Random disk/boot corruption

[gregh]

I have a weird problem with my home built PC running XP. It will run for months and months, then suddenly refuse to boot, with errors like ntldr not found, or other such boottime messages.

Each time I've done a fresh install of XP and everything is fine. the last time it happened I got a brand new IDE cable thinking that maybe the cause and it's still happened again today.

Is there anyway I can narrow down what's causing it? I'm now so hacked off with it I'm thinking of getting another PC!!

I've got a recovery CD and I can boot using that and see the drive fine.

Motherboard is an Abit KG7 Lite, AMD XP2000+

cheers,

Greg

 

[peartree]

Sounds to me like you have a power supply about to head south. It could be any number of other things, like a bad mobo, RAM, or something, but I doubt it.

What I suspect is happening is that you have that rig really loaded with hardware and the power supply, whenever the room temp around it is high or you put a lot of load on it, is going below-spec in output wattage. It gives you spotty failures and the equivalent of brown-outs.

If this is the case, it's easy enough to replace, as you know.

<font color=green>===</font color=green> Never assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>====</font color=green>

 

[gregh]

The PSU is 300w and just a year old. I have 2 HD, & 2 DVD drives in the unit.

Is there a way I can test the psu and monitor it via software at all?

regards,

Greg

 

[peartree]

Well, there are power supplies and then there are POWER supplies. Not to mention that a year is plenty of time to have one crap out. Go to http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ and pick up a copy of Motherboard Monitor 5. It's a little difficult to set up, with a LOT if options and not much help on WHY, just HOW. Still, if you right-click on the tray icon after you install it, you can choose to open the Deashboard. It will show you all your voltage levels and system temperatures, too.

<font color=green>===</font color=green> Never assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>====</font color=green>

 

[blah]

get a 98 floppy and make partitions with it, then do XP install.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[gregh]

Well I just ran memtest86 overnight and it's come up with thousands of errors on test #5. Reading the readme, seems to be something about memory and Athlons, so I'll try new memory first I reckon.

regards,

Greg

 

[peartree]

Yes, please do! As I said, it could be RAM, and it sure looks like it is. It must be a section that is very close to where the boot code loads to affect the system like that. I got your case mixed up with a similar one where the guy had already run memtest86. Sorry.

<font color=green>===</font color=green> Never assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>====</font color=green>