Need help blue screen and reset

[Aidanoridania]

Well i've just reinstalled Windows XP over here and since then i've got indeed an exceptional experience...

first of all it starts with strange errors and shutdowns of all running programs (also explorer.exe generate errors and closes) and that for a fresh installed Win...BLOWS

sometimes it becomes even more strange: at random moments it just shows very briefly a blue screen with all kind of errors (i guess it are errors, but it goes that fast that i can't read a thing of it), and reboots.

now i'm sitting here with my comp having it's own little will, and i really don't like that (who likes that anyway???)

so maybe the setup of my comp will help:

motherboard: Asus p4t 533-c
memory 2x128 Mb kingston rdram
video card: Aopen geforce 440 with 64 mb ddr
sound : soundblaster live platinum 5.1
processor: intel p4 2.4 ghz
os : windows XP
PSU : enermax 431 watts

untill now i can't figure it out, i went to the bios to check for all settings, i even restored them, but... nothing to do.

other little remark: i didn't install very much proggies on it, just my music prog, and a dvd encoder to watch DVD's, for the rest it's all clean, fresh and new, so no games, no stress on the graphics etc...

When i installed Windows, it just all went fine, and one main part of those error reboots was the Rdram turbo mode which was enabled, after having disabled that, it went already better, nut still it sometimes crashes...

I hope it can be solved, otherwise i would have to turn back at win2k, as there were no probs with that...

now at least i know for what that "XP" stands:

the new eXPerience of how winblows can crash!! LMAO :lol: they even made it more beautiful then ever!



<font color=purple><i> Enosi and I.... </i></font color=purple>

 

[sturm]

try taking one of the memory sticks out. I had blue screens also. ended up being a bad memory stick. sometimes it would boot to windows but when i ran a program it would kick out with a memory controler error. try them one at a time to check.

 

[jihiggs]

can you go into safe mode fine? if you can i would install all new drivers.

my computer is so fast, it completes an endless loop in less than 4 seconds!

 

[Bardic]

The blue scree reset feature is built into windows XP

Start->right click on my computer and go to properties->Advanced Tab->Startup and Recovery settings button->Uncheck "automatically restart".

That won't solve your problem, but at least then you can read the blue screen. Sounds right that it could be a ram problem, or video drivers can do it a lot.if a re-install still does it then it would have to be hardware related.

 

[Aidanoridania]

Thanks for the clues, i found the problem, so i post the solution here for in case that other users have the same kind of troubles...

Indeed the troublemaker was the RAM...And the graphics card...

The ram started to make some errors when it got hot (i placed a sensor on it and it said 50 degrees, quite hot to me) So i underclocked the ram and the troubles were gone, on that part. The other part was the graphics card that wasn't quite that good (my old Riva TNT2 helped me out of that one!)

So what happened? Well with my old video card i started to investigate if there were no further troubles, and indeed the first hour was indeed well, no problem at all, so the main cause was then found (even the newest drivers didn't work), but always after a time it happened again, so due to your posts, i suspected a ram trouble (due to overheat).

So i placed a direct ventilator on it, but even then after more then two or three hours the problem still occured. The problem was that my RAM's were separed from each other, so on ventilator didn't cool enough and at the edges, and so the errors were just delayed.

So what did i do? Well i just have adjusted the speed of the ram in the bios. instead of 533 i underclocked it at 400 Mhz, and now the trouble is gone. I suppose that normally in generic cases the ambient temp doesn't rise that fast, but when you have 4 hard drives and 2 CD roms, it gets a quite tropical heat inside (around 37 degrees), and i think that the reason of those crashes can be found there: fast ram in a hot surround that heats then much above average.

So i added three ventilators in the whole setup and since then everything is again more at normal rates.

Here i could add my little experiment:
Even now with 5 (!) ventilators the noise is still very reasonable: the most of the noise comes from my two WD caviar hard drives (the other two are liquid bearing HD's from seagate and almost noiseless).
Here i add now what's needed to build this low noise cooling:
- A simple potmeter (mine came from an old amplifer) varying between 5 and 12 volts.
- A 12 V transformator if you first want to test everything before you install it on your comp.

Then the trick is to add two more ventilators then really needed, and so you can run them at very low speed. The airflow is optimal, and so is the noise. At full speed the system makes a horrible noise, but then my processor gets only 33 degrees at full load. In silent mode it's then 39 degrees. I have to add here that i've thrown away that intel cooler, and placed a Zalman ALCU in place, which works very well with this kind of cooling. When you solder all the fans to that potmeter, you can then adjust their speed manually. The 12 V comes from a little adaptor which was hanging at my PSU. I changed that connector also an soldered everything directly. But also here you can choose to use the connector or not. When the wires are soldered don't forget to insulate them!

So if anyone could use this advice: good luck, and when the job's done you got a very quiet system. Mine is now even quieter then a Watercooled athlon of my friend!

Of course you can also build switches into it and more then one potmeter, so then you got even more control over the fans

again, thanks for your help, it really helped me out of this one

<font color=purple><i> Enosi and I.... </i></font color=purple>

 

[Crashman]

LOL, you told him to run only one stick of 16-bit RDRAM, lol.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[Aidanoridania]

You knew how to do that???? I didn't LOL :lol:

<font color=purple><i> Enosi and I.... </i></font color=purple>