need help finding system problem/fix:

[elva lover]

okie, basically, here is my computer's setup:
300W P/S
AMD T-Bird 900MHz (stock hsf)
Asus A7V mobo
256MB PC-133 SDRAM
Winfast GeForce2 GTS 64MB vid
Sound Blaster Live! Value
Kenwood 72X cd-rom
Ricoh 12x10x32 cd-rw
1.44 floppy
Maxtor 30gb ata100 hdd

my temps:
cpu idle: 59
cpu full: 61+
case: 36-39
video card edge: 54
video card surface: 64

lots of times, for no reason, my com just stops working (i could be surfing, doing hw, whatever. all of a sudden, it would just not work. but sometimes, the mouse can still move) or, i get a lot of errors. (it can be those illegal operation ones or blue screen ones) i've had this com for 2 years. i keep getting several errors. there are other smaller things too, but they aren't as big a problem. i've been trying to fix the problem but can't fix it. i don't want to take it to a store because they usually cost money to take a look at it and usually after i pay them... 50-100. they say there was no problem, or they don't know what it is. can anybody help out? so far, i've come to a few conclusions (not sure if they are correct tho):

a) the ram may be bad
b) it's a heat problem
c) both of the above

if it is ram, sd-ram is quite expensive. 256mb cas2 pc-133 sdram from crucial cost $150. 256mb pc-133 from kingmax is $100. for solving heat problem, i was thinking of a sk-6 and a 31cfm thermaltake fan, as well as 2 panaflo 21cfm case fans, and crystal orb for vid card. those would cost over $65. i'm skeptical of spending over $200 because i'm still a high school student and this com already cost me $3000 when i bought it. so think it might be necessary to get all those upgrades? hm. it's pretty long msg but thnx for ne help tho

 

[Bull]

256 mb of Crucial ram on newegg cost 52 dollars for cl 2. Here is the link. Also a good HSF here.

Its not as much as you think also you need a fan with the AX-7. Heatsinkfactory has good prices.

 

[Mr. Chambers]

wow, lots of things this could be... first things first my friend:

have you had these lockups and problems since day 1? if so you should've taken it up with wherever you got it from, or if you built it yourself you should've perhaps looked into it a bit deeper so as to be able to RMA some defective parts... but let me say a few things..

if it locks up only after minutes of playing games or anything really cpu intensive, then i think heat may be a concern. what sort of cooling do you have now? try removing your side panel and having a large house fan blow into your case, if it is heat, that will likely stop the crashing.

make SURE you have the lastest drivers for EVERYTHING in your rig, video, sound.. you'd be surprised how often some revisions of these drivers can pop up without you knowing...

what sort of error messages are you getting? if you keep getting page fault errors and blue screens of death, keep track (write down) the errors, and after you accumulate some of them, take a closer look, if all those weird hexadecimal values that mean nothing to you are the same, your problems is probably some bad RAM. i'm assuming you're not overclocking this machine, but if you are try running stock again. also try reseating your RAM in your motherboard, and try clearing your CMOS while you're at it.

also check your line voltages on that Power supply.. it could be a bad unit. try swapping it with a friends for testing. ALSO i could be your actual power lines in the house, your lines could be dirty, thus the current your machine would get would change all the time, up and down, and ANY electronics equipment likes to have a steady, equal voltage supplied to it. (i've only seen this a few times, and usually in older houses)

and lastly, i'd nuke the whole thing and start over, i'm talking complete format of your hard drive (back up your data first!) and reinstall your operating system. if its a software issue, this sort of thing will usually take care of it it. then start reloading your essential programs, one by one, and if the crashing starts again, you've found the culprit.

and one more thing, i dont know where you buy your RAM but you can get SDRAM alot cheaper than the prices you quoted, check out:

www.newegg.com
www.mwave.com
www.googlegear.com
www.tcwo.com
www.nutrend.com

...to name a few.

hope this helps, let me know.

John

 

[elva lover]

i think i forgot to mention i live in canada. mayb that's why things are so expensive. there were very few places i checked out that sold quality ram. kigmax and crucial were only ones i found (after recheckign site, kingmax is $77 for 256 pc-133) i was thinking of getting an ax-7 with a thermaktake smart case fan I//II but i heard some good things about the sk-6. ($22 difference for sk-6 and 60mm fan instead of ax-7 w/ 80mm fan) newayz, i'rereformatted the computer several times. i recently just reformatted it in august. even after a fresh start, it was still crashing. i guess you can say i kind of built it myself. basically, i just wrote out all the parts, went to a store and they got al lthe parts together and stuck it all in. but the store is out of business now. they say that they won't do much because it's my design. before i got it built, i got several people to look over the design to make sure it was fine. i have three other computers in my house with no problem. so it's probably not bad wiring in the house. i've already replaced the PSU once. (first out burnt out) but i've had problems before getting new PSU and after getting new PSU. CMOS has been cleared before. I'm pretty sure i have the latest drivers. i used to leave the case open. but that didn't help the heat problem much. it only lead to more dust and a 10degree increase in temps. after about.. i guess i should write down all those errors and keep track of them for a while. also, the lock ups can occur whenever. i can be in ms word, i can be reading a file in notebad, juss talking on icq, reading a msg board, working in psp7 adobe.. watching movies.. playing games.. anywhere. also, one time, when i took my com to clean it out at gas station (free air pump =) ) when i brought it bak, the com's temps were 17-20 case and 20-30 for cpu. even with those temps, it would still crash. is there a way where i can test out every part to c if mayb one part is defective or something? newayz. i don't fink my english is too good. so really appreciated all those that can help.

 

[Captain Slug]

Make a bootdisk (for whichever version of windows you're running) and restart it with it in your floppy drive.
You'll need to check your BIOS settings to make sure that the floppy is set as the first boot device.

Let it boot to the A: prompt then TYPE
SCANDISK
press enter

If your problem is caused by the hard drive, scan disk will fail even in DOS. Since we've ruled out heat and driver problems I can only assume that random crashing is either caused by BAD SECTORS on your hard drive, or incorrect BIOS settings relating to the Power Management settings.

 

[elva lover]

hm. well if i can complete scan disc IN windows will scanning in dos make a difference? or maybe i should go over the bios settings?

 

[Mr. Chambers]

well suggestion would be to do a low-level format.. you can get the utilities at your HD manufacturers site.. that would get rid of any bad sectors or trouble spots you may be having on the disk itself... i'd take everything out of your case (as this may be a bad ground issue too) and just try running with the bare minumum, CPU, mobo, harddrive, video card, cd-rom drive... low-level your disk, partition, throw on your OS.. and see if that helps.... if not i'm guess you're motherboard may have some problems..

 

[Bull]

I don't think it's your hard drive. I think that the motherboard is what your problem is. Do you have the latest bios from Asus . The 1011 and also the agp drivers installed? If you don't then you might want to flash your bios to the most current one and see if it helps.

 

[Mr. Chambers]

I don't think it's your hard drive. I think that the motherboard is what your problem is. Do you have the latest bios from Asus . The 1011 and also the agp drivers installed? If you don't then you might want to flash your bios to the most current one and see if it helps.

i did ask if he had the latest drivers for everything.. he said he "thought so" if you dont have the lastest bios, then yes definately head on over to asus and pick it up, i'm sure there've been several revisions...

 

[elva lover]

okie. i'll try to get a bios update. i need to flash my current bios rite? also, i've had 3 errors occur 2day:
-kernel (illegal operation)
-while loading, i hear a weird err sound from com and then it says boot failure
-when it gets into windows, it's loading the startup programs (adaptec) and it locks up

 

[Disputant]

Couple more thoughts:

1. Reseat all the components, pull the memory out, all the cards and plug them back on the board, including all cables.
2. Strip out anything that you do not absolutely need to run like the sound card and cd rom then boot it up.
3. Make sure you have the latest Direct X, vid problems can cause lock ups, but sounds to me that there are some other issues going on there.

Maybe try another IDE cable for your HD if you have one handy.