p4c800 e dlx crash help please

I'll try to make this short but with all the problems I've been having it might be a bit longer. First I'll outline my system:

p4c800ed
p4 2.8 800
corsair twinx1024 3200c2pt x2
ati 9800xt
wd 36g raptor OS drive
maxtor 160g ata 133 x2
wd 200g
audigy
happauge win tv pci
enermax 430w ps
cdrw
dvdrw
card reader
samsung 712n tft x2
BIOS 1016
XP Pro

I built this back in Nov. Things were running great up until a month or so ago. The 160g drives were RAID0. The 200g replaced an 80g. Since the 200g entered the mix I started getting "NTLDR is missing" on boot. A simple ctrl+alt+del rebooted fine. After a while ctrl+alt+del would continue to give me the NTLDR issue. Upon reboot I headed for the BIOS and noticed that the boot device priority had changed from my 36g raptor to my 200g WD. This seemed kinda strange to me as I did not change the boot priority. After changing back to 36g raptor I successfully booted in to XP. Soon after my 200g drive fell off the radar. It was not showing in my computer or dev manager. I could hear it spin down and try to spin back up again. This was accompanied by several BSOD's. I figured the best thing for my rig was a clean install.

After clean XP install I got everything up and running and things looked swell. Then it started with NTLDR again. I also started getting multiple BSOD. Doing just about anything sent my computer into a reboot or BSOD. Trying to translate MS error codes is like trying to understand Swahili. After being stuck in a boot, reboot, BSOD cycle for about 15min I shutdown and unplugged my 200g and 160g HH's. Now I can do meanial tasks like check email and search forums to see if I can find a solution to this crippling problem. My WinTV app crashes, ShrinkDVD gives me BSOD even my internet connection is flakey. No Doom3 for me until I can figure this sh*t out.

I do remember being inside the case and brushing up against the 4pin connector that goes to my 200g HD and hearing it kinda turn off and on again. Maybe a PS issue.

So I have ordered a Antec true control 550w ps hoping that will solve my problems but it's not likely. If anyone has any thoughts on my problems (aside from the lenghth of this post) I would greatly appreciate some input. Thanks.

btw- temps are not an issue . I have h20 for the cpu and gpu and they idle at about 30-35c depending on season.

Flash your bios to 1017 AFAIK it fixes the SATA boot priority issues with the board...Next time you get windows corrupted just pop in the winxp cd and do "Repair" instead of reinstalling everything and loosing all your data.

Make sure also to configure your bios manually......


BL
Vflux

I do manually configure BIOS. Is there a BIOS guide that might explain some of the more obscure settings? Thanks. As far as flashing I tried to install ASUS live update and my install says it did not detect an asus board set up will now exit.

You can try the floppy bios flashing!!! Make a bootdisk then extract the latest afudos and bios with it.... reboot then just type A:/afudos p4ced17.rom and it's done. You can check asus website for the guide on how to flash the bios through floppy, if you arent sure........


Let me bump this one for you!!!!!!!



BL
Vflux

After I ran BIOS recovery I'm back to 1009. I re installed XP after reformat. Installed base intel lan drivers, SP1, critical XP updates. Then Norton personal firewall 2003. Ran live update and installed Norton Sys 2003 and ran live update. Live update would hang when trying to install common client. Tried many times with same result. Tried to install ASUS update but it will not install either. I get some sort of NT error. All this with a squeaky clean install. WTF! I'm going to try another fresh install when I get the time. Why won't ASUS update install?

Try installing the latest Intel INF Driver if you havent.....Turn off your firewall and vscan while installing live update....check if it works. Coz TBH i never tried asus live update, i've always used the floppy version "A:/afudos /ip4ced17.rom" without the qoutes.....

Vflux

Updating BIOS from Windows is a joke. I tried it once and borked my BIOS. I always stick with a floppy disk and good old DOS.

Disabling Norton worked. I don't have a floppy handy right now so it's out of the question. I have used the asus update before and it worked fine so I'll give it a try. Thanks again for the help so far.

Glad it all worked out for you csidd......


BL
Vflux

Thanks for your concern Vflux. I'm not out of thewoods yet but things are looking much better.