Let me set it up for you:
I built a system for a friend (not a mistake i'll make again) and i built it on a budget (also not a mistake i'll make again). The system ran well for about a couple hours, and then died. We systematically replaced every part (new ram, new motherboard, and new cpu) and finally, it worked. that was about six months ago. the specs now are:
Athlon 2100+
512 megs of Crucial DDR (2100, i believe)
Soyo Dragon Lite KT333 motherboard.
Geforce 4ti 4200
So, the first time, the computer just shut down, and then refused to POST after that. it posted with a new motherboard but we got ram errors (IRQL less or not equal, etc.) while we tried to load windows. with one stick, it wouldn't boot at all, and withg the other stick, it would boot, but give us memory errors. new ram seemed to fix it. We chalked it up to a power surge that had fried a whole bunch of stuff, and stupidly did not replace the cheap-o built in power supply.
The computer ran perfectly stable for about six months.
Then, a week ago, he tells me that he's been having some trouble with his computer. he says that occaisonally when he turns it on, it doesn't beep, and the monitor stays off. when he turns it off, then back on, it works just fine. i said i'd take a look at it, and then a day or two later, he tells me once on his bootup he got a Stop error when he booted, and also every once and a while the computer crashes while windows XP is loading. as the little dotted green bars go left to right, at a certain point, they just freeze, and the numlock light on the keyboard goes off. they system is nonresponsive after that, what he would do was restart with the button, start windows in safe mode, and then go Start>shut down>Restart, and it was fine.
I didn't think this boded well, so i went over to check it out. he started up PowerDVD to show me something, and it crashed. Ending the task in the task manager didn't close the program, so he reset the system. on boot, the computer hung at the windows boot. he restarted, and the computer didn't boot at all. restarted again, and we got an IRQL Less or not equal error. Restarted again, and it froze after checking the DMPI pool (if that's the right order for the letters) after that, it wouldn't boot at all.
I had a spare power supply lying around from an old system of mine, and i brought it over. we pulled out his old one, put the new one in, and booted up. we got some progress. i went into the bios, and it hung in the bios. i rebooted, went into bios, and loaded failsafe settings. i restarted. it hung at the memory count (and only counted to 256 megs). i restarted, hit escape to skip the memory check, and got all the way into safe mode windows. I took out one stick of ram, and the computer didn't post, and gave me regular long beeps. I put in the other stick, and it hung at the ram count. I put them both in and it hung at the ram count. i restarted the system, went into bios, and turned off "Quick POST" the computer started back up again, and counted the memory very slowly, counting to 256megs three times. then hung right before the windows xp loading screen would have appeared. after that, it would always hang at blank screen right before the windows xp loading screen would appear.
I think it's a memory issue, but how can i be having the same error again, with an entire new system? it's as though this system is cursed. any ideas?
i think i'm going to cry.
Spiff.
I built a system for a friend (not a mistake i'll make again) and i built it on a budget (also not a mistake i'll make again). The system ran well for about a couple hours, and then died. We systematically replaced every part (new ram, new motherboard, and new cpu) and finally, it worked. that was about six months ago. the specs now are:
Athlon 2100+
512 megs of Crucial DDR (2100, i believe)
Soyo Dragon Lite KT333 motherboard.
Geforce 4ti 4200
So, the first time, the computer just shut down, and then refused to POST after that. it posted with a new motherboard but we got ram errors (IRQL less or not equal, etc.) while we tried to load windows. with one stick, it wouldn't boot at all, and withg the other stick, it would boot, but give us memory errors. new ram seemed to fix it. We chalked it up to a power surge that had fried a whole bunch of stuff, and stupidly did not replace the cheap-o built in power supply.
The computer ran perfectly stable for about six months.
Then, a week ago, he tells me that he's been having some trouble with his computer. he says that occaisonally when he turns it on, it doesn't beep, and the monitor stays off. when he turns it off, then back on, it works just fine. i said i'd take a look at it, and then a day or two later, he tells me once on his bootup he got a Stop error when he booted, and also every once and a while the computer crashes while windows XP is loading. as the little dotted green bars go left to right, at a certain point, they just freeze, and the numlock light on the keyboard goes off. they system is nonresponsive after that, what he would do was restart with the button, start windows in safe mode, and then go Start>shut down>Restart, and it was fine.
I didn't think this boded well, so i went over to check it out. he started up PowerDVD to show me something, and it crashed. Ending the task in the task manager didn't close the program, so he reset the system. on boot, the computer hung at the windows boot. he restarted, and the computer didn't boot at all. restarted again, and we got an IRQL Less or not equal error. Restarted again, and it froze after checking the DMPI pool (if that's the right order for the letters) after that, it wouldn't boot at all.
I had a spare power supply lying around from an old system of mine, and i brought it over. we pulled out his old one, put the new one in, and booted up. we got some progress. i went into the bios, and it hung in the bios. i rebooted, went into bios, and loaded failsafe settings. i restarted. it hung at the memory count (and only counted to 256 megs). i restarted, hit escape to skip the memory check, and got all the way into safe mode windows. I took out one stick of ram, and the computer didn't post, and gave me regular long beeps. I put in the other stick, and it hung at the ram count. I put them both in and it hung at the ram count. i restarted the system, went into bios, and turned off "Quick POST" the computer started back up again, and counted the memory very slowly, counting to 256megs three times. then hung right before the windows xp loading screen would have appeared. after that, it would always hang at blank screen right before the windows xp loading screen would appear.
I think it's a memory issue, but how can i be having the same error again, with an entire new system? it's as though this system is cursed. any ideas?
i think i'm going to cry.
Spiff.