Help!! - random crashes and corrupt files

[Special K]

This may sound like it belongs in the OS forum but I think a hardware problem is to blame(read on to see why), so I posted it here. The past few days my computer (see my sig) has been giving me all kinds of problems. Initially I had win2k installed, and had only seen maybe 2 BSODS in the 7 months that it had been installed. Then I started getting them all the time, until it got to the point where I could no longer start windows without getting some type of fatal stop error (usually involving ntfs.sys). Also, another problem that suddenly appeared was whenever I would have my RAM (1 stick of 256MB) in slot 1, the computer would not boot (gave me the beep code for RAM not detected), but it worked OK in slot 2. Also I would randomly get the error message "primary master drive fails" when trying to start my computer. I have ran the IBM DFT several times and evertime it checks out OK (return code 0x00). I then formatted and installed winXP, and had the same problems. I then did a zero fill and tried to install it again. At this point the computer would detect the RAM if it was in slot 1 and I quit getting the error message about primary master drive fails, but at various points during the installation process, windows setup would say that a file could not be copied; however, if I retried (usually took more than one retry) it would copy correctly. Finally I got windows up and running, however I was getting other random crashes and errors; sometimes windows would not shutdown or restart. Now I restarted and got the message that some critical file was missing and windows could not start. Before I spend another 2 hours reformatting/installing, I thought I'd go to the forums and see what anyone here thinks. Keep in mind that I have had this computer since last July running with no problems; all of this just suddenly started a few days ago.

 

[MrGrim]

My 60GXP would somehow get "disconnected" (hmm internal HD got disconnected, interesting ...) at random and would cause Win2k to crash. At times it wouldn't even get recognised at boot time. After a while it decided to identify itself as an unformatted disc. I had to use a 3rd party utility to get my stuff off it. Guess what the result code of IBM's diagnostic utility was ... 0x00.

Still waiting for a replacement. My money is on the IBM HD being crappy just like the rest of them.

 

[Woody419]

Bad ram, bad. Spank that ram for giving you so much trouble and put in another stick and see if your troubles dissapear. I just had a fresh install not work right because of ram.

Run a hdd diagnostic supplied by the hd manufacturer to be safe.

What is your mb and how old is it?

PS problem? There is always that chance too.

 

[acejj26]

woody's got it....either crummy RAM or a crummy power supply

 

[Special K]

<< What is your mb and how old is it? >>



Asus A7M266, just got it (and everything else in my system) last July.

PS is a Sparkle 350W, and the RAM is 256MB of Samsung, both of which have been working fine until recently (assuming one/both are the cause of the problem). Can RAM just fail like that, after being OK for months? Is there a prog out there that can test RAM for defects? (until I can try a replacement from a friend tomorrow)?

Oh one more thing (and a reason that might support the bad ram/PS idea): occasionally the DFT program itself would just freeze (not while running the tests - just while in the main screen). I thought the DFT ran off of a RAMdrive - wouldnt that mean that either the program was written badly (??) or that something is wrong with the RAM?

 

[Boonesmi]

memtest86

 

[Special K]

Well now the RAM isn't being recognized in slot one again....