Random Computer crashes

[rjohnstone]

If you could point me in the direction of the freeware or shareware that would be great. I tried searching for these utilities but I couldn't find any free ones. They were all adverstisements to buy them.

There are literaly tons of choices here.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?id=7

This one is great for checking for a bad mother board.
It's shareware, but you can try before you buy.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Hot_CPU_Tester_Pro_d273.html

[GWARGHOUL]

How do I check the video card?

Well, if you don't have a spare, it is going to be hard to trtuly diagnose the hardware part of it.

Diagnostics can be accessed thru the device settings in your device manager.

hit the flying window key (command), and pause break at the same time.
It will bring up your system properties. Go to the hardware tab. Click on device manager.
Select your display adapter, go into the properties.
I beleive with XP you can run a diagnostic on it from there soemwhere.
Tho, this will not do ya much good, as it only tests the interface/interaction with the driver/machine.

Got another computer sitting around?
Windows is plug and pray, XP is pretty decent.. very little praying.
Just drop another video card in there, and see if she acts better.

[GWARGHOUL]

I might be able to "come up on" a video card here at work. It won't be anything special.

[ApeDosMil]

Take out everything to the bare min. of a capable computer and test. Has it been working before fine before? if this is a all of the sudden thing its either the O/S is fubured or something mechanically broke.

[GWARGHOUL]

The only thing mechanical on a computer are the fans, optical laser assembly motor, and the drive spindles.


Everything else is solid state.

Windows XP will not shut down randomly without OS indication whatsoever, unless its hardware failure.

Take the components down toa bare minimum is a lot of wasted effort, if you haven't troubleshooted the first forementioned components thruout this thread.

Step back and let the pros talk.

[OnlineStageGear]

My point exactly... failure to READ a file by the drive head is a hardware failure, not a software failure.
A corrupt file will NEVER work.
Let's also not confuse a corrupt application with an individual file.
You can use a corrupt application all day long and have no issues until you try and read/use the one dependant file (.dll, .ocx, etc.) that is hosed.
This goes back to my point about system files.
A system file is just that, an individual file... it either works or it doesn't.

Ahh, I see what you are refering to. You are refering to a file where the data is bad.

GWARGHOUL may be right. I think it is time to take it to your favorite local repair facility.

[ApeDosMil]

The only thing mechanical on a computer are the fans, optical laser assembly motor, and the drive spindles.


Everything else is solid state.

Windows XP will not shut down randomly without OS indication whatsoever, unless its hardware failure.

Take the components down toa bare minimum is a lot of wasted effort, if you haven't troubleshooted the first forementioned components thruout this thread.

Step back and let the pros talk.

I meant mechanically as in the parts themselves as opposed to a software issue. Usually if a pc is fine for a while then all of the sudden it shits on you, its more of a physical problem unless its bloated with viruses and root kits.

How much ram do you have? if you have more than one stick take all but one out and see if it continues. If it does, switch out that ram with the other ones.

Also do this so we can actually see if its a windows error as opposed to it crapping out.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320299/

[TommyD]

Random Computer crashes

> A friend had his uber-gaming rig take a dump on itself a couple times recently. When it first happened,it just went dead,no warning or anything. He restarted it,and it never made it past the XP loading screen for an hour. He kept messing with it and messing with it and it finally came back on,but he complained that something just wasn't right. So he kept messing with it,and we concluded that it was a software AND hardware problem. First,the power supply was WAY underpowered for all the hardware,and something in the power supply got hot and popped,shutting the whole rig down. Once the power supply was replaced with a heavy-duty modular Thermaltake SLi-certified model,the problem was the board. Apparently the initial pop caused a BIOS reset,affecting his RAM timing. This machine has 2GB of the absolute best Corsair XMS,which runs at 2-2-2-5,the board would not let the machine boot at anything but 4-4-4-12. So needless to say,the board went back out the door the next day. Since this is a 3 month old Asus A8N SLi-Deluxe,it was replaced by Newegg within a week,and they even upgraded it to the A8N32,basically the same board but has a heatpipe for the chipsets,and is even more overclockable than before. Even after that was solved,it still would not run right to him,at this point he found out the problem was caused by the damn driver for his X-Fi Platnium sound card. Once he got that fixed,it was back to normal. His processor is a FX-55,with a 7800 GTX video card,he found it to run better by itself than dual 6800 Ultras. His coolers are all Zalman,and 4 74GB WD Raptors make this the hottest rig I've EVER seen,Alienware included. Tommy D.

[jgcable]

Last night I got home around 8:00pm. A few of my kids were home since around 3:00pm. The computer was on all day and they were on it when I got home. I logged on around 10:00pm and was on until 11:30pm. The computer didn't crash once all day and night. I didn't do a friggin thing to it yet. This makes it even more frustrating.

[DonP]

Last night I got home around 8:00pm. A few of my kids were home since around 3:00pm. The computer was on all day and they were on it when I got home. I logged on around 10:00pm and was on until 11:30pm. The computer didn't crash once all day and night. I didn't do a friggin thing to it yet. This makes it even more frustrating.

WRONG!!!

You cleaned it out. Less dust crap = more airflow = less heat.

I tell you, MP1800+ processors run extremely hot and take lots of cooling.

[jgcable]

WRONG!!!

You cleaned it out. Less dust crap = more airflow = less heat.

I tell you, MP1800+ processors run extremely hot and take lots of cooling.

Don, I cleaned it around 1 month ago. It didn't change anything. I am starting to think you are on to something though. I am gonna strip it tonight and clean everything and put it back together. Maybe something is loose that I didn't see.
If has alot of fans in it.
1 in the power supply, a huge one on the back of the case (its a Chembro server case), the processors each have a fan, the video card has one, and there is a good size one in front of the computer drawing air in.
Its a pretty loud computer. It sounds like a server.

[GWARGHOUL]

Don, I cleaned it around 1 month ago. It didn't change anything. I am starting to think you are on to something though. I am gonna strip it tonight and clean everything and put it back together. Maybe something is loose that I didn't see.
If has alot of fans in it.
1 in the power supply, a huge one on the back of the case (its a Chembro server case), the processors each have a fan, the video card has one, and there is a good size one in front of the computer drawing air in.
Its a pretty loud computer. It sounds like a server.

Heres a tip.
The power supply fan is the case EXHAUST fan.
Make sure all the other fans are inducing airflow INTO the computer, that way it has a somewhat balanced input/output of airflow. The current will be exhausted by the power supply fan. Proper airflow also cuts down on dust.

If one or more of the fans are reversed of airflow, you can flip the fan assembly around, or just change the polarity of the current (it will not hurt anything).

Steve

[MOSHWITZ]

hey John do a search and download "Memtest" and oyu can test your ram with it, i used to get random crash/freeze/error .etc and it turned out to be a bad stick of ram and Memtest pointed me right to it......takes a little time to run the test though.

MOSH ON
DAVE

[GWARGHOUL]

Excellent resource, Dave.
If that program is thorough, it will save time and money.
I'm going to try it instead of the tradition way of swapping ram as a test.

Thanx!

[DonP]

Memtest, Prime95, Sisoft Sandra, 3DMark200x are all useful tools to see if your system is stable. Since I often overclock the F out of my systems, I need to keep a close eye on stability.