GA-7N400 Pro - problems

[ashtead man]

Hi!

Please take pity on a first time build man

Below is a copy of an e-mail I sent to Gigabyte Support .
I have still not had a reply from then.
I wonder if anyone else can help.


I purchased the above board last week and installed it on Thursday. I set the temperature alarm on the board to 60c.

The installation went well and I installed Windows and began to install my other software when the alarm went off.

I looked in my bios and over the next 30 minutes the temperature read between 64 and 68c.

I checked the seating and fitting of my CPU and it was correct.
At no time did the system crash or re-start.

On Friday i rang GBT UK and got through to speak to technical support . The operative told me to flash the BIOS to F10 which i did (using q-flash ) and it showed as "PASS" . I then loaded the fail safe defaults as he instructed and re-started the system. Unfortunately I cannot now get into Windows. If I boot from my hard drive I get an error screen that give me options to start in safe mode - safe mode with command prompt etc or start windows normally. Whichever one I press the sytem re starts and returns to that screen.

I tried to boot from my Windows CD and this results in an error which states NTFS.SYS is corrupt or damaged.

So since last Friday I have been without my computer. As I work from home this has been very difficult for me.

Today I tried to ring GBT UK again but gave up after an hour of being told the line was busy and I couldn't be placed on hold because there was only one line available?????

I have now taken out this motherboard and re-installed my old ABIT board which installed first time and works with the same hard disc that is supposed to have a corrupt NTFS.sys????



System is OR WAS:

GA-7N400PRO
AMD 2800+ Processor
512Mb Memory (DDR 400)
MSI Ti 4200 Graphics
2 IBM 60Gb HDD (non raid)



I would appreciate any advice you can give me as to how I rectify this problem.

[beppodmime]

What version of windows are you running? XP? If so, have you tried using the repair function on the setup disc to restore ntfs.sys?

EDIT: Just read that you tried booting with your windows CD but still get the same error. Go into the BIOS, and make sure that the CD-ROM is set to be the first boot device. That option should be under the advanced BIOS menu.

Also, make sure that the CPU heatsink/fan is on correctly. Make sure that you didn't put it on backwards, and if there is a thermal pad on it, make sure you removed any protective film that may have been on it. If there wasn't a pad on it, make sure you applied just enough grease to make 100 percent contact between the CPU and the HSF, but not too much. a thin, almost transparent layer applied to the core of the CPU (the portion raised in the very center of the packaging of the CPU) with either the edge of a credit card, or razor blade. I would hate to see a reading of temp like that, especially if it happened on my first build. It'd have me second guessing myself all over the place.

Also, make sure the Hard drive cables and power leads are all secure. Check and recheck all connections to the motherboard (cables/cards/memory) just for laughs, and go through the BIOS and make sure everything you want enabled is enabled, and make sure the BIOS is detecting the drive you have windows loaded onto.

[ashtead man]

Thanks for the quick reply,

yes, forgot to say I'm Running Windows XP .

I did try and re-install Windows from the CD and made it the first boot item as you suggested.

I had no problems getting into the disc.

it says Windows Set up (big blue screen)
It then loads all the files it needs to install Windows along the bottom of the screen as per normal, but when it gets to where you think it is going to give you the option to install, repair etc it brings up the error screen with NTFS.sys on it.

It then stops and will only allow you to re-start.

I am suspicious of the error message anyway because when i re-installed my old ABIT board it goes staright into Windows XP and all my old settings are there.

I even tried to "FDISK" the HDD's from an old 98SE disc but it won't recognise the NTFS file system because it is FAT32 ,

[ashtead man]

Ok ,

You will be "glad" to know that the problem is solved.

By changing the memory frequency from "SPD" to "Auto"

it immediately let me into Windows set up.


Now is that weird or what ?


MikP