HELP!!!! PC HELP

[VEGETA]

Well as the title of this post syas i need help. I ama programer and am quite good at computers in general but thisone has me confused and frustrated. A little over 2 weeks ago my computer started doing 2 odd things. First is that programs would crash out of noware, winfows giving me the message "this program has cassed a error and is being shut down". the other issue which bothers me even more, all of a sudden the screen would go blank as if I puled the plug , then the computer starts to boot as if i had pluged it in the turned it on. I realy have not done anyting new to get this to start. Any additions in software / hardware wher eover a month before this started happeneing. Now one would generaly say time to reinstall windows, so hey thats what I have done. And again and again. I think I have installed windows 2000 about 6 to 8 times. The odd time it was a bad instalation, a file or som thign not getting copied form cd. But thta is nothing suprising. But besides 2 or so bad installs it seams to still install fine. I get things going, and well i start having programs crash. Now I have not had the thing do the auto reboot thing, but that was a bit more rare. Now I have looked into scaning the hrd drive with windows scan disk, used segates online scaner, norton utilities, and am goign to try partision magic's scaning utility when i get home today. But so far everything checks out. the system seams to work great, no odd sounds nothign then a program well just crash. Sometimes i have to reboot to be able to use that program again but sometimes it well work no issues.

I have talked about this with X, and stache, and well they are at a loss as well. Anbd this being my gaming system, I am not even geting to have stress releafe from the issue. Can't shoot nothing, bad . My next thought is if one of the 3 ram chips are bad so today goign to try swaping them in and out ans see what happens (no not while the pc is on). Besides that I am afraid it may be a motherbord issue. And if thats the case, well no cash to replace it right now which is bad. And that means need new chip and ram as well. Its almost 3 years old.

Anmeway system specs

athlon classic 650 mhz
k7m motherbord asus
512 ram
segate 28 gig hard drive
32 meg aopen gforce 2 mx200 video card
running a cpy of win 2000 profesional. ( sam ecopy on 2 other pc's in the house no issues like this)

any help wel be good help. I wnat to get back in a dam cockpit BAD. HELP ME. :gulp:

[Hammer]

It sounds like a bad piece of hardware - either motherboard or memory. If you can remove any of the memory, try that one bank (set) at a time. Could also be a bad spot in the motherboard bios, onboard cache memory (if it has any), cpu cache, or the cpu itself. Something like this manifests itself only when a particular area of memory is accessed...when it is then the machine will reboot or crash.

One simple thing to do is to ensure ALL of your devices added to the motherboard are seated properly - might be due to heat creep or flexing of the motherboard when inserting new hardware. This includes the cpu and any cache memory chips on the motherboard and add on cards themselves. Anything that plugs into a socket or slot... Ensure you check cables too... I would remove and reinsert all cards and cable ends, and if you have any chips in sockets, give them a good press.

What new hardware did you add the month before this started?

Have you run any app that checks memory (thouroughly)?

Have you installed and run a virus scanner?

[VEGETA]

a little over 1 month ago swaped out the g400 matrox card for a mx200 gforce 2 video card. the mx200 wa sin my server box so decided to swap. neather vdeo card has ever giving me isues in the past.

I am not sure of any real programs to check out ram to be honest. If you know of any pass along please. And was actualy plaing to try swaping in and out memory tonith when i got hime. I know i have 2 128 chips and a 256 in there.

Before I formatted for the first time I ran nortan virus checker, gave it a clean bill of health. Every scaner i can get my hands on gives clean bills of health. Sever diffrent scans of hard drive came up clean. But realy do not know of any ram / motherbord/processor scaning softare. If you know of any send along. I have been pricing out a new mother bord. Seam sI could get a new slot A bord for abvout 100$ canadian which I can live with. But it its the processor then well its is a waste of cash.

[GlasgowCelts]

It's not like me to try offering advice about computers, so i'll stick with the basics mate.

Usually you get an error code with the message, usually by clicking 'details' or something like that. Copy and paste the error message to M$s email help thing. Normally i wouldnt recommend them for anything, but they did solve the last problem i had with my machine. Might be worth a try if you havent gone down that road already.

Glas

[Mincemeat]

It's been my experience (having had the same problem myself, ghost rebooting) That it's either a bad driver or the card isn't seated properly. Anyway there's my 2 cents.

<S> Mince

[BlackHawk*K]

with my limited experiance i would go for the lose contact theory myself... although i think i seen a third gunman on the hill too so...... anyhow. i had the same problems for awhile on a older PII celery system and it did it untill i had 2 copacitors blow out. once i replaced the capacitors everything seemed fine. now on this new system ive had it happen off and on, but generaly its very rare occurance. i have noticed performance and odd issues under winxp when the HDs get fairly full too. not sure if that has anything to do with it though.

[Malin]

Does the GeForce 2 MX have an onboard fan? The older ones didn't and suffered from overheating problems which led to screen lockups and blank screens. Something else to add to the list is the capacity of your onboard power supply. The very minimum you should be looking at is a 400W power supply (about £40-£45) and undercapacity on the power can lead to the PC rebooting itself for what feels like no reason (I have this problem, if I have all 4 drives connected and try to burn a disc the PC reboots, if I unplug one of the drives then it's fine).


Mal

[VEGETA]

GlasgowCelts, sorry man but the last think I do is talk to M$. I have no use for them besides gaming. Else I would run linux only ehehehehe. Yes I am a geek ehhehe but thanks aneway. Well guys neadless to say I had gone throught the hard drive theory, the video card theory (had put in another vidcard and well ended up mesing up my gforce 2 , knew the card to be a bit fidgity, and well has not worked since tryed moving it around when I put the pc on its side to work on it) , driver theory, went to all of those. I had besicaly elimited everything but the mother bord and ram. Well sme people had said it sounded like mother bord or ram issues. When you hear motherbord and having thought up that idea myself as well, you shit a brick. Would cost me cash to replace it. O well, aneway downloaded a memory scaning program tryed each of the ram sticks individualy, and well first 128 fine, second 256, I could not even bot with free doss which was used to scan the memory. The 3rd stick of 128 again worked fine. Now here is where the vid card dyed. I had put the pc on its side to work on, and well it stoped working , moved it around a bit in its slot and it worked. When I went to the second ram chip had no picture, so again tryed moving the vid card, had not thought it might be the ram. And this where card actualy dyed. Aneya moved the g400 max matrox card on over fom my server pc again no picture, then tryed the 3rd chip and picture. The vid card never worked again as well as the ram chip. So nnow had to buy a new vid card, so hay a small upgade ois good. Radium 7000 64meg yid card is much better then a 32 meg old gforce2. So the real pissoff is that the 256 is the newest of the 3 ram chips , you would think the older wones would go. O well 45$ canadian well buy me a new 256 to get me to 256. Eather way mech 4 is installed and bewing set up. I am back, and you know what that means. My mech puts it foot up the others mechs ass. :gulp:

[GlasgowCelts]

Good stuff mate, glad you got it sorted without too much expense

Glas

[VEGETA]

Well forced to upgrade vid card I can like gheheheheh. But hey I am getng my system ready, now Alll I need is buf to yet again send me all the battle data foor next fight. Sory buff formatted again :gulp: