ram problem? hardisk problem? motherboard problem? i am confused help PLZ

[qaz]

hey i really need help urgently. my comp is:

asus a7n266
duron 1.2 ghz
and some pci cards

hey this is long but plz read. i posted before that i had a problem with ram. my ram stuffed up so i put in a new 333mhz one. i started getting stop errors and someone in this board told me to use a 266 mhz one as the 333mhz one wont work with my motherboard. i did exactly that. the stop errors which said the ram was bad, stopped. but then there was still the other stop errors. these stop errors said that my hardisk was bad or something. whenever i am in windows, it will restart automatically and then windows will do a checkdisk. so i tried formatting the hardisk and reinstalling windows xp. but i cant even format the hardisk. i enter the windows setup and do a check disk on it. the check disk says that the hardisk has unrecoverable problems. and sometimes it will format the hardisk half way and then a stop error will show. i would get stop errors anytime in the setup. its random. somtimes it formats all the way and then while installing windows a blue screen will show which using the code says that hardisk is bad. so i thought the hardisk was bad. i took out a hardisk from my second comp and tried on this one. it still said hardisk was bad even though i use that hardisk in the second comp. my second comp cant format the other hardisk cause its old. so i took that hardisk to my friends house and his comp formatted the hardisk and even installed windows without any stop errors. we done checkdisk on it and it said it fixed some errors. so i formated that hardisk on his comp and hoped that when i take it home it will work. but when i tried it on my comp, the stop errors started again. and i still couldn't formatt the hardisk and still checkdisk said that the hardisk was bad. so what is wrong? my friend said that maybe its my motherboard. if its my motherboard then maybe it could be a virus? so i checked for a boot sector virus and there was a boot sector virus which i fixed. so the boot sector virus is removed but still the stop errors. what is the problem? do i have a bios virus? is my moherboaerd stuffed up? plz help me out. its urgent. and which cheap fixes should i consider?

[Strider]

Well, that's a real tale of woe
If you haven't already, replace the IDE cable to the drive. If you have another device on the same cable, try disconnecting it and see if that eliminates the errors. If these don't cure the problems, then I'd have to suspect the IDE port on the MB.

You might download the HD manufacturer's diagnostic program, install your drive in your friend's computer again, and run the diagnostic program. It'll probably want to run from floppy.

Cheap fix, if it's the MB: you should be able to find a replacement board of the same vintage for cheap. Asus A7N 266, A7V 266, or equivalent Gigabyte, Abit, Tyan, ...
HTH,

[72montecarlo]

Are you sure now that the the memory is running the same frequency as the cpu.

[qaz]

only 1 hardisk is on the primary IDE and 1 cdrom on the secondary IDE. i already tried switching the IDE cables but still same stuff. but how can it be the IDE cable when it used to work before. it cant just stuff up like that can it? my hardisk is seagate. strider said it could be my IDE port on my MB.

1 but how can my port just stuff up? and how do i fix it?

2 could it be my bios or something and that there is a virus which is stuffing up the communication between MB and hardisk??

3 where do i get the manufacturer's diagnostic program from??

[Strider]

Originally Posted by qaz

only 1 hardisk is on the primary IDE and 1 cdrom on the secondary IDE. i already tried switching the IDE cables but still same stuff. but how can it be the IDE cable when it used to work before. it cant just stuff up like that can it? my hardisk is seagate. strider said it could be my IDE port on my MB.

1 but how can my port just stuff up? and how do i fix it?

Electronic components fail, sometimes without warning. If that is the problem, you probably have to replace the MB.

Originally Posted by qaz

2 could it be my bios or something and that there is a virus which is stuffing up the communication between MB and hardisk??

I haven't heard of such a virus, but I'm no expert. If you think a virus could be causing your symptoms, search the antivirus sites for symptoms such as you have caused by a virus.

Originally Posted by qaz

3 where do i get the manufacturer's diagnostic program from??

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/troubleshoot.html

Luck,