IT'S ALL CRASH! IT'S ALL CRASH!!!

all I did was install 2 new 4G sticks of memory to max out my board at 16G.  when I rebooted, it recognizes the memory fine, but it said my OS hard drive is corrupt!!!!  I've been fighting with it for 2 hours now trying to get it to restore and restart.
 
and I think it's going to take even longer than that...

Sorry to hear that Reece.

If it's not tweaked to perfection for overclocking maybe you can try a reset of the bios?

mike_mccue


If it's not tweaked to perfection for overclocking maybe you can try a reset of the bios?

thatnks, Mike, that's something I haven't tried and didn't think of.  I'll try that.

Jonbouy


I'd drop the new memory again before doing any re-writes to the HD and check again.

Memory issues will sometimes show up as hard disk errors as the computer thinks it's where the corrupt data it's handling is coming from.

And it's a pretty good bet that if the problems weren't showing up till the upgrade.

If all goes back to normal after removing the memory try re-installing it again making sure you here a firm click this time when you've fully pushed the sticks in.

Then check the bios and make totally sure the voltage for the RAM is right for the sticks you got.  Running 1.65v chips at 1.5v will do that to ya.

Whatever you do Reece.......DON'T PANIC!!!!

I already tried removing the memory back out, that didn't help.  the diagnostic messages keep saying that the drive is corrupt, certain files or folders are corrupt and that it is trying to repair, then it will be "doing something" for a long time, and then it will restart and try to start windows, but can't and go back to the diagnostic/repair screens again and try the same thing over and over.
 
the only other thing I can think of, I reinstalled kontakt just before I shut down to install the memory.  my kontakt had been messed up for a while and I was "working around" the problem.  it was the libraries that were installed incorrectly the last time I did it and whenever I loaded a patch, I'd have to go find the samples for it to load.  I tried rebuilding but it didn't fix all of them.  also, I've not been able to scan the 64bit version anywhere.  couldn't find the 64bit dlls anywhere - so I decided to reinstall.
 
after reinstalling, I successfully ran it, ran the service mgr and re-updated all programs and content and scanned it.  it worked fine in sonar in both bit versions after that.
 
then I shut down to install the memory.  after installing the memory, I got an error message about the CPU fan - opened the cover and found that a cable had stopped the fan from running.  fixed that and rebooted - then the corrupt drive problems started happening.  I can't believe the short amount of time the fan was down could have caused this problem.  it didn't ever get hot enough to shut down, the temp was climbing, but it didn't get hold enough to fail.
 
I've also disconnected everything from the system except the OS drive and the CD/DVD drive, but I've not pulled PCI or PCIe cards out of it.
 
at this point if the bios reset doesn't work, I'm afraid I'll have to reload windows. 

yep.  I reset the bios (didn't take the battery out, tho), pushed the MemOK button, it forced me into bios to check settings.  I didn't find any problems.

it looks like I really am having a hard drive problem.  don't know why it presented itself at this particular time.

Did you try starting in Safe mode?  That will tell you if it's a driver that's been corrupted.  

craigb


Apparently for the poor pooch, RAM wasn't everything!

You obviously did not think this through. RAM was everything. Ever think what would happen if EVERYTHING happened at once?


HTH

craigb

(Says the guy who started to walk with his PC Box before adding a harddrive, when a foot got caught in something as he was turning, which made for a very loud boom as said person and said box went down pretty hard - the scar on said person has since healed, but the motherboard on said box was damaged and unrepairable). 

You not alone, I dropped mine, albeit with hnot such catastrophic results.  I damaged the front panel so I now have to switch it on with an external push switch on the end of a bit of wire.

craigb


I hope I'm not just dropping a turd in your Cheerios, but you DID remember to backup before farting around with your computer, ya?  Always a good idea!

(Says the guy who started to walk with his PC Box before adding a harddrive, when a foot got caught in something as he was turning, which made for a very loud boom as said person and said box went down pretty hard - the scar on said person has since healed, but the motherboard on said box was damaged and unrepairable).

In any event, good luck Reece!

I run backups on my data throughout the week automatically, but I do not have a drive image of my OS drive.  I've been considering doing that for some time, but never have. 
 
mooch, but what if my soundblaster works? 

Note to self:  Self... make a back up image of the OS and the stuff on the C drive....

Have you tried rewriting the MBR?

Guitarhacker


Note to self:  Self... make a back up image of the OS and the stuff on the C drive....

It's the only one I image. (or rather the only 2 I image as I have a dual boot setup)

I have a different policy for backing up the rest of the system and my projects.

the computer will not start in safe mode.  it will not start at all even if I remove the memory.  checkdisk at startup is not able to resolve the problem.

FBB - how would I do that?

Have you pulled the power cord from the wall?

Sometimes the power supply can get "stuck" and it will not reset until you physically unplug it and start over.