A friend of mine and I talked my cousin into building his own computer since it was really quite easy and we could walk him through any questions or issues. 

He decided to go with quite the beast -

Mobo: XFX MB-N780-ISH LGA 775 Nvidia nForce 781i SLI Intel motherboard
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4 GHz LGA 775
VGA: EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512 MB 256 bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0x16HDCP (SLI ready)
RAM: OCZ SLI ready edition 4GB (2x2GB) 240 pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
HDD: 2 x  Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750 GB 7200 RPM SATA
ODD  Lite-On 20x DVD+R DVD Burner with LIGHTSCRIBE SATA
PSU: PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750 W
Case: Antec 900 Mid Tower
PS/2 Keyboard for installation and testing
USB mouse converted to PS/2 for installation and testing

His parts came in, he put them together, and went to install Windows XP SP2 OEM last weekend.  When the installation got to about 60% on "Copying Files," he received errors that certain files could not be copied (p3.sys being the first). He tried a couple of times, and did get the install to go through once, but he was having some issues with his display and mouse, panicked, and tried to install again. From then on, all installations failed. Some attempts were with QUICK format, some with full format.

After some research, our first suspects were either the media or the RAM.  We told him to download the UBCD on his laptop, burn a copy, and boot it in the new build so he could run some memory tests.  He ran Windows Memory Diagnostic in the extended tests on both sticks simultaneously. No errors were reported.

In the meantime, I had him create an ISO of his XP CD and transfer it to me. I burned the image and installed it on a test machine (1 ghz Celeron, 256 MR PC100 RAM, 13.6 GB IDE HDD, IDE optical) It installed start to finish with no issues.

He ran memtest from the UBCD on his RAM, both simultaneously and individually for at least 8 hours. No errors were reported in either case.

My next thought was to test the HDD's, so I had him again boot to the UBCD and run SeaTools 1.09.  However, SeaTools from the UBCD would not let him get past the EULA screen. He tried a straight burn of SeaTools 1.10, still no go.  He installed a 3.5" floppy drive that I had sent him and tried to run SeaTools 1.10 from there, but the same lock up occurred.

He is not able to test his optical drive, as he does not have another to swap out at the moment.

Just as a test to see if he could at least boot to an OS, my next thought was to try to boot to an Ubuntu 7.10 live CD.  I had him download both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions. (I was watching on a web cam, by the way) We tried the 32 bit, and as it nearing the point that the GUI would APPEAR, there was a note about how low graphics would NEED to be used. I had forgotten that the 8800 GT was too new of a card to have drivers on the live CD.  After we closed this dialog box, we got a blinking cursor and nothing else.  It seemed to be hung up. Now, granted, perphaps we did not wait long enough (30 - 60 seconds, but I would not think it would take this long on a machine like this.  So I wrote that off as an issue with display adapter compatibility. I do not know enough about Linux to troubleshoot this one.

On a complete hunch, I watched as he tried to install Windows again. This time we only had one HDD installed.  I had him create a 10 GB partition, quick format, and install into it.  This time XP installed.  We tried again, deleting the partition and installing into the entire drive.  This time it would NOT install.

Now we were convinced that the issue was either due to the size of the HDD, or a faulty HDD.  We pulled this HDD and installed the other one by itself, this time using the entire drive as the partition size.  Windows DID install on this drive in this partition.

Not completely convinced, I asked him to try it again, with the same parameters.  This time the errors reappeared.

We are utterly befuddled.  He is going to make a trip to visit (3 hours away) this weekend so he and and I and our friend can try to troubleshoot.  Between myself and our friend, we have components that we can switch out for testing.

Where should we start?  I figure trying a different optical drive or HDD would be a good place to start (perhaps even PATA rather than SATA)  Could it be the mobo?

What is a good boot utility to test the HDD besides SeaTools?

Is this worth the time or should he just return everything to NewEgg and start over?

PKI think you've been quite thorough in your diagnosis...
The 2 main suspects in this scenario are the first HDD and the Optical drive.
Since drive 2 took the installation properly it lessens the odds of the Optical drive being bad.
Why not just do the build on the drive it installed properly and really scream the machine thru it's paces ? ?
In the meantime return the offending HDD to newegg.
He may want to purchase a backup DVD burner just in case the optical is the culprit but i really think it's the first HDD.

Nice Build BTW !

High end MBoards seem to be all having issues lately...i think the article was at Tom's Hardware awhile back but i'm not convinced this is the case here and i've done quite a few builds recently with absolutely no issues except a failed onboard NIC on an MSI Platinum.However, if you look again you will see that the second HDD also failed on the second attempt at installing into the entire drive.  Otherwise I would agree with you.

So are you now leaning toward ODD?

Oh yes, when we get this problem figured out (or are at least reasonably sure) we will indeed make it cry with stress tests.

PKSorry didn't catch that part...The optical drive would now be the prime suspect, followed by the RAM then the MBoard.
Did you run MemTest or just the Windows memory checker from the UBCD...i believe both are included in the .iso.In my experience when Windows halts during installation with a message about file copying errors, the cause is very often memory problems. Incompatible or badly seated or faulty RAM. This kind of problem can come and go, so you could pass a Memtest and still have the problem.
That is what we gathered too - a RAM issue.

But he tested the crap out of the RAM with both memtest and WMD.  He tested both sticks at the same time and individually.

He even swapped out with some RAM from a guy at work. Still no go.

PKRAM or RAM controller (chipset on motherboard) 1.i dont think its the RAM if it was it wouldnt have installed in the first place even on just one drive, and the memory test would have failed.
2. check your BIOS HDD settings and make sure that its not on ANYTHING goofy.
3. im willing to bet that the ODD is not the problem either. if it was it wouldnt have installed xp on first HDD, even if it did finish, it would have screwed files up.
i would guess that something isnt right in your BIOS. also it could be a bad SATA port on your mobo. i would try the second HDD drive on the one that the first HDD was on. or better yet, swap the SATA ports on your MOBO so that your ODD is on the port that the second HDD was on, and the HDDs on the ports you have used. just a thought. Well, 6 hours, 18 Windows installs, 2 XP Pro CD's, 2 optical drives, 2 systems, 3 hard drives, and 3 geeks later, we think we figured it out.

The theory is that his XP Pro CD had a flaw that his optical drive was especially sensitive to, but not on EVERY install (though usually every other install).

Every failure started at the p3.sys file.

The true "tell tale" was when we installed his ODD into my friends computer and used the suspected media and got a failed install.  The same drive worked fine though multiple installs with a different CD and the CD worked fine through multiple installs with a different ODD. There was apparently just something about that CD that his Lite-On did not like.

I am guessing that the ISO that he created on his laptop and sent to me must have been a good read (different ODD).  We tried that disk too with no problems.

So, I think he is going to contact MS to get a replacement CD and use the ISO he made in the meantime.  I know its a bit silly to go through the trouble when he has a working copy, but its the principle of the thing.

He may also RMA his ODD just in case the sensitivity is a defect of some sort.

That was fun.

PK



Was there another XP CD used in this equation that confirmed this ? ?
Did you swap out the ODD to test this ? ?
What HDD was the successful installs to ...one or both ? ?Yes.

Yes.

That did not seem relevant. We were looking for a failure more than a success.  Once the suspected media failed in the suspected ODD on the other guy's system (and HDD), it seemed prettty apparent that the combination of the media and the ODD was the culprit.

PKGood solid detective work on your part.Ill say.  Nothing like finding a needle in a haystack