Just Built 1st Comp, now won't intall programs

hustler07

Hi Guys,

I just built my first comp, here are my specs:


MB BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 RTL
VGA EVGA|01G-P3-1312-LR GF210 1GB R
CPU AMD|PH II X2 545 3.0G AM3
MEM 4Gx2|MUSHKIN 996770 DDR3 1333
HD 750G|WD SATA2 32M WD7500AADS
MNTR HANNSG|LCD 18.5" 5MS HZ194APB
Logisys CS-206BK 10-Bay ATX Mid Tower

My computer gets error messages now when trying to install Star Craft 2 and WC3. I will go through everything I've tried to figure out what is wrong. Also I'm not sure if this is the right forum, because there are lots of things it could be.

Here is the long version:

I built my comp a week ago, having problems with it not starting. I discovered that the screw used for the MB were touching the case, so after adjusting the comp turned on no problem. I intalled Windows 7 Ultimate. I noticed that it took it hung on the background screen for over 5 minutes after the windows loading screen finished(it seemed like a long time for this). After installing all drivers and updates I did the windows test that tells you your score between 1-7.9, all scores were above 5.5 except vid card was 4.8. (I assume this means the hardware is ok).

Next, I installed SC2 from DVD. It installed fine and I was able to play. A few days later it started to quit randomly, so I tried to reintall with the DVD. This time while installing it said it was unable to write a certain file. I tried over and over and the same thing happened, not always with the same file though. I tried WC3 from an ISO file on the HD and I had the same problem. I tried the SC2 dvd on another comp to see if it was scratched, but it worked fine. I did a dsk chk on the HD, but it didn't come up with anything. I also tried updating all drivers with Driver Genius.

Thinking it was a problem with windows I decided to reinstall the operating system. After doing this I still had the same problem with SC2 not installing. Thinking it was the OS again or the windows CD, I tried installing Windows XP. The formatting of the HD took over 2.5 hours, which seems like a long time, but it is 710 GB HD. After loading the XP I had the same problem when I tried to install SC2.

That's all I can think of to try. I have no clue what the problem can be, I'm not even sure if this is the right forum.

Thanks for the help,
Jon

Tushon

Sounds like you might have a bad HDD or bad memory with a side help of possibly (but not likely) bad ODD. Download UBCD and burn it to a disc/usb.

Boot from it and under the hardware testing, go to memory then select Memtest 86+ 4.10. Let this run for 5+ passes total (several hours, usually). If you get no red, you are probably okay there. After that, I would run the Western Digital HDD diagnostic from the HDD menu, as well as Drive Fitness Test (I don't remember if it is written that way, or Hitachi DFT or just DFT). Use the long/advanced test on each of those.

If it passes both of those, you may have a bad ODD or motherboard and I don't know how you can test for ODD besides getting another one, though I still doubt that is the issue. Obviously if you get an error at some point, you have probably discovered your culprit, though the mobo is still the common factor to all of this.

ins4n17y

the first thing you should do is make sure that every screw you put in to secure your board is insulated. usually they come with those red circle thingys you thread the screw through before putting the board to the chassis.

the second thing you should do is go over ALL BIOS settings. if you're having issues, this is most likely the culprit. although i doubt that something might be off, amd systems are more finniky than intel systems when it comes to this stuff. worst case scenario is that your ram doesn't like your mainboard or vice versa, though this is a rare occurence. check your ram timings, and cpu clocks and voltages.

make sure your hard drive is set to ahci.

second if you do have a second pc with sata, zero the entire hard drive under ahci mode, using wd diagnostics. wd diagnostics is a lovely program for trouble shooting hard disks of all makes not just wd ones. i use it all the time and it fixes everything. you can download it for free on the wd website under the zip file called windlg.zip or exe. i think they have both the zip and the executable.

zero the drive, format the drive then reinstall the operating system. it's alot faster than letting the drive format during the install of the os. if that doesn't work most likely it's your memory having issues with timings or clocks and this stuff happens alot in games.

happy troubleshooting

1ns4n17y

hustler07

I checked my ram and I think that was my problem. Thanks for the help, next time I will read the post that says read this first! I did learn a lot about troubleshooting though.

Thanks again,
Jon