Pc Crashing without an apparent pattern

[vlad85]

My pc is:
CPU: Intel pentium D830 3.0 GHZ dual core
Mobo: Asus P5DN2-SLI Deluxe
Ram: 2 gb Kit Kingston retail 400mhz
video: Winfast Geforce 7800 GTX TDH 256 mb (256bit)
hdd: 200 Gb Maxtor 7200rpm 8 mb cache+300 gb Maxtor 7200rpm 16 mb both s-ata2
OS: windows XP SP2 (up to date)

For a while now I've been having problems with the system crashing while in games, while watching movies or even when idle. Sometimes upon reboot i recieve no error other times up to 3 messages with windows has recovered from a serious system error message.

There is no apparent pattern to the crashes as sometimes i can play games like COD4 for hours without any problems other times i start a movie and the system crashes.
It doesn't seem to be an overheating problem because i don't lose system performance at all before the crashing occurs. I have tested my ram and it is ok, (for now my pc is still under warranty) the techs from where i've bought the PC say they found nothing, but still the problems occur.

I have tried just about everything but nothing seems to help (i used to suspect that my mobo or ram were at fault but i am not so sure now). I have attached the most recent minidumps for more information just ask.

 

[vintwala]

Hey,

Make sure all your drivers are up to date.

Try to default your video and bios settings.

Make sure your bios is up to date. If you have to update your bios - make sure you pick the right file follow all the instructions provided. I would keep this at the last.

 

[Route44]

One of your errors is a 0x24 and points to ntfs.sys. This is from aumha.org:

A problem occurred within NTFS.SYS, the driver file that allows the system to read and write to NTFS file system drives.

1. There may be a physical problem with the disk, or an Interrupt Request Packet (IRP) may be corrupted.

2. Other common causes include heavy hard drive fragmentation, heavy file I/O, problems with some types of drive-mirroring software, or some antivirus software.

I suggest running ChkDsk or ScanDisk as a first step; then disable all file system filters such as virus scanners, firewall software, or backup utilities.

Check the file properties of NTFS.SYS to ensure it matches the current OS or SP version.

Update all disk, tape backup, CD-ROM, or removable device drivers to the most current versions.


You also have error 0xC2 BAD_POOL_HEADER. A kernel-mode process or driver incorrectly attempted to perform memory operations. Typically, a faulty driver or buggy software causes this.


* You may need to do a Windows repair. Also, it wouldn't hurt to run MemTest on your RAM.

 

[vlad85]

As for drivers I updated everything except mobo drivers (asus are so lazy that there are no updates since the factory drivers). With bios there is a problem updating since i lose the warranty if i do that (and as I previously said i suspect the mobo is not particularly healthy).

I checked the ram this morning each dimm individually and then both at once and no errors were reported.

If you guys could tell me an utility to check if the hdds are ok it would help alot since maxtor's hdd check utility won't work with my mobo (it has the nforce4 chipset for intel).

Update:
1) a few days ago (when i updated my video drivers to latest beta release) i got "The driver nv4_disp for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates." while playing cod 4 video card entered safe mode and after about 2 minutes of me trying to restart the pc it crashed. since updating the video drivers haven't recieved this piece of error (yet) but still the hangups
2) i have been using everest so far to monitor my system temperatures, but the other day i installed Fresh Diagnose as well and except for CPU temperature the values the two programs showed me were very different, could this be a motherboard related problem or it's just software issue? ( biggest difference between values is everest mobo temp 46 degrees celsius fresh diagnose 77 degrees celsius)

3) the guys where my pc has it's warranty said ( a while back) that these problems were mostly due to my sound card's driver, but since then i changed my sound card 3 times with 3 different brand cards (no change) and even tried to use the onboard sound card again no change in problem.

4) I am running everything at default settings (no overclocking or software boosts)


Later edit: ok i am almost certain that i have a problem with the sensors: last night after playing warhammer dawn of war : dark crusade i checked the temps cpu was at 29 degrees mobo at 45 (everest) and 29 cpu 77 mobo (fresh diagnose) after a night of idle-ing cpu 77 mobo 15 (everest) cpu 19 mobo 77 (fresh diagnose) and in bios 45 cpu 47 mobo