Did my motherboard just go out?

Sounds like the rom drive is not up to scratch, or the ide cable, can you try another cable??

Also it could be that your cpu is overheating, what temps are registering in the bios??

Bloody newegg is giving 404 on the cpu link as well here so I don't know what it is, care to enlighten me please. Stock cooler on it??

Blasted newegg... Well it's an Intel e6750 2.66 g. And I replaced the stock fan with: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200013
and it keeps the temps around 40 degrees Celsius.

Well I have to go to bed for tonight, I'll be back tomorrow... thanks for helping so far (especially A True Folder).
 
That's how you do it, just drop in a windows disk (any disk except 95 will work) you don't need a serial or anything just the disk, it can even be a burnt disk, and away you go.

You don't even need a previous version with Vista! If you using the upgrade edition just start a install and don't enter the product key when prompt. It will ask you to select your edition of Vista. Select your edition then proceed with the install. After the installs complete just go into the getting started part of Vista and select view show more details. Go down to change product key enter your product key given with the upgrade disc then activate windows.

As for the new install problem it does sound like something on the motherboard is faulty.
 
Blasted newegg... Well it's an Intel e6750 2.66 g. And I replaced the stock fan with: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200013
and it keeps the temps around 40 degrees Celsius.

Well I have to go to bed for tonight, I'll be back tomorrow... thanks for helping so far (especially A True Folder).
OK, first up, is 40°C at idle??? then I'd hazard a guess that's where your problem lies, that's too hot for idle and god alone knows what it is reaching under load. Check the cooler is correctly mounted. What TIM did you use? from what I see on the egg site it bolts to the m/board utilising a backplate I presume, yes?? it doesn't use "push pins" like the stock cooler. Can you confirm please.

No worries about helping mate, I thought that's what we're all here for. ;) :D

....... snip .........
Yep I knew that and it is how I intend to do mine when I eventually upgrade to Vista 64bit (after SP1 sometime), the op was trying to install XP though ;)

I don't know about the board but I'm not too happy at the 40°C at idle.
 
Progress report:

Something really weird happened when I put the 80 gb Hard drive in... I tried it last night with vista, and it got to the point where you pick the partition, and there was nothing there. At all. So I can't go any further...

Then I try again today, and it tells me to insert the Windows XP installation cd (Vista was in), and it was already half way through installing XP. So i put the XP cd in out of curiosity, and it continues to install... But the problem is, XP was already on that hard drive, set up for my old computer, and I haven't tried installing XP on it since i first got XP when it came out. So it gets to where it wants the CD key, but I don't want to install XP while it's in the new comp... so I turn the comp off. None of this really matters, it's just so bizarre.

But about the CPU temps, the fan is hardly spinning when it's idle, and it speeds up as I start doing stuff (trying to install Vista). The exact Temp is 37 degrees. I really don't think theres a problem there. And yes, it does have a back plate thing.
 
Just something to fill in, when at the Bios it is not at idle but about 30% to 60% use of the CPU.
Also if nothing works just see if you can scrape up a DVD drive from somewhere and try it out. It might even be the IDE port so if it comes to you having to buy a new DVD drive get a sata drive.
 
Progress report:

Something really weird happened when I put the 80 gb Hard drive in... I tried it last night with vista, and it got to the point where you pick the partition, and there was nothing there. At all. So I can't go any further...

Then I try again today, and it tells me to insert the Windows XP installation cd (Vista was in), and it was already half way through installing XP. So i put the XP cd in out of curiosity, and it continues to install... But the problem is, XP was already on that hard drive, set up for my old computer, and I haven't tried installing XP on it since i first got XP when it came out. So it gets to where it wants the CD key, but I don't want to install XP while it's in the new comp... so I turn the comp off. None of this really matters, it's just so bizarre.

But about the CPU temps, the fan is hardly spinning when it's idle, and it speeds up as I start doing stuff (trying to install Vista). The exact Temp is 37 degrees. I really don't think theres a problem there. And yes, it does have a back plate thing.
Just so I can get this clear in my head, which drive is going to be your os drive, the 80GB or the 320GB? Which ever way you go only have that drive connected to the pc when formatting and installing, saves hassles.

The 80GB you put in was IDE?? it was set to slave on IDE1? you have the rom drive as master on ide1 so I guess the hdd is slaved. As to the partition problem, when you say "nothing there" what do you mean?? No option to do anything? no partition at all? Is the 80GB drive recognised in the bios? I installaed Vista from within XP to a seperate drive last time I did it but I would presume the setup would be similar to the XP one, delete old partition, create new one, install Windows.

Temps sound reasonable then I suppose at 37°C considering the unknown variables like ambient room temp, you're only 6°C hotter than my Quad.
 
Just so I can get this clear in my head, which drive is going to be your os drive, the 80GB or the 320GB? Which ever way you go only have that drive connected to the pc when formatting and installing, saves hassles.

The 80GB you put in was IDE?? it was set to slave on IDE1? you have the rom drive as master on ide1 so I guess the hdd is slaved. As to the partition problem, when you say "nothing there" what do you mean?? No option to do anything? no partition at all? Is the 80GB drive recognised in the bios? I installaed Vista from within XP to a seperate drive last time I did it but I would presume the setup would be similar to the XP one, delete old partition, create new one, install Windows.

Temps sound reasonable then I suppose at 37°C considering the unknown variables like ambient room temp, you're only 6°C hotter than my Quad.


It's a 250GB, not a 360GB, and it's the one I want to use. Well... I actually have two 250Gb, (the second one is 2004, IDE) and the 80GB is from 2001.

I'm thinking about starting a new thread, cause i'm past the first problem and onto the next. I can't get Vista on any of the Hard Drives. Here's the status of them all:

2001 80gb: Pulled from old computer that had windows XP in 2004. Still has Windows XP. When I try installing vista on it, it brings me to the page where it's suppose to show the partitions, and what I want to do. However, there are no partitions showing up, so I can't delete XP and install Vista.

2004 250GB: Recently reformatted, and has windows ME that I installed onto it from the Dell reinstallation cd from the old computer recently (am planning on using the XP upgrade CD I have, so i can have the old comp as a backup) When i put it in, it simply gets to a screen with a pretty Vista background and says "Please wait..." I left it like this for 3 hours, and nothing changed, so i assumed it wasn't going to work.

2007 250GB: During the middle of Vista installation, it shuts down and says there was a fatal hardware failure. I think I will have to send this one in and get it replaced... I sure hope it's the hard drive and not the Mobo or something like that.

So there's my current situation... Right now I'm trying to upgrade to XP with the 2004 hard drive, while it's in the new comp. I don't know if it will let me though, since ME is setup for the old comp.
 
OK, it's clearer now, all drives fail at some stage of the install, all drives are IDE, only two causes here really, faulty cable, faulty IDE controller.

Suggestions

1/. Try a different IDE cable
2/. Try the other IDE channel


Do you not have any other Windows disk at all to do a clean install with?

Moot point really because I think it will fail, not because ME is set up for a different pc but because I think you have a hardware problem.
 
Blast it all......... I just got the 80gb to show the partitions, and from there I continued to install.... until I got the blue "hardware failure" screen. That means it's more then likely not the hard drives. And the 2007 250gb HDD is SATA, not IDE. So what could it be? How do I find out if it's the RAM, PSU, CPU, GPU, MOBO, or CD drive? How can I fix it? Do I have to get something replaced?

Thanks.... I'm kinda depressed/stressed from all this.... If I don't respond, It's cause I jumped off a bridge... lol
 
What did you alter to get the partitions to show up?

With the hardware failure blue screens what is the error code? (if there is one that is)

If the 250GB is SATA and it is failing as well it could be your ram, cpu, rom drive, psu or m/board, have you run memtest86+ to check the ram?

Have you tried a different IDE cable for the rom drive? Of all the common factors this is the one thing I haven't heard you say you'd changed and it is common to all install attempts.

Really all you can do to isolate the faulty component is to go back to basics, cpu, one stick of ram, hdd and rom drive.

The psu you'd test with a multi meter to ensure you're getting a solid 12v
CPU is hard to test outside of the windows environment.
ram can be tested with Memtest
I doubt its the gpu, also hard to test outside the windows environment
m/board is a specialist type thing, you'd need to rma it.

I would suggest the cheapest option would be to try a new rom drive but with all the drives you've tried failing I don't think that is the problem, but you never know.

I'm running out of ideas here, this is proving difficult to troubleshoot.
 
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