whats dying?

[Torro]

my machine wont give me any rest
personal machine started blue screening some time ago - itd just randomly crash; dump memory and restart
then it started freezing while restarting
plugged in the diagnostic lights that came with the board and it showed that it was freezing at proc init or memory init
so played with those two and it started sticking only on proc init
but if i leave the power off, switch the power supply off and then come back some time later and power everything up, it would work fine
for now its stuck on telling me the proc is bad but if the proc is really bad, why would it work on and off?

could this be a chip going bad? a board going bad? power going bad? memory going bad?

i cant get this down to any thing in particular thing
it just crashes and works when it likes right now

should i just scratch this as gone and get a new mobo/chip?
plz help

 

[Turkish]

We can't really help you unless you give us the exact error message with error codes and etc.

Goodluck,

Xiety

 

[Torro]

if you mean the error codes from the blue screen, i wont be able to since i cant even start my machine anymore
i never thought i'd see the day when i wished i could see error codes

like i said, the diagnostic lights tell me that its stuck on initializing the processor (though it seems to go ahead and initialize my other devices like dvd drives and floppy it just doesn't ever post)

 

[Torro]

crunch on this for a while
so for about 2 days straight, i kept getting the "stuck on initializing processor" error from the diagnostic lights
so i was sure that the cpu had died
i organized to get this guy to test it today
woke up this morning and for no reason decided to give it one last try
it stuck on initializing memory
so i turned it off, reseated memory and turned it back on
it worked
i am typing this message from the machine now
what in the world could cause this random on/off behaviour?

 

[Torro]

UPDATE: Died again not even 3 hours later

Got the blue screen again but this time copied the info

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
then some text about making sure hardware/software installed properly then

STOP: 0x000000A (0xFFFFFFFC, 0x0000002, 0x00000000, 0x804FA344)

no mention of drivers or modules or anything
help?
edit: forget to mention that i'll reinstall windows later and hope that fixes the problem unless someone comes up with a better idea

 

[Torro]

^ bump

 

[Muzzy]

WE need to know your specs. Give us the list of all of your parts.

 

[RustyNale]

Try HERE if you're running XP, and here if you've got Win2K or NT loaded.

 

[Torro]

edit: could this be bad PS?
edit: will try to repair win xp installation when machine decides to come back up

hope this helps

Specs:
MSI K7N2G MB
AMP Athlon XP 2100+ with generic fan
512MB pc2700 ddram 333MHz Samsung
Leadtek 128MB GeForce4 Ti4600
WD 100GB with 4MB cache
Maxtor 60Gb
Pioneer A03 DVD-RW
Lite-On 16x DVD-Rom
generic floppy
Antec True 330W PS
10/100 generic Nic

 

[Mitzi]

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors are usually down to bad hardware....

Try running Memtest to check your memory, try Prime95 to check your CPU, if you are overclocking reset everything to stock speeds, try lowering your memory timing etc etc etc

But yes, it could be your PSU...do you have another to test with it?

Edit: Just seen you have an Antec 330...in that case I'd say it is pretty unlikely its your PSU, Antecs are one of the most reliable PSUs available.

 

[Muzzy]

Start with a bare minimum installation, then add one hardware at a time. Yeah, it's a pain in da butt, but troubleshooting always is

 

[Torro]

Update: still can't get it to go pass the cpu initialization

nope, not overclocking and i never messed with the memory timings or anything like that
only things i changed in BIOS were bus speed and boot order

machine still freezes on initializing cpu but as soon as i get it up i'll run those programs and see if they turn up anything useful

thx

 

[Torro]

nothing conclusive
planning on getting a new cpu (amd xp 2500+ barton)

could this problem possibly transfer to my new chip as well?
any vendors who will rma a cpu?

 

[Turkish]

Originally posted by: Torro
nothing conclusive
planning on getting a new cpu (amd xp 2500+ barton)

could this problem possibly transfer to my new chip as well?
any vendors who will rma a cpu?

if you'r certain its the cpu, just rma it.

 

[BigJimbo]

this could also be because of driver conflicts.....believe it or not i read somewhere where you should space out your PCI slots every other, not to put then right next to each other..this worked for me a year back when i had my old DFI board and had the same problem when XP came out

this is a true fact aswell, i dont remember wehre i read it but on most motherboards AGP and PCI 1 will share an IRQ and same thing with the last PCI and first ISA ect....give it a shot its always worth a try

 

[tjaisv]

According to MS the STOP Code that you got, 0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_EQUAL, is usually caused by buggy device drivers. I'd suggest formatting and reinstalling your OS and using all the latest official device drivers. Don't load too many applications or devices, try to keep the bare minimum on your computer. If you still get the BSOD then it's probably your hardware at fault somewhere. Yeah maybe a bad CPU. A lot of hardware problems are intermittent.

 

[Tal]

HAve you checked IRQ settings in the BIOS? I used to get this on some compaq machines if the Network card was set to the wrong IRQ. I'd manually set it to 9 or 11 and it worked fine. With newer computers, (not crappy compaqs) you should make sure the BIOS IRQ's are plug-N-Play. -Tal

 

[Torro]

thanks for all the advice on the BSOD
however, I cant even get my machine to recognize the cpu
gonna call amd and rma the chip and then i'll rma the board to newegg and get back to you in 2 weeks

do i need something to get them to cross ship items on rma's?

ps. i think its kind of strange how prevalent this problem has become in so short a time. A couple of us on the same network suddenly came down with the same symptoms. Machine works. Virus/BSOD/some other machine restarting error. Machine wont post.
Could a virus be this powerful?

 

[Torro]

chip was bad
RMA'd chip
works fine now