Good morning,
I have performed the hardware checks, all good. Disks/Memory.
The system is stable for everything I use it for, except for "restart". For now, not a big deal to do "shut down" then "push-button-start" to do a restart if the need arises.
The history of this machine is as follows:
a) Initial-build: 500GB HD, DVD-drive, TP-link Wireless-N PCI-express card. Got it running fine, then wanted to add another 500GB HDD that I have. Opened up, looked for another SATA port, then realized only have 2 on the mobo. (This mobo/CPU was a sale special: $60 for both. Did not look too hard at what was available. >> You get what you pay for). So, I started pursuing options to get the other hard-drive in there.
b) Tried adding a 2-port SATA card. I bought a mini-PCIe, SATA-controller card. This MSI mobo I have has a little mini-PCIe expansion slot on it. When the SATA-controller card arrived, it would not fit. (I had no experience with mini-PCIe hardware: did not realize there are full-size and half-size mini-PCIe cards). So, I found a ribbon-cable extension device. I was able to connect the 1/2-size end to the mobo, and remotely mounted the full-size mini-PCIe sata card, with 2-ports, double-sidded taped to the case inside. Would not work. I guessed that the tape solution was not supplying ground the the remote mini-card. Added a little ground-wire. The card worked! So, then on to getting it to run. The driveres supplied with the card did not include Win 8 (I think, too many combinations to remeber exactly). Anyway, eventually found a ASMediaASM1061, 2.0 SATA 6Gbps Controller, driver (may have been Vista >> acknowledge your post warning, now, for using non-Win-8 drivers). Back to the story. Eventually got the 2-port card to work, it would show up as funtional in device manager, with no SATA-drives plugged into it. When I would plug the HDD, the drive would not show up. I fiddled around with this for many days. Eventually, moved on, when I noticed in my old-parts-computer-box, the little NETGEAR USB-wifi-dongle I had from many years ago. That brought me to today's config.
c) Today: 2 500 GB HDDs, 1 DVD RW drive, USB-wifi. Aside from the restart deal, it all works.
I think I am going to move on from this now. I have learned lots.
i) $60 mobo+cpu, $25 wifi PCI-express card (now sitting in the 'old-computer-parts-box'), $15 for the mini-PCIe-2-port SATA card (now sitting in the 'old-computer-parts-box'), $15 for the mini-PCIe ribbon-cable-extender (now sitting in the 'old-computer-parts-box'). $115, hmm, could buy a pretty nice mobo for that >> big lesson!
ii) I think the mini-PCIe slot on my mobo could be used for a wifi card. If one of my laptops dies, I might harvest that card and use it there in the future. Not sure if the SATA-controller card would ever work there.
iii) This forum, and your support is fantastic. I have learned much more about diagnostics, and will be much better poised for future trouble-shooting if the need arises.
Usasma, I thank you very much. Although I may not have found the EXACT cause of the BSODs during restart, I think it is likely correlated to the wifi-dongle with the non-Windows-8 driver. I greatly appreciate your dilligence, don't know how you do it with so many BSOD issues on the Forum.
Now on to my next project. I have just learned about RoboCopy. I have been looking for a method to write scipts to do backups. Turns out, the feature is basically built in to Windows. Just need to learn how to use it. (if I struggle, is there a place in Eight-Forums to dialog those issues?)
Thanks again, KETBD (Knows Enough To Be Dangerous), aka, Mike