Ultimate Edition Forum

Hello. My roommate recently bought a Motherboard and Video card for use with a P4 2.6 GHz processor I have so we can get rid of an aging Dell that is proving too slow for her and my sister's tastes/uses.

Here are the entire specs:

MB - ASROCK P4i456GV R5.0 with BIOS ver. 3.40 (ACPI compliant)(with ONLY the 20 pin ATX adapter - no 4 pin aux. adapter)
Proc. - P4 2.6 GHz (HT enabled)
Video - AGP 8x EVGA GeForce 6200 512 MB
Optical Drive - HP dvd840 (same one used to burn the disks in the older machine...all is well with it)
Memory snapshots:
1 Gig stick:



512 MB stick (sorry this is hard to read, but it was the best I could do):



PS - 350 Watt ATX Enermax Switching Power Supply

I first encountered the same problem posted here:

viewtopic.php?f=71&t=5399&p=56158&hilit=gfxboot#p56152

...the solution posted there did work, and the boot process did continue...however, every attempt at booting into a Live DVD session ended up FREEZING at the Splash screen, just before the Desktop SHOULD have then been "built". I even "Slept on it", giving it all night, in hopes it would be able to resolve any conflicts, given enough time...no such luck. The spinning Ultimate Edition 2.8 logo just stopped spinning at some point, and went no further.

I tried dialing back to Ultimate Edition 2.7 with the same Freeze at the Splash screen, and THEN all the way back to Ultimate Edition 2.3...same results, same spot....

This will be a dual - boot rig, when I am finished, so I grabbed the custom Windows 7 NVIDIA Edition DVD I have (available here: http://www.rtwincustomize.net/). That didn't even get as far as the Ultimate Edition attempts...giving a message: "CDBOOT: Cannot boot from CD - code: 5"

Can anyone see what the problem might be, here....I would think this should be an adequate mix of hardware to handle BOTH OS's. I'm just STUMPED....

I should also mention that I tried the whole process with JUST the 1Gig Memory stick, and that did no good...both sticks show up at post, and pass the mem test...AND that I even burned a checksum VERIFIED DVD with K3B onto a PRISTINE Blank DVD...to no avail; same exact problem.

Hi Wolfie

This might sound ridiculous, but have you tried it in another computer to see if the dvd is ok? Secondly, have you tried burning from a different computer? Else it seems to me to be more like the cd/dvd is hinting at retiring, Mine did the same thing ages ago, and I built a new one, and had no problem...

I would suggest also checking the connections, but since you mentioned that you had burned copy, i gather its working.. Is the bios setup to boot to cdrom first?

I got Ultimate Edition 2.6 x64 working live dvd both on my AMD Phenom II 955 Quad Core Black Ed. with 4 gig Ram, works like a charm... (2.8 x64 wouldnt get past 80% install, so I flunked it)

I also got it working on my old machine which is a P4 Sillyron (Celeron) 2.6gig with 2 gig ram (but only I stick working atm) using a generic cd/dvd drive... and that worked... as a live dvd...

Also try a couple of other linux live dvd's just see if its not the burning process and to rule out a dying cd/dvd rom drive... hope it gives some suggestions ...

Well, unfortunately, the Dell this rig will be replacing is crippled, not just slow (Even with a P4 2.8GHz proc.(??)). I'll probably transfer that P4 to the new rig, since the processor itself is faster. The IDE interface on the Dell MB used for the optical drive is burned out, so I can't set it up for a Boot from the old raid card I used to get a burner going within Ubuntu. It has a SATA HD interface, so only the one IDE option. I'll try to check it out elsewhere, but it will be some time before I can get to it. I would assume since the burn returned a matching checksum in K3B, everything should be OK with the burn, and the first DVDs I used were burned some time ago, and DID work on other rigs. Also, I did manage to get Windows XP Pro Performance edition to load on the machine (useless as it turned out to be at using the drivers packaged with the MB)....using the same burner, just to try to eliminate the drive as being the source of the problem, and to maybe at least have SOMETHING on the rig, but no Internet or sound drivers worked either, on that install. So does it still sound like a DVD Drive problem? I'm still a little on the fence with that issue...

Also, My Personal rig is currently down, awaiting a new MB, so I can't try it out on that rig, either...

An update....I WILL have a different DVD drive here, Today, and will try that ASAP.

Thanks for the input!

silly suggestion and all, but try 32 pieces version on P4.

and the other errata about burn at slowest speed: check md5 sum etc.

Well, I'll double check, but I'm pretty sure that the Ultimate Edition attempts were the 32 bit, and the Windows 7 DVD handles BOTH 32 and 64 bit - just choose during installation process...but it never even got CLOSE to that point of the process. And I ALWAYS choose the slowest burn rate on a DVD...usually around 4x.

I have a new (well...DIFFERENT) DVD drive here right now that I will attempt and post back asap on how that goes...

Thanks!

Well....no such luck. The DVD drive I swiped out of my buddy's computer turned up here deader than a doorknob! Given the fact I can burn with the HP 840 and that the XP Pro installed without a hitch, I'm just not sure that the problem is with the drive itself, though. I'll do what I can and match up the MD5 checksums with the ones given at the site, on brand new burns, tomorrow, when my roommate buys a new combo drive after work....the 840 IS my drive, after all, and they would have needed a new one anyway, because the one from the Dell gave up the ghost just this last month, as well...

...Meantime....

Any other ideas floating around out there?

other than what you're doing, I suggest getting new parts...

The Motherboard and Video card are BRAND new. The processor and memory I have had for some time, but both seem well in working order. Is it hardware limitations you are hinting at, here ? What different parts would you recommend for a budget Internet machine with at least a LITTLE muscle for the little bit of media the machine will be handling?

What's the region on the dvd drive?

Reset the bios.

Open the bios and turn off any features that have to do with mem. shadowing/cache and such....if you have it.

The above probably won't make a dang difference but I do remember I had to do this to boot the live dvd with the new kernal.

Hey man, so is this NEW hardware you speak of the hardware listed in your sig by chance ?

nvidia chip sets are AWFUL I just hate them. Very unstable and unreliable. I have owned many of them lol Every last one have been crap.

CPU is really old now and suffers from some problems of it's own. Thus why it was replaced inside 4 months time.

8 GB with your on board memory controller on that phenom I is a no go to start with.

8 GB on the gen 2 or gen 3 phenom II yes but even 8 gig suffered on phenom II gen I .

I just see some pore choices is all. No offense intended.

I can give you choices that are cheap , highly effective and fast. Based on 2010 tech that works with Ultimate Edition out of the box no questions asked.