# Linux, my only option?



## Hyena (Mar 3, 2009)

Alright so I've found myself to be in a really strange situation. 

I recently acquired my best friends computer, while it isn't mine outright he said I could use it to game on since my processor ( AMD Athlon 3800+ Single Core ) isn't good enough to run most of the games. 

The problem I'm running into is... I can't get any Windows operating system to install correctly. I have re-formatted the disk, I have updated the BIOS. His HDD is using Windows XP Just fine, I'm trying to install Windows on a separate HDD of my own (A 150GB Maxtor)

So Far I have Tried Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit, Windows Vista Home Premium x86 and Windows 7 Ultimate Beta 1 build 7000. Linux Ubuntu 8.1

They all do strange things. 

Windows 2000: Installs, freezes after logging into an account.
Windows XP Professional: Installs, freezes on startup
Windows Vista: doesn't install, says there are things missing from the disc
Windows 7 Doesn't install, says it has a problem installing.
Ubuntu 8.1: Installs, runs just fine, wont freeze.
Setup is: 

Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon X2 6000+
Nvidia Geforce 8800GT 512MB
150GB Maxtor HDD
4GB DDR2800 Ram

Any ideas on what is freaking out the computer? I would try it on a different drive, but the mobo doesn't allow for IDE drives, which I'm using my only spare SATA drive on it now.


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## ToeClaws (Mar 3, 2009)

Weird... sounds like the various Windows systems are all having IO issues with the drive or the IDE system in general.  BIOS hasn't got any odd options flagged for the IDE controller, does it?  Some BIOS's have options for non-Windows OS's that can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS that throw off Windows.  Also, wouldn't hurt to grab some burn-in software and make sure the thing is working correctly. :/

Also, on a side note, how can an Athlon 3800+ not be powerful enough to run any game?  I got an Athlon 3800 X2 with a Radeon 3850 and I can run any game I want in 1680x1050 - doesn't even stutter.


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## Pi (Mar 3, 2009)

Memtest?


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## lilEmber (Mar 3, 2009)

Get a legit copy of windows?


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## Pi (Mar 3, 2009)

Hyena said:


> I recently acquired my best friends computer, while it isn't mine outright he said I could use it to game on since my processor ( AMD Athlon 3800+ Single Core ) isn't good enough to run most of the games.



wat

i play HL2 and Portal and Audiosurf on a p4 that can't be any faster than 2ghz, and they run "acceptably".


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## Hyena (Mar 3, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> Also, on a side note, how can an Athlon 3800+ not be powerful enough to run any game?  I got an Athlon 3800 X2 with a Radeon 3850 and I can run any game I want in 1680x1050 - doesn't even stutter.



Yeah, well you have a 3800+ X2 I have the Single Core version. Games designed for dual core ( Colin McRea Dirt, Bioshock, F.E.A.R, Fallout 3 ) all really hate my processor and I constantly get the processor "noise" the ticking sound of it being overloaded and also of it lagging badly with games when there are multiple NPCs running around. 

The Setup of my computer is 

AMD Athlon 3800+
Nvidia 8800GT 512MB 640MHz
4GB DDR2 667 Ram
Windows Vista Premium / XP Pro dual boot.


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## Hyena (Mar 3, 2009)

Pi said:


> wat
> 
> i play HL2 and Portal and Audiosurf on a p4 that can't be any faster than 2ghz, and they run "acceptably".



yeah, HL2, portal and Audiosurf all play just fine on my computer. they actually can play at all their max settings. Games like Crysis, Fallout 3 ETC all need more processing power though, more than my AMD Single core can put out. It does do better than my old processor though, Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz Hyperthreaded. Bottleneck anyone?


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## Hyena (Mar 3, 2009)

NewfDraggie said:


> Get a legit copy of windows?



All are legitimate. 

I purchase my operating systems, not steal them. Plus I got Ultimate for free from Microsoft. Purchased Premium myself though. And of course, Windows 7 is legitimate. but it's in its beta stages.


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## net-cat (Mar 3, 2009)

I'm going with memory issue. Try pulling out all of the RAM except for one of the sticks. Install Windows. If it works, there's your problem. If it doesn't, try a different stick.


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## Runefox (Mar 3, 2009)

Alternate to net-cat's suggestion, that hard drive's a Maxtor from a time when Maxtor's failure rate was very high (... Well, OK, that pretty much means _all_ of them since the 40GB models). You should try and run some diagnostic tools on that hard drive (Seagate SeaTools (for DOS!) comes to mind) to rule it out.

In addition, depending on the manufacturer/model of the RAM in your system, you may need to increase the DDR voltage in the BIOS (under JumperFree settings; You may need to set AI Overclocking to Standard or Manual to do so). Some chips, like OCZ, Crucial, Corsair, etc require a higher voltage to drive their high refresh speeds, and by default the BIOS will try and use the lowest possible voltage (to avoid burning out low-end chips). If you've got name-brand RAM, look up the model number online and check out its specs; The rated voltage should be the voltage you set in the BIOS.

Another thing you failed to mention is what sort of power supply your system is using. This could also cause this kind of issue, though it's less likely than the other suggestions here.


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## MRGamer01 (Mar 4, 2009)

Heres what you do.  Wait for Windows 7.  Its the best.  Right now, even in beta stage (final beta stage) its more used and better than Mac, Vista and XP.  And do you know the age of your computer?


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## Eevee (Mar 4, 2009)

MRGamer01 said:


> Wait for Windows 7.  Right now ... its more used ... than Mac, Vista and XP.


lol _what_
OS X + Vista + XP is almost 95% of desktop OS market share


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## Hyena (Mar 4, 2009)

MRGamer01 said:


> Heres what you do.  Wait for Windows 7.  Its the best.  Right now, even in beta stage (final beta stage) its more used and better than Mac, Vista and XP.  And do you know the age of your computer?



LOL I laughed hard at this. thanks. I already listed that Windows 7 does not work on this computer, I have been beta testing it since December. Its less used than even linux ubuntu, Windows 7 is probably less than 1% of the operating systems used. In order of OS used in order from most used to least used is probably Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X, Ubuntu then 7. 

Age of the computer? look at the specs and tell me what you think XD.


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## Hyena (Mar 4, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Alternate to net-cat's suggestion, that hard drive's a Maxtor from a time when Maxtor's failure rate was very high (... Well, OK, that pretty much means _all_ of them since the 40GB models). You should try and run some diagnostic tools on that hard drive (Seagate SeaTools (for DOS!) comes to mind) to rule it out.
> 
> In addition, depending on the manufacturer/model of the RAM in your system, you may need to increase the DDR voltage in the BIOS (under JumperFree settings; You may need to set AI Overclocking to Standard or Manual to do so). Some chips, like OCZ, Crucial, Corsair, etc require a higher voltage to drive their high refresh speeds, and by default the BIOS will try and use the lowest possible voltage (to avoid burning out low-end chips). If you've got name-brand RAM, look up the model number online and check out its specs; The rated voltage should be the voltage you set in the BIOS.
> 
> Another thing you failed to mention is what sort of power supply your system is using. This could also cause this kind of issue, though it's less likely than the other suggestions here.



Yeah, I have checked the hard drive, it was previously used on my old computer, then I used it for beta testing Windows 7 on my current main computer (the Athlon 3800+ one) and it's been without issues. It just doesn't want to install on this computer at all.

I think maybe one of the ram burnt out. when I boot my friends old hard drive, it reads as 3.00GB of ram, but it's 2X2GB sticks so 4GB total, but XP should be reading 3.5GB shouldn't it?


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## ArielMT (Mar 4, 2009)

Pi has the right idea.  Download and run Memtest, or if you have a CD with Memtest as a boot option, boot into it and test your RAM.

Every OS failing in inconsistent and unpredictable ways tells me hardware is broken somewhere.  No OS can fix broken hardware.  It's just that RAM is easiest to replace and bad RAM easiest to find with software.


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## Hyena (Mar 5, 2009)

Alright, so I fixed the problem >.> 

This is going to sound so retarded.... but I went back, I re-burned my copy of windows fearing maybe when I made my copy of my Windows .ISO that my burner maybe burnt it at like 24X DVD instead of like... 4X DVD. so I re-burned it at 3X, went to install, it was all slow and stuff. then I got to the menu where you can edit partitions and stuff... I clicked on the empty 150GB partition...then noticed there was a format button. I clicked it, then it said "reformatting" then it was done, then it installed with no problem at all. and it hasnt frozen on me or given me problems at all yet. 

So combo of installing Linux, then wiping it and formatting using the Windows tools, then installing solved the problem completley. I still cant figure out why windows reads it as 3.0GB of ram. but ohh well. I thought windows was able to see 3.5GB at least. 

I did do a mem test, everything checked out good, I did a few other things. 

So yeah, maybe stupid mistake? I think the HDD might have been having issues coming from Windows 7, then installing XP, then upgrading to Vista, then trying to re-install vista. or something. Also there was a problem with the IDE DVD/RW drive that was in there, apparently it doesn't like burnt .ISO files. so I threw in the burner that is in this computer and it worked just fine. 

Thanks for all your help guys, glad to finally have this computer up and running properly.


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## net-cat (Mar 5, 2009)

Hyena said:


> So combo of installing Linux, then wiping it and formatting using the Windows tools, then installing solved the problem completley. I still cant figure out why windows reads it as 3.0GB of ram. but ohh well. I thought windows was able to see 3.5GB at least.


*takes a deep breath, preparing his canned response on the subject*

32-bit Windows is limited to a 32-bit (or 4GB) address space. This 4GB of address space, in addition to your system RAM, must also contain any memory-mapped IO devices in your system. The most conspicuous example of this is your video card. (512MB, in your case.) However, that is far from the only memory mapped device in your system, each taking a little chunk of the address space for itself.

As an example of how much of a problem this is becoming, imagine you have two video cards with 1GB of RAM each. You will be lucky to see 1.5 GB of available memory in Windows.

*inhales again*


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## Hyena (Mar 5, 2009)

Just an update >.> 

Windows is still insanely unhappy on the computer, it freezes and has been BSODing. 

I installed SP1 and the latest drivers, still BSODing. 

I think I'm just going to give up  gonna save up for the next year and try and just build a computer that can handle a Windows OS properly, this computer has strange issues that I really can't figure out what is wrong with it. It's just too random the way it freezes.


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## WarMocK (Mar 5, 2009)

You could still install Ubuntu, add WINE, and try running your games with that. The newest versions of WINE dramatically improved game support, especially for things like steam etc. ;-)

If you wanna check out if your games run under Linux using WINE:

http://appdb.winehq.org/


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## Hyena (Mar 5, 2009)

WarMocK said:


> You could still install Ubuntu, add WINE, and try running your games with that. The newest versions of WINE dramatically improved game support, especially for things like steam etc. ;-)
> 
> If you wanna check out if your games run under Linux using WINE:
> 
> http://appdb.winehq.org/



doesn't wine cost money per month to use though?


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## ArielMT (Mar 5, 2009)

Hyena said:


> doesn't wine cost money per month to use though?



CrossOver costs money, but Wine is free.


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## net-cat (Mar 5, 2009)

If you're using Ubuntu or one of its derivatives, you should use this to install Wine:

http://www.winehq.org/download/deb

The Wine packages included in Ubuntu's repositories are laughably old and only get security patches. 

(Like most of the software in Ubuntu's repositories, actually. That's why they have a six month release cycle. It works for most software, but Wine is enough of a moving target that that's a very bad policy.)

Also, do the memory thing I suggested. Seriously.


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## Koda (Mar 6, 2009)

=====
Just realized you posted 'solved' but for the hell of it, Im going to still post this  Maybe it will help someone else.
=====

Do a Google search for your BSoD code. Microsoft didn't just throw an error up for the hell of it, its telling you there's some problem, and usually a decent description of why (on their site)

It could be the bios configured incorrectly. 

Check that under 'IRQ Settings' it is set to Auto or PNP Operating System, or something like that. 

What could be happening is when Windows is enumerating devices, it might be trying to assign interrupts to things which already have them or make duplicate IRQs, which can cause chaos. 

Another tip, disable or remove every peripheral that is absolutely not necessary. (In the bios, disable the onboard audio, LAN, and whatever. Yank out any PCI cards you have, and pull off the IDE cable to your CD Rom. 

If windows boots, then one at a time add devices back in, until it stops working again.
If windows is still having trouble, well, there may be a reason that your friend gave you this computer...


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