Hardware or software fault?

[iamdarkyoshi]

Trying to get a new garage PC going. It is an old HP quad core DDR2 machine. Both the CPU and RAM have been tested and confirmed working in other motherboards.

 

When I go to install windows 7 from my old sandisk 8gb flash drive, once the loading bar gets to 100%, the machine hangs. No caps lock response, etc. The flash drive has installed windows 7 about 5 times in the past week, but its not out of the realm of possibility that something on the drive has gone cactus.

 

The motherboard on the other hand had 5 bulging capacitors measuring over 2 ohms ESR. This is probably why it was being thrown out. I never bothered to power it on before replacing the caps, because I knew it would not work.

 

After replacing them with brand new parts, I tried to install windows (twice), and now I am posting this thread. Its also not out of the realm of possibility that other caps are bad, but were not bulging. I am testing groups one at a time as we speak.

 

Ideas?

[alexhelvetica]

I'd test the Ram in another computer. I have had setup lock up because of zombie ram.

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

I'd test the Ram in another computer. I have had setup lock up because of zombie ram.

Been tested in four other machines, memtest overnight pass with 0 errors

[alexhelvetica]

5 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Been tested in four other machines, memtest overnight pass with 0 errors

You are having lots of problems with flipping used computers. I'd try a different USB drive, if that doesn't work, I'd try and install 8.1 or 10.

[JefferyD90]

12 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Trying to get a new garage PC going. It is an old HP quad core DDR2 machine. Both the CPU and RAM have been tested and confirmed working in other motherboards.

 

When I go to install windows 7 from my old sandisk 8gb flash drive, once the loading bar gets to 100%, the machine hangs. No caps lock response, etc. The flash drive has installed windows 7 about 5 times in the past week, but its not out of the realm of possibility that something on the drive has gone cactus.

 

The motherboard on the other hand had 5 bulging capacitors measuring over 2 ohms ESR. This is probably why it was being thrown out. I never bothered to power it on before replacing the caps, because I knew it would not work.

 

After replacing them with brand new parts, I tried to install windows (twice), and now I am posting this thread. Its also not out of the realm of possibility that other caps are bad, but were not bulging. I am testing groups one at a time as we speak.

 

Ideas?

Working RAM =/= Functioning RAM. 

 

I'd highly suggest a disk check as well as a memory check on the computer.  Additionally, download the install media again to make sure the download/copy was good.

[iamdarkyoshi]

2 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

Working RAM =/= Functioning RAM. 

 

I'd highly suggest a disk check as well as a memory check on the computer.  Additionally, download the install media again to make sure the download/copy was good.

Memtest has been run overnight testing the ram on several platforms. RAM works perfect, no errors. Believe me, I have had issues upon issues with faulty ram before.

 

5 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

You are having lots of problems with flipping used computers. I'd try a different USB drive, if that doesn't work, I'd try and install 8.1 or 10.

Yes. Yes I am. To be fair, they WERE free. So were the xw4600s.

[alexhelvetica]

7 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Memtest has been run overnight testing the ram on several platforms. RAM works perfect, no errors. Believe me, I have had issues upon issues with faulty ram before.

 

Yes. Yes I am. To be fair, they WERE free. So were the xw4600s.

Were the iMacs for free aswell?

[iamdarkyoshi]

7 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Were the iMacs for free aswell?

Believe it or not, I did get that imac for free.

[alexhelvetica]

2 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Believe it or not, I did get that imac for free.

Where do you get the computers from? Do you looks behind computer repair stores?

[iamdarkyoshi]

Update: going around the board, there are eight 470uf caps with an ESR od .2 ohms. While that is not TERRIBLE, it could still be an issue. BRB, finding some rubycons...

[Energycore]

40 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Update: going around the board, there are eight 470uf caps with an ESR od .2 ohms. While that is not TERRIBLE, it could still be an issue. BRB, finding some rubycons...

You have spare capacitors in your shop? That's awesome. PCB repair stuff is really interesting to me. Just the fact that rather than having to buy an entire new motherboard I can just buy a capacitor to replace the one that's too old. Damn.

[iamdarkyoshi]

4 minutes ago, Energycore said:

You have spare capacitors in your shop? That's awesome. PCB repair stuff is really interesting to me. Just the fact that rather than having to buy an entire new motherboard I can just buy a capacitor to replace the one that's too old. Damn.

My spare caps come from other parts. Recycling!

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

My spare caps come from other parts. Recycling!

You're my hero.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Replaced over 20 capacitors (all of them Lelon... that ought to tell you something...)

 

Still no luck. Will check drive later. But I feel better knowing those terrible caps are out.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Flash drive works fine on other PCs. Weirdly, my genuine windows 7 disk works fine on the problematic machine, but not the flash drive. I will be testing the everliving shit out of this machine to make sure its stable. Its going to be used in a scenario where stability is of the utmost importance