... And my Pc suddenly reboot :(

[UbErZ]

The best of luck with the test duke. Let is know how everything went!

 

[Duke]

OK, just ran about two hours but then it crashed again, so the loose HD connector wasn't the problem. However, someone else tipped me off to a very handy hidden feature in WinXP called Even Viewer. I found that what looks like every crash point, a series of 3 errors generated by the Zone Alarm firewall program - in this order:

TrueVector engine: File "F:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\IAMDB.RDB" was corrupt and has been copied to "F:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\xDB37.tmp". File "F:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\IAMDB.RDB" was corrupt and has been deleted.

TrueVector engine: File "F:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\IAMDB.RDB" was corrupt, restoring from backup "F:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\BACKUP.RDB".

TrueVector engine: File "F:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\ANTEC.ldb" was corrupt and has been copied to "F:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\xDB38.tmp". File "F:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\ANTEC.ldb" was corrupt and has been deleted.

At that point - the system locks. So it looks like software could be the problem instead of hardware. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Duke]

Well that wasn't it. Uninstalled ZoneAlarms. Then got a crash with a note on a buffer over-run for data received by the mouse. Tripled the buffer capacity and soon got a crash that Event Viewer could not attribute to anything. So I am back at hardware again. Guess I'll go ahead and go back to the first drive, then go buy a new video card f that doesn't catch it. I'll soon have enough new parts to build another computer!

 

[UbErZ]

Could still be a software problem. To be sure, you can put an old/or new spare harddisk in your complete system and do a clean xp install. After that you can stress test your pc with one of the many stress test programs.

It's a shame I don't live closer, my hands are itching to fix the problem

 

[hotdog_pk]

I had a similar problem with my laptop last week.

al of a sudden it started to crash, the crashes became more frequent until suddenly, nothing.

it's last crash ended up creating the blue screen at windows XP's welcome message and also it started to crash whilst windows was loading up.

being a qualitfied expert in computing, i tried to fix the laptop, i did everything i possibly could a part from take it a part to fix (id void my warranty).

i ended up reinstalling windows, using the recovery console to back up any important files that i needed, i didnt save them all.

now it still crashes :-( . the moral of the story? BACKUP YOUR FILES. NOW!

 

[hotdog_pk]

oh yeah forgot... get a program called ashampoo winoptimizer. It allows you to do everything you need to boost your computer (includes a very handy pop-up blocker too).

There may be a program that is loading at startup that is causing problems (This is also common for adult dialers to hang around there), I use the tool all of the time and swear by it.

 

[Duke]

Well I have no more time to waste on trying to figure this out as it is costing me a bundle in lost productivity. I can get a new AMD Athlon 2500+ processor (I'm running a 1600+), motherboard and videocard for $190, so I'm going to do that. Already have a new hard drive and new 400w power supply. When the new parts come in I'll try them one at a time in this computer to see if I can find out what is bad. Then I'll pitch the bad part and use all of the leftover pieces to build a second computer for my daughter. If it is not a bad processor, videocard or motherboard, I think I will just shoot myself.

I had just did a clean reinstall of windows XP last week, so I don't think it's software, as I have run it for 2 years on this system with nothing like this before.

 

[Nameable]

Duke: You're not overclocking, are you? I've only had problems like this when overclocking.

Try going into the bios and setting them to the "safe defaults" or whatever it is that soyo calls it - I've never used a soyo board. Also try disabling any "extra" features in the bios - like virus protection, vga memory shadow, etc. If you've been in the pc biz since the early 90's, make your settings look like that of a 286

Also, I'm not sure where in the thread I read this - but if the addition of an HD signalled the start of the problem - are the HD's operating at the same speed (i.e. ata66 vs ata100)? I've also heard of people having problems with placing two hard drives from different manufacturers near each other, such that the magnetic fields interfere with each other.

 

[Duke]

No - I do not do any overclocking. I have owned PC's since 1992 and never had one do this. I have alternately taken each hard drive out of the system. Made no difference. It actually ran fine for 2 or 3 days after I put the new hard drive in (and both dirves appear to be working fine). I have been running this board and processor 24 hours a day for 2 years with no problems. I put excatly the same software back on it that has always been on it. That's why I'm pretty sure it has developed a major hardware problem and my best guess is with a motherboard chip (like the northbridge which has its own fan that has been showing signs of problems) or perhaps the processor itself. I have been running OK for a couple of hours nowbut in earlier stretches today it would crash every 5 minutes even if I wasn't even using it.

 

[Duke]

Hi Guys - was just writing an update post here when the computer crashed again! Howver this time the system gave me the first good piece of evidence about where the trouble might lie. Instead of rebooting or locking I got this message:

"The driver nv4_disp for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates."

So it points right at the videocard which has been one of my prime suspects. I searched the web and found that NVidia just released a new WinXP driver this month for my card. Just installed it, so we will see it if was the driver or the card going bad. The card ran falwlessly on this system for two years with the old driver. One thing that comes to mind though is that I just used Windows Update to upgrade to Windows DirectX 9.0 when reinstalling XP onthe new hard drive. The previous video driver was for 8.1. Maybe the update sent everything haywire with the old driver. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Duke]

Well that didn't take long. 15 minutes after installing the updated video driver the computer spontaneously rebooted again. So my best guess would be a bad video card. Don't have a spare card around so I will have to wait for the new one to arrive. Could also be a bad motherboard as so many different kinds of error messages have been generated. I downloaded a RAM tester from simmtester.com and the RAM checks out fine. Temps and voltages on the processor all look normal too. So bad videocard or mobo would be my top two choices for what has been deviling me!

 

[UbErZ]

Nice one! Could very well be it. They should make direct X down gradable :S, had many problems with a new direct X versions together with older games etc.

I don't know witch video card you have, but when I have problems I always install the new version of the "original" drivers from the manufacturer. Sometimes Nvidia drivers upset my system in some weird way.

Keep us updated, and good luck duke.

 

[Duke]

Well I got the new parts today. First thing I did was switch out the video card (GEForce 4 MX4000 replacing a GEForce2 - both NVidia). Ran for a few hours after the switch then crash again, so it looks like my weekend will be spent doing complete brain surgery, installing the new mobo and processor. Then it's an all new computer except the case, so if that doesn't fix I guess I start using an abacus!

 

[Duke]

Just to bring this sad saga to a close - I installed the new motherboard and processor over the weekend and that finally did the trick. Wound up with new power supply, videocard and memory chips that I didn't need but I guess I won't have to buy a new computer again for a couple of years!