It all started with a power surge...

joeltt1 · 07-24-2008, 02:45 PM

Setup:

C2D 6600 2.4ghz
Asus mobo PN5E SE
Geforce 8800 GTS KO
680 Watt PSU
4 x 1 GB Corsair ram (4 GB total)
2 x 250 GB HD's in RAID 0
Windows XP w/ SP2
DVD-RW that hangs sometimes

^^ So yesterday, power company decided a 3-piece back to back power surge was in order

. My PC is set to automatically turn itself back on after a surge/loss in power, so it did. On that first boot up post-surge/flicker, I noticed there was a split second message at the bottom of the screen before it tried to load windows XP which said something like "Your OC of the processor has failed!" - it was something I laughed at becuase it seemed like some sort of meaningless, Matrixy message. Then, PC stays on XP loading bar screen...for 2 hours.

Next, I hit the restart button. The system goes into the standard "choose your restart method" screen - just in case something was wrong, I chose safe mode to, well, be safe. It scrolls all the things it wants to load, then posts the "skip loading xxx? press enter to skip" or something like that - I dont interrupt and let it do its thing. After watching it for about 5-10 minutes, I have that feeling that it may take a while, and take a 3 hour nap - wake back up and its STILL there, "waiting" to load itself. Again, I hit the restart button.

Take 3 and I hit major problems. Don't get the safe mode option screen at all - in fact I get a prompt for a reboot floppy, which I never had in the first place (recovery stuff is on a CD). So I restart again and check my BIOS for any funny business. At this point I should say that I do have memory timings manually set for one of my memsticks for 5-5-5-12 and 2t @ 1.9v. It wouldnt default to those settings as it should have; that is the limit of my "Overclocking". Another restart, this time with the first XP cd in the drive. This time it sucessfully loads into the all blue Startup/Recovery Program. After telling it I just want it to do a recover, it gives me an error along the lines of "disk error" and auto reboots. I repeat the process again, only this time not hitting "r" for the recovery program.

At this point I've given up hope of recovering any data (all 500 GB of it), so I try a format of my existing partition with the hopes of an eventual clean XP installation. Whats wierd is that although I have 2 disks in a RAID 0 config, I usually only see them as one single "C" partition - now in the S&R program, I see 2 250 GB drives, one as the "C" partition and the other as an "unknown setup". I find that strange but go ahead and do the formatting of the "C" partition on the first drive - it fails at about 68% due to some sort of disk corruption/error (Again this causes an auto restart).

So, I let it do its reboot thing, and then as if by magic, pops up into the Windows XP installer. So then it reads the CD a little, stutters, fills in the first 3 or so bullets, and is now on the "Installing Windows" bullet which it says will take 39 minutes. This is where I am perpetually it seems, as one of a few things always is happening now. First, it may go idle, that is, first the first few minutes you'll see CD/HD activity, and then nothing at all. Or, it'll run the CD for almost 5 minutes, then give a huge "red X" error about missing files, etc and will auto restart. Lastly, it has also on occasion prompted for another CD, so I've entered my 2nd CD, only to get more error messages. All in all, I am perpetually stuck in a constant load setup>freeze>reboot cycle that I suppose will never end. I would also like to point out that during normal opperations, I will see lots of info regarding RAID health,etc flash across the screen - I am not seeing any of that information currently.

I have the hookups to unplug the 2 drives from the RAID and make them master and slave SATA or IDE drives - would this allow me to install windows XP or at least format the drives properly?

I also have left the installation program running overnight for at least 9 hours and it showed now progress after that.

joeltt1 · 07-25-2008, 04:20 PM

A little update:

I actually talked with a tech savy friend at work today and he stopped me mid explaination and said "fried hard drives" so its nice to have some confirmation on what most likely happened.

I'll probably go with a single 500 GB drive from WD so I won't have to worry about jumpers and setting up master/slave drives - once installed, I can just turn the computer on, make sure the BIOS recognizes it, and then let the Windows XP disk do the rest, right?

As far as drivers go, any that I dont have on disk I can download from the internet, yes?

craigwatanabe · 07-25-2008, 11:09 PM

Your tech friend was probably correct and that your hard drives deep-sixed.

By using one hard drive and booting up with the XP disk as the first boot, you should be able to reload XP provided the surges didn't take out anything else.

joeltt1 · 07-29-2008, 06:23 PM

Installed new HD.

Boots fine, BIOS recognizes everything fine.

XP installation recognizes everything devices-wise. I input all the things it askes for, then it asks for the 2nd CD. Now, my DVD RW drive was acting up, not reading disks and all, but I kept poping it in and out and it finally read the 2nd disk. It ran/read it smooth for about 3 minutes, approx. 25 minutes left on install of XP on the new drive.

Then, error message - cannot find or corrupt file - the last segments are /dancer (or maybe dancers)/dancer. Truely a wtf moment - anyways, the computer restarted.

Back to same boat - installing again, disk 1 done, asking for disk 2, and at 28-ish minutes. BSoD - flashes so fast that Commander Data probably couldnt read it

- I think I saw an "IRQ" or "Hardware" something in there, but that was it.

At this point I am honestly considering doing my upgrade to a Vista's gaming PC, albeit 1 year or more ahead of when I was planning to. I already have a good video card (8800 GTS KO) and this new 650 GB HD to go in it, so all I'd need to order is the case, mobo, ram, and a small HD with Vista's on it and Im set. Man, this is getting expensive...

joeltt1 · 07-30-2008, 07:29 AM

Was finally able to get some of the BSoD info this time - it happens at the same place in the install that it did before.

PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

***Stop: 0x0000004E

(0x00000099, 0x00082220, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Thats all the technobable I got from the BSoD.

Thx in advance for any help.

07-24-2008, 02:45 PM	#1 (permalink)
joeltt1 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 9 OS: WINXP (SP2)	It all started with a power surge... Setup: C2D 6600 2.4ghz Asus mobo PN5E SE Geforce 8800 GTS KO 680 Watt PSU 4 x 1 GB Corsair ram (4 GB total) 2 x 250 GB HD's in RAID 0 Windows XP w/ SP2 DVD-RW that hangs sometimes ^^ So yesterday, power company decided a 3-piece back to back power surge was in order . My PC is set to automatically turn itself back on after a surge/loss in power, so it did. On that first boot up post-surge/flicker, I noticed there was a split second message at the bottom of the screen before it tried to load windows XP which said something like "Your OC of the processor has failed!" - it was something I laughed at becuase it seemed like some sort of meaningless, Matrixy message. Then, PC stays on XP loading bar screen...for 2 hours. Next, I hit the restart button. The system goes into the standard "choose your restart method" screen - just in case something was wrong, I chose safe mode to, well, be safe. It scrolls all the things it wants to load, then posts the "skip loading xxx? press enter to skip" or something like that - I dont interrupt and let it do its thing. After watching it for about 5-10 minutes, I have that feeling that it may take a while, and take a 3 hour nap - wake back up and its STILL there, "waiting" to load itself. Again, I hit the restart button. Take 3 and I hit major problems. Don't get the safe mode option screen at all - in fact I get a prompt for a reboot floppy, which I never had in the first place (recovery stuff is on a CD). So I restart again and check my BIOS for any funny business. At this point I should say that I do have memory timings manually set for one of my memsticks for 5-5-5-12 and 2t @ 1.9v. It wouldnt default to those settings as it should have; that is the limit of my "Overclocking". Another restart, this time with the first XP cd in the drive. This time it sucessfully loads into the all blue Startup/Recovery Program. After telling it I just want it to do a recover, it gives me an error along the lines of "disk error" and auto reboots. I repeat the process again, only this time not hitting "r" for the recovery program. At this point I've given up hope of recovering any data (all 500 GB of it), so I try a format of my existing partition with the hopes of an eventual clean XP installation. Whats wierd is that although I have 2 disks in a RAID 0 config, I usually only see them as one single "C" partition - now in the S&R program, I see 2 250 GB drives, one as the "C" partition and the other as an "unknown setup". I find that strange but go ahead and do the formatting of the "C" partition on the first drive - it fails at about 68% due to some sort of disk corruption/error (Again this causes an auto restart). So, I let it do its reboot thing, and then as if by magic, pops up into the Windows XP installer. So then it reads the CD a little, stutters, fills in the first 3 or so bullets, and is now on the "Installing Windows" bullet which it says will take 39 minutes. This is where I am perpetually it seems, as one of a few things always is happening now. First, it may go idle, that is, first the first few minutes you'll see CD/HD activity, and then nothing at all. Or, it'll run the CD for almost 5 minutes, then give a huge "red X" error about missing files, etc and will auto restart. Lastly, it has also on occasion prompted for another CD, so I've entered my 2nd CD, only to get more error messages. All in all, I am perpetually stuck in a constant load setup>freeze>reboot cycle that I suppose will never end. I would also like to point out that during normal opperations, I will see lots of info regarding RAID health,etc flash across the screen - I am not seeing any of that information currently. I have the hookups to unplug the 2 drives from the RAID and make them master and slave SATA or IDE drives - would this allow me to install windows XP or at least format the drives properly? I also have left the installation program running overnight for at least 9 hours and it showed now progress after that.

07-25-2008, 04:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
joeltt1 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 9 OS: WINXP (SP2)	Re: It all started with a power surge... A little update: I actually talked with a tech savy friend at work today and he stopped me mid explaination and said "fried hard drives" so its nice to have some confirmation on what most likely happened. I'll probably go with a single 500 GB drive from WD so I won't have to worry about jumpers and setting up master/slave drives - once installed, I can just turn the computer on, make sure the BIOS recognizes it, and then let the Windows XP disk do the rest, right? As far as drivers go, any that I dont have on disk I can download from the internet, yes?

07-25-2008, 11:09 PM	#3 (permalink)
craigwatanabe Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 264 OS: xp	Re: It all started with a power surge... Your tech friend was probably correct and that your hard drives deep-sixed. By using one hard drive and booting up with the XP disk as the first boot, you should be able to reload XP provided the surges didn't take out anything else. __________________ A computer is only as powerful as it's user so build wisely.

07-29-2008, 06:23 PM	#4 (permalink)
joeltt1 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 9 OS: WINXP (SP2)	Re: It all started with a power surge... Installed new HD. Boots fine, BIOS recognizes everything fine. XP installation recognizes everything devices-wise. I input all the things it askes for, then it asks for the 2nd CD. Now, my DVD RW drive was acting up, not reading disks and all, but I kept poping it in and out and it finally read the 2nd disk. It ran/read it smooth for about 3 minutes, approx. 25 minutes left on install of XP on the new drive. Then, error message - cannot find or corrupt file - the last segments are /dancer (or maybe dancers)/dancer. Truely a wtf moment - anyways, the computer restarted. Back to same boat - installing again, disk 1 done, asking for disk 2, and at 28-ish minutes. BSoD - flashes so fast that Commander Data probably couldnt read it - I think I saw an "IRQ" or "Hardware" something in there, but that was it. At this point I am honestly considering doing my upgrade to a Vista's gaming PC, albeit 1 year or more ahead of when I was planning to. I already have a good video card (8800 GTS KO) and this new 650 GB HD to go in it, so all I'd need to order is the case, mobo, ram, and a small HD with Vista's on it and Im set. Man, this is getting expensive...

07-30-2008, 07:29 AM	#5 (permalink)
joeltt1 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 9 OS: WINXP (SP2)	Re: It all started with a power surge... Was finally able to get some of the BSoD info this time - it happens at the same place in the install that it did before. PFN_LIST_CORRUPT ***Stop: 0x0000004E (0x00000099, 0x00082220, 0x00000000, 0x00000000) Thats all the technobable I got from the BSoD. Thx in advance for any help.