Help! New machine that is doing strange things...

[wheadies]

Hi folks. I have a serious problem, and I hope that someone out there can provide me some answers. I just built a new PC (my first attempt at this) and everything seemed to be working fine. The machine will POST just fine, and I even get to the Windows Setup screen and can partition the drive. But then, I get this God-awful sound coming from the computer (almost like a dial-up modem handshaking sound) and then the system powers down. That's as far as I get.

However, I can run the system indefinitely on a Knoppix or an Ubuntu live CD. But as soon as I hook up the hard drive, back to the same routine. Here's the specs on the system:

Ultra 600w ATX PS
WD Caviar SE 200GB EIDE HD 7200/8MB/ATA-100
Ultra 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz CL3 (2 sticks)
XFX GeForce FX 5500 256MB TV/DVI AGP Video Card
TurtleBeach Montego 7.1 DDL Sound Card
Toshiba 16x Dual Layer DVD +/- RW
Gigabyte 7VT600P-RZ Socket A Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP3000+ Socket A CPU Barton Core 333FSB

Hope that someone can give me some advice on fixing this problem. Thanks in advance for your help.

[J_Search]

wheadies,

Sounds (no pun intended) like you have a bad hard drive. Attempt to reach the Windows Recovery Console with the Windows CD. Once there, type:chkdsk /r, let it run its course, then type: chkdsk /f. Make note of any messages you receive.

J_

[BuggZ]

First chachk that no cables (especially from the hard drive) are interfering with the CPU fan. Check fo loose hard drive screws and or mounts. If these are okay and if you are completely disconnecting the hard drive when you are using the live CD, then that is the next thing I would suspect. Is the drive new? if so, you should run the Western Digital diagnostics program from the CD that came with your drive. If the drive fails, return it to the place of purchase. Just because a drive is new doesn't mean it can't be defective. If the drive is used, then you may just have to buy a new one if it is not under warranty. If the drive passes diagnostics, check the other fans in the system, check for loose cables, and make sure the controller board on the bottom of your hard drive is not touching the case metal and grounding. Also check the length of the screws used for the hard drive and optical drives. If they are too long they can possibly contact the circuit boards inside. If they are the screws that came in the box with the drives, they should be right.

[wheadies]

Thanks for the initial help, folks. I'm suspecting it's the hard drive, but i didn't know of any way to check that out. I'll try what has been posted so far and get back with you. If anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to throw them my way! Thanks again.

[wheadies]

Back again, folks. I couldn't do anything with my old hard drive, so I got a brand new Maxtor 300GB. Everything seemed to be going well, but I still can't install Windows. Just before I get to the format drive screen in Windows XP setup, I get warning message saying that the computer will be shut down to prevent any damage. At the bottom of the message, the computer displays a list of numbers, I'm assuming they reference some sort of error message. Any help out there for me? Thanks in advance.

[wheadies]

OK, folks. I copied down the errors that I was getting on the blue screen. First one gives me this number: 0x0000008E. Googled it and said that one of the RAM modules might be bad. So, I pulled one out, and rebooted. Then I get this notification: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and the number 0x0000007E. From Microsoft's site: "This problem may occur if you install the disk image by using a Remote Installation Services (RIS) server and you receive the "Setup is starting Windows" message." Now what the heck does that mean? Any help is greatly appreciated.