Crashed Sys

[martymas]

hi team

i need advice

my sys crashed

and it corrupted windows

so i had to reinstall

xp

it was while i was playing a card game from a cd

this blue screen appeared

i thought it may have been heat

as i use two hard drives

and i havent added any more fans

or one of the drives was buggered

how ever i tested the drives with the maxtor tester

and it said my drives were well and healthy

since then ive taken out one drive and

and installed windows on the other

and so far it is working

does any one think heat was the problem

ive used this compt for years

and it may be feeling my age

any suggestions

marty

[shanenin]

Do you have a large amount of dust built up inside? I highly doubt heat was the issue. After the crash, would you system boot anymore?

[martymas]

hi shanihan

as you know i have been better testing for ad-aware

now im sure that us the reason

twice i reinstalled and started the better testing

and my sys failed

twice so im sure that was the cause of my compt crashing

they warned us that it would happen

and it would probly better to pull out in case of damage to my sys

it was my first try

so ime happy with that

ive just finished installing

so i thought ide better let the board know on the progress

there are some new things comming

and i like the looks of them

im not at liberty to say how and what

marty

Edited March 13, 2007 by martymas

[lefty1953]

Do you have a large amount of dust built up inside? I highly doubt heat was the issue. After the crash, would you system boot anymore?

If the Card game was new to you using it, I would think it was the game that caused the problem. How long were you using it before the crash? Might not have been the first time you used it but later after a second time it would most likely access the registry entry it made and then caused the crash. I have several games I let the grandkids play and after there done I remove them from my system. One reason is there is tons of ad ware and spy ware on them. Yes new software is sold with that trash on it.

[martymas]

hi lefty1953

well you may well be right

it is a cd ive just has given to me

and it is the first time ive had it in the compt since ive

reinstalled

in the past game cd's havent affected my sys

but you can never tell

thanks for the suggestion

marty

[martymas]

ok i i have had this trouble with my compt

stopping fpr ni reason

well ive tried all ive learned from you guys

and this morning

in despweration

i shifted my ram stick from one slot to another

and it has been going all day

ive let it run all day

and so far so good

can any one tell me whya shift to another slot

make it work and another wont

thanks

marty

[irregularjoe]

ok i i have had this trouble with my compt

stopping fpr ni reason

well ive tried all ive learned from you guys

and this morning

in despweration

i shifted my ram stick from one slot to another

and it has been going all day

ive let it run all day

and so far so good

can any one tell me whya shift to another slot

make it work and another wont

thanks

marty

bad ram?

[hitest]

ok i i have had this trouble with my compt

stopping fpr ni reason

well ive tried all ive learned from you guys

and this morning

in despweration

i shifted my ram stick from one slot to another

and it has been going all day

ive let it run all day

and so far so good

can any one tell me whya shift to another slot

make it work and another wont

thanks

marty

bad ram?

Joe makes a great point, marty!

A bad stick of RAM can wreak havoc on your system and cause it to become unstable and crash in weird, unpredictable ways. I've had bad RAM on a few occasions and it drove me crazy.

Good luck with diagnosing your problem, marty:-) Perhaps you should test your RAM to ensure it is okay. RAM can fail.

[martymas]

thanks

it may be that slot

as since i changed the slot

it has been going for twenty four hrs

non stop

with out a hitch

tho last night i turned it off

to see if it would start this morning

and it didnt i got a black screen

ha ha ha i hadent switched the monitor on

how ever it is going at the moment

yes i have had bad ram in the past

but ive used this stick for over twoyears

do you think it is deteriorating

marty

[Tootsdog9]

thanks

it may be that slot

as since i changed the slot

it has been going for twenty four hrs

non stop

with out a hitch

tho last night i turned it off

to see if it would start this morning

and it didnt i got a black screen

ha ha ha i hadent switched the monitor on

how ever it is going at the moment

yes i have had bad ram in the past

but ive used this stick for over twoyears

do you think it is deteriorating

marty

It might just of needed reseating but I would run a memtest on it in both slots and see if you get any errors. I would also check voltages as long as the case is open just to be sure things look ok there too.

[sultan_emerr]

Marty,

Computer stops responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP = http://support.microsoft.com/KB/314503

As the above posters have said, Re-seat the memory and/or remove all the old ram sticks and install 1 new stick and see what happens.

http://www.crucial.com/support/install.asp

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner

Test your ram with these: Memtest86L= http://www.memtest.org +

RAM Reliability Test = http://hcidesign.com/memtest

Ram Idle = http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?ID=1423

XP advice and error messages = http://www.updatexp.com

Also Check all your drivers to see if any need updating.

WINDOWS XP SHUTDOWN & RESTART TROUBLESHOOTING = aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.php

Other posts in the Avast forums indicate that it could also be connected to your better(Beta) testing the new Avast.

[Pete_C]

Why would moving the RAM around affect a crash?

Well, the memory controller normally reads the stick in slot 0 and configures things based on its specifications. So , if you had one in slot 1 which could not be stable using the settings specified by the one in slot 0 and but the one in slot 0 would be stable using the settings of the one in slot 1 then swapping them will result in stability.

Another problem , not very common these days is bimetal corrosion. This was particularly common when RAM and slots came in either Tin plated or Gold plated. If you mixed them eventually you would have problems which could be fixed by moving the stick to a different slot if it was gold ram and tin slots or by rubbing the contacts with an eraser if it was tin ram and gold slots.

This makes me suspect that there is either dirt or damage to the one slot if all you did was move it over one bank not swap sticks.

Yes; beta testing can result in instability, crashes and the need to reinstall. I never beta test on a primary machine; in fact I generally keep one old one up and running just for this purpose and have a ghost image of the OS ready to slap back in when it crashes.

If dirt buildup is not the culprit; you should consider the power supply since using the cdrom in addition to the two drives is probably putting it under load . If it is getting old and weak it may become unstable when hot and under load.

[martymas]

hi all

so far so good

my compt has been turned on for 36 hrs

and all seems to be ok

since i switched the slots

petes post is quite interesting

as the ram connections have a gold metal base

and maybe the build up is the cause of it not working properly

how ever it is going now so thanks all for your help

marty