Computer Crashing

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

Could be your hard drive going bad. If so, save anything important immediately.

Do that anyway.

Cheers
Simon.

---

Thanks Simon, I did that today.....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bytemrk

Hi Mick,

1. Did the issue start after you installed the new mouse?


2. Is there any possibility anyone has changed any settings in the bios? ( changing memory speeds can cause this too.)


3. How confident are you inside a PC?...

---

1. Yes it did. I'll put the old one back in.
2. No, the missus is more computer illeterate than me, and the kids haven't done anything to it.
3. Next question......no I'll give it a crack!!!....

Thanks mate.

Have you got a spare power supply that you can swap out?

Mine went with a huge bang a couple of months ago. Seems like HDD and power supply are the most common to go.

Said that, my main computer - old P3 - is running with a toasted floppy and a network card that drops out every few minutes, that just went from once a week or so to more frequent in the last couple of days. I'm just not yet willing to believe that my network card is toast, seems so unlikely.

Lucky I picked a couple of P4s out of the chuck outs on the weekend.

Don't throw it in the pool for a something that's probably not that large a problem.

Cheers
Simon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

Have you got a spare power supply that you can swap out?

Mine went with a huge bang a couple of months ago. Seems like HDD and power supply are the most common to go.

Said that, my main computer - old P3 - is running with a toasted floppy and a network card that drops out every few minutes, that just went from once a week or so to more frequent in the last couple of days. I'm just not yet willing to believe that my network card is toast, seems so unlikely.

Lucky I picked a couple of P4s out of the chuck outs on the weekend.

Don't throw it in the pool for a something that's probably not that large a problem.

Cheers
Simon.

---

Simon

I replaced the PSU a couple of months ago after it died. I just put the old mouse back, rebooted in safe mode, checked the device manager and restarted in normal mode....I'll see what happens now......thanks mate.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bytemrk

If so... can you change back to the old one and see if anything changes. ( may need to roll back the mouse driver from device manager. - hit the windows key and Pause/Break together > from the box that opens select Hardware tab>device manager button. find the mouse>right click and select properties>select the driver tab>Roll back driver)

---

Thanks Mark

I did this, and a message came up "no driver files have been backed up for this device".

Mick

and it crashed 3 times whilst trying to post!!

Mick

Have you error checked the hard drive - sure you already have.

Have you cleared the page file. Now it would be good if I could recall how, but I'm sure google will tell all.

Like this.

Cheers
Simon

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MickS

Mate it happens anytime. Browsing the internet, checking emails, working in word etc. You hit a key and bang, shut down/restart.

I haven't added any new hardware or software other than a new mouse last saturday.

Now, when I'm online, I try to click onto a website and it refuses me access, even my homepage. I have to restart it to get my browser working again.....:mad:

---

I'm not sure how old your PC is but there was a intel technology for mounting the processor on a board called "slot 1". All these machines suffer the random re-booting thing as they age. If your's is one of these you need a new one. Our PC with this problem was June 2000. I guess there wouldn't be too many of these left around now.

Ours used to just reboot all by itself... you would hear it beep from the other room... lol.

Hi

It's bad news, stop errors can be caused by lots of things.

The best way to diagnose is to do the stuff that will cost you nothing first.
You said you ran a scan disk, (error-checking) on you HDD and it didn't get erros, good, that's one down.

Make sure all your fans are running and the heat sinks aren't full of dust.

Download a program called doc memory from here:
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/docinfo.asp

it's free :)
You will need a blank floppy disk, it takes hours to test but will reliably test your system ram.

Presuming that's passed all test's run a windows update and download and install all the latest drivers you can.
If it doesn't update any drives at least update your video card driver.

Presuming it still crashes you could restore your PC to it's last known good configuration.

It's still buggered ????
Not much luck here for you looks like a hardware error.
The next thing is to try swapping out components to find the faulty hardware. If you can borrow these great if you cant spend a few bucks and get one of these "flat fee" PC repair people from the local paper.
Unless you have a friend with PC know how and parts.

The cheapest option is to remove all none essential components, Network card, CD drive, floppy drive, any USB devices, (not you mouse or keyboard) modem, if you have two sticks of RAM remove one.
So you will be left with power supply, motherboard, video card, hdd, ram, mouse, keyboard, monitor.
Then see if it still crashes.
If it does remove remaining ram stick and swap with the other one, (or use another one).

From here on it will cost you so I would do a reformat first on the off chance it is a software error.

Still crashing !!!! ?
try swapping the video card, (buy a cheap used card from the paper).
Get your Power supply tested at a local shop, (a tester costs about $30 so don't let them charge you too much).
Still buggered...................well it's got me!

Let us know how things go at each stage and if the error message changes.

good luck
steve

Thanks for all the advice gents. Much appreciated. I'll see how I go....and will advise the result. :)