my newly built pc is having all kinds of problems

ok heres whats going on, i just finished building my new pc and i had it up and running for a little while i had installed windows xp and it was lookin good. then i encountered the first problem, the computer shut off and restarted with an error report saying: the system has recovered from a serious error. i thought ok whatever and continued installing drivers and whatnot. this repeated several times before i realized this was a problem and got worried. i figured id just start over again, reformatting the hd and reinstalling windows. well guess what? now it wont even let me do that. i get to the windows setup and either while im formatting the hd or the setup is beggining, the system either restarts randomly or a blue screen comes up with all this mumbojumbo on it. somebody please help.

specs are:
amd athlon xp 3200+
512 mb ram (which it read as 480 mb of ram when it worked at first)
20 gb hard drive thats from my old pc (which im guessing could be the problem)

by the way, when the system worked at first i did install a video card and was having problems with the drivers installing so i dunno that could have somethin to do with it i guess.

This is happening on a new system build correct.


Have you tried reseating the PCI cards/memory/processor.

you also stated that you have a 512MB stick that is recognized as 480MB.. where does it recognize as 480 in windows or bios.

Do you have onboard video? if so that could explain the 32MB of memory not showing up. The onboard video gets its memory from your installed 512MB stick.

You say it comes up with "blue screen comes up with all this mumbojumbo on it" exactly what is the mumbojumbo you are getting. although vague the BSOD will give hints to what to look at.

no i havent tried that but i will.
it recognizes it as 480 in windows.
yes theres onboard video and i hadnt thought of that.
the blue screen... i cant remember what it says and i dont want to go and wait for that screen to pop up again but when it does ill be sure and tell you.
whats BSOD?
btw this is the first system ive built.

BSOD stands for blue screen of death.

i was finally able to re install windows and the random restarts with the error reports started again. this is what the error report says: the system has recovered from a serious error. and the details are: BCCode: 1000007f BCP1: 0000000D BCP2:00000000 BCP3: 000000000 BCP4: 0000000000 OSver: 5_1_2600 SP: 2_0 Product: 768_1. can anyone tell me what this means?

make sure the memory you purchased is compatible with your motherboard. RTFM and determine what brands and speeds are compatible with your system. When diagnosing problems with new systems, strip everything down to the base components.

In your case, disconnect the hard disk and do a cold start with just the motherboard, memory, and videocard. You should have a good POST. If you pass post, then check your settings in BIOS. What does the motherboard manufactuer recommend?

If everything is ok then, plug in your hard disk and reboot.

let's hear some specs on the power supply of yours, as it would easily be causing your problems.

good point - often overlooked.

ok heres an update:
i have windows up and running and the random restarts continue. i have after hours of research found that a lot of people are having the same problem and its not hardware related. windows is to blame and microsofts site has a patch that supposedly fixes it. but i cant install this patch because i have windows xp with sp2 preintegrated and the patch needs no service packs installed to to work (which means that i already have this patch in my service pack 2 and its not working) i wanted to uninstall sp2 but i cant because of it being preintegrated (believe me ive tried every way possible). i did find an alternative way of solving the problem which is to set the virtual mem paging file to 0mb. i did that and yaaay! it stopped the problem. but guess what i cant run any of my games with the paging file set to zero. so im pretty much stuck i guess, unless anyone comes up with a solution.

heres a link of the two solutions that dont work for me: microsofts solution

that's really weird..... I have never heard of this problem. IS you CD corrupt?

???? if you mean the win xp cd, then no its brand new just opened it.

check your motherboard, especially caps, for burns, bulges, leaking fluids on any of the parts. what make and model is it?

ive already tried reinstalling windows and the same problem occurs every time. the motherboard is a Winfast K7S741MG-6L, and like i said im positive its not hardware related because ive been reading about this issue for a couple of days now and microsoft has admitted that its windows. and plus i mean all my parts are brand new except for HD and vid card. i do have this one other problem id like to mention now that maybe one of you could help me with. im guessing it has to do with bad/outdated drivers or no drivers at all for a certain device. when i try to run call of duty or sometimes when the computer restarts i get the BSOD and it says:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

technical info: stop: 0X000000D1 (0X40469B04, 0X0000002, 0X00000001, 0XF721954B)

USBPORT.SYS -address F712954B base at F7212000, Date stamp 41107d62

i appreciate any help, thanks

i really need help. now im just downright frustrated. so many problems!! im getting all these errors and i have tried everything i can think of, you name it, everything from checking all my hardware to downloading different and new drivers for everything. im gonna do what everyone else does and post those minidump files. if anyone can figure out one or more of my problems by looking at them i would greatly appreciate it. here they are:

sounds symptomatic of a direct-x issue. Update your video drivers.

thanks ill try that, and ill also reinstall direct x. that wasnt all the minidump files, heres the rest.

winfast makes a questionable product, it would nto be uncommon for that board to be causing your troubles.

what video card are u useing

if u are using a geforce mx 4000 get rid of it those tend to caus many problums with making the motherboard unstabel

thanks for the replies, i managed to fix a lot of the BSOD errors (i think...so far so good) by entering BIOS and choosing load optimal settings. before that i had been fooling around with BIOS changing various things just to see their effect (stupid thing to do). anyways now im back to the one error that i started with, the system has recovered from a serious error message after a random restart. i can now actually run games for a minute or 2 now that i did that BIOS thing.

@spider:
i have a GeForce FX 5200 256 mb pci, will that cause problems??