Major Start Up Problem

[zman4700]

Hello,
I've had my homebuilt pc for about a year and a half now and everything has been running very smoothly with it until yesterday. Basically I was just sitting at my computer when suddenly it freezes with a stuttering on the audio, and then goes to this blue screen saying something about a dump. When I tried to start up my computer it would get past the vista loading screen and then come to a black screen with the cursor (the cursor won't move) then after about a minute will restart. This made me think it was a problem with the OS, so i put in my repair disk, and it tells me that this can not be done automatically and asks me to send this problem to Microsoft. Now still, every time i startup my computer it will come to that black screen with the cursor and restart again. What do i do?
Help is much appreciated,
Zach

 

[shortstuff_mt]

A good majority of system freezes and BSOD's are caused by faulty RAM. My guess is that you've had a stick of RAM fail. Posting the complete system specs will help greatly in troubleshooting. The first thing I would do is download Memtest86+ and run it overnight to test for RAM errors.

 

[zman4700]

how do i do that if i can't even start up my computer?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Memtest86+ runs outside the OS. Use whatever computer you're using to post this to download and burn a Memtest86+ CD. You boot from the Memtest86+ CD and it will run even if you don't have an OS installed at all.

 

[zman4700]

i can't get it to work, any other suggestions, possibly from someone who has had this same problem?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

You might not like my suggestion, but it's the most common cause of problems like yours. I've done a lot of troubleshooting and I've found faulty RAM to be the cause more times than not. How hard did you try to get memtest86+ to work? You have quite a few different options for getting it to work. It's not difficult.

1. Go to www.memtest.org and click on the "Download (Pre-built & ISOs)" link.
2. Pick which version you would like to use. You have 3 options.
a. The first one is if you want to make a bootable CD ("Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)").
b. The second one is if you want to use a USB thumb drive ("Download - Pre-Compiled EXE file for USB Key (Pure DOS)")
c. The third one is if you want to use a floppy disk ("Download - Pre-Compiled package for Floppy (DOS - Win)")
3. If you're using the CD method you'll need software to burn the ISO image to disk. There are a ton of free ISO image burning software options out there if you don't already have something like Nero. Do a Google search for "Free ISO image burner" and you should find all the info you need.

You still haven't listed your computer specs. You can't expect to get much more help until you do that.

The checklist in the "READ before posting about boot problems!" sticky at the top of the forum is also full of additional troubleshooting ideas.

 

[zman4700]

everytime i put the iso on a cd using the apllication "Burn" for the mac, it just doesn't recognize the cd on startup. I'm selecting to boot from the cd drive too, what could i be doing wrong?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I'm not sure, I've never tried to burn an ISO image from my Mac. Are you using the pre-compiled bootable ISO.zip file? Do you have a USB thumb drive you could use?

 

[uh_no]

try reading what the guy above you posted

3. If you're using the CD method you'll need software to burn the ISO image to disk. There are a ton of free ISO image burning software options out there if you don't already have something like Nero. Do a Google search for "Free ISO image burner" and you should find all the info you need.

you can't just dump the iso file on the disk....you need special software to burn the iso, and not the iso file

 

[zman4700]

i told u i used "Burn"

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I don't see anything in the "Burn" software documentation that indicates that it's able to burn ISO images. It has to do more than just put the file on the disk. I don't suppose you have access to a PC instead of the Mac?

 

[zman4700]

alright i got memtest running on version 3.4, how do i know when i have an error or something wrong with my memory?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

RAM errors will show up in red in Memtest86+. You should run it overnight since I've seen RAM successfully complete over 6 complete sessions and then start getting errors.

 

[zman4700]

Alright I passed the 86Memtest so its not a RAM problem.

I'm trying to figure out if there is a hard drive utility or a way to check if my hard drive is bad. I have a "Samsung 500GB HD501LJ"

Specs:
My Graphics Card Is A 9800GX2
Processor is a Q9450 overclocked to 3 GHz
4GB of Corsair Dominator RAM
P5Q Deluxe Mobo
1000W Modular Corsair PSU