System crashing

[scott88008]

I have a computer less than a year old (Soyo Dragon Plus motherboard with Athalon XP 1700 Processor) running XP Home edition and recently I've been experiencing spontaneous crashes which when recovered from XP tells me there's a problem with a device driver but it can't identify which driver. I've gone thtough all the devices in my device manager and can't find any problems. I've also run the various Norton utilities, scan disk, defrag,etc. and can't find the problem. Any recommendations?

[Guest LilBambi]

I have a computer less than a year old (Soyo Dragon Plus motherboard with Athalon XP 1700 Processor) running XP Home edition and recently I've been experiencing spontaneous crashes which when recovered from XP tells me there's a problem with a device driver but it can't identify which driver.  I've gone thtough all the devices in my device manager and can't find any problems.  I've also run the various Norton utilities, scan disk, defrag,etc. and can't find the problem.  Any recommendations?

scott88008 --I hear ya...these types of things can be so annoying!Could you post the following info to help us all understand it all?What service packs and security hot fixes are installed; are they all listed as successfully installed?Please list all the hardware devices you have on the computer and peripherals.How you are hooking to the Internet, ie., dialup, dsl or cable, etc. and whether that is direct or through a hardware router/firewall.Others might as for other info as well. It is all to help you find the problem.

[SonicDragon]

try going to windows update. That usually finds drivers that u need.

[HiTekRedNek]

Also list if there are any circumstances that seem to precipitate the crash. i.e. are you gaming, surfing, checking email etc. ??Thanks

[scott88008]

Thanks for the interest. I have a cable modem, all updates successfully installed, GeForce400mx, Santa Cruz sound card. I do a lot of downloading of software demos, mp3's, etc (non-illegal variety) and the crashes occur sporadically, no apparrent cause when on-line or off-line. I was having trouble with my sound card when the problem first started and so I purchased the Santa Cruz recently. I just uninstalled and reinstalled the sound card today with new drivers and I'll let you know if that handles it (I also disabled the 6 channel audio in the BIOS as every time I re-booted XP would try to reinstall the original sound card that came with the motherboard. I also thought that maybe the BIOS was causing that so I enabled OS plug and play in the BIOS). I don't really know that much about computers so I'm just playing it by ear. If necessary I'll try reinstalling XP and start from scratch and if the problem persists I'll have to assume it's my motherboard and call Soyo.

[scott88008]

Still crashing so I guess I'm screwed. I'll reinstall XP and see what happens.

[Redbreast]

Here are two sites that might help:http://www.fonerbooks.com/pcrepair.htmThis site provides excellent diagnostics flowcharts for most types of computer hardware problem.http://www.pcpitstop.comThis site provides a free on-line test of your PC

[Peachy]

You could do two things to help determine why this is happening. First, since you have an Athlon processor, my first suspect would be overheating. Make sure the CPU fan is properly installed and functionning. You may want to get some thermal paste to put between the CPU core and the bottom of the heatsink. Also, check that the airflow in your case is not causing undue heat stress. Unclutter cables by tying them up and away from fans. Second, change your power supply. From my experience flaky power supplies are often at the root of spontaneous computer crashes. Buy a brand name power supply such as Antec, Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, etc.

[Guest ThunderRiver]

Whenever you encounter such problem, the first thing is not opening up Device Manager...Instead, the first thing you should do is to open up EventViewer and see what error is in there.Post the error here, and we will help you out further. As for now, it is like trying to find a needle in the sea.

[scott88008]

Thanks for the advice. I had already tried PC Pitstop and it indicated my computer is working perfectly (which most of the time it is). Event Viewer indicated I had a bunch of True Vector Engine errors (whatever that means). Processor overheating sounds likely but fan is ok and case is well vented, CPU temp was 43C when I checked but I do work the CPU hard at times with games and downloads. I'm thinking of going with an Asus motherboard and a Pentium next time I upgrade. My power supply is 350 Watts but I don't know the brand or quality, it came with my Futura case.

[scott88008]

I got a little more data so I'll just make this last post before I re-install XP. Last crash (during the game 1503AD) I went right to event viewer after re-starting anf found an errar listed under "system" which only revealed that the source of the error was DCOM. I'd also disabled automatic restart after a crash and so got all the data off the blue screen as follows: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA; *** STOP:0X00000050; ()XADA3F050, 0X0000000,0XADA3F050,0X0000000). So it's all clear now, right?

[muckshifter]

So it's all clear now, right?

Well yes it is ... unfortunately for you its a bit of a "catch all" error message.The Stop 0x50 message indicates that requested data was not in memory. The system generates an exception error when using a reference to an invalid system memory address. Defective memory (including main memory, L2 RAM cache, video RAM) or incompatible software (including remote control and antivirus software) might cause Stop 0x50 messages.http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/...md_stp_ccgm.aspYou also mentioned "True Vector" ... your using ZoneAlarm ... disable this via CAD/processes, see if it makes a difference.Also, but not at the same time, disable/remove your sound card.If you decide and go ahead with the reinstall of XP run XP with its default set of drivers before any updates. Especially video/sound drivers.Good luck.Mucks

[scott88008]

Thanks for the help. I actually went to a Zone Alarm forum after my last post and tried what you mentioned and found Zone Alarm wasn't the problem. Interestingly, after your explanation of the error messages I'm starting to wonder if one of my RAM modules may be the problem. It seems to me I never had this problem until after I installed 256MB of PC2100 Kingston RAM (suppossedly a reputable brand). I also went to Black Viper's site and did the services.msc tweak. I left my computer on all night and no crash (Modifying services based on Black Viper's Xp advice is supposed to free up RAM so that may be another piece of evidence regarding a RAM problem). So I'll remove the RAM and run the computer hard and see what happens. If that doesn't work I'll try the sound card (and then maybe the video card?).

[muckshifter]

You could well be on the right track.A mismatched pair of RAM can cause problems … disabling services that need/want a particular address could alleviate the problem for a period of time, but I’m sure it will “crop up†again.A note here … XP handles RAM in a much better way than 9x/ME ever could and modifying services based on Black Viper's XP advice, although good, is not really necessary with a system that can have 512 at its disposal.If I have to “add ram†to any of my systems I buy a pair … so if I had 256 and wish to upgrade to 512 I’ll either get a 512 or two 256’s then pass the old ram over. However, most people are not in the situation to be able to practice what I preach.Pleased to have been of some help,Mucks.

[scott88008]

Thank you so much! It was the Kingston RAM. It's probably too late to return it but I learned a valuable lesson (and didn't have to re-install XP!).

[Guest LilBambi]

Way to go muckshifter and scott88008!You guys done great! Not that we had any doubt!

[scott88008]

You're making me blush (not that I had that much to do with it, I just followed instructions)! But I'm really happy now. It's like handling a malfunctioning part of my extended brain (now if I can only handle my malfunctioning primary brain).

[Peachy]

Curious,How did you definitively prove that it was the RAM? Just by turning off various services? Or did you actually swap in different memory?

[Scot]

I am interested in Peachy's question too.Mucks,

If I have to “add ram” to any of my systems I buy a pair … so if I had 256 and wish to upgrade to 512 I’ll either get a 512 or two 256’s then pass the old ram over.

It's funny that you say this. My boss recently mildly overhauled a WinMe PC in prep for an XP clean install. He had 256MB of RAM. He was asking my advice at each step along the way, natch. When it came time to upgrade the RAM, he readily agreed to get 512MB and I gave him the exact same advice. He agreed, and RAM is cheap right now. It was the only advice I wanted to give my boss, because while problems don't happen all the time when you match up new RAM to old in this way, every once in a while they do, and when they do, it's a royal pain.The kicker is that I don't always practice what I preach -- at least, not with may "main boxes," which consist of one desktop PC and two or three notebooks. The other 15 or so computers I keep running don't always get filet mignon, though. I'm forever upgrading something, and many just don't have enough useful life left in them for me to spend that much on them. With those, I do the research to match the RAM as best I can and hope for the best. -- Scot

[scott88008]

To answer the above question, I had three 256 MB modules of PC2100 RAM, the most recently insalled being the Kingston. I took out the Kingston and put one of the other modules into it's slot to ensure there wasn't a problem with the motherboard slot. I then ran a bunch of applications simultaneousl until I had about 3 MB of RAM left - no crash. I've had no crashes since. I have a friend who has an identical motherboard to mine who also had a problem mixing Kingston RAM with other generic RAM. In his case the computer wouldn't even boot up but he was having some other problems with his motherboard so I didn't assume that my RAM was faulty as it worked fine most of the time. I didn't try running the Kingston by itself or with each of the other modules seperately. I don't think there's a chance that my motherboard can't handle three RAM modules is there? Anyway, it's working great now. Maybe I'll just buy a cheap generic RAM module and see what happens in which case I'll report back.