BSOD - cant reinstall windows - plz help!

[melvinsbitch]

Hey, I recently took over my sisters computer, which is about 4 years old now: (AMD Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73 GHz 512 MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600). I dont know if this is the right forum or where to ask for this but I really need some advice.

The pc has been working fine for 2 weeks and my sister hasnt had any problems at all during the years she had it. After some new games are downloaded and some other stuff for windows like mousefix or whatever it's called (no idea if this has anything to do with my problems) but then after a couple of days I get a BSOD. (saying something like "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", I've got different messages in my bluescreens as well but that's the one I remember.) Then later I get them more and more often and it happens when playing old low graphic games like, for example, Age of Empires. In Frozen Throne it shuts down and gives me an error message about not enough memory. It randomly blackscreened one night when I wasnt playing anything at all and I got some msg about "Power saving enabled" so I changed all power settings to never go off or whatever, but it keeps coming. Now when I play games I get blackscreens and pc reboots itself. It's always been fine playing these games before so I don't know what happened. I also started having problems at the same time with things crashing ALOT like firefox and msn.

I have some theories to what it might be and I was thinking maybe my memory broke. I was told it might be the power in my house. Another thing I was thinking about was the stuff that was downloaded for windows, if they somehow could have made it crash in my pc. So I deleted everything that I could but when I was going to reinstall windows, it wouldn't work... I couldn't start the cd when my pc was on so I rebooted it and started the cd up from bios and everything went well and I came to the blue screen with the options and about half way there I got a BSOD again... I tried the same thing 5 times and it bluescreened everytime, so basically I can't reinstall windows unless theres another way? I've checked for viruses too btw and can't find any.

If anyone has any suggestions to what it might be or something I can try myself to make it better, I'd appreciate any help. This really pisses me off cause I had a similar problem with my old computer (kind of same as this one) that it gave me BSOD and blackscreened with the power msg during games. It started giving me serious graphic errors too later on so I was forced to switch computer, and here I am with another broken one!

 

[pat mcgroin]

I would suggest going to system restore and going back to the time when your sister owned it.
Then after you get it stable again (very important) put in one thing (game) at a time to make sure that all is good.
You cant just pile things on and then wonder what went wrong.
Games are not always written well and can cause problems.
Also what was wrong with your mouse? Mousefix (or what ever it is called) could be a clue. (hint hint) I in 20 years(since at least win 95) have always used the mouse setup windows gives and never never had problems. No matter what I have done.
Some thing to remember
When a program installs it usually expects standards. Not all programs can anticipate programs that someone can dream up that doesnt follow generally accepted standards of programming.
used the windows mouse dirvers for EVERYTHING
BTW in your bios did you change the boot order to cd hdd floppy?
And 1 more thing is the windows cd you copied have a boot sector on it?
I assume you saw this 4 posting down http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/236927-45-irql_not_less_or_equal-en8600gts

that message generallly has to do with hardware/drivers have you changed anything? eg mouse

 

[melvinsbitch]

Thanks for your response. I already tried the system restore actually but it did not help me. I didn't install a bunch of things either, I have very little on my pc and all the games were working fine before. Plus most of it is deleted now. I don't know about the mousefix, it was something my bf installed after he said my mouse was responding very bad. It's also called "mouseaccel" and when I google it, it says: "This plugin allows Girder to have mouse movements that go faster the longer you hold the button down (aka acceleration). A tap of the button will move the mouse 1 pixel but holding it down for a second will move about 300 pixels." and then some other stuff.

I didn't change anything in bios, although I don't know what that stuff means. I just started up the cd when "press any key to start up from cd" or something msg comes up i followed directions then BSOD. I dont know if the cd has a boot sector, dno what it means! And yes I read that guys post with the same msg. I haven't changed any drivers or anything, all I've done is install software stuff for my new camera.

 

[pat mcgroin]

lose the mouse fix. in control panel you can change the mouse speed (ballistics) I have (I promise) no need to change the mouse.
Do you get a message with BSOD?
did you change hardware or drivers?
Ooops just looked up delete the software for the camera and see what happens

 

[cranbers]

There are several things that could be it.

The fact you can't even reinstall windows and have it be stable rules out windows. So now you're on a hardware problem.

1. Is it warmer where the computer is now vs where it was before? Overheating is a pretty good symptom here.

2. has the computer been cleaned recently? Dust build up is a good way to have weird /bad things happen. Dust build up inside of the computer that is. It is very possible it wasn't used hard enough or often enough to have issues, or it was in a cooler place.
Once the temp/overheating is ruled out.

3. go on the internet and download http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
Run a memory test and other hardware tests to verify and rule those out as well..

4. Make sure you go through and push all cables and expansion cards in, perhaps one of them is just lose enough to be causing a problem. Also do a scan of the hard drive.

Hope that helps you out.

 

[melvinsbitch]

pat mcgroin ~
I was trying to get rid of the mousefix by reinstalling windows, but it didn't work so. I don't see any other way since it's installed on windows and not as a driver u can just delete.
I've got maybe 3 different bluescreens, where one says "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" and the others I don't remember. Although I did write down some numbers I got... I don't know if they're of any use: "0x0000007f, 0x000000d1, 0x0000008e".
And all drivers I got are the exact same as my sister had, since she formated the pc before I got it, I just installed the same ones for graphics card etc and nothing weird.

cranbers ~
1. My sister used her computer a whole lot I think, maybe not as much as me as I keep mine on longer periods, but I don't think there was a big difference. I have the pc out on the floor atm and it's been open too to see if it was too warm but I don't notice a difference. Also, it blackscreens/bluescreens just as much when I just start it up as it does when it's been on for a while.
2. I haven't cleaned it since I got it but I know she was very careful with that. I guess I'll do that again as well.
3. That stuff looks good but honestly too complicated for me. I have no idea what it is I'm reading half the time. Thanks for the tip though, I might just take it to a pc store and try change the memory if its broken.
4. Yeah I was thinking that too since the pc was transported for hours with car that something might be lose but I tried that. What exactly u mean by scan of hard drive?

I tried running virus scans earlier today and my pc blackscreened... when I was just talking on msn and had nothing running, it blackscreened 3 times in a row and rebooted itself. It seems to be getting worse and now I get the black screens instead of the BSOD.

 

[cranbers]

Rule out the memory as a problem at least.

go to that website, www.ultimatebootcd.com and download that cd image, and burn it to a cd.

Well if you have a floppy drive you can simply get the memory test. Go to google search and type in free memory test.

Alot of those will give you a very detail step by step on how to do this.

 

[pat mcgroin]

ok 3 things
1 the mouse program is probably under control panel|add or remove programs you dont need to reinstall windows.

2 Leaving your computer open will not help it to stay cool Its actually better to have it closed so that the fans can send the air in the right directions.

3 Im inclined to agree with cranbers about the memory possibly being the trouble. Since you provided thoses error codes I looked them up and that is the direction they point.

If you dont fell comfortable with memory testing then taking it to the shop may be a good option. Many times they can sort it out while you wait. good luck

BTW after reading my previous post I seemed a bit rude. Im sorry that wasnt my intention.

 

[melvinsbitch]

I have a floppy drive but no disk. I'll try to get one so I can download the program if it works. If I can't do this I might as well take it to the store and tell them to check my memory, since you guys seem to think thats where the problem is or can be. If not, maybe they can give me some other information. Hopefully it wont cost me too much!

I can't find the mouseaccel anywhere on my pc. I didn't think it was a program and just something that installed itself on windows so that you couldn't see it, but I'm not sure. No luck in "add/remove programs" either.

Thanks for your time!

 

[cranbers]

if you take it to geek squad, they are going to milk you like a cow. I wish I could set up a booth next to them, when they say 40 dollar please to install ram, ill say ill do it for 5. It takes 30 seconds to do, if you could do 10 people an hour thats 50 dollars an hour. Sounds good to me.

 

[betunn]

Better ask a friend to check your pc instead of taking it to any shop.

 

[melvinsbitch]

None of my friends do computers so unfortunately I can't do that. I've decided to take my old computer (the one thats also broken in a similar way) to the store while using this one till my sister can come home and look at it. Plus, my old one has a better CPU and graphics card, so I'll be better off getting that one fixed. They're charging 250 sek (about 25 dollars) to find out what the problem is for me, but the guy in the store said he was almost sure I had to buy a new graphics card for my old one, since the screen is getting all blurry and it also has BSOD. A new card thats supposedly similar to the one I have now (Radeon 9800 PRO) would be "X1650 PRO" and he charges around 900 sek (90 dollars) for that. I hope he'll fix it and he's gonna call me back in 2 days.

Thanks for all the tips guys.