Build Problems

CraggyIslander

As my last build was 3 years ago, it is time for a big upgrade, the list of the new components I've bought is at the bottom. The DVD burner and sata HD's are being re-used from the old machine.

Pieced everything together last night and the machine boots, bios checks out and reports all components. Hoewever when installing the OS whether windows XP SP2, Ubuntu or CentOS the setup process locks up at a random point usually during the file copy process.

I've re-seated all components and connectors, checked the memory with a single stick in the various slots. I've also updated the BIOS to the latest version from Gigabyte's site, all to no avail.

Any and all suggestions are welcome as it is starting to drive me bonkers :mad:

the list:
Antec P183 Case
Corsair Memory 620 Watt, ATX, EPS12V, PS/2
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P, Socket-AM3
AMD Phenom 11 X4 955 AM3 3.2GHz 8MB Black Edition
4GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Special Ops Urban Elite Edition (8-8-8-26) Dual Channel kit
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB GDDR5

Baraboo

I would have said the next step is a hard drive diagnostic from the makers of your hard drive.

After that the next most likely is a Ram tester of some kind.

CraggyIslander

Hmmm, so far have tried 3 different HD's (might try an old IDE tomorrow)

Also, manually set the voltage and timing settings for the memory, matching the manufacturers spec (instead of relying on the BIOS autoconfig).

The memory checker from the win 7 disc didnt report any faults

I'm at a loss, going to pack it away for the day as it's driving me banana's

CraggyIslander

After a couple hours trawlng the OCZ and Gigabyte forums, looks like I've finally found the cause.

Needed to drop the memory speed down to 1066 in the BIOS and just installed win7 in no time on the new OCZ solid state disk that I initially thought was the problem. Boot time is 15-20 secs

Once I'm happy it's stable at 1066, I'll try upping the speed again, while also upping voltages on the North Bridge / CPU / etc.