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#1 2009-11-15 14:45:28

tlawren
Member
From: Colorado, US
Registered: 2009-04-06
Posts: 80

bad install problems

About a week ago I tried to update my Arch machine, but during the process everything froze. I let it the machine sit for about 30 minutes, but nothing happened. I reset the box manually, but when it booted back up, X wouldn't load. I don't know what happened, but my guess is that during freeze, the xorg files were not updated properly. Either way, I couldn't figure out how to fix it, so I decided to re-install the whole system from scratch.

That leads me to my current problem. I can't get Arch to re-install. Everything goes foul when I try to partition the drives. The auto partition utility drops to a black screen with a lot of output I don't recognize or fully comprehend. Manual partition attempts do the same thing. I figured the hd might be bad, so I swapped it with a brand new one. Even with the new drive, I'm experiencing the same problem. The install always fails when I try to partition the drive. With the new drive however, the output is different. I can't capture it, so I can't post it. Sometimes it says something about botched request, but mostly it is stuff I don't recognize or understand. I've also tried to install different versions of Ubuntu 8.04, #!, Free BSD, and Windows XP. Everyone of them fails in one way or another too. I tried to nuke the old drive with DBAN, but it errored out too.

If anyone reads this and has any suggestions or ideas, please reply. I'm running out of ideas and things to do.

My current thought is that the motherboard (the hd controller on the board maybe) may be the problem. When I switch the drive from SATA to native IDE, the errors I get during an install attempt changes. I know it probably makes sense for this to happen, but when I have the drive set to SATA Windows XP doesn't even see it. It errors at the very beginning of the setup with a message saying no drive is even detected. When set to native IDE, I can format the drive and start the install, but it finishes with errors saying certain files weren't copied. As I mentioned above, I'm lost for ideas, so the only thing I can think of is that it might be the motherboard.

Again, if anyone reads this and has any suggestions or ideas, please reply.

Thanks in advance!

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#2 2009-11-15 15:01:00

Crows
Member
From: Wales
Registered: 2008-09-05
Posts: 92

Re: bad install problems

It's hardware related, no doubt about that. If you've changed out the drives already I'd say the MB too.

Not sure any other components would cause this kind of problem? Would faulty memory do it?

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#3 2009-11-16 02:32:08

1LordAnubis
Member
Registered: 2008-10-10
Posts: 253
Website

Re: bad install problems

I've had memory problems before, and I don't think this sounds memory related, but who knows. I would try a memtest and hard drive test utility. I'm no expert, but this is sounding like the MB to me... Or maybe some kind of power problem..

I'm not sure I've ever had a memory problem when I tried to install a system, but I have ran a system with memory corruption, and I got random freezes/crashes of games in wine, etc, along with kernel panics/abrupt poweroffs... its hard to predict what corrupted memory would do, so its a good thing to test first...


Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
-Benjamin Franklin
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw

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