first build woes

[sflpilot]

This is my first build, and it's been a disaster so far.

My setup:

GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+
Antec earthwatts EA380 ATX12V v2.0 380W Power Supply
A-DATA 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Scythe SCNJ-1100P 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/SP2B - OEM
Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive
NEC DVD/RW

All of the parts are brand new except the DVD drive and the cpu. I doubt I fried anything by way of mishandling, as I know how to ground myself, and how to handle electronics. What I don't know is software, and that is killing me now.

Attempt #1 was with a clean install of windows. Computer worked beautifully, so I began loading software. I started getting the BSOD, telling me I had DRVR_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I figured out the problem driver, but had issues fixing it by uninstalling and re-installing the correct version. I updated the bios, and still kept getting the same error. Got mad, started over by re-installing XP.

For attempt #2, I put the right driver on the first time, and it worked for about five minutes before just powering off and restarting. Now the computer starts, begins to load XP, then powers off and starts over. It will do this several times, but then it loads fine. It boots into safe mode just fine, so I think it's a software issue, but I am clueless at this point. I did some research, and found out that I needed to disable the automatic restart in XP. Did that, still no luck. I don't get any error messages except the occasional Windows has just recovered from a serious error popup. I've tried repairing the install, but it crashed in the middle of that, so I doubt it fixed anything. I'm not getting much help from the engrish speakers at Gigabyte, and I'm at a loss here. Is it hardware or software?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[sflpilot]

I forgot to add that this is an intermittent problem. Sometimes it boots fine, sometimes it doesn't. Also, I've done all of the troubleshooting steps except resetting the CMOS. I'm out of ideas.

[fren]

What does "sometimes it doesn't boot" mean? Does your computer boot into bios or not or is it totally blackout?

Have you already tried powering it up by bypassing your front panel power switch button?

Have you already tried deleting the entire partition during XP clean install?

Have you already tried installing your software one at a time after xp install? In order to determine the software problem or driver issue you will need to install it one by one and let sit there in windows for an hour.

Have you already tried removing your expansion cards before installing windows? Let sit in windows before installing them one by one. Sometimes it's a hardware conflict.

[sflpilot]

Sorry, wrong choice of words. My vocabulary is weak when it comes to computers. BIOS boots fine, it's the OS that fails to load. I get the black Windows screen with the blue scroll bar, but when it should go to the blue welcome screen, the computer powers off and restarts. I've checked the wiring for loose connections or a stuck button, and found nothing. I have nothing plugged into the mobo that I don't need to run the computer. No cards, no other drives, nothing. I haven't even plugged in the speakers yet. I ran memtest, and the ram checked out fine.

Yes, I did delete the partition when I re-installed XP. I think I figured out the driver problem. All that I have installed on the computer is XP and the Nvidia drivers for the motherboard (which were the ones giving me trouble before I got frustrated and re-installed XP). If it's software, it can only be XP or the mobo drivers. I've run all of the XP updates, all of the driver updates, and BIOS updates. All are the most current. It doesn't seem like it could be the hardware, because it loads XP in safe mode just fine (at least it hasn't crashed yet). However, if it's software, it's a problem with one of the 3 pieces that are installed. This is why I'm banging my head on the table.

[cguan_77]

hi, you suspect it's a driver problem, you could be right, make sure that the driver you installed is for Win XP, if it is not then you would encounter such problem, try to install a clean XP, then check the device manager, for any driver that is missing, if you coudn't find any problem in the device manager then no need to install those drivers, Win XP is loaded with a lot of drivers on it.