Boot up problems

[Silver_Rizla]

Hello,

I hope you guys can help *crosses fingers*

I recently built my first computer. I put all the parts together very carefully, wearing an anti static wirst band grounded to a water main pipe. I RTFM for every part i put in and made sure everything was compatible.

Once i had built it and installed windows and the rest of my programs from my old pc it ran fine, and i was pleased at how much quicker it was. i ran several tests such as orthos to make sure all the parts were working as they should and that nothing was getting too hot under full load.

Then a few days after i had finished it i switched it on as normal and started checking my emails. Suddenly it froze with no movement on the mouse and no keys working.

I restarted it and went into my BIOS to check everything was ok and it froze whilst i was checking the settings. After another restart it froze on the POST screen as it was checking for drives. I switched off, unplugged, and reset my bios as stated in the manual.

I switched back on and it seemed fine, and i used it as normal for the rest of the night.

The next night a similar thing happened, but i didn't reset my bios, it just booted up properly after the 5th restart.

For about a week the only way i could get it to boot was to switch it on, leave it for 10 - 15 minutes (it crashed and got stuck at POST screen) and then it would work ok on the next restart. It was as if it needed to warm up before it would work correctly.

However in the last couple of nights the problem has reached a new high. After letting it "warm up" and getting it to boot i was faced with the BSOD, and then repeated i get BSOD for the rest of the time, with the computer getting less way through booting each time.

The BSOD errors i have been getting are...

BAD_POOL_HEADER

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

I am having to write this on my girlfriends laptop because my pc will get to the windows screen, quickly flash a BSOD at me (which is so quick i can't read it) then restart. This is the same if i try to start with last known good settings or in safe mode as well as starting windows normally.

I have tried the following...

* Full Anti virus and mal ware scans (clean)

* A repair install of windows

* Running memtest at boot (sometimes 30000+ errors, sometimes no errors in two hours, different each time.)

* Reseating the MOBO, RAM, CPU, H/S/F (with new paste) all whilst taking anti static precautions

* Running it without DVD drives or anything extra than the bare minimum.

* Changing various settings in windows for virtual memory

* Looking in event manager for the memory dumps from crashes and analysising with windows debugging tools that leads me to various files, never the same file twice

all with no effect, and i'm no closer to knowing what the root cause is

My specs are....

Intel E6600 conroe core 2 duo
Asus P5W64WS mobo
Artic Cooler Pro HSF
2 x 1 gb matched pair Corsair XMS2 DDR2 6400
BFG nvidia 8800GTS gfx
On board Audio
2 x 250 GB Maxtor sata HD's in RAID0 setup

I run windows XP pro sp2

i'm sure it's not a heat issue as i have monitored it with PC Probe (comes with mobo) and the cpu gets no hotter than 52C under full load and normally sits at 38 - 41C, with the mobo sitting at 37 - 43C

I'm at my wits end here,

please help

btw sorry for the epic post, but i read in another thread you like detail

 

[DrCraniax]

Hi Silver,

Apart from the DVD drives, have you tried placing other hardware in, or taking certain parts out? Such as running with onboard video (if any, or maybe old video card), tried different/less RAM etc?

I've got no idea what your problem is but by the sound of it it'd have to be a hardware issue, in which case you'll have to try and isolate the problem by replacing parts one by one... ???

 

[beef_jerky4104]

What kind of power supply do you have. The PSU is the most over looked component in a PC. If you used one that came free with your case than that is most likely the root of the issue. Judging at you setup you need something like a 700Watt to power that monster of a video card.

If you did you a poor power supply then may I reccomend a great one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341002

That should fix your troubles if I was correct.

 

[Silver_Rizla]

Thanks for the replies

a quick update.......

i tried both bits of advice, i got a new coolermaster 650w psu but still had the problems

then i tried memtest again and this time managed to narrow down that one of the sticks of ram was faulty. i had previously tested each stick of memory with memtest and either found no errors for an hour, or it froze within 5 mins

but this time it was definate, stick ran memtest fine, the other showed 20000 errors within 1 minute of starting the test

so now back on my main machine with i stick and has seemed fine so far so maybe it'll be ok and i need to RMA the faulty stick

still don't understand how it could have passed memtest in the past tho, thought it is quite thorough

 

[raybay]

An appropriate MemTest86 run is four hours, or more.