Computer troubles

[ddjkdg]

First off I know this belongs in Technical Help but more people hang around here and I've posted there before and not gotten any help. So if you don't want to read about my computer problem, leave now...

I was sitting there listening to MP3's when all of a sudden my rig just froze completely. No warning, no errors, no blue screen, the mouse just froze and sat there. Upon trying to reboot after the initial screen the motherboard POSTs and recognizes all IDE devices etc, it goes to a new screen with the box listing a bunch of stuff about my system and it says "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." then immediately the computer locks up and random blocks on the screen turn into a random color out of 16-color mode. I thought it may have been a heat issue so I took both hard drives out, cooled them with a fan until they were room temperature, and put them back in. Same thing happens.

I really have no clue as to why this is happening, if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them. Here are my specs:

WindowsXP
AMD Athlon 1.33GHz
Abit KG-7
1 x 256MB PC2100 Crucial
ATI Radeon 7500
1x Western Digital 30GB/7200RPM
1x Seagate Barracuda IV 60GB/7200RPM

and that's about all I think is important. Nothing is overclocked.

edit: just realized I put in a bunch of "blahs" as placeholders because I couldn't remember the exact words that were showing on the screen, then I posted it anyways. fixed now.

 

[Zim Hosein]

ddjkdg, what s/w do you use to listen to your MP3's? If it's Windows Media Player, do you have the latest version? Trying to rule out the obvious.

 

[ddjkdg]

Zim Hosein: I was using WinAmp 2.78 I believe (whatever the latest 2.7x release is).

My computer starts up fine using a DOS boot disk. It goes through the screen where usually random blocks turned color normally. I'm now thinking that Windows XP could have seriously b0rked, because the part where everything goes FUBAR is immediately before it would always go to the XP splash screen with the black background and the little bar moving horizontally.

 

[ddjkdg]

Well I've tried for about the last 2 hours to fix this with no success. My computer also boots fine off of a CD. I'm going to bed now, if no one's come up with a solution by the time I wake up I'll reinstall XP.

 

[Zim Hosein]

ddjkdg, what happens if you make Win MP your default mp3 player? Will your system freeze? Have you uninstalled WinAmp, then re-installed the application? Just trying to help you out

 

[murphy55d]

Try re-seating your RAM and stuff...sounds simple but it might do the trick.

 

[ddjkdg]

<< ddjkdg, what happens if you make Win MP your default mp3 player? Will your system freeze? Have you uninstalled WinAmp, then re-installed the application? Just trying to help you out >>



That's the problem, I can't even get into Windows. I was listening to MP3's in WinAmp when all of a sudden the comp completely froze. Now the system hangs after it gets to the screen saying "Verifying DMI Pool Data..."

murphy: I'll try that, thanks.

 

[iamwiz82]

yeah, could be ram. Since DOS never touches most of it, you wouldnt know if it was bad in DOS. Find a RAM testing program and run it.