hardware problem

[Lisakrisa]

Hi,
hopefuly somebody could help me at last.
Nine months ago I became a proud owner of Athlon 1900XP+ on Epox 8KTM3, Seagate 80 Gb , Creative GF4 MX440.
From the first day the computer began to kick me out, hanging, rebooting and so, full program.
First time at the service they change the place of the network card. Of course this wasn´t help a lot, and few days before the next trip to the service the memory crushed and ate 60 Gb.
Second time at the service the memory was adjusted and "now you will not have any troubles" Ho-ho. Until the next crash, which happens after two weeks, and THIRD time at the service they changed the motherboard. This also wasn´t helping at all, but when I had to go again for repair, my lovely mother in-low was putting the papers away.

Meanwhile we were trying different operating systems, defferent memories, grafic cards, newest drivers...
Nothing helps. And before to pay crazy money to private specialist , would like to here some opinions.
Please, help.

[griffinspc]

we were trying different operating systems, defferent memories, grafic cards, newest drivers...

Welcome to the board. We will need some info from you based on the statement above.

When you say different operating systems, do you mean Windows98 and then Windows2000 or ME, Linux, whatever???

What are you running now and did you just overwrite the other OS's?

Is the memory you refer to the actual physical sticks and you changed them?

If so did you make sure to match the memory to the motherboard requirements?

Did you delete the old drivers for the previous card(s) before installing new drivers?

And what does, "my lovely mother in-low was putting the papers away." mean?

Are you connected with a dial up ISP or high speed cable?

Last for now, what major software do you have on the machine right now such as one of the system packages like Norton or McAfee, anything odd or out of the ordinary?

[Lisakrisa]

Thanx
1. I was trying Win98, NT Proffesional,XP Home, and now I have XP Proffesional.
2. I cannot overwrite usually if I have a crash, so I am formating the disk again and installing from the beginning. This will answer the question for the drivers.
3. The memory was changed in the service. I was trying once another memory for half hour, before crashed as usual.
Maybe I wasn´t clear enough in the explaination - the comp is a complete system from the shop, I was not creating it at home myself.
4. The papres mean the garantee card from the shop. Now I can´t do anything - change the machine or take the the money back.
5.High speed cable.
6. Absolutely nothing odd.

[griffinspc]

OK, good. I was afraid you were trying to install OS's over one another. I'm not familiar with XP at all so hopefully someone will jump in here with XP smarts but for now I'd be looking at hardware anyway.

Lets see, you changed the memory modules (no change) you changed the motherboard (no change) you moved the modem to a different slot (no change) what I don't see is any mention of the techs seeing any device conflicts. In Win98 you go to device manager to check that, in XP I don't know where it lies. Do you?

Also I don't see any mention that they tested the hard drive itself. You can do that with a download of the drive diagnostic. Go here:
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html

I would also try using standard vga for awhile and see if that runs clean. If you have an integrated video on the motherboard you can even pull the graphics card and run without it.

If things get better then you've narrowed it down and then the graphics card may need an updated driver from the manufacturer or microsoft certified drivers. I've found graphic cards can be the source of troubles like this, particuarly high end cards.

I would also (until the problem is solved) keep the machine as free from programs and new files as possible. If you download music from outlets like Kazza (is that spelled right?) stop and run a clean machine. Delete all the temp files and so on. Make sure you have all the security patches and service packs from Microsoft and last, you don't say whether you ever checked for a virus.

It's very unlikely since you formatted and installed a new OS but there's still a chance that you're carrying a sneak around in the boot sector or BIOS.

Last, when you say crash do you get any error messages and if so what? or do you get lock ups in an application and have to re-boot? If it's in applications are all apps the same or does it just happen when you're on-line for instance?

[104456]

the comp is a complete system from the shop

Why have you not got the repiars done under warrenty?

The papres mean the garantee card from the shop. Now I can´t do anything - change the machine or take the the money back.

I mean no offence but I do not understand this statement.Is the system under gaurantee and for how long,why "I cant do anything"??

[SuperSparks]

In XP Device Manager is found in Control Panel>System>Hardware tab. See if there are any yellow exclamation points or question marks next to anything. Also (make sure you're logged in as Administrator), while you're in System Properties go to the Advanced tab, click "Startup & Recovery" and uncheck "Automatically reboot" under System failure. This will allow any Stop errors to be displayed, and then we should be able to discover what the trouble is.

Then when you've done that go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Event Viewer and look in the System log, anything with a red circle with an X through it is a problem. Double click on any and post back the results.

[griffinspc]

Thanks SuperSparks, didn't have a clue. I wish MS would just stick with one diagnostic routine. I have 98, NT and 2000, all different. Now comes XP, really different.

[Sarrkazztic]

Give more details on what kinds of crashes you are having and what you are doing when it does crash....and how many cooling fans are in that machine

[Lisakrisa]

I haven´t any hardware conflict. Checked also the drive,it is OK, the file, have small incorrect files, which are not errors and couldn´t cause problems.
Standart vga we were trying also, doesn´t help.

For the grafic card I always take only from the manifacturer, so it is not. And I don´t install new programs anymore, I am really crazy to do this every week.
I was checking in trend mickro for viruss, haven´t. How could I check the BIOS for this?
Sometimes I have a message for hard error in Explorer, E-explorer or the program I am working in. The machine just kick you out and reboot itself. Very seldom I am locked and have to reboot manualy.
And this happens without any logic connection - doesn´t matter if I am online. Sometimes it needs a mouse click, sometimes just reboot without touching.
The apps are different -actualy it happens all the time I am trying to do something.

[griffinspc]

Interesting. As Sarrkazztic mention cooling may be a place to check. You have a processor that runs pretty darn hot, not to mention graphic cards and the rest. You also may have a power supply problem.

Does this happen after long hours of use or does it happen after you've been powered up for a short while?

Did the techs ever mention that they had tested out the power supply?

How many fans do you have?

What size power supply did they build the machine with; 200 watts, 300 watts, other?

[Lisakrisa]

Interesting. As Sarrkazztic mention cooling may be a place to check. You have a processor that runs pretty darn hot, not to mention graphic cards and the rest. You also may have a power supply problem.

All the time I was checking the temperature in BIOS, everything was OK. The grafic card has also its own fan.

Does this happen after long hours of use or does it happen after you've been powered up for a short while?
Could be few minutes, could be hours of working without anything

Did the techs ever mention that they had tested out the power supply?
I am not sure about this.
How many fans do you have?
I have to open to see this, probably one, because the motherboard is mini and there is not so much place..

What size power supply did they build the machine with; 200 watts, 300 watts, other?
Where I could check this?

[Lisakrisa]

I ´ve just checked the temperature after 9 hours of working
CPU 46°C/114°F, System 28°C/82°F

[SuperSparks]

To stop the PC rebooting itself like that you need to do what I said in my post above, and uncheck "Automatically reboot". Windows XP is configured by default to reboot every time it encounters a serious problem. It's only a useful setting if you're running a server.

[Lisakrisa]

Yes, I´ve done this already, thanx alot, but I cannot find the administrative tools, my windows speaks German and I am not so good in this language, so I have to translate , that´why I wasn´t answer.

[SuperSparks]

OK, if you can't find Administrative Tools in Control Panel, reight-click on the Start button, select Properties and go to Start Menu>Customise>Advanced and at the very bottom of the list you should find an option to display the Administartive Tools on your Start Menu.

And don't worry about the language, your English is a lot better than my German