Computer Woes

TaaJ

Junior Member
Jun 5, 2005
4
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About 2 months ago, I was finally forced to reformat after about 1 year of rock solid performance.

One night during gaming, my computer rebooted, and my Bios screen told me that there was an error and to reflash the the bios with the manufacturers cd. Everything was great for the rest of the night.

Maybe 2-3 days later, I was basically forced to reformat to load windows.

During this reformat, I remember multiple problems just during the installation of Windows. A few files could not be found during installation, etc. Eventually the install went through and I had about 1-2 weeks of stable computing.

Recently, its gotten very bad. It usually starts with a crash, various error messages (IRQ to Unknown to Whatever), a reboot with various files being corrupt or missing (usually ntsokrnl). After fixing these files from the cd, one of two situations happens. Windows boots and works for another 1-2 weeks, or what basically happened today. Windows doesn't boot, cant be found, I try to reformat.

This morning, while getting the old ntsokrnl corrupt file, disk drive cannot be found message, I went to reformat again. Only, getting to the install screen is tricky. Half the time, during the Windows check (bottom scroll bar where it loads files) it will say that a certain file couldn't be found, boots to Bios and doesn't even begin the actual install (or formatting of a partition). Or, it will begin to install, get to about 5%, and the monitor shuts off (power still runs, cpu fan and case fans still rotate etc. but the screen goes blank).

My question is, what is going on here. Faulty HDD, Faulty CD?

My specs are:
ASUS P4P800
Pentium 4 3.0c
1024 Corsair 3200
120GB Western Digital Cavier
Onboard AC97 Sound
480W Thermaltake

I'm lead to believe it could just be the HDD. I managed to download WD's harddrive checker and it got to about 1% before there were too many errors to go on. I know about corruption slightly and how other components can corrupt HDDs, but this was JUST after a fresh install.

The only thing that throws me off, is the Bios going out that one night (it's been fine ever since), and the fact that as all this started happening, my ATi Card started to artifact to the point it had to be replaced (I pushed it alot though, was on 24/7).

The obvious solution as of now for me would be to buy a new HDD (cheapest route also).
 

TaaJ

Junior Member
Jun 5, 2005
4
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Anyone have any advice?

It's kind of urgent I get this fixed ASAP.
 

KGB

Diamond Member
May 11, 2000
3,042
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Taaj,

Welcome to the Forums! :beer:

I would first try testing the memory with Memtest86.
This creates a bootable floppy that will run your RAM through some exhaustive testing.

Keep in mind... bad RAM could cause the errors you saw with the HDD test you ran.

Let us know.
 

TaaJ

Junior Member
Jun 5, 2005
4
0
0
So...

Upon taking the 12v connector out of the computer to clean up my Floppy cable, I notice that 3 or 4 pins of it are charred and one of them actually melted.

I'm assuming, this happened about the exact same time my Bios needed to be reflasheed, etc.

Now, I'm stuck on deciding what parts to replace/RMA.

The Power Supply and Motherboard are a given, the Motherboard really has worked fine but it's charred on the connector. I'm gonna take a wild guess and state that the data corruption from the HDD is a direct result of the power supply and motherboard.