Computer Chrisis!!

[GZFant]

I am so sorry for all the technical help but I think my computer is slowly dying and I have no idea what to do. I turned it completely off last night after having it on for about a week straight. This morning when I got up and turned it on, after counting the memory and beginning to boot up it flashed "the blue screen of death!" for a split second then restarted.

After counting memory on the second restart a DOS prompt came up saying your computer was not shut down properly last time and there could be a hardware/software failure. Would you like to A. Restart Normally B. Restart in Safe Mode and a couple other options I don't remember. I thought, this can't be happening so I chose to restart normally.

Well the blue screen flashed again and I was back at the C prompt. This time I chose to start in Safe Mode. Everything started up all fine and dandy. I reached the desktop and chose to restart the computer. It booted up just fine but I have a really REALLY bad feeling about this.

....I know im not technologically up to date but I just don't have the resources seeing I just graduated and moved to a new state.
I am running a Dell XPS_B 933Mhz Pentium3, 512MB RDRAM, 40Gb Maxtor 5400 HD, 16X DVD, 12X8X12 CD-RW, GeForce FX5200Ultra

The computer is just passed 5 years old and trust me, I have wanted to upgrade SO MANY TIMES but something (maybe its the bank) is telling me to wait it out.

I don't know if building a new PC is the only way to go right now but if I can get another 6 months to a year out of it, that would be wonderful. I have been trying to hold out for Longhorn and 4+Ghz CPUs with NV50 and R500 of course.

ANYWAY!!

Any help will be very, I mean VERY appreciated

P.S. Sorry for being the biggest noob this side of Mars

 

[Fuchs]

That could have been numerous things. If it had been on for a week you could have done a lot of things to it. If you were to uninstall a program and choose no to reboot, then tinkered with the pc for awhile it could have done something upon reboot.

I wouldn't sweat it much, that kind of thing has happened before to me. Worse comes to worse reload it from scratch and make sure its all nice and clean. I imagine it's been awhile since you have reloaded? or defragged? scandisk?

 

[GZFant]

reloaded? Do you mean reformat?

Yes I degragmented the drive just one week ago.

Your words are encouraging...I will not try to sweat it that much....the only problem is I NEED a computer for projects, work, gaming (not really needed but WTH), word processing and MSMoney.

Should I be shutting it down every night? I was told with WinXP it is safer to keep the computer on 24/7 with the occasional reboot.

Thanks again though

 

[Fuchs]

You should be able to leave the computer on 24/7, its just that occasionally you may run into a snag if you leave it on for extended periods of time. I usually leave mine on for about 2-3 days...but I reboot for various things all the time.

One thing about the bluescreen...it doesn't mean you're going to lose any data, just the OS...heheh So if you have important documents you would still be able to get them. If your system bluescreens often you may want to think about a fresh install of the OS.

 

[LTC8K6]

When was the last time you cleaned the dust out of it and off of the heatsinks/fans, etc. ?

Sometimes it helps to clean it out real good and re-seat all of the cards in their slots and the CPU in it's socket, and the memory too. Occasionally dust makes things overheat and corrosion in the sockets and slots makes things erratic. Pulling the cpu, cards, and the memory out will clean up their contacts.

Check for loose wiring and connectors too.

 

[Sideswipe001]

Did you add any new software or hardware lately? Update a driver? Make any major change whatsoever lately?

The fact that it goes into safe mode just fine tends to make me believe that the problem is not hardware. Somehow windows got confused. You might boot into safe mode and check your add/remove programs list, uninstalling anything that you don't "need".

 

[Arsynic]

Is it Win2000/XP? You experienced a Stop Error and since the default for Windows is to restart on a Stop Error, your computer restarts itself. I experienced this once before due to a corrupt boot sector. I corrected this by booting to the WinXP CD and choosing the Recovery Console. It took me to a command prompt C:\WINNT. From there I typed in "fixboot". It asked me if I'm sure I wanted to do it and I chose "Yes". It then did a repair on the boot sector and it's been working ever since.

If your Windows boots up normally then immediately right click on My Computer and then go to Advanced --> Startup and Recovery and deselect the option where your computer restarts on Stop Errors. If the error occurs again, you can write down the error number and search the Microsoft Knowledgebase for the cause of the error. That's how we do it in the IT world anyway.

 

[GZFant]

Within the last month I have added 256MB of RAM and the FX5200. I haven't had any problems and I used Driver Cleaner 3.2 to clean out my system before installing.

I have taken many precautions like cleaning and blowing out all the dust to installing new drivers and staying up to date. I will turn my computer off again for the night tonight and see if the same problem occurs. I did turn off the auto-restart on error so hopefully this time I can catch the error IF it happens again.

Thanks for all the help