Booting problem

[wonder.]

Alright, so finally my rma'ed ram and Hard drive came.  I installed the ram, and restarted my comp with no problems.  But I pluged in my new HD and the comp didn't boot right.  I unplugged it but my comp still won't boot right.  It takes me to the screen where it says choose to boot it up in safe mode, safe w/ networking , safe with cmd prmt, Last good known config or start normally.  If I do either of the last two it shows me the win progress bar and then that goes away and the screen stays blank.  WTF?? And if I do the others, they get to a certain point and just stop.  I don't know what to do anymore.  I have the new 780i mobo, but when I look on the led thing for an error it just says FF which means its fine.  Any suggestions on what to do? 

[MR|337]

Stupid question, but is that the HD with the os on it?

[wonder.]

The HD with the OS on it is still pluged in.  Its a western digital raptor and it was working fine this morning.    The new one is WD caviar (something like that) and blank but unplugged. 

[MR|337]

SATA drives? if not are both set to cs (cable select) ?

[wonder.]

Yup, both are sata drives.

[wonder.]

Well I installed Vista on the new HD and it works, and I am able to access my old HD but when I try to boot my old HD it doesn't work.  any ideas?

Well that worked last night, but now if I try to boot either harddrive the same thing happens and they won't boot.  even if only 1 is plugged in or something.  any ideas on what might be causing teh problem?  im running out of ideas here, I don't know what else to do. 

[snyper133]

Okay let me get this straight please correct me if I'm wrong:

1) Raptor Has XP Installed

2) RMA'd the Data Drive and got a new one

3) Booting normally produces no picture, and no BSOD

4) When booting into Safe Mode it does the same thing....

Now remember (sorry to insult you if you alreadly know) but when safe mode starts it starts only neccessities for Windows, and it will pause for up to a couple of minutes until it actually gets into the OS.

Wait a couple of minutes when booting into safe mode. Then check back with us.

[wonder.]

Raptor has vista on it.  It does differen't things some times.  It does one of two things. 

1)

I start my computer, it posts. 
Then the system checks come on.
Then it gives me a choice of to start it in safe mode, sm w/ networking, sm w/ cmdprmt, last known good config or normally.
(If i start it in any safe mode it gets to a certain point and stops for a while.  I waited over 15 min with nothing.  If I start it up in the last known good config or normally it goes to the windows progress bar, finishes with that then the screen stays blank. 

2)
Start comp, posts.
System checks come on.
Goes straight to progress bar
screen stays blank. 

Im not sure, might have to do with something in the bios.  I don't think it is the actual HD because i have a brand new one which I somehow got vista installed on last night, but now that one won't even boot up.  This is very annoying.  Please help me snyper.  lol.

Thanks.

~Wonder. 

[snyper133]

Weird problem bread I'll try to help as much as possible without sitting in front of it....

Did you have XP installed at all on this rig?

1) Are you trying to boot with 4GB of RAM? If so take out two boot and then get the hot fix for 4GB of RAM bootable. This is an inherint Vista x64 problem.

2) When you did the HD swapping did you change where the HD plugged into the MOBO at. (ie. My Raptor X is in SATA 0, my 74 GB Raptor is in SATA1 my Data Drive is in SATA2.) This might make a problem for the boot path for the new Boot Loader. Try using the repair function of the Vista Install CD as it works relatively well without knowing exact Cmd Prompt commands.

I don't think it's a BIOS issue but I would have to do more research into it....

[wonder.]

I tried booting it with 4gb then 2gb, swapped each out but still didn't work.  I did not change the sata port when I plugged in the new HD.  Also, XP was never installed on this comp.  I already tried the vista cd, but it kept on saying searching for windows instillations with a progress bar for a while.  Ill try it again and just let it run.  Thanks. 

[WidowMaker]

for some reason snyper insists you have XP!! Vista Vista Vista!!

Try taking out all the ram and leave just one stick and see if it helps. try different sticks and different dimm slots.

Widow

[snyper133]

I wasn't insisting merely trying to figure out a little more. I had a problem when I started to dual boot my computer with Vista and XP where at one point both gave me the same symptoms that Bread was displaying.

I would also run memtest.

It really just sounds like the boot loader for vista is fucked.

[wonder.]

stupid Q, but how do I run memtest?

[snyper133]

Download the ISO

Burn the ISO

Boot off of CD

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