gleslie07
08-12-2010, 01:05 AM
Hello and thanks for looking. My problems started several weeks ago on a Compaq SR5510F (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883109018) desktop running Windows 7. I began experiencing occasional hangs and whatnot and did not think much of it until my wireless card suddenly stopped working.
I looked into the problem and discovered that Device Manager was reporting a "Code 12 - Not enough resources" error for several components in my computer, my wireless card, ethernet card, and something else I have since forgotten. Strangely, there were no IRQ conflicts. I checked the IRQ's on the computer and found that there were a 110 instances of "Microsoft ACPI Compliant" in the IRQ listing.
I looked into IRQ's and learned that either the BIOS or Windows assigns them to the hardware in the PC, so I booted up a Linux live cd to try to determine if the BIOS or Windows was to blame for the faulty assignment (I figured I'd just reinstall Windows if it was the problem). Linux was unable to get the wireless card working (it previously has from the live cd). I don't know if this conclusion is correct, but then the BIOS must have been improperly assigning the IRQ's, right?
Anyway, after days of trying, I basically gave up and deleted the first "Microsoft ACPI Complaint" entry to see what would happen. Windows then automatically reinstalled all the drivers for the hardware on my computer, and everything was back working again (although the strange 110 instances of that "Microsoft ACPI Complaint" were still there, but they didn't seem to cause a problem so I ignored them).
So about 2 more weeks pass by and I decide that my Windows was pretty junked up and ready for a reinstall to freshen everything up. I reinstalled Windows 7, and after a few hours of installing software I suddenly started experiencing a lot of lock-ups and hangs. I reinstalled Windows again and tried installing the software in a different order, and again I experienced the same lock-ups and hangs.
At this point, I gave up on Windows, burned an Ubuntu Studio DVD and installed that. I went through the usual painful experience of finding the drivers and installing everything to get my wireless internet working, and I ran into some problems with the nVidia driver so I again reinstalled Ubuntu Studio.
So at this point I experience my second major problem, the installation fails twice at the same place. The installation begins and successfully writes the OS to the hard drive and about 3/4 of the way through software installation, the installation fails.
In BIOS, I checked the S.M.A.R.T readings on the drive, and it's unable to read from it. BIOS does, however, recognize it.
I threw it in another PC, BIOS recognizes it, Windows cannot see it.
So, is there a connection between the two events? Could a faulty motherboard have caused the IRQ problems and then caused the hard drive to fail? I'm leaning towards the side that they are not connection and the hard drive failed by coincidence, but I cannot discredit the possibility as everything has been flawless up to this point.
On another note, I've had two hard drives fail in this computer before. I've just learned that HP admits that a driver error caused the original hard drive model to fail (I never installed that firmware update). (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01676224&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=uk&product=3740354&lang=en) However, the old hard drives would not even be recognized by the BIOS, while this one is, and the Ubuntu installer can even write to it until a certain point in the installation process.
Well, anyways, thanks for reading this, if you have. Just trying to make sense of all this.
Thanks!
graham
I looked into the problem and discovered that Device Manager was reporting a "Code 12 - Not enough resources" error for several components in my computer, my wireless card, ethernet card, and something else I have since forgotten. Strangely, there were no IRQ conflicts. I checked the IRQ's on the computer and found that there were a 110 instances of "Microsoft ACPI Compliant" in the IRQ listing.
I looked into IRQ's and learned that either the BIOS or Windows assigns them to the hardware in the PC, so I booted up a Linux live cd to try to determine if the BIOS or Windows was to blame for the faulty assignment (I figured I'd just reinstall Windows if it was the problem). Linux was unable to get the wireless card working (it previously has from the live cd). I don't know if this conclusion is correct, but then the BIOS must have been improperly assigning the IRQ's, right?
Anyway, after days of trying, I basically gave up and deleted the first "Microsoft ACPI Complaint" entry to see what would happen. Windows then automatically reinstalled all the drivers for the hardware on my computer, and everything was back working again (although the strange 110 instances of that "Microsoft ACPI Complaint" were still there, but they didn't seem to cause a problem so I ignored them).
So about 2 more weeks pass by and I decide that my Windows was pretty junked up and ready for a reinstall to freshen everything up. I reinstalled Windows 7, and after a few hours of installing software I suddenly started experiencing a lot of lock-ups and hangs. I reinstalled Windows again and tried installing the software in a different order, and again I experienced the same lock-ups and hangs.
At this point, I gave up on Windows, burned an Ubuntu Studio DVD and installed that. I went through the usual painful experience of finding the drivers and installing everything to get my wireless internet working, and I ran into some problems with the nVidia driver so I again reinstalled Ubuntu Studio.
So at this point I experience my second major problem, the installation fails twice at the same place. The installation begins and successfully writes the OS to the hard drive and about 3/4 of the way through software installation, the installation fails.
In BIOS, I checked the S.M.A.R.T readings on the drive, and it's unable to read from it. BIOS does, however, recognize it.
I threw it in another PC, BIOS recognizes it, Windows cannot see it.
So, is there a connection between the two events? Could a faulty motherboard have caused the IRQ problems and then caused the hard drive to fail? I'm leaning towards the side that they are not connection and the hard drive failed by coincidence, but I cannot discredit the possibility as everything has been flawless up to this point.
On another note, I've had two hard drives fail in this computer before. I've just learned that HP admits that a driver error caused the original hard drive model to fail (I never installed that firmware update). (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01676224&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=uk&product=3740354&lang=en) However, the old hard drives would not even be recognized by the BIOS, while this one is, and the Ubuntu installer can even write to it until a certain point in the installation process.
Well, anyways, thanks for reading this, if you have. Just trying to make sense of all this.
Thanks!
graham