Acreo Aeneas

That's right, there is yet again another problem with my computer.

I woke up this morning, went downstairs, turned on my system, and got a BSOD so fast that all I caught was "physical memory".

Well, it seems I'm cursed. Plus it has to happen the day before my new computer parts arrive.

• So, did a reboot via the button. Same problem.
• Turned off my computer, switched off the PSU, and unplugged it. Waited several minutes, plugged it back in, and turned it on. Same problem.
• Turned it off, unplugged it, touched myself to the chassis, then unseated the pair of DDR400 and reseated it. Turned it back on. Did not solve it.
• Tried booting into Safe Mode (and every other option). The computer reboots and gives me the same quick flash of a BSOD, then reboots again. Oh joy.
• Went into BIOS, stared at normal temperatures and voltage readings. Nothing seemed out of place. Had it reset to "defaults", then rebooted. BSOD and reboot. Starting to hate my day.

So now I plan on doing the following things:

• Burn Memtest86 onto a CD. Run it on my machine for a few passes. If errors pop up, I swap in another pair of memory.
• If nothing comes up as erronous, I still swap in another pair of memory.
• If still not working: pull hair out and act like a gorilla on PMS.

Why (you piece of junk)?!


Oh yes, suggestions, comments, life stories welcome.

Edit: I'm running Windows XP. The system in my signature is not this one.

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Bamboo

You didn't mention if you had tried running with just 1 stick of memory in at a time and switching them out if the 1st one doesn't work. Maybe just 1 stick went bad?

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Acreo Aeneas

Whoops knew I forgot to try something.

I'll try that now.

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Acreo Aeneas

Did not work. Tried it with both DIMMs. I still got the quick BSOD.

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Spulat

Have you checked the Event Logs as well? If you can get a more specific error, it would steer you closer to the right direction. Though I would still make some passes with memtest anyhow. Also, back down to standard timing if your system is overclocked at all.

I had a system that consistently crashed Excel, and only brought up a few arcane messages; one of which was a memory error "memory could not be read" (which typically indicates the memory has gone bad). Yet this was a brand new machine, and the Dell diagnostics had come back clean.

Fast forward a few days and as it turned out, it was a video driver issue having to do with the fact that used on-board graphics with shared memory.. I updated the driver from the standard Windows default, to the actual Intel driver, and it solved the issue. Not saying it's your issue, but showing an example of how sometimes it's something a bit different than what you think.

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Acreo Aeneas

I have thought of that, but I can't get into Safe Mode. If I could I would gladly take a took at the logs, but I can't get into the one thing that I need: Safe Mode.


Going to try Memtest form a CD-ROM again. Couldn't get it to boot the first itme.

Edit: No luck in getting Memtest86 from booting from the ROM. I don't have any other computers with a floppy drive so that option just went out the window. (I don't have any of my previous memtest floppies either.)

Going to try and find the pair of memory that I had.

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Spulat

[quote=Acreo Aeneas;1032077][quote=Spulat;1032069]Have you checked the Event Logs as well?Have you tried booting to Vista's recovery console, off the disc?

You can also use BartPE, or the UBCD4Win (Ultimate Boot CD). Compile it with your disc, burn the iso, then pop it in and boot into a Windows environment. That should allow you to scour around for those logs.

Acreo Aeneas

I'm not using Vista. I'm using Windows XP.


It seems the spare pair of DDR400 that I had was placed in brother's computer's "toolkit' box. Which he lost. *sigh*

Going to go with Plan C: Windows XP Repair (after I get some other stuff done).

Plan D is: Reformat (lose my data) and Reinstall of Windows XP Pro.


If both of that fails. Then I give up on this comp. Tired of buying low-end budget parts just to keep it going for a year or so.

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draeh

Is it time for this step yet?

I hate it when stuff breaks. Especially when you were 1 day away from retiring it to gather dust in the corner.

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Spulat

The system in your sig designated Vista Home, so I apologize for the misunderstanding.

Good luck on the chase.

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Acreo Aeneas

Thanks Spulat.

Okay, I'm back and now I'm going to plug in the memory back in then do a Windows Repair.

I''ll edit this post with my success or failure.


Edit: I skipped to Plan D.

So far, so good. I've successfully reformatted and now Windows is installing. If it all works out, I should have this system back up and running before I get my next PC parts tomorrow.

*crosses fingers and hopes no BSODs/random reboots appear*


Draeh,
I did not plan on retiring this system. I had plans on handing it over to my sister to replace her 7+ year old system.


Edit 2: Got it installed and now doing some updates. Once the first batch is complete, I'm going to do a complete power cycle.

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=DdogG=

It also could be a bad IDE / SATA cable. it only take a small nick or crimp to destroy one. If the install fails, try swapping it out.

Good luck.

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If all else fails: "rm -rf /"

Acreo Aeneas

See Edit 2.

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Acreo Aeneas

Something very weird has happened that I can't seem to fix.

After validating Windows, I went and installed the latest nV drivers for the 7600GS.

After the required reboot, Windows set my display resolution to 800 x 600, 4-bit color depth, and 60 hz refresh.

I can't change it to make it 32-bit color depth or resolution higher even after reinstalling the drivers and install the monitor driver.

Any advice?


Edit: Crap. This driver might be bad.

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Acreo Aeneas

Okay, problem resolved. Installed a older driver that works fine. It seems my system took a new disliking to the latest driver.

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