Please help me troubleshoot a sick Windows PC

OK, here are the 'more questions' I warned you about...

System: This is a home-built PC I assembled in 2006. It's been working
fairly well until lately.

Biostar P4M800-M7A motherboard
Intel Pentium D 840 CPU
1GB RAM
Ultra 500w V-Series PSU
Seagate 160 GB HDD
Windows XP Pro SP2


Symptoms: A few days ago it started crashing with a blue-screen or
spontaneously rebooting. The bluescreens usually show a
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_ OR_EQUAL error, referencing a different driver
each time (or no driver at all.) Once it showed a PAGE_FAULT_IN
NONPAGED_AREA message instead. The crashes have become more frequent to
the point that it will almost always go down within a few minutes of
Windows starting. It happens even when Windows is started in Safe Mode.
No new hardware or programs have been installed lately.

I have a Hirem's Boot CD. Most of the DOS/character mode utilities
work. When I boot to its "Mini XP" option, the computer crashes just
like when I boot to the Hard Disk. This makes me suspect it's not
Windows in of itself.


What I've done so far:

- ran Memtest86+ for about 5 hours. No errors reported.

- ran CHKDSK (before Windows started crashing so often.) No file system
errors reported. I ran Chkdsk /F once, but I don't know if it
completed.)

- ran Seagate's Seatools utility. No physical problems reported. No
SMART errors reported.

- swapped in another power supply that I *think* is OK. Same symptoms
continue.

- thoroughly cleaned dust from heatsink and CPU fan, and cleaned off
and replaced the heat-conducting compound between CPU and heat sink.


Questions:

- It appears to me that the RAM, hard disk, and power supply are OK. It
doesn't seem to be heat-related. Are these reasonable assumptions? What
else can I consider or investigate? I'm not sure what to do next.

On 4/3/2011 7:38 PM, Nil wrote:
OK, here are the 'more questions' I warned you about...

System: This is a home-built PC I assembled in 2006. It's been working
fairly well until lately.

Biostar P4M800-M7A motherboard
Intel Pentium D 840 CPU
1GB RAM
Ultra 500w V-Series PSU
Seagate 160 GB HDD
Windows XP Pro SP2


Symptoms: A few days ago it started crashing with a blue-screen or
spontaneously rebooting. The bluescreens usually show a
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_ OR_EQUAL error, referencing a different driver
each time (or no driver at all.) Once it showed a PAGE_FAULT_IN
NONPAGED_AREA message instead. The crashes have become more frequent to
the point that it will almost always go down within a few minutes of
Windows starting. It happens even when Windows is started in Safe Mode.
No new hardware or programs have been installed lately.

I have a Hirem's Boot CD. Most of the DOS/character mode utilities
work. When I boot to its "Mini XP" option, the computer crashes just
like when I boot to the Hard Disk. This makes me suspect it's not
Windows in of itself.


What I've done so far:

- ran Memtest86+ for about 5 hours. No errors reported.

- ran CHKDSK (before Windows started crashing so often.) No file system
errors reported. I ran Chkdsk /F once, but I don't know if it
completed.)

- ran Seagate's Seatools utility. No physical problems reported. No
SMART errors reported.

- swapped in another power supply that I *think* is OK. Same symptoms
continue.

- thoroughly cleaned dust from heatsink and CPU fan, and cleaned off
and replaced the heat-conducting compound between CPU and heat sink.


Questions:

- It appears to me that the RAM, hard disk, and power supply are OK. It
doesn't seem to be heat-related. Are these reasonable assumptions? What
else can I consider or investigate? I'm not sure what to do next.
Your errors are pretty symptomatic of memory troubles. If
you have more than one stick of Ram, you could try running
with a single stick and see if the problems occur. Try this
with each stick. Also re-seating the memory might help.

Nil wrote:
OK, here are the 'more questions' I warned you about...

System: This is a home-built PC I assembled in 2006. It's been working
fairly well until lately.

Biostar P4M800-M7A motherboard
Intel Pentium D 840 CPU
1GB RAM
Ultra 500w V-Series PSU
Seagate 160 GB HDD
Windows XP Pro SP2


Symptoms: A few days ago it started crashing with a blue-screen or
spontaneously rebooting. The bluescreens usually show a
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_ OR_EQUAL error, referencing a different driver
each time (or no driver at all.) Once it showed a PAGE_FAULT_IN
NONPAGED_AREA message instead. The crashes have become more frequent to
the point that it will almost always go down within a few minutes of
Windows starting. It happens even when Windows is started in Safe Mode.
No new hardware or programs have been installed lately.

I have a Hirem's Boot CD. Most of the DOS/character mode utilities
work. When I boot to its "Mini XP" option, the computer crashes just
like when I boot to the Hard Disk. This makes me suspect it's not
Windows in of itself.


What I've done so far:

- ran Memtest86+ for about 5 hours. No errors reported.

- ran CHKDSK (before Windows started crashing so often.) No file system
errors reported. I ran Chkdsk /F once, but I don't know if it
completed.)

- ran Seagate's Seatools utility. No physical problems reported. No
SMART errors reported.

- swapped in another power supply that I *think* is OK. Same symptoms
continue.

- thoroughly cleaned dust from heatsink and CPU fan, and cleaned off
and replaced the heat-conducting compound between CPU and heat sink.


Questions:

- It appears to me that the RAM, hard disk, and power supply are OK. It
doesn't seem to be heat-related. Are these reasonable assumptions? What
else can I consider or investigate? I'm not sure what to do next.

Bad caps ?

Any swelled capacitors on the motherboard, on the caps near the
CPU socket ?

What about the power supply ? (Note the orange stains...)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...4/PSU_Caps.jpg

Take the model number of your PSU, and do a search on the web, and
see if there are any other reports of bad cap problems. I've had
a couple Antec supplies (manufactured by CWT Channelwell) that
have failed - if there is a problem, you may find reports of it
for your Ultra, elsewhere.

Also, one other observation. At one time, Biostar was noteworthy,
in shorting together the 12V tracks from the ATX12V 2x2 connector,
to the 12V wire on the main power connector. This is only a problem,
if the user forgets to connect the 2x2 square connector to the
motherboard entirely, as it causes all the current to flow through
the yellow wires on the main connector. If it is Biostar, make sure
your ATX12V 2x2 or 2x4 connector is in place, and fully seated. I
have no way to detect here, whether Biostar has stopped doing
that in their designs. I don't particularly like that, as a
concept. It's asking for additional trouble we don't need...

That problem was detected, when a user reported their computer
could run, without the 2x2 being connected to their Biostar
motherboard. Biostar does not note this fact, in their
motherboard documentation. It's happened on more than one
model of motherboard (because I keep an eye peeled for this
fault).

HTH,
Paul