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Why is my computer so unstable?

W

Windrider

Junior Member
First of all, here are my system specs:

CPU: AMD64 3500+
MOBO: MSI Neo2 Platinum
Vid: Leadtek Nvidia 6800gt
Sound: SB Audigy 2zs Platinum
RAM: Crucial 1024mb Pc3200
HD's: WD 250gb, WD 80 gb IDE
DVD: Pioneer DVR-108
PS: Vantec 520w
OS: XP Pro SP1

So here are the problems I'm having. In no particular order:

- Random critical errors in games. Three current games that have these problems: World of Warcraft, Tribes: Vengeance, Sid Meiers Pirates. This happens ALL the time. At least three times per hour.

- Installation problems. It says the files are corrupt when trying to install some games/applications from the installation CD. I've tried copying the files over to the hd first, but files are still corrupt. I've tried different cd roms.

- IE6 problems. It'll say it has encountered a problem and I have to close the application. Not a big deal, but it happens about 20x more on this system than on any of my other systems.

- Random reboots. Pretty rare, but it'll happen maybe once a week. I'll get a blue screen of death and it'll reboot automatically.


Those are the main issues. My initial thought was a RAM problem, but I ran memtest for one hour and didn't get any errors. Next thought was a HD issue. Ran a scandisk and defrag, but it didn't improve anything. Drivers are current.

Any thoughts on stuff I can try? All help would be greatly appreciated.
 
What voltage is the memory getting? If it's on AUTO, then it may benefit from a little boost to 2.6-2.7 volts.

Also, the Vantec PSU might not be all that hot. If you have a 400W+ Enermax, Antec or Fortron around, give that a shot, or drop in an older, less-demanding nVidia card like a Ti4200 and see if the reduced power demands help it stabilize.
 
I'm not sure it's the power supply. It's the Vantec VAN-520A. Everything I've read about that model has been positive. Do you know something I don't know?

I will try the memory voltage thing.

More advice please! 🙂
 
You'll want to run Memtest for more than an hour. I've seen an older PC that had weird symptons, and the RAM error only manifested itself after ~12 hours of Memtest.
 
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