How can I fix these two technical problems I am having with installing my OS and GPU?

Asked by Ame_Evil (3051) August 2nd, 2010

Note: I am asking here because I do not belong to any tech forums. If anyone can suggest a very useful one I do not mind being shipped there if you cannot help.

I had recently bought parts for a custom build. I have never built a computer before, so I got my friend to help me as well as asked for advice on here. (http://www.fluther.com/90511/building-a-gaming-pc-for-the-first-time-how-is-this/)

The specs of the computer is as follows:

NZXT Hades Case
Acer 21.5” P225HQ Monitor
Asus M4A77T Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X2 550 3.1ghz processor
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5750 Graphics Card
4gb 1333mhz DDR3 corsair ram
500w antec earthwats psu (used – 2–3 years old, slightly dusty on the fan)
Samsung 1TB 7200rpm 32mb sata HDD
LG 22x optical drive
Edimax wireless adaptor
Microsoft usb mouse/keyboard with converter

I am currently having two problems and I will describe them separately. I do not know if they are caused by the same problem or whether they are separate. I also have attempted to fix them myself, but obviously to no avail. I shall list what attempts I remember trying in hope that helps.

Problem 1. Cannot install Windows 7 as it either gets a BSOD after loading the files, or hangs on the Starting Windows window.

After putting all the parts together, we attempted to load Windows 7 onto the computer, however it got stuck on the Starting Windows screen. We attempted to reburn the .iso onto the DVD but it still got stuck there. I then attempted a Windows XP SP3 torrent to see if that worked, and it did so I ran that for a bit whilst my friend went back home (as it was getting late) to try to find another DVD (thinking that it was faulty). Since then I had reformatted the hard drive a few times and reinstalled Windows XP in order to fix problem 2. At one point I started to keep getting the BSOD on the Windows XP install and it has not stopped since. After I got the new DVD with Windows 7, it either goes to a BSOD after loading the files, or goes to a Starting Windows screen where it stays like that for 30+ minutes. Some of the BSOD errors include mentioning the files:

storport.sys
acpi.sys
fwpkclnt.sys

I have no idea where to start with fixing this problem as I have no experience in BIOS, but I had tried removing all the USB devices as a forum recommended. At the moment this is a lesser problem than Problem 2, however I would like to get it fixed as I do not want to run on a 32bit OS since it caps my ram at just over 3GB.

Problem 2. I am also having problems with my Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5750 Graphics Card. I do not know whether it is a faulty graphics card or something else with the system, that may also be causing problem 1.

This video more or less shows the problem better than I can describe:

http://www.shrani.si/?u/Ap/TyHXxGC/31082009031.mp4&#034

Basically what is happening is that the screen keeps swapping from black to displaying only parts of the screen or artifacts (such as a pretty array of white dots). It repeats this for 10–20 times and then opens the desktop properly with a VPU Recovery error. I haven’t checked playing any games as such as I believe they will not work after this error – and when I run dxdiag it says that the accelerators are Not Available and cannot run the Direct3D test.

I have tried reinstalling the OS but now I cannot do that anymore because of the problems mentioned in part 1. I have tried using different driver versions, making sure that the current driver was deleted properly. I have contacted their support that gave me this message:

1: Clear your motherboard CMOS first and update your motherboard bios, chipset driver” to the latest version. please note this.

2: Remove all you previous card drivers (Nvidia or ATI drivers)

3: Install v10.7 driver or CD driver

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp

4: Check your power supply, 450W at least

I have done everything they said, bar part 4 because my friend says that the PSU is fine as its not smoking and everything is loading up. Is this accurate? Do PSUs still appear to be working but not provide enough power to one component or just cease to work altogether? I have also tried every other bit of advice found on the internet such as reseating the GPU in the slot. But alas nothing works.

At the moment I hope to just send the GPU back to amazon in hope I can exchange/upgrade it to the HD4790. However I am worried I will also get the same problems.

At the moment I am stuck, and do not know what to do. My friend has little to no idea and seems to be ignoring me now >_<.

Mega lurve and karma points to anyone who can help me fix these problems. Thanks. If I have missed anything out, please let me know.