish electrolytic caps) and I'd always intended to get a Tualatin (as they were substantially better than ANY P4) but Intel were pig-headed in their server-level pricing. Athlon 2 gave you twice the power for half the price.

Anyway, while I respect the decision not to waste money replacing hardware that's still working ok, running old Voodoo cards is a stupid waste of electricity - you can't run any 3d content made in the last... six years or so, so why bother? Current CPUs could software emulate what those VooDoo cards are doing with twice the performance these days, while drawing less power. Pull the accelerators out and just run 2d.

Paul while Brad's theory is pretty good, the fact that you can't install the driver suggests that you have a software issue - I think you have a corrupt driver file, and when you try to reinstall it it's just reusing the broken file. This can be tricky to fix as you have to find the driver file in Windows\System32\Drivers\etc or similar and delete it manually (right-click on the device in Device Manager and look under the Driver tab for location). Another thing you could try would be to whack a spare HDD in there and install Windows fresh - within 60 minutes you could confirm if it's a software or hardware issue.

 

[VR-04-TT]

Will check the BIOS Raid controller and report back.

Cheers guys.

I just want to keep this one running for a little while longer, can't afford to get a new PC just yet.

 

[king_panther]

running old Voodoo cards is a stupid waste of electricity - you can't run any 3d content made in the last... six years or so, so why bother?

Errr... how old is my computer again? The most recent game I can get it to run is Age Of Empires 3, & even that's with a lot of tweaks... I don't have the latest & greatest. That's what XBox & Wii is for.
I have quite a lot of old games that will not run in anything BUT native DOS & require Glide support.
There's no more effective way to do it than the rig I have.
The Tualatin 1.4Ghz was the fastest CPU I could get my hands on for the motherboard that I bought which at the time was the best I could get that still had an ISA slot. Don't ask me the price, it's too far away now..

Like Paul, I'm not flush with funds. So if it's not broke, why fix it?

 

[bradc]

There are P4 boards available with ISA, one of our customers has about 5 of these things:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/P4/E7210/P4SCA.cfm

Unsure about Core boards though.

I agree with Trev, Tualatin's were rediculously priced. The P3 1.4ghz 512kb cpu's were about the same speed as a P4 2.0ghz or so from memory. The first time P4's really made sense was with the 533fsb Northwoods at 2.4ghz and then later on with 800fsb up to 3.4ghz, but only if you could afford them!

 

[bradc]

I still lust for one of these with a pair of Tualatin 1.4 512kb:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/iwill-dvd266-r.html

Unfortunately it is a VIA chipset which I'm not a fan of, but it is the only way to get a DDR P3 system.

Of course it makes no sense at all as a Core 2 Duo E8200 will well outpace that system, use less power, and have other modern features such as SATA and PCIe!

 

[king_panther]

Yea Brad I found out later on about other motherboards with ISA slots.
THe PC was put together myself & the components were sourced from all over the place. At the time, it was the best one I could find.

The main aim of it was to achieve maximum speed in native DOS, plus Glide support, plus AWE32 support for my DOS games.
It ran Win98SE for years & years. Currently it has Fedora 12 on there but will be wiped soon for a multi-boot setup.