Ongoing PC issues!
 

Thanks to everyone who posted in my previous topic

Ok now I keep getting the blue screen of death

Since I started having 'problems' I have replaced the following:

Motherboard

Then, reinstalled windows. No problems for a few days, but the PC started restarting itself occasionally. I then replaced the:

RAM
VGA Adapter

Again, the problem persists, and I get messages that certain data on C: is corrupt. Chkdsk ALWAYS fixes the problems, but regardless:

This weekend I fitted a second HDD (Slave at the moment) and copied my contents of my C: to the new drive, so I have a backup, just in case. I also fitted a new PSU at the same time.

I am now getting the blue screen of death once or twice a day.

Two questions:

1. Is there any quick way to update ALL my drivers and delete any drivers that might be causing conflict (i.e. the old VGA adapter drivers spring to mind)

2. Would corrupt data on the HD cause blue screen of death? BSOD tells me to check VGA drivers, memory and bios. Well I am sure the VGA is working ok as I play doom3 and Pirates! successfully, memory is new centon 2x512mb sticks, and bios I think is ok, I've disabled any caching options and put all settings onto autodetect where I can

Anyone got any ideas what I should try next? My wife is trying to run a forum and website from our home PC, so you can imagine the distress it is causing her!!

Now it might sound like I have a lot of spare PC components lying around that are actually serviceable, but I don't feel stupid about replacing things as I plan to build a second PC for my front room, a little 'media' PC...

Sounds like your original hard drive. Corruption on the drive can cause all the symptoms you describe.

Escpecially since you have replaced all the other components already.

I'm no computer expert neither I can install a new HD, but my brother had the same issues, changed everything until they told him it was the HD, and it was.
right now, his pc runs very good, no trouble at all

harddrive corruption is generally one of 4 things..

bad ram
bad ide cable
bad harddrive
too high an overclock

like rc said you replaced the ram so unless you got unlucky and got some that just doesnt like your mobo I would try another ide cable and if that doesnt cure it a new hard drive

^^ I forgot about the ID cable quick fix... sometimes that can save the day, and the expense of a new HD.

Its memory ... typical , try using just one module or ask for one to a friend

^^ he has already replaced the memory... :)

When exactly you getting these BSOD's? Is it after you try n run a game or app or does it BSOD even if it just idles? (havent read the other thread if it was answered in there)

Thou its possible that the HDD is causing the BSOD, usually its something else.

Also are you virus free? Virii can be written to do alot of damage.

Thanks guys,

I used the OLD IDE cable, so I will try the new one that came with the (new) 80gb HD.

I'll also try the pc for a few days with just the new HD fitted (it is now a 'clone' of C:)

Also, I'll swap back to my 'old' ram

Funnily enough, it BSODs on me on Firefox, most recently twice this week going to JW from another site. When I go onto JW 'view posts since your last visit', it has BSODed twice, same page, just after the page appears. it's like the IE history might be on a corrupt part of the HD? When I restart the PC the JW 'visit' should be the most recent thing in the History, but it isn't - FFox history shows the previous site I had visited as the 'last site visited'

No problems whatsoever playing games, even tried some older ones like Unreal1, and Frontier: Elite 2 (which is a bitch to get running on todays machines).

Dan - I did have my ATI overclocked, but not the main CPU. I have put the ATI back to 'stock' settings already but it still BSODs

I noticed last night I had some Nvidia drivers still installed (old VGA card) so they are now gone via add/rem programs...

I am sure I am virus free. 99.999% sure!

Thanks for your comments people! It is much appreciated.

To be honest, in the last 8 years and almost 2 dozen different home PC's and servers - AMD and Intel - 486/Celeron, K6, PII, PIII, P4, Atholon etc I have had a number of issues.

Most common has been bad HD's, then CPU's and followed by bad memory and least problematic being video cards.

The drive is the component that takes the greatest beating.

Memory, Video and CPU's are more likely to be faulty out of the box, than develop issues over time (unless you overclock and burn em out).

Of course this is just my personal experience and your mileage may vary... ;)

^ I must be REALLY lucky (upto now) then RC, as I have had PCs since 1994 and never had any problems with any of them. I tend to change them after 2/3 years, and other than the odd virus I have never had any problems. Various family members tend to adopt my old PCs and while they don't get used anywhere near as intensely as I would use them, these PCs keep soldiering on with no HW problems to-date AFAIK. My stepdad is always managing to fiddle with my old P3 laptop and I often have to bail him out using the recovery disk, but that's a user issue rather than the PC :lol:

I never buy branded PCs either. When I met Mrs TA she had (still has) a Vaio laptop, I was like 'you could have got xxx for the same price'. :mrgreen:

Yeah - it may sound like I have had a zillion issues - but really only had a handful.

Thanks everyone!
 

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

I have installed the new HD as master, replaced the cable and we'll see how we go from now on. Fingers crossed.

What a fun evening...now need to leave the PC on overnight to install the hundreds of megs of windows updates...I am on XP Jan 2003 as I type this. Made sure Norton and Spybot were right upto date before I started the Windows updates of course...

Keeping the old one as slave for now, for a start there is data on it I want, so I'll transfer stuff across later in the week.

Probably reformat it once that is done and keep it in there for now, assuming it doesnt cause any problems of course. Have set jumpers correctly so the old one is slave, new is master.

Slight hanging on startup...

Edit: sorted the hanging on startup. I didnt realise the mobo had a driver for the AGP as well as the AGP itself. duh.