BSOD Problems...

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Trintar VIII

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Hey all, I'm new to these forums, but I've been meaning to join for a while. Now that I've joined, I have a problem to pose.

I've been getting the blue screen of death recently and it's getting worse and worse. It usually occurs when I'm gaming, though it will still occur when listening to music or just surfing the web. It seems very random, so I was wondering what it could be. I'm an experienced computer user, but not so much in this type of field. If anyone would be up to helping me, feel free to ask the necessary questions for information. I'm sure you'll want my hardware configurations, so I'll put that up now:

AMD 64 3200 @ 2.1Ghz [on an]
MSI K8N Neo Platinum [with]
512 MB Kingston 434Mhz (one stick)
(2) 60GB SATA150 HDDs (c: and d:...I only have the c: plugged in at the time, I thought it was the d: that was messing it up, but when I unplugged it, I still got the BSOD
Nvidia GeForce 4800 Ti
Windows XP Pro
DVD-RW (this drive will only read CDs and not DVDs ever since this problem began)

If anyone would be willing to help, I'd appreciate it very much.
 
Okay, thanks, I'm looking through it all now...one quick question regarding these guides though...How do I update my bios? I have Phoenix - Award WorkstationBIOS 6.00, but I don't know where to go to check for updates or how to update it.


EDIT: Ok, here's the minidumps:
 
Okay, BIOS is updated and good. I noticed my PS is a little low in the 12V area (11.80). What can I do to fix that?
 
Your minidumps point to ntoskrnl.exe with a bugcheck of 1a which could be faulty memory.

Bugcheck code 1A is the symptom of faulty ram. You can run memtest to stress the ram. If memtest reports the ram is faulty, ram is bad. However Memtest is not a perfect tool to test the memory as some faulty ram can pass memtest.

Suggestion
1. Check the temperature of the CPU and make sure that it is not overheat (ie temperature < 60C)
Make sure that the CPU fan works properly
2. Reseat the memory stick to another memory slot. Reseat video card as well.
3. Downclock the ram. Check to default setting if you video card is overclocked.
4. Clean the dust inside the computer case
5. Make sure that the ram is compatible to the motherboard
6. Check the bios setting about memory timing and make sure that it is on
For example : DIMM1 and DIMM2 do not have the same timing.
DIMM1: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.0-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz)
DIMM2: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
7. Make sure that your PSU have adequate power to drive all the hardware including USB devices
8. Run chkdsk /r at command prompt
9. Upgrade BIOS and make sure that the motherboard has no leaking capacitor

If it still crashes, diagnostic which memory stick is faulty
Take out one memory stick. If windows does not crash, the removed memory stick is faulty.
 
Okay, I just tried switching it around...in the second slot the computer will start up and the XP loading screen comes up, but instead of going to the login screen it's just a black screen and i have to manually restart. In the third slot it seems to work as well. As for the Memtest, I downloaded and extracted it and it's an .iso file. How do I run it from DOS? Just burn it to a CD-RW or something as an image file?


EDIT: I tried the other things you said, and they all seem good. The site said I need about 306watts for a PS and mine is 350watts...is that getting a little too close? Also, I've cleaned up everything (the CPU fan was a little dusty) and chkdsk didn't show anything corrupted. The temp in my computer is around 39-42 as well.

EDIT 2: Everything seems to be working great now. I've played several hours of UT2004 and COD2 without crashing. I guess it was the RAM that just needed reseating in another slot. Thank you very much for you help, fastco!
 
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