My PC Died

JohnK

My pc has been giving me a lot of trouble over the last 2 - 3 weeks where it has been rebooting without warning, programs & games crashing for no reason and total system freeze ups. The computer has been kept fully up to date with all patches and antivirus dats.

Tonight I decided to try a reinstall of windows xp to see if that would change anything. But from the winxp cd i can get nofurther than about 2% of formatting the partition i'm installing on before i get the blue screen of death. The error usually changes on each occurence. However a message of irql_not_less_or_equal (or something like that) has appeared fairly regurlary and a few times tonight I got the message that usbport.sys was giving trouble. Although it didn't appear tonight, win32k.sys was also a regular trouble maker over the last few days.

Does anybody have any ideas what could be causing this?

Thanks,

JohnK


btw. I purchased and installed a wintv pvr card about 2 - 3 days before I noticed any trouble with the computer. I have since uninstalled and removed the card but that has made no difference.

IrishMike

have a read of this
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=311564

first off it could be a mobo problem so get the latest mobo drivers and also flash the bios if there is a new one available
get partition magic completely wipe your drive (if possible)
install xp with minimal components ie just video card
if u still get the error then maybe its the video card
if xp will not install at all then maybe u have a problem with your hd
U should probably disable the usb ports in the bios if they are givin u trouble
use ur head be creative
let us know how u get on

Cake Fiend

Dodgy RAM. Download memtest and check it.

Sir Random

Sounds like it could be overheating since you get computational errors.
What are your system specs?
What temps are you getting at idle/load?

Greenman

I think its an overheating problem too. Try opening the case and if you have access to a high pressure blower well give it a good blast!!! especially around the CPU fan. Replacing the CPU fan is not a bad idea also. I got the dreaded blue screen a while back did all the above and never looked back.
Let us know how you get on!!!

JohnK

Well, thanks for all the suggestions. I managed to get XP installed again. After it crashing out (twice) to the bsod while formatting, I removed everything other than the video card from it. I also turned all fans up to full, took off the side panel and left my bedroom window open so there could be no chance of it overheating. And let me tell you, it was bloody cold!

Unfortunatly I'm still no closer to finding out what caused the problem. After taking out my network card, soundcard and another card (I'm not sure what its called) I have only put back the network card and I am using onboard sound. I'm not really sure if its running ok yet. I was playing a game earlier (age of mythologies) and that crashed out twice but according to most websites for the game it has a history of doing that. I plan on trying some other games tomorrow, ones that have never crashed on me before. Hopefully that will give me a better indication. I'm also going to run memtest tonight and let it run till about 6pm tomorrow. That gives it about 17 - 18 hours to see if anything turns up.

Regarding some of the other suggestions, I flashed the mobo bios a day or so ago and at time I got the wintv card - I also replaced the cpu fan and the 2 chassy fans.

Specs are:
CPU: Athlon XP 2000+
RAM: Corsair 512mb DDR XMS3200
HD: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9
MOBO: Epox 8K5A3+
SOUNDCARD: Audigy 2
VIDEOCARD: Radeon 9700 Pro
POWERSUPPLY: Enermax 450W
Its just comming up on one year old now.

I'll try and get proper temp readings tomorrow for both idle & load.

Thanks again for the suggestions

Tivoli

any strange clicking noises from the hdd lately?

JohnK

Originally posted by tlachta
any strange clicking noises from the hdd lately?

Yes actually. Although until about an hour ago I though it was the sound of a cd wobbling in the drive. I decided to test it by installing a game from both my dvd drive and my cdrw drive. The sound was there for both so i tried the maxor site and found a program called powermax. I tested the drive and guess what? It failed! At least the drive is still in warenty so as soon as i wipe it 200 - 300 times i'll send it back for a replacement

On a side note, I ran memtest for 17 hours with no errors reported so thats good. Also my system temps are mobo: 23C; cpu: 45C & HD: 35C although thats with the case lying on the floor next to it.

Hopefully once the drive is replaced it will be the end of the trouble. But if not I know where to come

Thanks again to all who responded

JohnK

Mutant_Fruit

i can get nofurther than about 2% of formatting the partition i'm installing on before i get the blue screen of death

A sure sign your HD is bol*xed.

Sir Random

JohnK,
Were you using Speedfan to monitor temps by any chance?
I just replaced a Maxtor Diamond 9 that started clunking/crashing when I used Speedfan.

JohnK

Nope. I'm using a program called Hardware Sensors Monitor (www.hmonitor.com). Only installed it yesterday.

dazberry

Originally posted by JohnK
At least the drive is still in warenty so as soon as i wipe it 200 - 300 times i'll send it back for a replacement

JohnK

There's a free bootable ISO image (and floppy image) called Dariks Boot & Nuke which when booted can wipe your harddrive using a number of methods, passes etc. Might save you a bit of effort

D.

JohnK

Thanks for that dazberry
You can never have to many wiping tools

gurramok

As said previously, try a different RAM stick as i had similar problem before.
I isolated it down to a faulty stick of RAM.
Memtest was not exactly reliable for me either as it reported it to be fine yet it was the source of the problem.
Try isolating problem with bare essentials also with different parts tested at different intervals to isolate it

unkel

Originally posted by JohnK
HD: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9

Their reputation is not good according to the posts here on boards

JohnK

I've just ordered some ram and a new hd so hopefully these will do something for me. After wiping my hd a **** load of times its now passing the maxtor test so I dont know what the hells going on there. I've reinstalled windows xp on it and its freezing up avery now and then so something is definitly wrong with the pc. At this stage I just want to dump it and start fresh.