More Computer problems. Blue screen of death + more!

[AxlxA]

Hi all.

I just upgraded my 1.3ghz athlon to a sempron64 3000+.

I think the motherboard is having problems. Here are the symptoms.

First installed the board + all my stuff onto it. Booted up. It post. When it tries to load windows(my old windows) it freezes at the windows logo and blue screens me.

So i reinstalled windows and it worked for a bit. Then during my software installations.. many of which requries a restart.. my winxp got the bsod again. I tried upping the ram voltage or lowering my ram speed to see if it'st he ram's fault. Sometimes as i boot up, it works fine. But some other times it doesnt work.

No overclocking at first but since i kept getting blue screens and i want the comptuer faster... i overclocked anyways. Now i can get into windows only randomly. Sometimes it blue screens, sometimes it doesn't.....

Everything is Prime95 stable. Could it be the mobo? the bios(latest)? or is it the harddrive?

[ESPNSTI]

What does it say on the blue screens?

[jensked]

Did you install the board right? I mean, there are supposed to be little rounds (don't know how you call em) between the motherboard and the case, where you put the screws.

[AxlxA]

you mean the spacers? yes of coures they're right... i'm using an old case.

Blue screen says physical memory stuff.

The funny thing is... it only happens every now and then.. but not all the time.

My friend suggested it coudl be the video card's problem... since i see jittery stuff on the BIOS POST.

[jeffy777]

hmm...those are the same symptoms I got when my hard drive died. Are all your IDE cables tight?

[SL65]

What a mess.

It could be your video card. I actually know someone who was having somewhat similar problems and I'm pretty sure it turned out to be something with teh video card.

Go to the Run command and type "dxdiag.exe" and do a diagnostic test.

Hope that helps...way to bring in the new year eh.

[AxlxA]

Okay not the video card.. just tried a different working video card and i got the same errors.

Next i'll have to try a new harddrive(old diff hdd i mean) to see if it's the HDD.

THe blue scren happens Right as winxp logo is loading winxp... the bar would move ont he bottom... then it woudl freeze. that is when i know it's gonna crash. it freezes then flash a blue screen for less than a second. then restarts and give me all garbled images of video card bios and mobo bios.

I can't even read what the blue screen is caused by.

[ESPNSTI]

Don't forget the HDD cable. Try a different one, even if it visually looks ok.
Also try reducing the HDD speed (reduce the UDMA / PIO mode) in the BIOS and in Windows. (Or try a 40 conductor cable, which should automatically cause the speed to be reduced.)

Also make sure you have the "Automatically Restart" option unchecked in My Computer->Advanced->Startup and Recovery Settings, that way you should be able to read the blue screen.
(Perhaps that switch is on by default as part of a "let's pretend that didn't happen" Microsoft policy? )

[AxlxA]

okay first blue screen i encountered...
IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal

Second one i encountered....

win32k.sys error

Overall... it seems to be a memory problem... like something's up with teh ram. But the thing is... i treid new rams and i tried different slots..

[jensked]

maybe your motherboard is just faulty?

[xecutioner]

have u tried a xp repair or a system restore

dunno if that will work tho

could be ur mb like others have said

[ranger_dood]

You might've hit your mobo with some ESD when you changed out the processor.

[hokiethang]

okay first blue screen i encountered...
IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal

Second one i encountered....

win32k.sys error

Overall... it seems to be a memory problem... like something's up with teh ram. But the thing is... i treid new rams and i tried different slots..

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is usually a driver issue. I had a similar problem with my windows installation with my A64 machine, because the RAM wasn't matched to the motherboard. I'd check to make sure that the RAM you are using is the specific chips listed by the mobo manufacturer, (my Asus K8N had about 10 known good RAM chips that worked).

[Nelis]

sounds like a memory problem indeed, you should try some other ram...

[AxlxA]

tried 3 diff brands of ram.

I'm gonna RMA the mobo soon.. newegg says they wont take it back.

[jensked]

or maybe you can go to a computer store with it and let them figure it out.

[bahnstormer]

u installed a 64bit or 32bit version of windows?
lets start there

[AxlxA]

32bit

[AxlxA]

Okay it's been a week or more. Problem still persists after using a new harddrive.

Definitely going to RMA this mobo... so new... yet so flawed.

[jensked]