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Computer on the fritz again! Need someone who can give a knowledgable answer! :(

A

AtomicDude512

Golden Member
No doubt some of you remember my old threads about computer problems where the computer constantly restarted itself, crashed and whatnot. Well, here is something I didnt tell you about. It all started with a little something called Linux...

I was new to Linux and had installed Mandrake Linux 9.0, to my mind to great success. I installed it using Linux's LILO boot loader to select between that and Windows XP Professional. All was going smoothly untill one day when I installed an Star Trek: Elite Force modification, everything bit the dust. Windows crashed, took out Linux with it, nothing would work, HDD wouldn't format do nothing. After two days of Linux n00bness and misery I finally got Windows to install, dont ask how because I dont know. Anyway, my computer has been more prone to the problems described above after this incident, even though I have cleared the CMOS countless times and even gone so far as to replace the hard drive. However, the situation has reached a critical stage, just yesterday I had a major error forcing me to reinstall Windows XP Professional, however somehow or other my disc got corrupted and couldn't do a clean install. Reverting to my "ol unreliable" Windows 98 I thoght I was saved, not. Now my computer randomly turns it off in about 30 minutes, upon pressing the power button it says fatal system error, gives me the BSOD and freezes. That's where it lies right now...

So I am at a loss, I think the motherboard is the culprit because of replacing my hard drive about three times, im not entirely sure but this is my best guess. I returned my new $120 Maxtor hard drive and am planning to buy a new motherboard with the money from the return. I am currently looking at Gigabytes KT600 (7VT600) solution since it is cheap and (according to Anandtech benchmarks) holds very well against the nForce2 Ultra 400. One off topic question, does anyone have this motherboard with a Thermalright AX7? Those resistors close to the CPU worry me...and I need amotherboard that supports the AX7 while (hopefully) having integrated SATA into the Southbridge.

Anyway, does this thing sound like a motherboard problems or perhaps a weird issue with my Antec TruePower 330, either option isn't exactly cheap to replace and I would like a pretty definante answer before spending tons of money.

Thank you all for your help! Any questions, PLEASE ASK. Also I need an answer ASAP if possible...

Thanks! -AD512

EDIT: I have a MSI KT3 Ultra motherboard using the KT333 chipset BTW.
 
Also forgot to say, when the computer goes into Standby or Hibernate it crashes, the reset button wont work unless you push the power button first. I have also tried flashing the BIOS again but to no availe. Im think motherboard, how about you?
 
Wow. That is really wierd. I would say mobo, but how about checking ur cpu temps, to make sure u have no problems there. It could be either that, mobo, or maybe hard drive controller. That is really all i can think of. Its prolly the mobo, but check out what i said first, it could save you a few pennies...
 
SpeedFreak03: My CPU temps (for a XP 1700 Palomino) stand at about 36c so that's fine, another reason I was wondering if the 7VT600 supported a AX7 is because that is my current heatsink.

Cadaver: That's a possibility, I used to have my Kingston ValueRAM at 2.5-2-2-5-1T at 2.7v which is was doing perfectly but then I got another piece (totalling 1GB) which caused major havoc, tons of memory errors the first day with that ram and now it's at 1T at 2.6 for both sticks, sometimes still giving me errors when multitasking. Odd this is that all 1GB of memory passed 13 hours of MemTest86 through with no problems. 🙁 Maybe I need to get HyperX in addition to a new mobo...
 
Geeze guys! I was reading my motherboard manual and my motherboard has diagnostic lights, of which one says "Decompressing Image To RAM to Faster Booting". Does this mean that my BIOS has been corrupted by bad memory?! Or just the copy in the memory, in that case meaning that it would destabilize the computer? Hmmmm...now im confused, which should i get? KT600 or HyperX, trying to avoid both here...

*sigh*
 
HONESTLY SLOWPOKES GET YOUR REAR IN GEAR.

Anyways,

Im gonna snatch 256 DDR from my friends machine to try in this one and see if that fixes it... If it dosent I might end up replacing both. 🙁 Also, Im going to have the BIOS stop decompressing it self to RAM, might be slower but on the other hand might be more stable.

-AD512
 
Originally posted by: AtomicDude512
HONESTLY SLOWPOKES GET YOUR REAR IN GEAR.

Anyways,

Im gonna snatch 256 DDR from my friends machine to try in this one and see if that fixes it... If it dosent I might end up replacing both. 🙁 Also, Im going to have the BIOS stop decompressing it self to RAM, might be slower but on the other hand might be more stable.

-AD512
Click to expand...

Speaking of snatch, hi. Did you try to run memtest86? This should show you any memory corruption issues.
 
Originally posted by: Snatchface
Originally posted by: AtomicDude512
HONESTLY SLOWPOKES GET YOUR REAR IN GEAR.

Anyways,

Im gonna snatch 256 DDR from my friends machine to try in this one and see if that fixes it... If it dosent I might end up replacing both. 🙁 Also, Im going to have the BIOS stop decompressing it self to RAM, might be slower but on the other hand might be more stable.

-AD512
Click to expand...

Speaking of snatch, hi. Did you try to run memtest86? This should show you any memory corruption issues.
Click to expand...

I think I said this at the top, I ran MemTest86 for 12 hours with no errors! Do you think this is a problem with my Windows XP CD being corrupted? I just did a reinstall with the fresh memory and some elements of windows still arn't working right, just like before with the old memory.
 
More things, ACPI no longer is detected by Windows even thought it is enabled in the BIOS. Now im even more confused, mobo or Windows?

And somebody please give an answer for something I havent already stated above.
 
Start from scratch.
Update MB bios,
Relax the timings for the memory. (By speed)
Use only 1 stick of ram
CPU, video card, hd, cdrom.

Format HD (A complete format using hd manufacturers disk), install XP, SP1, MB drivers. THAT'S IT. Don't do sound cards, video card drivers, etc.

Under advanced options, startup and recovery, turn off automatic reboot.

Check event viewer on error.
If no error, then add one thing at a time. (ie video card driver, sound card, etc.)

Until you do these exact steps, you are chasing your tail.
 
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