Trouble with computer

[shadycharacter]

Ok so this is very different, I have never really seen this before.

My computer has a very small, and random problem. It is not really in one spot, but several. I'll start with the obvious. Some things that are downloaded get corrupt. For example, I downloaded Mozilla FireFox, and the setup was corrupt. I deleted, and re-downloaded, and it was fine. Same has happened for other things. Most games work for only a short while before they crash, and this also goes for games on web browsers, that use Java and Shockwave. Java will work for some time, and it is always random when it crashes, no pattern at all. There is also no error message under the events thing when anything crashes.

For the hardware errors, the BSOD does occur, but again completely randomly. And also, sometimes when I shut down (start, shut down) and it does shut down normally, but then sometimes it starts back up as I'm walking away. Nothing beeps, nothing sounds out of place.

I have reinstalled the OS several times, and even tried different cds. Everything is legit, so there are no problems with someone messing with the OS before downloading it. I have also done hard drive tests, memory tests, and have tried a different hard drive. Same problems happen.

Anyone who could help, help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[adweston]

Replace your processor.. As rare as it is, they do go faulty and cause really wierd problems. I just had an AMD X2 4600 do that to me this week.

 

[Tedster]

bad advice.

Things to check first:
check ram with memtest 86+
check your PSU with a tester tool and multimeter
check your drivers
check your BIOS

THEN check your CPU. CPUs rarely go bad.
ram and psus fail quite commonly.

 

[adweston]

True.. save for the fact that he's already tested ram, hdd, etc. It says so in his first post.

Trust me, it's not bad advice. This last week we had a machine in here that drove us insane. In 20 years I've seen two, maybe three faulty processors.

Well, we went over the machine with a fine tooth comb, checking everything. It would post, then go to load Windows and instead just sit there at a blank screen... Randomly. Sometimes it would boot, sometimes it wouldn't. The culprit? A faulty X2 4600 processor.

 

[Eddy Rassy]

True.. save for the fact that he's already tested ram, hdd, etc. It says so in his first post.

Trust me, it's not bad advice. This last week we had a machine in here that drove us insane. In 20 years I've seen two, maybe three faulty processors.

Well, we went over the machine with a fine tooth comb, checking everything. It would post, then go to load Windows and instead just sit there at a blank screen... Randomly. Sometimes it would boot, sometimes it wouldn't. The culprit? A faulty X2 4600 processor.

I am having the same problems exactly as yours Adweston. My son did not use his desktop for a long time (he uses his laptop mostly). Yesterday I turned it on and was fine until I downloaded and installed all the MS updates for win xp. Then after that it will not start comletely, but will sit there on a blank screen.
After turning it off for a while and back on, it will completely boot to windows. Then when I turn it off or try restart, it will not auto shutt down.
I am starting to think this has something to do with win updates. Hope somebody will find out which one is causing it.
Incidently, I checked everything with a fine tooth comb,even the cmos battery was changed

 

[shadycharacter]

Yeah, all of these things are also happening to me. I will try to replace the processor as soon as i can, because I believe it is a amd athlon 5200+ x2

 

[shadycharacter]

ok, so i was looking at the cpu, and i found a small piece of white fluff type stuff in between some of the pins. I took this out, hoping this was what the problem was, but then i realized that my power supply for my computer somewhere else, and i have to wait to go get it. was wondering if this could be causing the problems, or if anyone knew?

sorry, just kind of impatient, and hopeful, because this could save me money