Computer Crashing?!

[bates550]

what's a good software I can download to test what's causing my comp to abruptly crash?

My computer's been crashing suddenly and randomly for the last few weeks. Sometimes, it'll restart while booting up, other times, I can leave it on for a few days before it crashes. Occassionally, it'll crash and a blue screen will appear, saying that it performed a physical memory dump to protect the computer. More often, a miscrosoft window will appear saying there's an Error. I've already reformatted, but it still crashes.

I also thought it was the nvidia driver, so i installed the older one, but that didnt help.
Now, im guessing that it's the PSU or my memory. I dont think it's the PSU because of the blue screen and error windows. So now im guessing it's the HD or Ram sticks. How can i test whether they're the culprit? I really dont think it's my video card though, since I havent caught any display problems

I've also been running it without the side case panel in case the cpu fan's been failing, but it still crashes.

I'm running a P4 on p4p800 mobo.
Powered by a 380W Antec PSU
CD-RW, DVD, 80gb HD, 6gb slave, connected 200gb external HD that runs on its own power.
Nvidia fx5900 and Audigy Platinum

 

[spherrod]

Memtest should test the RAM for you

http://www.memtest86.com/

As for the hard drive, you should download the diagnostics from the manufacturer's website. I wouldn't discount the PSU entirely though.

 

[imported_Kane]

Could you R&R one stick of RAM out? Do this one at a time to determine if one could be bad. This could also test out each RAM slot too if they ever go bad.

If your RAM tested free of errors then your problem could be the registry hive is corrupted.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Run the MEMTEST86 program spherrod linked to ALL NIGHT. If it passes then you likely don't have a RAM issue.

Could be the PSU.

Could also be some misbehaved driver. Update sound, video, NIC and mobo drivers.

Do a full spyware and virus scan (I recommend Microsoft's free anti-spyware app).

If you're overclocking, don't, and see if that helps.

Have you been tweaking BIOS? Reset the BIOS settings to their safe defaults for now.

Hope this helps...

 

[bates550]

thanks!

i've been running the test for a few hours now. how long does it take for the entire thing to finish. There's are 41101 errors =(

hopefully that is what's causing the crashes, and not somethng else

thanks

 

[montag451]

BAD RAM, or not.

If you have more that 1 or 2 errors - the RAM is bad.

BUT
I would check the psu first - that could cause the RAM to throw up errors.
Also, what voltages are your RAM sticks running at? check BIOS to see that they are running at about 2.7v
Much less will give you problems

 

[bates550]

Originally posted by: montag451

Also, what voltages are your RAM sticks running at? check BIOS to see that they are running at about 2.7v
Much less will give you problems

How do I see which one is the RAM voltage? I look under POWER and there are about 4 listings.

 

[cjbee]

"There's are 41101 errors =("

Wow.