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Post by Intrepidacious on Mar 3, 2007 7:39:59 GMT 1
You probably got a message that a file is missing or corrupt, and that the registry cannot load a hive file.
The reference to the 'hive' refers to the Windows registry -- the huge database of configuration information for your computer. I don't see the specific message listed, but apparently one of the registry 'hives' is missing or corrupted. Most likely it's the system hive that's missing or corrupted, and XP won't start.
That makes me wonder, first, if the hard drive is okay or not. When the system hive gets corrupted there's a good chance the hard drive or the drive's cable or the hard drive controller could have a problem.
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Post by meadowfae on Mar 4, 2007 10:11:37 GMT 1
Thanks for the explanation, intrepid. I did reinstall XP and it seems to be working fine now except for the sound. (still working on that...probably a driver problem) And the heat is ok if I keep the side panel open and the dust blown out. But it ran hot for several mos while playing MW for hours - so I guess the hd could have been damaged. Any way to test for hd problems? ~m
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Post by osiris on Mar 4, 2007 11:49:03 GMT 1
Try to download and install the latest driver for your sound card; if you don't have a sound card (i. e. if you have only an audio chip on the motherboard, like me), download and install the latest driver for your motherboard. A damaged hard - disk? Sounds strange to me, if he runs well; hard - disks are hard to damage, at least in my experience. I had similar overheating troubles in the past, but only with the videocard and the motherboard... Check it out, and however let's wait for Nostra1 (i'm sure that he will be more good than me in these kinds of trouble shhotings). But start looking here , maybe you will find some useful links.
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Post by Nostra1 on Mar 4, 2007 16:41:37 GMT 1
Sorry Meadowfae, I don't know how to test a hard drive to see if it is writing data correctly.
Your concern may be real but usually, if the heat was just going too high for the disk's material to hold the data, then it still may be useable. If however, the heat actually affected the components of the hard drive's bus controller as Intrepid mentions, you may have a problem. I just don't know how to check this. Also as Intrepid says check the cables as well to make sure everything is ok. Just make sure both the cable and power connection on the hard drive is on correctly, also check the IDE connection on the other side of the ribbon cable that connects to the motherboard, then go to the BIOS and make sure the hard drive is recognized. It should be since Windows logs in but always good to check. I think Osiris's suggestion is good and go to the first two websites on the link he gives and see if there are any information for this and possible downloads. I will check around.
As for the sound card, I still would try a full reinstall again. That means uninstall the drivers and any software that came with the card, remove the card and return the BIOS to the internal sound option. Verify this is working. Then get your instruction manual for the card and go through the entire step by step instructions once more. If you have already done this, my apologies for the suggestion.
You can also get some registry cleaner (I never got one but there may some freeware that will do this in Majorgeeks). If not then I think they sell a software that does this.
If this does not work then one last thing you can do is to backup everything, reformat and reinstall everything and then put the files back on. This way you can get rid of any invisible corrupted files in your system.
Did Creative come back with any suggestions?
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Post by Intrepidacious on Mar 4, 2007 19:12:00 GMT 1
Registry corruption can be difficult to diagnose. For this kind of error, Microsoft generally points first at power failures, then at hardware. There are a lot of good tips here: support.microsoft.com/kb/822705/en-usThey allude to BIOS fixes because there have been plenty of cases where the Advanced Power Management that's built into motherboards might turn off power too soon during a shutdown. When shutting down Windows, if the APM decides to cut power too soon when the hard drives are still clearing their buffers of data, there can easily be hard drive corruption. A BIOS update would be the likely fix. Your PC's manufacturer should have downloadable BIOS updates, which update the motherboard's software with fixes and enhancements to existing code. I updated my Dell's BIOS last year -- the PC was just over a year old and the BIOS version went from A05 to A09 in that one year, suggesting they made several adjustments. Another idea is to check the RAM -- a memory module can have even just a single-bit error which can result in data damage on the hard drive. Here's a great memory tester -- you just download it (very small download) and it makes a bootable floppy disk with its own tiny operating system and the memory diagnostics. You'd boot up your PC with this floppy disk and it would run all kinds of extensive testing algorithms on your PC's memory. It's always being updated to recognize the latest CPU's, chipsets and memory types. If I remember correctly it also tests the CPU's cache -- the small amount of very fast RAM built into the processor itself. It's a FREE download: www.memtest86.com/I'd think you'd want the pre-compiled version for installing from Windows/DOS. www.memtest86.com/memtest33.zipOr if you'd rather make a bootable CD instead of a floppy, here's a link for an ISO image to make it: www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.3.iso.zip
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Post by Nostra1 on Mar 5, 2007 2:45:10 GMT 1
Yup yup, memtest rocks. I always use it when buying RAM to make sure it works ok. Just let it run for about 3 or 4 cycles at a minimum and if it runs ok then you probably are ok. I once bought this no name POS 256Mb RAM for $4 and loaded it up on the beater wagon. The guy who sold it to me was worried it was bad but it passed memtest fine so I used it for about 6 months. Just recently upgraded to 1Gb due to the low price. Used memtest to make sure that was ok too.
RAM failure is one of the most common ways to corrupt Windows. The other is if your components start being run off their default settings (ie overclocking) and if you forget to lock down everything such as the PCIe the PCI and HDD.
Use Speedfan to check your 12V, 3.3V and 5V lines for the PSU. Its not a definate but you will probably get some indication if you are having voltage issues from the PSU. Also, run prime 95 for about 6 hours if you are worried. This will run your CPU at 100% and if there are any issues with instability at the CPU (including power issues) you will find it here. Prime 95 is a math modeling program but it has become the favorite for testing system stability. If you have dual core, use Orthos instead since it will run stress prime on both cores at once.
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Post by Nostra1 on Mar 5, 2007 4:31:33 GMT 1
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Post by meadowfae on Mar 5, 2007 14:32:30 GMT 1
Wow guys, thanks for all the info and links. I'm copying all this and will run the memtest and others you recommend. System is starting to run a little hot again (55C) altho the tower (including the top) is pretty cool to the touch. Well, I finally have sound. Yay! [It was, as Brother William of Occam noted, a simple solution.] Just needed to uninstall Soundblaster and reinstall the mobo chipset from Dell first. Then reinstall SB from the CD they sent me. (you can dl both of these online tho.) Houston, we have Beethoven's 9th again!!! Thanks again for all your help. Hope this thread can help others keep their comp/MW game running smoothly. Exaltations are in order. Hail Sir Osiris, Sir Intrepid and Sir Nostra! cheers, ~m ps. Btw, our house wiring is old and suffers occasional blackouts. During hot summers, the transformer down the street will blow. One summer day I woke up from a short nap and a small blackout of 30 minutes had fried my old motherboard. (Yes, I was using a surge protector...) Guess I should invest in a UPS tho considering the instability of the current.
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Post by Intrepidacious on Mar 5, 2007 15:31:04 GMT 1
Absolutely, a UPS is great for protecting the computer and protecting your hard work!
BUY.COM has Belkin 1000VA and 1500VA UPS's for just US$118 and $148 each, respectively. For nice high-capacity UPS's that's a good price. They have three-year warranty, too.
That UPS is also FANLESS which is fabulous if you don't care for background fan noise when you're using the PC.
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Post by Nostra1 on Mar 5, 2007 16:10:48 GMT 1
Yay! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Good to hear your sound is working again. It seems you have some good links to people on many threads that can help you out. Thats always golden for keeping your PC alive and healthy.
I think you and Intrepid's idea of a UPS is a great idea, especially in your case since it seems the substation where you get your power is not particularly stable. This should prevent you from having constant hard restarts that can stress the computer. A surge suppressor will not protect you from such problems since it is only there to suppress voltage spikes but not voltage drops. If you have a power failure, then a UPS is the only thing that can prevent your computer from having to do a hard shutdown.
Also in your case, I would not run the computer 24/7 since your power grid not that stable. This is probably the first line of defense.
If the power in your neighborhood is that dirty, you may want to look for a strong power supply with good power factor control as well. For most its just a gimmick or a small way of saving some electricity but for you it may help with power stability as well. Power factor control is basically a way to ensure that the power supply is flexible to real and reactive power. In an AC grid, the power comes down the line at 60Hz (for the US) and under normal conditions the voltage is synchronous with the current. However, when there is a strong reactive load put on the system (ie large numbers of electric motors and condensers (can we say air conditioners?) come online) then the current and the voltage becomes off phase and one gets the power to be asynchronous. Your PC runs off DC so the power supply in the PC rectifies the power from AC to DC but expects all the power to be synchronous (or near unity power factor). When it isn't, your power supply cannot provide a stable DC power and will not only fluctuate with any power fluctuation but also with any fluctuation with the power factor. A PSU with active power factor control helps stabilize this.
By the way, you are not the only person with a power factor problem in your power lines. Reactive load is becoming the main problem with grid stability in the US and somewhat in Europe as well. It is what caused the major blackout in the Northeast a few years back.
The other reason for a good PSU is heat. If you are having power factor control issues, you usually get lower efficiency of your power supply and less DC power output is attained for the same AC power input. However, the power lost does not just disappear but usually just get transformed to heat. So lower quality PSU's usually run hotter than good ones.
For your system, however, I am not sure what size (physical size and not power requirement) PSU fits into the case. If it can accept a standard ATX size PSU (if the present PSU follows the standard ATX 2.0 design) then it should be able to accept most PSU's out on the market. One of the best PSU's for power factor control and cool operation is the Seasonic S12 series. You probably do not need a large power supply (large electrically) since I don't think you are running a power hungry PC from what it sounds like (unless you are running a dual core Pentium D and two X1900XTX in crossfire. So a 400W power supply is probably fine. Seasonic does sell one that size but is not cheap. The Corsair is another good one but is bigger in power and probably more expensive. This may help cool down your PC by removing one of your heat sources.
Finally if you are having heat issues again, check the back of your case. Does it have a fan? Can you put in a bigger one? Put in the largest fan you possibly can to get that hot air out of there. If you are worried, you can run your PC with the side panel removed (just don't spill anything in there) to keep things cool. I know of a person who actually pointed a room fan at the open panel of his PC to keep it cool. Also if you have an open expansion slot available, you might want to buy a slot fan. You can find them at Staples, Circuit city and a few other places. They hook up to the PCI expansion slots off the back of the computer and will provide extra airflow. I use one on my beater wagon PC since it has an old case which does not accept case fans.
Anyway, good to hear that your PC is up and running again. Hope to see more Pictures of the Day.
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