What does the Fox say?

[willsee]

It's not or under the battery

hopefully it's in the papers at home

reading online it's also in the bios but windows won't stay on long enough to install a program without getting a bsod....sometimes I can get to a command prompt on startup so maybe putting a program on a thumb drive and going from there

 

[MetsFan]

It's not or under the battery

hopefully it's in the papers at home

reading online it's also in the bios but windows won't stay on long enough to install a program without getting a bsod....sometimes I can get to a command prompt on startup so maybe putting a program on a thumb drive and going from there

You don't need to boot into windows to get into the BIOS. You have to push a key as soon as it starts up. I think for most computers, it's F2, but it varies. You have to act fast though. I usually push the power on button and start mashing F2 and F8 (I can't remember which one it is for my PC).

 

[knight1fox3]

Yeah I'd rather just do that. Nothing TOO critical that I would lose.

MSI said to send it to them which I really don't want to do.

Now I just have to find the product key.

^Should be on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop.

Product keys are easier to work with now too in that you don't need a hard copy of it. It's actually now tied to the BIOS/UEFI system of the main board. The windows installation will detect the key and you won't even have to enter it. F2 or DEL should get you into the UEFI. F12 would most likely bring up a boot menu for you to select which boot device you wanted to use. I'd also recommend wiping the drive first rather than just installing over the old. That might leave remnants of the old system behind. A quick and dirty method would be to just delete the main partition(s).

 

[willsee]

Alright downloaded the file to a thumb drive from the link fox sent

Delete all partitions so only one remaining is drive 0 unallocated space

goes to install...bsod

 

[knight1fox3]

Alright downloaded the file to a thumb drive from the link fox sent

Delete all partitions so only one remaining is drive 0 unallocated space

goes to install...bsod

Which one did you download? 8.1 64-bit? At what point does the BSOD occur? Did the hard drive go bad? Did you purchase a secondary SSD? If so, which do you have set up as your primary? If you have 2 drives installed, pull the non-primary one just until this gets resolved. We might need to run memory check too as there's only a few things that can cause a BSOD before an OS is even loaded into memory. The number of causes increases if the BSOD occurs while Windows is running.

 

[willsee]

8.1 64bit

Only one hard drive that came with the system (750GB)

Getting files ready for installation at 63% - BAD_Pool_header just now

Getting files ready for installation at 2% - ntfs_file_system (ntfs.sys)

Stopped a splash screen - held the power button to reset

Not even to the windows start up - tcpip.sys missing or contains errors - press enter to try again, f8 for startup settings, esc for uefi firmware settings. Pressed Enter

Finished the install and was doing a 10s to reboot then - IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, restarted with BCD files is missing some required information

Unexpected Kernal Mode Trap

 

[knight1fox3]

Hmm....can you enter the UEFI (i.e. BIOS) firmware settings? If so, I would suggest navigating to the menu item where you can reset all defaults. If there's a "memory check" feature, give that a run otherwise we can try memtest. Or if you feel comfortable enough opening it up, we could try to isolate the problem by removing one of the memory chips then attempting the install. If another BSOD, then remove the other and replace with the 1st one you took out to see if one of the chips are bad. Unlikely that both are bad. If there is some onboard memory (directly soldered), just take both chips out altogether.

 

[willsee]

Yes I can typically get to the bios.

Didn't see anything there about a memory check but there are lots of options there I'm not familiar with either.

I didn't want to open the case up since I believe that voids the warranty.

I can also typically get to the command prompt as well with the x:/ drive

 

[knight1fox3]

Well, opening the standard component cover shouldn't void any warranties because that is where you would install more memory and/or another hard drive. It's usually only 1 or 2 screws that will release the cover. Page 3-23 of the user manual shows which compartments house the different upgradeable components. But if you aren't comfortable doing that, it's understandable.

Based on what you've indicated so far, I would put my money on memory failure. Especially because you're seeing an error at or before system POST. Meaning something isn't passing a successful hardware check. If you really don't want to muck around with removing memory chips (although MSI makes it really user-friendly), then the next best test would be download and run MemTest86. 2 or 3 successful passes on each chip would be a safe bet that a chip is good. A bad chip will be pretty evident.

 

[willsee]

Thank you so much for helping me out.

I ended up just deciding to send it back since it's under warranty still. I got to the part where I had the back panel removed (minus the last screw, under the voided warranty sticker if removed) and just looked up how much memory would be to replace it and saw it is still cheaper to send it back then it would be to buy replacement memory.

At least now i learned how to do a clean install of windows so this time when I get it back I can go ahead and do that. Also read online to install new drivers for everything something about the drivers pre-loaded are generic windows and may or may not work with the laptop.

Again thank you for your time.

 

[knight1fox3]

Thank you so much for helping me out.

I ended up just deciding to send it back since it's under warranty still. I got to the part where I had the back panel removed (minus the last screw, under the voided warranty sticker if removed) and just looked up how much memory would be to replace it and saw it is still cheaper to send it back then it would be to buy replacement memory.

At least now i learned how to do a clean install of windows so this time when I get it back I can go ahead and do that. Also read online to install new drivers for everything something about the drivers pre-loaded are generic windows and may or may not work with the laptop.

Again thank you for your time.

No problem. Happy to help out as it is my 2nd job.

As for the warranty, that's probably best. I'm still a bit confused at where this void warranty sticker was. Not that I don't believe you but I've just not seen any sort of warranty stickers on high end machines because they are configured to be upgraded, over-clocked, tweaked, etc. But no matter now. Had you narrowed down the which memory stick was faulty, you would not have needed to replace it yourself. MSI theoretically would have just sent you another memory chip while you would have been able to keep and use the laptop with reduced memory.

, e

With pre-loaded Windows, again it depends on the manufacturer. Some of the higher-end vendors (i.e. ASUS, MSI, etc.) actually take time to get the correct and most recent drivers. However, they still generally include bloatware which is annoying. A clean install just to get rid of that stuff is worth it in my opinion. And after that, it's not too difficult to grab the latest drivers from the retailer's website. Everything except the video driver. That I would download from the manufacturer (i.e. AMD, NVidia, etc) vs. the retailer. Usually those are even more current. Good luck!

 

[willsee]

On the graphic you sent on box #5, outside that box top right is another screw that has a sticker placed over it. Say warranty voided if removed, but going online no one said they had an issue with MSI honoring the warranty for removing that sticker to upgrade RAM and replace the hard drive, I just didn't want to risk it.

Maybe I'll call them this evening and ask them about sending me a new memory stick and getting it verified from them that I can open it up without voiding the warranty.

 

[Supe]

KF! Any recommendations on either a laptop or desktop for an 8 year old?

Criteria:

-PC or laptop with display <$400 (would PREFER a desktop)

-Wireless Card

-Most it will likely be used for is internet videos/flash games and MS Word

Vague, I know, but I can't figure out where to draw the line between total piece of crap and does everything an 8 year old needs it to do?

 

[knight1fox3]

KF! Any recommendations on either a laptop or desktop for an 8 year old?

Criteria:

-PC or laptop with display <$400 (would PREFER a desktop)

-Wireless Card

-Most it will likely be used for is internet videos/flash games and MS Word

Vague, I know, but I can't figure out where to draw the line between total piece of crap and does everything an 8 year old needs it to do?

Ha, I actually just recommended a few to a co-worker with similar criteria. Like I sent him the recommendations via email today. Below are some of the models I was looking at. Of course I'd be partial to the ASUS machine(s). All have equivalent specs. I would try to maintain no less than 4GB of memory, a 2.5GHz CPU or higher (preferably a 4th gen. Intel i-series), and probably a 500GB+ hard disk. SSD would be better but will obviously drive the cost up. As for Wi-Fi, you can just add a small USB adapter to get wireless connectivity.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220743


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220744

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G1E31296

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883156230

 

[Supe]

Awesome, thanks! Hopefully today's USB wifi adapters are better than they used to be...

 

[knight1fox3]

Awesome, thanks! Hopefully today's USB wifi adapters are better than they used to be...

No prob. They have gotten better IMO. I believe I recommended this to clients in the past. However, I'm sure any of those desktops will have spare expansion slots where you could add an internal card just as well. Perhaps even one with dual functionality as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

 

[matt267 PE]

Fox,

My 9 year old, home built, desktop computer has decided that it doesn't want to boot anymore. Should I troubleshoot and try to fix it, or buy a new computer?

 

[knight1fox3]

9 years???? That's a good run man. Time to cut the losses and re-build. Potentially keep the case but even those are very reasonable these days.

 

[matt267 PE]

I think I'm going to go with a prebuilt linux machine this time. I don't have the time to do it myself.

 

[knight1fox3]

You could always get the Fox to quote you what you need then just do the actual buying. Or you don't have time to do the building either? I could also assist with that. Up to you.

Depends on what you want to do with it. Not a fan of Linux machines for anything other than server/sharing duties due to compatibility issues.