Help needed to Identify Instability Problem

Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv

Since it is not working correctly then I suggest you send it back and ask
for a refund. Go to someone that has ethics and will give good service. It
may cost 5 bob more, but it may save you hundreds over the next few years.

Check your legal rights first and make certain they are not attempting to
opt out of honouring warrantees that they are required to honour. (For
example, here we have a couple of particular laws covering retail purchase,
one of which says that the goods must be fit for the pupose they are
intended - it is illegal under that law to attempt to opt out of any
warrantee or requirement under the act and attempting to do so attracts a
much stiffer penalty then merely being incompetent).

Failing that....

1. I would check the power supply rating.
2. Click Start, Run sigverif.exe enter
sigverif will verify all drivers (and a lot of other things) are correctly
signed. It will list the driver files that are not. If you are not sure what
the file names or infor means, post back here and someone will be able to
tell you.
3. Odds are they haven't wired the system up correctly.

I wouldn't wear this labour fee for a system that is not yet working! No
way!
If they want to "earn" another $90, then all they have to do is wire some
things up badly....

- Tim


"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv

"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv


I agree with Tim ... if you've just bought it and it's not working properly
then how can they charge you for fixing it? ... not sure about consumer
rights in US but I'm guessing that it's the same as the UK where the product
has to do what it's advertised to do. In your case the ports should all
work, it shouldn't give errors about drivers and you should be able to
transfer data around without it crashing.

Take it back and make them either fix it (for free) or get a full refund.
Personally I'd skip the fixing thing and get a refund just because of their
appaling customer support and because they don't seem to be able to build a
working machine. Companies like this prey on people who aren't comfortable
about building/working on their own PC. You could be back and forth to their
place a number of times paying $45/hour for faults that they may be putting
onto or causing on your machine due to their lack of skill.

If you're not happy about building a machine yourself or don't know someone
who'd do it for you then I'd buy from a reputable maker such as Dell afaik
they seem to have some good deals ... just make sure it's what you want and
you're able to upgrade it (video card etc.) if you'll want to in the future.

Mal

"Mal" wrote in message
...

"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv


I agree with Tim ... if you've just bought it and it's not working
properly
then how can they charge you for fixing it? ... not sure about consumer
rights in US but I'm guessing that it's the same as the UK where the
product
has to do what it's advertised to do. In your case the ports should all
work, it shouldn't give errors about drivers and you should be able to
transfer data around without it crashing.

When I had them build the system they installed
some old IDE drives from my old machine but all those
IDE drives were working fine on my old machine.
I think the fact that old equipment is in the new machine
will effect the warranty but labor was never a part
of the warranty in the first place.
I put my faith in a hard up mom and pop shop
because it was close to where I live because i have
no car to get around...I guess if I was smart I would have gone
to HP or someplace like that which at least has
resources to make good on their equipment.
I have always hated small business people and
this simply serves to reinforce my hatred.
Small buisness lacks the resources necessary to properly
build and test machines of this complexity.
Maybe hate is the wrong word to use here but it most closely
approaches the feelings I have.


Take it back and make them either fix it (for free) or get a full refund.
Personally I'd skip the fixing thing and get a refund just because of
their
appaling customer support and because they don't seem to be able to build
a
working machine. Companies like this prey on people who aren't comfortable
about building/working on their own PC. You could be back and forth to
their
place a number of times paying $45/hour for faults that they may be
putting
onto or causing on your machine due to their lack of skill.

If you're not happy about building a machine yourself or don't know
someone
who'd do it for you then I'd buy from a reputable maker such as Dell afaik
they seem to have some good deals ... just make sure it's what you want
and
you're able to upgrade it (video card etc.) if you'll want to in the
future.

Mal

Small Ma and Pa shop has nothing to do with it.
Sounds like you are being exploited.

Here - in New Zealand, most shops are "Small". The big ones are no doubt
small by overseas standards. If they choose to go into business offering
products and services and undertake tasks to perform for payment, then the
onus of responsibility is on them to have adequate skills, experience, and
resources.

There are few small shops here that I would not go to. (I actually do go to
some small shops here for small parts purchases - EG single disc drive - as
I can get the product off the shelf on the way to the customer, know 100%
where I stand with warrantee, know the price is above wholesale, but also
know I would have to wait a day or two wholesale). There are none that I
have ever heard of that would attempt to exploit a person in such a manner.
Such shops would simply go out of business. Many do, and of those I know of
that have come and gone (a lot), the main reason why they "go" is because
either a) that could not chew off a big enough market share quick enough to
become profitable, or b) they overextended themselves, or c) they dipped
into the low quality product realm too far too often and were swamped by
returns / service requirements under warrantee. If you have a warrantee with
a business that is likely to go out of business then you may as well not
have a warrantee.

Installing a couple of disc drives into a new computer that is custom built
is an extra 5 minutes work. If one of the drives is to be the boot drive and
its running XP then they needed to do a repair install to get the hardware
config sorted. Elapsed time for that is about 30 minutes, attention time is
less than 5 minutes and saves them having to install an OS IE saves 5
minutes too.

Check your legal rights. Check to see if the is a local community free legal
advice service. Document everything. Don't open the box if you have not
already. Quote our advice.

If you decide to severe links with the business and do it yourself then post
back here.

Best of luck.

- Tim





"gmv" wrote in message
news:XI2Vc.15693$Fg5.3380@attbi_s53...

"Mal" wrote in message
...

"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv


I agree with Tim ... if you've just bought it and it's not working
properly
then how can they charge you for fixing it? ... not sure about consumer
rights in US but I'm guessing that it's the same as the UK where the
product
has to do what it's advertised to do. In your case the ports should all
work, it shouldn't give errors about drivers and you should be able to
transfer data around without it crashing.

When I had them build the system they installed
some old IDE drives from my old machine but all those
IDE drives were working fine on my old machine.
I think the fact that old equipment is in the new machine
will effect the warranty but labor was never a part
of the warranty in the first place.
I put my faith in a hard up mom and pop shop
because it was close to where I live because i have
no car to get around...I guess if I was smart I would have gone
to HP or someplace like that which at least has
resources to make good on their equipment.
I have always hated small business people and
this simply serves to reinforce my hatred.
Small buisness lacks the resources necessary to properly
build and test machines of this complexity.
Maybe hate is the wrong word to use here but it most closely
approaches the feelings I have.


Take it back and make them either fix it (for free) or get a full refund.
Personally I'd skip the fixing thing and get a refund just because of
their
appaling customer support and because they don't seem to be able to build
a
working machine. Companies like this prey on people who aren't
comfortable
about building/working on their own PC. You could be back and forth to
their
place a number of times paying $45/hour for faults that they may be
putting
onto or causing on your machine due to their lack of skill.

If you're not happy about building a machine yourself or don't know
someone
who'd do it for you then I'd buy from a reputable maker such as Dell
afaik
they seem to have some good deals ... just make sure it's what you want
and
you're able to upgrade it (video card etc.) if you'll want to in the
future.

Mal

I guess I have decided to live with the problems because
I do not have any way to transport myself around to
get things done the only way to travel around here
is by taxi cab and that cost is outragious.
I can not afford a second CPU or motherboard to
troubleshoot this instability. What might be of interest
now is a decent diagnostic program which will fully
exercise this machine and tell me what the problem is.
When I worked for DEC we always had known good parts
we could substitute to help troubleshoot things.
The only thing I am sure of is the last time I had this kind of trouble
it was fixed with a new motherboard.
So I guess the question here is now do you know of a good
Diagnostic that can be used to test all facets of a PC ?
This would include USB ports and heavy use of the various IDE drives.
The one i have is called Tufftest Pro but it will not test everything
it will not test the CD drives or the USB port and I have difficulty
selecting memory ranges over 1GB to test.
A computer is like a car in that it is a complex piece of
machinery and it should have special laws to insure people
will get a machine that properly functions in the first place.
Maybe we need a lemon law for computers.


"Tim" wrote in message ...
Small Ma and Pa shop has nothing to do with it.
Sounds like you are being exploited.

Here - in New Zealand, most shops are "Small". The big ones are no doubt
small by overseas standards. If they choose to go into business offering
products and services and undertake tasks to perform for payment, then the
onus of responsibility is on them to have adequate skills, experience, and
resources.

There are few small shops here that I would not go to. (I actually do go
to
some small shops here for small parts purchases - EG single disc drive -
as
I can get the product off the shelf on the way to the customer, know 100%
where I stand with warrantee, know the price is above wholesale, but also
know I would have to wait a day or two wholesale). There are none that I
have ever heard of that would attempt to exploit a person in such a
manner.
Such shops would simply go out of business. Many do, and of those I know
of
that have come and gone (a lot), the main reason why they "go" is because
either a) that could not chew off a big enough market share quick enough
to
become profitable, or b) they overextended themselves, or c) they dipped
into the low quality product realm too far too often and were swamped by
returns / service requirements under warrantee. If you have a warrantee
with
a business that is likely to go out of business then you may as well not
have a warrantee.

Installing a couple of disc drives into a new computer that is custom
built
is an extra 5 minutes work. If one of the drives is to be the boot drive
and
its running XP then they needed to do a repair install to get the hardware
config sorted. Elapsed time for that is about 30 minutes, attention time
is
less than 5 minutes and saves them having to install an OS IE saves 5
minutes too.

Check your legal rights. Check to see if the is a local community free
legal
advice service. Document everything. Don't open the box if you have not
already. Quote our advice.

If you decide to severe links with the business and do it yourself then
post
back here.

Best of luck.

- Tim





"gmv" wrote in message
news:XI2Vc.15693$Fg5.3380@attbi_s53...

"Mal" wrote in message
...

"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv


I agree with Tim ... if you've just bought it and it's not working
properly
then how can they charge you for fixing it? ... not sure about consumer
rights in US but I'm guessing that it's the same as the UK where the
product
has to do what it's advertised to do. In your case the ports should all
work, it shouldn't give errors about drivers and you should be able to
transfer data around without it crashing.

When I had them build the system they installed
some old IDE drives from my old machine but all those
IDE drives were working fine on my old machine.
I think the fact that old equipment is in the new machine
will effect the warranty but labor was never a part
of the warranty in the first place.
I put my faith in a hard up mom and pop shop
because it was close to where I live because i have
no car to get around...I guess if I was smart I would have gone
to HP or someplace like that which at least has
resources to make good on their equipment.
I have always hated small business people and
this simply serves to reinforce my hatred.
Small buisness lacks the resources necessary to properly
build and test machines of this complexity.
Maybe hate is the wrong word to use here but it most closely
approaches the feelings I have.


Take it back and make them either fix it (for free) or get a full
refund.
Personally I'd skip the fixing thing and get a refund just because of
their
appaling customer support and because they don't seem to be able to
build
a
working machine. Companies like this prey on people who aren't
comfortable
about building/working on their own PC. You could be back and forth to
their
place a number of times paying $45/hour for faults that they may be
putting
onto or causing on your machine due to their lack of skill.

If you're not happy about building a machine yourself or don't know
someone
who'd do it for you then I'd buy from a reputable maker such as Dell
afaik
they seem to have some good deals ... just make sure it's what you want
and
you're able to upgrade it (video card etc.) if you'll want to in the
future.

Mal

To test memory, try memtest86 from www.memtest86.com - you create a boot
floppy to test the memory using the downloaded program, so read the
instructions on the web site / print them out before you get going. Note
what it says about Test #5.

Many use bench mark programs to exercise other parts of the system.

Windows can be used via the shutdown command and a scheduled task set to run
say 2 minutes after system boot. Give your self enought time to be able to
kill it. open a command window and shutdown /? to see the options. For
testing disc drives many use large file copies / command files to move files
around in circles or ntbackup to continuously backup / write / verify to
other drives. If you have a USB drive then there is a simple test for the
USB interfaces.

Prime95 is used for CPU testing often.

For your USB problems, I would lay bets that the cabling is just not right,
so when you are ready to tackle that post back with details on how its wired
up and someone is bound to help. If 1 port only is stuffed, then you no
doubt have others.... all is not lost?

Instability can be caused by many things - turn off automatic restart in
Control Panel, System, Startup / Recovery and uncheck the automatic restart
option. This way if you get a BSOD crash you will be able to note down the
STOP code which is most important in diagnosing this kind of thing. If you
get random applicaiton crashes and different BSOD's then I would concentrate
first on memory, then check the PSU is large enough for the system.

Resetting cmos (as per the motherboard manual) and checking the settings are
conservative (not peak performance) may help if you have memory issues.
Check bios version with manufacturers web site.

Install either MBM5 (if settings for your motherboard are available) or the
appropriate h/w monitor for your motherboard and keep an eye on CPU temp and
Voltages. Voltages should not move much and should be within 5% all the
time. Sometimes some voltages reported just are not used... Intel chips
should not go over normally 55c idle (including new hot ones - old ones,
about 40 to 45c idle) - depends on the chip and the ambient temp. If you
suspect temparature is an issue, take the side off: does it get better? If
the CPU temp goes over 65 - 70 then check the heatsink mounting is correct &
heatgunk has been used. If any hotter than that, I would turn off straight
away and head straight for the CPU heatsink....

If things are really bad, then strip the system down to a minimum to try and
identify which part of the system is causing the faults - remove excess disc
drives, whatever is not needed to boot.

As a reminder, run sigverif.exe (start, run, sigverif) and any unsigned
drivers should be listed. If it is for say sound, then if you suspect that
this device is causing instability, deinstall the device in Device Manager
(control panel, system, hardware), and reboot, go into bios and disable the
device.

HTH
- Tim



"gmv" wrote in message
news:1fdVc.3029$9d6.2806@attbi_s54...
I guess I have decided to live with the problems because
I do not have any way to transport myself around to
get things done the only way to travel around here
is by taxi cab and that cost is outragious.
I can not afford a second CPU or motherboard to
troubleshoot this instability. What might be of interest
now is a decent diagnostic program which will fully
exercise this machine and tell me what the problem is.
When I worked for DEC we always had known good parts
we could substitute to help troubleshoot things.
The only thing I am sure of is the last time I had this kind of trouble
it was fixed with a new motherboard.
So I guess the question here is now do you know of a good
Diagnostic that can be used to test all facets of a PC ?
This would include USB ports and heavy use of the various IDE drives.
The one i have is called Tufftest Pro but it will not test everything
it will not test the CD drives or the USB port and I have difficulty
selecting memory ranges over 1GB to test.
A computer is like a car in that it is a complex piece of
machinery and it should have special laws to insure people
will get a machine that properly functions in the first place.
Maybe we need a lemon law for computers.


"Tim" wrote in message
...
Small Ma and Pa shop has nothing to do with it.
Sounds like you are being exploited.

Here - in New Zealand, most shops are "Small". The big ones are no doubt
small by overseas standards. If they choose to go into business offering
products and services and undertake tasks to perform for payment, then
the
onus of responsibility is on them to have adequate skills, experience,
and
resources.

There are few small shops here that I would not go to. (I actually do go
to
some small shops here for small parts purchases - EG single disc drive -
as
I can get the product off the shelf on the way to the customer, know 100%
where I stand with warrantee, know the price is above wholesale, but also
know I would have to wait a day or two wholesale). There are none that I
have ever heard of that would attempt to exploit a person in such a
manner.
Such shops would simply go out of business. Many do, and of those I know
of
that have come and gone (a lot), the main reason why they "go" is because
either a) that could not chew off a big enough market share quick enough
to
become profitable, or b) they overextended themselves, or c) they dipped
into the low quality product realm too far too often and were swamped by
returns / service requirements under warrantee. If you have a warrantee
with
a business that is likely to go out of business then you may as well not
have a warrantee.

Installing a couple of disc drives into a new computer that is custom
built
is an extra 5 minutes work. If one of the drives is to be the boot drive
and
its running XP then they needed to do a repair install to get the
hardware
config sorted. Elapsed time for that is about 30 minutes, attention time
is
less than 5 minutes and saves them having to install an OS IE saves 5
minutes too.

Check your legal rights. Check to see if the is a local community free
legal
advice service. Document everything. Don't open the box if you have not
already. Quote our advice.

If you decide to severe links with the business and do it yourself then
post
back here.

Best of luck.

- Tim





"gmv" wrote in message
news:XI2Vc.15693$Fg5.3380@attbi_s53...

"Mal" wrote in message
...

"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv


I agree with Tim ... if you've just bought it and it's not working
properly
then how can they charge you for fixing it? ... not sure about
consumer
rights in US but I'm guessing that it's the same as the UK where the
product
has to do what it's advertised to do. In your case the ports should
all
work, it shouldn't give errors about drivers and you should be able to
transfer data around without it crashing.

When I had them build the system they installed
some old IDE drives from my old machine but all those
IDE drives were working fine on my old machine.
I think the fact that old equipment is in the new machine
will effect the warranty but labor was never a part
of the warranty in the first place.
I put my faith in a hard up mom and pop shop
because it was close to where I live because i have
no car to get around...I guess if I was smart I would have gone
to HP or someplace like that which at least has
resources to make good on their equipment.
I have always hated small business people and
this simply serves to reinforce my hatred.
Small buisness lacks the resources necessary to properly
build and test machines of this complexity.
Maybe hate is the wrong word to use here but it most closely
approaches the feelings I have.


Take it back and make them either fix it (for free) or get a full
refund.
Personally I'd skip the fixing thing and get a refund just because of
their
appaling customer support and because they don't seem to be able to
build
a
working machine. Companies like this prey on people who aren't
comfortable
about building/working on their own PC. You could be back and forth to
their
place a number of times paying $45/hour for faults that they may be
putting
onto or causing on your machine due to their lack of skill.

If you're not happy about building a machine yourself or don't know
someone
who'd do it for you then I'd buy from a reputable maker such as Dell
afaik
they seem to have some good deals ... just make sure it's what you
want
and
you're able to upgrade it (video card etc.) if you'll want to in the
future.

Mal

If you need a manual for your motherboard, it is available he

http://tw.giga-byte.com/Download/Dow..._8s648fx_e.pdf

The details on the wiring of the front USB connectors are on page 20 (24 in
adobe).
According to the manual you should have 4 front connectors.
The cables are usually labelled.

- Tim




"gmv" wrote in message
news:1fdVc.3029$9d6.2806@attbi_s54...
I guess I have decided to live with the problems because
I do not have any way to transport myself around to
get things done the only way to travel around here
is by taxi cab and that cost is outragious.
I can not afford a second CPU or motherboard to
troubleshoot this instability. What might be of interest
now is a decent diagnostic program which will fully
exercise this machine and tell me what the problem is.
When I worked for DEC we always had known good parts
we could substitute to help troubleshoot things.
The only thing I am sure of is the last time I had this kind of trouble
it was fixed with a new motherboard.
So I guess the question here is now do you know of a good
Diagnostic that can be used to test all facets of a PC ?
This would include USB ports and heavy use of the various IDE drives.
The one i have is called Tufftest Pro but it will not test everything
it will not test the CD drives or the USB port and I have difficulty
selecting memory ranges over 1GB to test.
A computer is like a car in that it is a complex piece of
machinery and it should have special laws to insure people
will get a machine that properly functions in the first place.
Maybe we need a lemon law for computers.


"Tim" wrote in message
...
Small Ma and Pa shop has nothing to do with it.
Sounds like you are being exploited.

Here - in New Zealand, most shops are "Small". The big ones are no doubt
small by overseas standards. If they choose to go into business offering
products and services and undertake tasks to perform for payment, then
the
onus of responsibility is on them to have adequate skills, experience,
and
resources.

There are few small shops here that I would not go to. (I actually do go
to
some small shops here for small parts purchases - EG single disc drive -
as
I can get the product off the shelf on the way to the customer, know 100%
where I stand with warrantee, know the price is above wholesale, but also
know I would have to wait a day or two wholesale). There are none that I
have ever heard of that would attempt to exploit a person in such a
manner.
Such shops would simply go out of business. Many do, and of those I know
of
that have come and gone (a lot), the main reason why they "go" is because
either a) that could not chew off a big enough market share quick enough
to
become profitable, or b) they overextended themselves, or c) they dipped
into the low quality product realm too far too often and were swamped by
returns / service requirements under warrantee. If you have a warrantee
with
a business that is likely to go out of business then you may as well not
have a warrantee.

Installing a couple of disc drives into a new computer that is custom
built
is an extra 5 minutes work. If one of the drives is to be the boot drive
and
its running XP then they needed to do a repair install to get the
hardware
config sorted. Elapsed time for that is about 30 minutes, attention time
is
less than 5 minutes and saves them having to install an OS IE saves 5
minutes too.

Check your legal rights. Check to see if the is a local community free
legal
advice service. Document everything. Don't open the box if you have not
already. Quote our advice.

If you decide to severe links with the business and do it yourself then
post
back here.

Best of luck.

- Tim





"gmv" wrote in message
news:XI2Vc.15693$Fg5.3380@attbi_s53...

"Mal" wrote in message
...

"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv


I agree with Tim ... if you've just bought it and it's not working
properly
then how can they charge you for fixing it? ... not sure about
consumer
rights in US but I'm guessing that it's the same as the UK where the
product
has to do what it's advertised to do. In your case the ports should
all
work, it shouldn't give errors about drivers and you should be able to
transfer data around without it crashing.

When I had them build the system they installed
some old IDE drives from my old machine but all those
IDE drives were working fine on my old machine.
I think the fact that old equipment is in the new machine
will effect the warranty but labor was never a part
of the warranty in the first place.
I put my faith in a hard up mom and pop shop
because it was close to where I live because i have
no car to get around...I guess if I was smart I would have gone
to HP or someplace like that which at least has
resources to make good on their equipment.
I have always hated small business people and
this simply serves to reinforce my hatred.
Small buisness lacks the resources necessary to properly
build and test machines of this complexity.
Maybe hate is the wrong word to use here but it most closely
approaches the feelings I have.


Take it back and make them either fix it (for free) or get a full
refund.
Personally I'd skip the fixing thing and get a refund just because of
their
appaling customer support and because they don't seem to be able to
build
a
working machine. Companies like this prey on people who aren't
comfortable
about building/working on their own PC. You could be back and forth to
their
place a number of times paying $45/hour for faults that they may be
putting
onto or causing on your machine due to their lack of skill.

If you're not happy about building a machine yourself or don't know
someone
who'd do it for you then I'd buy from a reputable maker such as Dell
afaik
they seem to have some good deals ... just make sure it's what you
want
and
you're able to upgrade it (video card etc.) if you'll want to in the
future.

Mal

Thank-you for the help.
I will have to disappear for several days
and play with these ideas.


"Tim" wrote in message ...
If you need a manual for your motherboard, it is available he


http://tw.giga-byte.com/Download/Dow..._8s648fx_e.pdf

The details on the wiring of the front USB connectors are on page 20 (24
in
adobe).
According to the manual you should have 4 front connectors.
The cables are usually labelled.

- Tim




"gmv" wrote in message
news:1fdVc.3029$9d6.2806@attbi_s54...
I guess I have decided to live with the problems because
I do not have any way to transport myself around to
get things done the only way to travel around here
is by taxi cab and that cost is outragious.
I can not afford a second CPU or motherboard to
troubleshoot this instability. What might be of interest
now is a decent diagnostic program which will fully
exercise this machine and tell me what the problem is.
When I worked for DEC we always had known good parts
we could substitute to help troubleshoot things.
The only thing I am sure of is the last time I had this kind of trouble
it was fixed with a new motherboard.
So I guess the question here is now do you know of a good
Diagnostic that can be used to test all facets of a PC ?
This would include USB ports and heavy use of the various IDE drives.
The one i have is called Tufftest Pro but it will not test everything
it will not test the CD drives or the USB port and I have difficulty
selecting memory ranges over 1GB to test.
A computer is like a car in that it is a complex piece of
machinery and it should have special laws to insure people
will get a machine that properly functions in the first place.
Maybe we need a lemon law for computers.


"Tim" wrote in message
...
Small Ma and Pa shop has nothing to do with it.
Sounds like you are being exploited.

Here - in New Zealand, most shops are "Small". The big ones are no
doubt
small by overseas standards. If they choose to go into business
offering
products and services and undertake tasks to perform for payment, then
the
onus of responsibility is on them to have adequate skills, experience,
and
resources.

There are few small shops here that I would not go to. (I actually do
go
to
some small shops here for small parts purchases - EG single disc
drive -
as
I can get the product off the shelf on the way to the customer, know
100%
where I stand with warrantee, know the price is above wholesale, but
also
know I would have to wait a day or two wholesale). There are none that
I
have ever heard of that would attempt to exploit a person in such a
manner.
Such shops would simply go out of business. Many do, and of those I
know
of
that have come and gone (a lot), the main reason why they "go" is
because
either a) that could not chew off a big enough market share quick
enough
to
become profitable, or b) they overextended themselves, or c) they
dipped
into the low quality product realm too far too often and were swamped
by
returns / service requirements under warrantee. If you have a warrantee
with
a business that is likely to go out of business then you may as well
not
have a warrantee.

Installing a couple of disc drives into a new computer that is custom
built
is an extra 5 minutes work. If one of the drives is to be the boot
drive
and
its running XP then they needed to do a repair install to get the
hardware
config sorted. Elapsed time for that is about 30 minutes, attention
time
is
less than 5 minutes and saves them having to install an OS IE saves 5
minutes too.

Check your legal rights. Check to see if the is a local community free
legal
advice service. Document everything. Don't open the box if you have not
already. Quote our advice.

If you decide to severe links with the business and do it yourself then
post
back here.

Best of luck.

- Tim





"gmv" wrote in message
news:XI2Vc.15693$Fg5.3380@attbi_s53...

"Mal" wrote in message
...

"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv


I agree with Tim ... if you've just bought it and it's not working
properly
then how can they charge you for fixing it? ... not sure about
consumer
rights in US but I'm guessing that it's the same as the UK where the
product
has to do what it's advertised to do. In your case the ports should
all
work, it shouldn't give errors about drivers and you should be able
to
transfer data around without it crashing.

When I had them build the system they installed
some old IDE drives from my old machine but all those
IDE drives were working fine on my old machine.
I think the fact that old equipment is in the new machine
will effect the warranty but labor was never a part
of the warranty in the first place.
I put my faith in a hard up mom and pop shop
because it was close to where I live because i have
no car to get around...I guess if I was smart I would have gone
to HP or someplace like that which at least has
resources to make good on their equipment.
I have always hated small business people and
this simply serves to reinforce my hatred.
Small buisness lacks the resources necessary to properly
build and test machines of this complexity.
Maybe hate is the wrong word to use here but it most closely
approaches the feelings I have.


Take it back and make them either fix it (for free) or get a full
refund.
Personally I'd skip the fixing thing and get a refund just because
of
their
appaling customer support and because they don't seem to be able to
build
a
working machine. Companies like this prey on people who aren't
comfortable
about building/working on their own PC. You could be back and forth
to
their
place a number of times paying $45/hour for faults that they may be
putting
onto or causing on your machine due to their lack of skill.

If you're not happy about building a machine yourself or don't know
someone
who'd do it for you then I'd buy from a reputable maker such as Dell
afaik
they seem to have some good deals ... just make sure it's what you
want
and
you're able to upgrade it (video card etc.) if you'll want to in the
future.

Mal

"Tim" wrote in message ...
If you need a manual for your motherboard, it is available he

http://tw.giga-byte.com/Download/Dow..._8s648fx_e.pdf

The details on the wiring of the front USB connectors are on page 20 (24
in adobe).
According to the manual you should have 4 front connectors.
The cables are usually labelled.

- Tim


I have four USB connectors in the back of the case and two
USB connectors in the front. It is the second one in the front
that is bad.

I found a major trouble with this machine when I ran Memtest86-3.1a
it would fail test 5 and only the last 2% of test 5 I removed one ram
card and now it will only fail test 5 maybe one bit bad in 5 passes.
Something to do with a block move instruction in the CPU so I think
this ram is not right for the motherboard.
It is a DDR400 ram but I understand now this motherboard
is very picky about what ram is used.
Until i solve the ram problem I am not worried about anything else.

Thanks for your help.


--
Regards;
gmv





"gmv" wrote in message
news:1fdVc.3029$9d6.2806@attbi_s54...
I guess I have decided to live with the problems because
I do not have any way to transport myself around to
get things done the only way to travel around here
is by taxi cab and that cost is outragious.
I can not afford a second CPU or motherboard to
troubleshoot this instability. What might be of interest
now is a decent diagnostic program which will fully
exercise this machine and tell me what the problem is.
When I worked for DEC we always had known good parts
we could substitute to help troubleshoot things.
The only thing I am sure of is the last time I had this kind of trouble
it was fixed with a new motherboard.
So I guess the question here is now do you know of a good
Diagnostic that can be used to test all facets of a PC ?
This would include USB ports and heavy use of the various IDE drives.
The one i have is called Tufftest Pro but it will not test everything
it will not test the CD drives or the USB port and I have difficulty
selecting memory ranges over 1GB to test.
A computer is like a car in that it is a complex piece of
machinery and it should have special laws to insure people
will get a machine that properly functions in the first place.
Maybe we need a lemon law for computers.


"Tim" wrote in message
...
Small Ma and Pa shop has nothing to do with it.
Sounds like you are being exploited.

Here - in New Zealand, most shops are "Small". The big ones are no doubt
small by overseas standards. If they choose to go into business offering
products and services and undertake tasks to perform for payment, then
the
onus of responsibility is on them to have adequate skills, experience,
and
resources.

There are few small shops here that I would not go to. (I actually do go
to
some small shops here for small parts purchases - EG single disc drive -
as
I can get the product off the shelf on the way to the customer, know
100%
where I stand with warrantee, know the price is above wholesale, but
also
know I would have to wait a day or two wholesale). There are none that I
have ever heard of that would attempt to exploit a person in such a
manner.
Such shops would simply go out of business. Many do, and of those I know
of
that have come and gone (a lot), the main reason why they "go" is
because
either a) that could not chew off a big enough market share quick enough
to
become profitable, or b) they overextended themselves, or c) they dipped
into the low quality product realm too far too often and were swamped by
returns / service requirements under warrantee. If you have a warrantee
with
a business that is likely to go out of business then you may as well not
have a warrantee.

Installing a couple of disc drives into a new computer that is custom
built
is an extra 5 minutes work. If one of the drives is to be the boot drive
and
its running XP then they needed to do a repair install to get the
hardware
config sorted. Elapsed time for that is about 30 minutes, attention time
is
less than 5 minutes and saves them having to install an OS IE saves 5
minutes too.

Check your legal rights. Check to see if the is a local community free
legal
advice service. Document everything. Don't open the box if you have not
already. Quote our advice.

If you decide to severe links with the business and do it yourself then
post
back here.

Best of luck.

- Tim





"gmv" wrote in message
news:XI2Vc.15693$Fg5.3380@attbi_s53...

"Mal" wrote in message
...

"gmv" wrote in message
news:EZYUc.14482$Fg5.10677@attbi_s53...
Hello,

I have just had a new system built with
the following motherboard:

ga-8s648fx-l

I have DDR400 RAM and a pentium 4 3Ghz CPU.

I have noticed two seperate problems maybe three
since receiving the system and need help in troubleshooting.

1. The main problem is that when doing a CD transfer or
a HD transfer of data no matter which drive is active
the system will randomly restart after transferring maybe 500MB or
2GB or anywhere actually but the thing is its restart point
is seemingly random. This makes doing a multiple disk
operation practically impossible.

2. I have also received a Windows XP error saying I have
a badly written driver but Win XP can not tell me
which driver is bad.

3. I have two USB ports on the front panel and only one
will seem to work.
There are a total of 6 USB ports available for use.

The reason I am seeking help here for a new system
is that the people who built it will not guarantee
for labor only for parts and at $45/hr I can not afford
to put any more money out for this system so i must
troubleshoot it myself.
I know someone out there must have had a similar problem
and can help me troubleshoot this seemingly unstable system.
Any help in resolving these troubles is appreciated.


--
Regards;
gmv


I agree with Tim ... if you've just bought it and it's not working
properly
then how can they charge you for fixing it? ... not sure about
consumer
rights in US but I'm guessing that it's the same as the UK where the
product
has to do what it's advertised to do. In your case the ports should
all
work, it shouldn't give errors about drivers and you should be able
to
transfer data around without it crashing.

When I had them build the system they installed
some old IDE drives from my old machine but all those
IDE drives were working fine on my old machine.
I think the fact that old equipment is in the new machine
will effect the warranty but labor was never a part
of the warranty in the first place.
I put my faith in a hard up mom and pop shop
because it was close to where I live because i have
no car to get around...I guess if I was smart I would have gone
to HP or someplace like that which at least has
resources to make good on their equipment.
I have always hated small business people and
this simply serves to reinforce my hatred.
Small buisness lacks the resources necessary to properly
build and test machines of this complexity.
Maybe hate is the wrong word to use here but it most closely
approaches the feelings I have.


Take it back and make them either fix it (for free) or get a full
refund.
Personally I'd skip the fixing thing and get a refund just because of
their
appaling customer support and because they don't seem to be able to
build
a
working machine. Companies like this prey on people who aren't
comfortable
about building/working on their own PC. You could be back and forth
to
their
place a number of times paying $45/hour for faults that they may be
putting
onto or causing on your machine due to their lack of skill.

If you're not happy about building a machine yourself or don't know
someone
who'd do it for you then I'd buy from a reputable maker such as Dell
afaik
they seem to have some good deals ... just make sure it's what you
want
and
you're able to upgrade it (video card etc.) if you'll want to in the
future.

Mal