Well, to start things off, I just built this computer monday. Its 100% custom.

The parts were all ordered off Newegg.com, and heres a list:

Mobo: Abit KN8 Ultra
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+
Video: XFX Nvidia 6800xt 256mb
RAM: 2.5 gigs: 1 kingston 1 gig CHIP, 3 PNY 512mb chips (will be recieving another kingston one gig in a few days so I can run dual channel)
HDD: 1x 250gig Western Digital, formatted with windows XP installed, 1x 200gig Maxtor not formatted or setup yet
Powmax Demon 580w PS
I'm also running a DVD rom drive, and a DVD rw drive.

As far as fans go, I have one fan feeding in from the bottom, 2 blower fans feeding out from my PCI slots, BIG heatsink fan, my mobo has a built in fan on it (maybe on north bridge), and finally I have 2 fans in the very top of my case feeding heat out.


Now my problem. Fresh install of Windows XP, fully updated. Before I installed SP 2, I was having problems with downloads. Whenever I'd download a program through firefox, the program would be corrupt and wouldnt install. However if I downloaded that same program through IE, it would install and run just fine. So I installed SP2, and it seemed to fix the problem most of the time. Along with this problem, I've had a couple times were my computer has completely froze. I've also had about 5-6 times now where I would see the BSOD (blue screen of death error message) and then my computer would restart. This seems to happen randomly. I've had it happen when I've been downloading a program, as well as when I've been in a game. It seems to be maybe a time issue. I installed the 'AbitEQ' program that monitors heat an power problems, and am using the built in error recording feature. The last time it gave me the BSOD, heres what it recorded:

2006/02/22 17:10:45 Warning:=+5V: 5.24V +12V: 11.97V CK804: 1.57V HTV: 1.22V 5VSB: 4.99V

Now I LOOKED through my current settings, and all of those seem to be around what they are at right now when the computer is functioning properly. I'm not quite sure what went wrong.


As far as adaware and viruses go, I shouldnt have either. I downloaded spybot, and I've ran it a couple times and found nothing. I dont have a virus scanner installed yet, but I havent downloaded anything that would be considered 'risky'. As in, I've only downloaded big production programs, such as firefox, steam, etc.



It doesnt seem like the computer is overheating, because everytime an error occurs I feel the fans to see what the temp of air is blowing out, and its usually cool. The only things running hot were my HDD's, and I set them up differently now so they are by the top-most fans, and SPACED apart so they stay cool.

Can anyone tell me what to do? A friend told me to try re-installing windows and using AutoPatcher XP to update XP because the IE microsoft update tool is really buggy.. should I do this?




Thanks for the help!


-Brandon<>

Famous last WORDS. Without SP2 installed and a virus scanner loaded, I wouldn't even dream of connecting to the net. You will get vermin within a few seconds.

I don't know if this is all of the problem (doubtful) but do that first. I would also remove and reseat the RAM and then check the RAM with MemTest (free at www.memtest86.com) and run each stick of RAM solo and then together for a couple of hours.

You can also download and run Everest (also free) to check all temps.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Bad RAM, overheating or a poor PSU are the most likely culprits. Was that a fresh and shiny real Windows CD you used?

Let us know what you find out.

How loud is that thing anyway? Yea.. I knew those were gonna be my famous last words. The windows copy I have is a full, legal copy with legal CD key.


Well yesterday RIGHT after posting the above post, my computer errored on me again. Not a second after I posted that LONG mess. Then it did it two other times and I gave up. The last time it did it was RIGHT when I logged in. So I tried booting Ubuntu linux off a live cd to see if it would still error on me in Linux, but for some reason it didnt boot properly.

Then I started, and the comment about windows fialure came up where you pick if you want to use the last settings that work, or run in safe mode, etc. So, I chose safe mode to see if that would do anything. Luckily, no computer problems well in safe mode, thats when I determined that its most likely a virus or spyware since all safemode does is not run any programs at startup. So I reformatted and reinstalled windows, and hopefully this will help things out a bit.. Although I havent had a chance to see if its working better or not.


I was also thinking a possible RAM issue, and I'm going to use those programs you gave me to check out all my parts.

I'll update this if everythings fixed. Thanks for the help so far!



-BrandonKeep us posted on your progress. Alright! I reformatted my computer about 4 times after my last post (all 4 times at once for various stupid screwups), and I fixed my RAM setup so I can have all 3 gigs in dual channel mode and my issue seems to be fixed! I havent seen a BSOD since I reformatted!


Thanks for the help,

-Brandon