DFI - Damn F*cking Impossible!

[-n7-]

I need some help from you gurus.
Yesterday i put together my new system.
Actually, rebuilt my former one.

I got a new DFI Lanparty Ultra-D, & ATi X1800XT.
Bios updated to latest official DFI bios (11.14.2006)

Parts from my previous system:
Mushkin HP PC3200 2x1 GB
WD Raptor 74.3 GB & three other HDDs
BenQ DW1640 DVDRW
SB Audigy ZS
OCZ Modstream 520W

Now installing the hardware went beautifully.
Everything worked upon first touching the power button.

But when i attempted to install XP Pro, it seemed to take a 20 minute pause with about 33 minutes left in the install.
Then when it rebooted to continue install, it started telling me it couldn't copy various files.
I ended up skipping most of them, since there were way too many missed to copy them over from my other PC on a floppy.
The install eventually completed, but of course, when i actually got in Windows, it was missing tons of programs, & was barely functional.
I couldn't install much of anything, as pretty much every installer crashed.

So i tried installing XP again, two more times with different XP discs (tried my old SP2 one, & then two of my newer & newest slipstreamed ones), & the exact ****** thing happned again at the same spots next time
All these discs worked fine in all my other previous PC installs, as did the DVDRW drive.
It's almost 100& for sure not either.

For those of you still with me, it's my RAM, isn't it?

I had the same exact crap happen to me on an another mobo, & that issue turned out to be a bad RAM slot.

Here's the thing though: I had the RAM in the 1&2 slots originally, but then for the second & third installs, i moved it to the recommended 2&4 slots, but it's still fux0red.

My thinking is that the stupid DFI doesn't like my Mushkin, since the RAM was more than fine in my previous mobo.
Oddly enough though, the Mushkin doesn't error in the Memtest that DFI has built into the bios.
I didn't run it for long, but for a bit anyway it was fine.

What else can i do?

Any suggestions would be very appreciated

[nn_step]

First things first Drop your overclock and Run memtest
lf after 6 hours you don't get any errors
Try to install
if it fails again
Check that the disk isn't messed up
and if after that it still doesn't work
RMA the board

[Jarrod1937]

have you tried using different disc drives? a dieing disc drive would behave exactly like this.

[OmegaMerc]

Install with minimum components? I know some time ago I couldnt have the pc with the network card in and do a fresh install of WXP. It always coughed up half way through.

[renowade]

i had this same issue and i wound up doing a low level format(write zeros to drive) then a high format with windows cd with a full install which worked and like the previous person said try miniom equip like one stick memory etc.

[STEvil]

might be the motherboard.

[ExtraPickles]

There's a known problem installing XP on Lanparty boards with some versions of firmware used in BenQ 1620/1640 optical drives. Either flash to the latest firmware or use another optical drive.

-pickles

[-n7-]

Thanx for the advice guys.

It's possible it was the BenQ DW1640, but by the time i realized that, the Lanparty had already been exchanged for my New Asus A8R-MVP.

I also reinstalled with a new NEC 3550a just in case it was the drive.

Thanx again.

[nn_step]

Dude you got ripped of in that deal

[Nicksterr]

Make sure your IDE cable isn't the problem, I had a similar problem on my Abit An8 Ultra.

[WesM63]

yep, its the ram. Try taking one stick out and see if it install's that way. I had the exact same problem happen to me on a Celeron 2.7ghz machine. Tried everything and finally took out a stick of ram.. worked like a champ.