Where to start?

[egale]

My computer made it all the way to 6 months old with no problems. Now at the ripe old age of 6 months it is sick.

I have started getting BSODs. This happens occassionally, sometimes at sleep, shutdown, wake up or boot. I don't seem to get them while working at all.

They vary it could be the driver irq not le, ntfs.sys or a generic halt.

This morning, when I woke the machine up, it all started except video. This is a first and I had to turn the machine off and on.

Have done the chkdsks with no problems found. Am now booting with bootlog on but this doesn't seem particularly helpful. I have looked in the system and application logs, nothing there.

At this point, do I start replacing parts? Is it memory, PSU, hard drive? corrupt windows? As it is intermitent, its hard to know if I even fixed anything.

Is it time to lay the system to rest?
Its a Q6600, 4gb Crucial Balistica, Asus P5KE/Wifi, 8800GT. The only OC is the CPU to 3.0ghz everything else is stock. Oh, the PSU is a Seasonic 500w I think.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Start by unplugging everything that is NOT required for initial boot. All that is required is PSU, RAM(minimum amount), CPU, Video, and power button If you still do not get video, reseat the video card. If still no video, start by pulling the VGA out altogether.

The mobo should return POST errors when VGA/RAM/CPU is not present. If no POST errors when VGA not installed, pull RAM and try again. If still no POST errors, pull CPU and try again. If still no POST errors, follow the motherboard manual for clearing the CMOS. If you do not get the board to POST with all of the above missing, and clearing CMOS doesn't work...then uninstall the board and check for any type of shorts possible on the chassis or mobo. Reinstall the board. If still no POST...RMA that thing!

If any of the above work, and you can boot the machine then start by running Memtest, one RAM stick at a time. Let it run a few passes on each to be sure. If it all passes, then run Memtest on all the sticks together.

Start with that and post back.

 

[Billb2]

Cleaned out the dust bunnies lately?
Cleaned the fan filters?
In the PSU too?

 

[egale]

As it turns out, I already have a new case to put everything into. Its in an Antec Solo right now but the reset button broke so I have a new case to put things into.

When I do the swap, I will make sure everything is cleaned up.

Like I said, the problems are intermitent so its hard to recreate or tell if you fixed anything. But it does sound like its hardware related if you blue screen on boot (at least to me).

If you had to guess on a faulty part, what do you think?

 

[ch33zw1z]

guess at faulty=RAM or mobo

 

[egale]

ok. Ordered new memory will be here tomorrow. After that its motherboard replacement and a clean install.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Have you tried any of the suggestions I offered for problem determination?

 

[egale]

The wakeup with no video was a one time occurance. After shutting off the machine, the system came back. The rest of the problems are bsods which come at shutdown/sleep or boot/wakeup. The hardest part is it is not recreatable.

I have a new case that I have to migrate the guts into anyway. As I can't recreate the problem, any pulling and reseating of parts isn't going to show an immediate improvement. I figured ram is so cheap now that replacing it is easy. If it works (and it will take a while to prove) great. If not, its not a major hit.

The mobo is a problem. If it has failed, what to do? Sure its under warranty. But how long will it take to send back and get a replacement? I'd probably just go out and buy another one. But then if I buy something different comes reinstalling Windows and having to call Microsoft and beg for activation again.

With all the dumps and bsods and software, you would think there would be a diagnostic tool that would be easier than pulling parts and such.

When I got home last night, there was a bsod on the screen (driver irql not less or equal). Have no idea how long it was there but probably when the machine tried to enter sleep mode. I reset the bios, turned off hybrid hibernation (or at least tried) on the pc and tried making the machine sleep and wake up. No problem then and this morning the machine was sleeping peacefully and woke up properly. So I have no idea if I fixed anything but the problem wasn't there this morning.

The memory will come today and I will do the transfer this weekend. If I still have problems, will do the mobo maybe.

 

[degibson]

memtestx86+
Someone should have suggested that before you bought new RAM...

 

[egale]

Just a quick update. On Friday I moved the guts into the new case , Lancool K7 and replaced the memory old memory Crucial Balistica 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1v (4 1gb modules) new memory Corsair 5-5-5-18 @ 1.9v (2 2gb modules). I was able to boot up, sleep, awake, etc. I left the machine open. On Saturday morning, I closed up the machine and the machine wouldn't boot. I got stuck in the bios in finding USB devices. After a few restart attempts, I got an ovedrclocking failed message (nothing was over clocked to my knowledge) but the system reset the bios again and I went back into the bios and manually entered the stock ram timings.

After that, the machine booted and I haven't had a bsod yet. Maybe it was the old ram. In any case time will tell. I will post again if the bsods returns.