Constantly freezing and whatnot...
 

I must have tried reinstalling Mandrake 10.1 like 5-6 times with different configs and so far nothing was worked. If it doesn't freeze sometime during the setup, once it gets to the bootscreen, it freezes about 1/10th of the way there and it freezes before I can hit ESC to get into verbose mode. If I boot into linux-nofb, I can actually get into linux but no matter what, it will freeze after about 5 minutes of use... Any ideas?

Here's my PC specs:
members.cox.net/live4ever/newcomp
(copy and paste because it wont let me post the link right)

Howdy
 

Hi,

It sounds like a hardware problem. You have high end components overclocked with tons of peripherals drives and they look beautiful btw. Very nice. But you have one problem. You have a cheap@ss ghetto power supply. You can't do that. Getting your computer to boot and having enough power under load are not the same thing. I looked up your PS, and I have a suggestion in regards to replacement- if you so choose:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...153-015&depa=0

The PS above is also black, which will go nicely with your rig. I have bought every power supply known to man, and this is one of the best for the price. 420 Watts from a 5 ounce chinese power supply won't cut if for your rig.

In any case, this is what I can see from the symptoms and the details of your current hardware. Most people ignore this part of making a killer rig. After the motherboard, the PS is the most important piece of a computer system. Good luck. You have a great looking rig there.

Alright, there's a couple things I left out. First, I have also tried resetting the BIOS to default settings, still didin't work. Also I am no longer using the PSU on that page I posted, I am actually using this one now:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...148-001&depa=0

On a side note, I also had to unplug my SATA drive to get the setup to get passed the license screen, I am trying to install linux on the 40GB Maxtor.

Thanks

Okay, from looking around the forums a little more, I starting to think it has something to do with this ACPI/APIC stuff, especially with my nForce3 motherboard. I'm at school right now so I can't test this ATM, but its look like I should disable APIC during the installation then once I get it installed configure the bootloader so it loads with APIC disabled... Does this sound like it might be the problem? Any other ideas? I will also update the bios and maybe try disabling APIC in the bios before installing again.

Yes, on AMD motherboards you disable APIC and in the bios and add "append=noapic" in /etc/lilo.conf. Also, if your SATA chipset are not native in the kernel aka no drivers, then you should disable the SATA chipset on the motherboard via jumper. If you are using it, then you don't have much choice.

There are few SATA or PATA chipsets that have their drivers open source and in the kernel. 3ware is the card of choice if you just want your RAID or JBOD hard drive setup to work without issue.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean about the SATA stuff, but I'm not even installing linux on the SATA drive, nor is the SATA drive even connected to the PC during installation. I'm just trying to install mandrake on a standard Maxtor 40GB ATA drive, so do I have to do any of that SATA stuff?

Okay well I got through the setup just fine using the "linux noapic nolapic" command, but now when it tries to boot linux, it doesnt even get to the boot screen, it just prints this while its still in the bios:

L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

Something to that effect... any idea what the heck that means?

Okay, well I was able to get through the setup without the "noapic" and "nolapic" commands just fine and it doesn't do that weird thing with the 99's upon booting. Once the setup was done I was able to startup mandrake using "linux noapic nolapic" and then once it was booted, I permanently checked off "Force no APIC" and "Force no LAPIC" through the bootloader. I'm on mandrake right now and so far there have been no signs of lock ups or anything. I guess my question is, why would using "noapic" and "nolapic" during the mandrake setup cause it to not work afterwards? I still have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with the SATA drive because when it is plugged in during install, the setup will freeze. When the SATA drive is plugged in during install and "linux noapic nolapic" is used, the setup won't freeze, but the 99 thing above happens. When the SATA drive isn't plugged in at all the setup works just fine. Also, upon first boot eth0 failed to initialize, but now it seems to be initializing fine, does that have any significance either? Thanks.

why would using "noapic" and "nolapic" during the mandrake setup cause it to not work afterwards? I still have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with the SATA drive because when it is plugged in during install, the setup will freeze.

This is why I told you to disable the SATA on the motherboard. Now you know. :)