Computer problems driving me crazy!

[Black Mantis]

Ok this is driving my crazy... i have xp on my pc and when i reboot..i have to reload about 5-20 times before it loads and works...all kinds of bsod saying weird things, it seems to be pretty random (but ones its loaded its solid as a rock) ive formatted about 5times and used different copies and ive updated xp totally (no sp1 tho) and still the same errors come back.

So i installed mandrake, but when i come to install the stuf for my modem it gets read error and cant install it (corrupt) and the mandrake control center crashes sometimes and if i close the window it logs me off straight away :s. When i try to reinstall linux (using the same cd again) it wont even load the gui installer gets some error. (ive installed with different cd drives aswell)

So im guessing its some hardware error, but i cant afford to go out buy a new pc so i need to know exacly what it is so i can go replace it...

Here is my system specs

1.4 amd tbird
mobo abit kg7- lite
sound card - sb live
video card - abit siluro gf2 64
2x sticks of 256 ram (dont know what spec)

other specs
512 adsl usb modem - did it before i got that
20gb maxtor hdd
hapungeeeee tv card - did it before i got that
300w psu
cpu temp is @ 45 now... 49 at load

i have all the latest drivers for everything..sometimes they fix it for a while but it comes back.

[JP]

Greetings:

Well, I could be dead wrong about this, but I'm going to go out on a limb as suggest that it may be a problem with your ram, or the part of your motherboard that controls it.

This is just a wild guess, so don't go out and buy anything new just yet. Do a little experiment. Try adding a friend's ram into your box in the place of yours, and see if you still have the same problem.

[aeallison]

I agree wit JP on this as well. I might also add that you triple check all of your bios settings, a friend of mine had similar problems with that same mobo, it reportrd the wrong cpu speed along with several other errors in the bios. We fixed his after sever hours of trial and error, configuring the bios one change at a time.

I hope you get this prob. ironed out.

P.S. is that a new or used maxtor drive, and is it an ata 100?

[ZeroOne]

I'd say the same as JP. First test your RAM by accessing your BIOS (usually 'del' or 'F10' or some other key when the computer is loading up - it should tell you) and disable "Fast Memory Check" (or "Quick RAM Test" or something similar) option. Save & Boot, and the memory is triple-tested for errors. Even this, however, can miss some errors, so you should try some third party program. Memtest86 seems to be quite good for that.

[Black Mantis]

im going to try that ram test then possably take one stick of ram out or something.

[AciDriveHB]

Well here's the only things it could be, a CD-ROM... Hard Drive... RAM... Motherboard... or at a stretch the processor.

But we would probably exclude the CD-ROM, since it sounds like you are probably able to load an entire OS without problems (????). And I've never heard of a processor doing something like that, unless it was heating up. That would then probably just shut your system down or you would come back and it would be a blank screen and pressing the reset switch wouldn't do much.

So I agree with everyone else. I would start with swapping RAM if you have extra. Put known "good" RAM in and see if it does the same thing. Though you may have to format, because if the RAM was bad to start with, then you may still be getting errors even with good RAM in after the installation process.

If you don't have any extra RAM, or the RAM did not seem to be the problem. Because I know some newer boards have a bunch of settings for the speed of the data going through the RAM. This is for overclocking types of things. I would go along with resetting your BIOS defaults. Though make sure you have the correct Front Side Bus settings. I ran into a problem with my AMD XP Palimino chip which has to have a FSB of 133, and everything else has to be set to auto or I just get a blank screen when I turn my computer on.

After that, then it's just one or the other. Pick to replace either the HDD or the mobo and see if that makes a difference, if not try the other one. And you don't have to go out and buy a new hard drive, you just need to use something to test with, don't even worry about throwing XP on it or anything, just do a minimal install of Mandrake or Win98 or something like that.

It can be fun trouble shooting, but I put my money on either the RAM or the BIOS settings. To tell you what happened to me, when I got my new MSI KT3 motherboard, I had the same type of problem. But that was because I was trying to play with all these options for my RAM that I had no clue about. Whenever I reset my BIOS (and figured out about the FSB issue), and only changed like the boot order and stupid stuff like that, my computer has run fine ever since.

~ Good Luck!

[englishgirl1]

Mine did this when I swopped an old graphics card for a new one. Did you change anything hardware wise? I recovered from it mostly but now my sound card isn't recognised. I gave up trying in the end (now I have dual boot). Good luck!!!!

Rachel

[neta1o]

I work on this kind of crap all day every day. What are some of the

all kinds of bsod saying weird things, it seems to be pretty random

?

[mrleachy]

i know this is a bit general, but a blue screen in xp is usually a STOP error and mainly caused by either hardware or drivers, maybe you have a corrupt driver or you havnt got your hardware set up quite right so sometimes it just starts by a fluke

[AciDriveHB]

Plus here's another way of testing to see if it's RAM or a hard drive. A friend of mine just got a new 60GB Segate HDD, which ended up being bad. He had his sytem to do a full memory dump when a BSD would come up. Well it would hit 1% and then lock up. After playing it for a few days he took it back, got a new HDD and works fine with actually no BSD's now.

I also had a computer that I put together do what when I was actually installing windows, come up with a BSD. I went through and started trouble shooting, my first thing is always to switch RAM. I did that and it is still running like a dream (it's my TV computer).

So that's a thought. I feel for you though, I hate it when stuff is going wrong and you sit there and just wonder what it might be!