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XP Pro Crashing - Can't identify why

W

wayliff

Lifer
I recently bought a new system and since then I have been experiencing some random freezing of the computer. Only way is to use the rest button.

AMD Athlon x2 3800+
Corsair 2x512MB Cas 2 RAM
Epox Nforce 4 Mobo
ATI Radeon X800XL 256MB
74GB Raptor
Generick 56k Modem
Hauppauge Capture Card

This has happened by just doing minor stuff on the computer...browsing...after about 40 mins or so the computer will just freeze. I doubt temperature since it is like 68 today in this room.
I maybe wrong though, I think the Case is well cooled it is a Gigabyte Aurora.

It also happened after playing some Battle for Middle Earth after like 40 mins too...had to reset.

I have not seen anything unusual in the event viewer...

I know this is very very general but maybe somebody can guide me in the right direction.

Thanks
 
Originally posted by: wayliff
I recently bought a new system and since then I have been experiencing some random freezing of the computer. Only way is to use the rest button.

AMD Athlon x2 3800+
Corsair 2x512MB Cas 2 RAM
Epox Nforce 4 Mobo
ATI Radeon X800XL 256MB
74GB Raptor
Generick 56k Modem
Hauppauge Capture Card

This has happened by just doing minor stuff on the computer...browsing...after about 40 mins or so the computer will just freeze. I doubt temperature since it is like 68 today in this room.
I maybe wrong though, I think the Case is well cooled it is a Gigabyte Aurora.

It also happened after playing some Battle for Middle Earth after like 40 mins too...had to reset.

I have not seen anything unusual in the event viewer...

I know this is very very general but maybe somebody can guide me in the right direction.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I ran into something like this recently. I am not sure if it is the same, but see if this applies to you. My computer was freezing sporadically but only when I was using it (I leave it on all the time). It turns out I was accidentally pulling one my two monitor cables with my feet and it was nudging the PCI-Express video card, causing the computer to crash at a hardware level. I tucked the video cable out of the way and since then no problems.

It sounds like your issue could be overheating-related, though.

 
Usually bad memory causes sporadic crashes. But like bragac200 said, it can be other unexpected issues causing it, too. I've seen cable tv cords that lay across cat5 cabling cause all sorts of issues. Look around for simple fixes first, then if that doesn't work go for more drastic ones like testing with one memory stick at a time to see if one is bad.
 
Sounds like a memory issue to me as well, try lowering the timings in the bios and running a memory test program, like memtest86. Also try disabling ATI's GPU recover and see if it happens, I have had some strange issues with that.
 
Definatley run memtest86. It sounds like memory to me. Let memtest run for about 2 hours, and if you turn up with errors, there is your problem.

Are these errors blue screens? Or are they just the screen freezing?
If you get a blue screen, copy down the hex code it spits out. It usually look like: 0x000000xx, where the xx at the end can be any letter or number. Type that hex code into google and see what others have done to fix the problem.
 
I forgot to mention I have applied the AMD dual core drivers and the Windows XP HotFix.

It is just plain freezing.
 
Originally posted by: wayliff
I forgot to mention I have applied the AMD dual core drivers and the Windows XP HotFix.

It is just plain freezing.
Click to expand...

run memtest as advised and report back
 
I just run memtest for 59 mins, it passed 3 times. I will leave it running longer while I go for lunch...and see what happens.
The memory is running at stock speed I do not overclock.
 
okay memtest run for 2 hours and 20 mins, no errors. 7 passes.

I do suspect the drivers so I have switched from the ATI Catalyst 6.2 drivers to the Omega Catalyst 6.2 drivers.
I had recently changed video card drivers so maybe that's it.

I will keep you post if it happens again.

 
That could explain it. If you don't uninstall old ATI drivers they do tend to cause alot of barfs in the system.
 
Yeah, drivers can be a PITA. Have ou ever heard of a program called driver cleaner? If you ever switch drivers, you should run Driver Cleaner after you run the uninstall program from ATi in safe mode.

I beleive that the Omega Drivers do come with a version of Driver Cleaner, so you are in luck next time you want to switch.
 
I see that you are running an Nvidia NForce 4 motherboard. Did you ever install NVidia's Network Access Manager? If so, remove it now, because it has never caused anything but trouble for those who attempt to use it (a few special cases notwithstanding, everyone I know hates it). Cleaning out ATI drivers is also a good idea as mentioned by others.
 
I did not install the Nvidia Network Access Manager and also I run the Catalyst uninstaller before mounting the Omega Drivers.
So far so good...the computer even went on standby and came back up with no problems.
 
I just reinstalled the United Devices grid software...I thought that may have been causing it but hopefully it was the drivers.
We'll see...
 
Does it just freeze meaning the screen stays the same but you can't move the mouse or anything or do you get any sort of error message at all?

I'd start pulling memoery chips and seeing if the problem goes away and you can narrow down a chip might be bad. If not you could try some other hardware as well (swap in an old video card or whatever).

But my guess would be hardware related.
 
plain freezing...mouse and keyboard dont work...no error messages.
I tried each memory at a time, on different slots but i guess I'll have to try for long periods of time.
Swaping the video crad is going to be a problem since i dont have a spare one.
 
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