[apmanager]

Last year i built a computer with an intel DG33tl motherboard, quad core q6700 processor and seagate barracuda hard drive. From the beginning Vista seemed to be having alot of problems, but didnt think anything of it cause, well... its vista. The problems were windows explorer stopped working this happened alot, alot. So recently ive been having problems with booting up, it freezes before windows can reach the log in stage. Sometimes if i let it sit a few days and replug in the SATA it will load up but eventually crashes. It does alot of memory dumping too. And i have changed the SATA cable ive tried that already. So my question is do you think it is the motherboard or the Hard drive. Ive already ruled out vista i really doubt its that. My assumtion is that it is the motherboard, i did some research and found out other people had problems with the board too. If there is any questions that will help narrow down the possibility of whats wrong, feel free to ask. Thank you.

[Hughv]

See here:
Inside Vista's New Diagnostic Tools
http://oreilly.com/pub/a/windows/200...tic-tools.html

[apmanager]

Im at the point now that i cant even get into vista through safe mode. So i can't run any system programs. There has to be some sort of flaw between the motherboard and the hardrive. Thank you though.

[apmanager]

Oh i forgot to mention that i ran the Vista disk and tried to repair it, it didn't find any problems with Vista.

[Hughv]

Have you tried a disk or memory diagnostic?

[apmanager]

Is that a BIO diagnostic? If so how do i do this?

[Hughv]

How to use the Vista Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial146.html
You can download the disk diagnostic from Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/
Note that there's a firmware update fro some of these drives.

[crjdriver]

Here is the link for seatools. Seatools download page Download the seatools for dos and make the bootable CD from the iso file OR download the floppy image; either one. Boot your system from the bootable disk and run the diagnostic on the hard drive. If it passes ALL tests both short and full, then the drive is probably OK.

Note I say probably because it is still possible to pass all tests and have a faulty drive.

If the drive passes all tests, then run the memory diagnostic. You can run either the vista memory tester or memtest.

[apmanager]

Ok update, thank you both for the replies. Ive ran the memory diagnostic for windows and what it said it was a hardware problem, call your manufacture for ways to fix it. But it never said what the problem was. Im still not able to boot windows. Next ill run seagate tools in an iso. Im not exactly sure how this works though ive put the iso on a thumb drive and enabled usb boot in bios, but when i rebooted with the thumb drive in, it didnt do anything. Im not exactly sure what else i need to do. Do i have to put the iso on a cd instead of a thumb drive? Any furthur advice would be great. Thank you again for the replies.

[crjdriver]

OK, you cannot just copy an iso type file and expect it to work. There are detailed instructions on the seagate site.

There is a link to a tutorial on how to run seatools for dos. Basically you need a CD burning app like nero or CDBurnXP [free and very good]

An iso is an image of an application. When you use the burning app, it makes the program CD for you.

[Hughv]

When a memory diagnostic refers to hardware errors, it means the memory.
Remove and reseat the memory and see if that helps. Run the diagnostic with one or more sticks removed to narrow down the fault.

[crjdriver]

Post the exact memory you have installed. If possible, post a link to your memory.

Next it would help if you posted ALL of your specs; ie you have already posted mb, brand and speed of ram, brand and wattage of pw supply, make and model of video card, how many hard drives and optical drives, etc, etc.

[win2kpro]

The first thing I would do is get the model and serial number for your drive and go to the Seagate site and see if it is one of the drives affected by the defective firmware problem Seagate is having.

[apmanager]

Thank you guys here are my specs:
Video card- pny geoforce 7600GS 512 mb
Ram - G skill 2x2gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122
Power supply - OKIA - Model 420ATX 420w
HD - (1) Seagate 7200.10
DVD-RW
Motherboard - DG33TL
CPU - Quad Core Q6700


I tried taking out each memory stick and there was a thermal overheating shutdown which has never happened since i built the machine. I will check the BIO tempature gauge and try to run diagnostic on each memory stick and see if i can narrow the faulty one. Thank you again, and any more opinion inputs are greatly appreciated.

[apmanager]

Ok overheating problem was a wire was wrapped around the fan, Its fine now. But i really hope i didn't do anything to CPU by it overheating.