First post, by Dystopia
I've been having a problem where my PC locks up hard when I try to install a game from the DVD drive. And I mean hard - to the point where the hard disk isn't detected by the BIOS on the first reboot. The offending game was X-Wing Alliance, but I tried another game and the same thing happened. It's not totally consistent how far it gets before failing, but it always happens before the installation completes. I have successfully installed Windows and various drivers with this DVD drive previously.
At first I thought my joystick (Logitech Wingman Strike Force 3D) was somehow responsible because the first this happened it did so about 30 seconds after plugging in the joystick. But on subsequent attempts it seems to make no difference whether it's plugged in or not. Just a silly concidence I suppose.
My next thought was that the hard disk is faulty. I had bought it from some doofus who thought an envelope was a sensible way to post a hard disk, so maybe it's finally dying. I tried thrashing with ATTO disk benchmarks, thinking that would induce a failure if the disk is faulty, but no, it did just fine. So then I installed a game from an ISO on a USB flash drive, and it works just fine. Then I installed XWA from the DVD to the USB drive, and that worked. Then I copied the files off the XWA disc onto the hard disk via Explorer, that worked too. Then I tried the installer again, and it was right back to failsville.
The PC seems generally stable otherwise. It runs 3D Mark 2001 with no issues. I played No One Lives Forever for a few hours with no problems. I'm at a loss as to what the problem is.
My system for reference:
SE440BX-2
Pentium III 1400-S (modded, from the Korean Ebay guy) via MSI MS6905 Master slotket and this cooler
512MB RAM
64MB Geforce 4 4200Ti
36 WD Raptor via cheapo IDE to SATA adapter (the sort that plugs into the motherboard rather than the disk)
Some old IDE LG DVD-RW
PCI USB2 card (the one Phil's Computer Lab covered some years back)
Vortex 2
Audician 32
Sound Blaster Audigy
Windows 98SE with the community service pack