"Terry Coombs" news Sun, 16 Apr 2017 02:11:19 GMT in alt.home.repair, wrote:

Let's begin to rule out the obvious, if you don't mind.

Did you properly reseat the CPU and RAM? Is the CPU overheating?
Did you use any thermal paste? Did you apply too much of it?

Properly seated on both counts , just a dab of paste in the
center of the cpu before seating the fan assembly and it has a
temp probe stuck between the fins of the heatsink - running at 83°F
right now while idle .

In the future, you should smear the paste with your finger so it's
even on the entire surface area where the heatsink is going to
contact it. Don't expect the heatsink to do this for you,
automagically. Just a very thin, and I do mean, thin, layer covering
the entire contact surface is what you're after. And be sure to wash
it off of yourself when finished, it's usually toxic to humans not to
mention the greasy feeling. Temp is very good for that cpu, btw.

Memtest says the RAM is good .

So far, so good.

What *exactly* do you mean by won't boot? Is it still posting?
Or, just not going into Windows? And, you are only having an
issue with Windows at this point, right? Which version of Windows
did you try to load?

I was attempting to run Win7 Pro 64 bit . Repeated blue screens
don't remember all the codes . Probably because i didn't understand
what they mean . Got to the point that it was running startup
repair screen repeatedly and wouldn't boot at all .

Okay, so, just to clarify, it's posting, but, no longer going into
Windows at all now, right? And, this was a blank hard disk before you
started, right?

Were you able to get the install up and going initially? Did you
start having problems as you loaded drivers? If so, where did you get
the drivers?

Are your optical drives in good working order? Are the data
cables nice and snug without any problems? A faulty data cable
can make your life a living hell, too. And, it's not one of the
first things most people will check for, either. Is the media you
used for Windows in good condition? No scratches, fingerprints,
etc.

Everything in the case is new except the Phenom X4/1.8 Ghz cpu
and the case itself. That cpu has been running with no problems in
my desktop for about a month .

Which mainboard are you using? make/model please, revision as well if
you know it.

Did you modify anything in cmos setup?


At what point did Windows begin to have issues? During initial
install, OR, when you began loading drivers?

I first started having problems during the initial updates .
Motherboard drivers supplied loaded fine .

initial updates....from Microsoft, or updated drivers you acquired?
What problems do you remember having first, and, what did you update
that caused the first issue?

Which version specifically of Linux did you load? Did linux give
you any trouble installing?

Loaded Mint version 18.1 cinnamon with no problems . Biggest
problem to date is simple unfamiliarity with the new OS . Very
similar to Ubuntu , and I'm figuring it out .

It's a 'fork' of Ubuntu, so it's going to look quite similar. The
hardware is cruising right along with it though, right? No issues
whatsoever?


Help me, help you, by answering my questions and doing what I've
asked of you, in the order I asked. I'll monitor this thread for
your response.

One problem I've had is getting it to boot with a second 1Tb
hard drive hooked up (primary is also a 1Tb).
That hdd has video and music on it that was put there under a
Windows OS .

Okay. See below.

When trying to boot with it plugged in it pops a ntldr not found ,

What's the history with this particular drive? Was it blank prior to
you loading your music/video files, or, did it contain a bootable
operating system at some point? As, well, based on what you've
written so far, it has an mbr and an active partition flag set. A
simple format command doesn't touch either one, but, does waste the
ntldr file that would have been present...along with every other file
on it...

Also, which sata port is that drive connected to? And, which sata
port is your bootable linux drive connected to? They are numbered for
a very specific reason...When running the box with a single drive, it
doesn't matter, but, when multiple drives are connected, it does.
Especially if both drives have code the bios/uefi can pass control
over to. And, going by what you've written, it does...Hence my
question about it's history.

And, I'm going to ask you again, Did you change anything in the cmos
setup on that mainboard?

Works fine plugged into a USB port thru an interface device
though .

That's because, short of you telling the machine to try and boot via
USB, it doesn't care if the drive has an mbr. It won't try to pass
control to it.

I have another hdd coming , plan to use it for my media
storage and move the media to it then wipe this one .

Unless you zero out the drive, you aren't touching the mbr or the
active partition bit that appears to be set on it...

I'll continue monitoring this thread for your reply. It doesn't sound
like an actual hardware issue so far though. Is this machine going to
be serving a dedicated purpose, like a media server/aka, jukebox, or
become a daily driver? In other words, what are your plans for it?

--
I would like to apologize for not having offended you yet.
Please be patient. I will get to you shortly.