Hey all I recently built my father a new pc and it went pretty much without issues other than using the stupid core 2 quad stock fan mount 
. After initial bootup we proceeded to install all of the various drivers, starting with the drive cd that came with the board (had to as the nic didn't work by default). This went smoothly and we then proceeded to update all the other stuff, gfx drivers etc. We got everything working with no hitches except we noticed a few times the pc would bootup and then restart immediately and come back to the windows did not start what do you want to do screen. We thought this may just be a quirk somewhere but we've now discovered it probably wasn't. Anyway long story short, the pc stopped booting while I was asleep today. My dad says he did nothing to cause this, it just stopped. Now, it does post just fine and the bios is accessible. I tried various things including flashing bios and resetting the cmos etc and it just would not post to window. It went to a black screen and always said windows failed to load ntoskrnl.exe I believe it was. The first file windows loads when safe mode comes up. This lead me to believe it was some type of drive issue etc. I took apart the pc and gave everything a look over and noticed I had his DVD and HD plugged into the purple ports. I never noticed they were differently colored on the initial install, lol. Did a bit of googling and what do you know, these are the raid ports apparently. Switched the cables, assuming this would fix everything and booted back up. Cables now plugged into yellow ports. No change.
At this point I was angry so I said screw it I'm gonna reformat the drive. I reformatted and loaded everything back and got all the drivers loaded etc. I was installing IE 7 for my dad, since he wants to do the windows updates and the PC BSOD. When it booted back up, back to a black screen. This time no error messages or anything, stuck on a plain old black screen. Now, I build pcs for fun and I am very patient as I do overclocking and so forth, but I'm not famiiliar with boards by Gigabyte. Last thing I will say, the first time we installed xp(this is 64 bit also) I had AHCI set or what not, I've since turned that all off so that XP will install without needing a sata/raid disc and I did not install the SATA/RAID drivers on the CD after the 2nd install of XP. If anyone has any idea what may be the issue please let me know! Also sorry for the long winded post, I just wanted to try to cover the bases.
Specs below:
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail (N82E16811119068)
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (N82E16813128358)
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail (N82E16817139005)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail (N82E16819115017)
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail (N82E16820231122)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (N82E16822136218)
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM (N82E16827136152)
Cliff notes: New install using Gigabyte board above, latest BIOS, All SATA devices, All stock clocks/voltages. Pc now boots to black screen after second XP install.
. After initial bootup we proceeded to install all of the various drivers, starting with the drive cd that came with the board (had to as the nic didn't work by default). This went smoothly and we then proceeded to update all the other stuff, gfx drivers etc. We got everything working with no hitches except we noticed a few times the pc would bootup and then restart immediately and come back to the windows did not start what do you want to do screen. We thought this may just be a quirk somewhere but we've now discovered it probably wasn't. Anyway long story short, the pc stopped booting while I was asleep today. My dad says he did nothing to cause this, it just stopped. Now, it does post just fine and the bios is accessible. I tried various things including flashing bios and resetting the cmos etc and it just would not post to window. It went to a black screen and always said windows failed to load ntoskrnl.exe I believe it was. The first file windows loads when safe mode comes up. This lead me to believe it was some type of drive issue etc. I took apart the pc and gave everything a look over and noticed I had his DVD and HD plugged into the purple ports. I never noticed they were differently colored on the initial install, lol. Did a bit of googling and what do you know, these are the raid ports apparently. Switched the cables, assuming this would fix everything and booted back up. Cables now plugged into yellow ports. No change. At this point I was angry so I said screw it I'm gonna reformat the drive. I reformatted and loaded everything back and got all the drivers loaded etc. I was installing IE 7 for my dad, since he wants to do the windows updates and the PC BSOD. When it booted back up, back to a black screen. This time no error messages or anything, stuck on a plain old black screen. Now, I build pcs for fun and I am very patient as I do overclocking and so forth, but I'm not famiiliar with boards by Gigabyte. Last thing I will say, the first time we installed xp(this is 64 bit also) I had AHCI set or what not, I've since turned that all off so that XP will install without needing a sata/raid disc and I did not install the SATA/RAID drivers on the CD after the 2nd install of XP. If anyone has any idea what may be the issue please let me know! Also sorry for the long winded post, I just wanted to try to cover the bases.
Specs below:
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail (N82E16811119068)
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (N82E16813128358)
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail (N82E16817139005)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail (N82E16819115017)
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail (N82E16820231122)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (N82E16822136218)
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM (N82E16827136152)
Cliff notes: New install using Gigabyte board above, latest BIOS, All SATA devices, All stock clocks/voltages. Pc now boots to black screen after second XP install.
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