Hi,

Is there a method to diagnose crash/reboots?

I had been using XP for quite a while with no probs.
My config:
MSI 6119 (440BX chipset), Celeron 1Ghz, 2*128 Mb PC100 memory, Radeon 7000
graphics

Ten days ago I beefed up my config. by adding:
Promise TX2000 Raid0 with 2 WD 120Gb drives.
an additional 128 Mb PC100 memory
full reinstall of XP sp1, Office XP, SQLServer, graphics drivers etc.

I believe the hard drives are doing Ok;
I have a Radeon graphics 7000 card (dual monitor setup), and the drivers
(gut feel ) seem flakey.

I've checked the event log, and nothing shows up in there at (or just
preceding) the moment of crash.

Anyways, this is not a whole lot to go on, I know, but ... still, where can
I look, what can I do to isolate the cause of these sporadic crashes which
occur every few hours?

Thanx!

René
Montreal

You can start off by setting your pc to NOT reboot at failure. The next
time it crashes it will go to the BSOD and give you a lovely stop error
or hopefully the name of the driver that failed.

If your gut tells you the graphics drivers are faulty, then go to device
manager and roll them back to the previous version. If you cant roll
them back then disable the card altogether. Run the pc for a while, if
it doesn't crash then you know. If it still crashes take the last stick
of RAM you installed out, run the pc for a while, see if crashes. If you
still have probs then its probably your RAID card.



Rene wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is there a method to diagnose crash/reboots?
>
> I had been using XP for quite a while with no probs.
> My config:
> MSI 6119 (440BX chipset), Celeron 1Ghz, 2*128 Mb PC100 memory, Radeon 7000
> graphics
>
> Ten days ago I beefed up my config. by adding:
> Promise TX2000 Raid0 with 2 WD 120Gb drives.
> an additional 128 Mb PC100 memory
> full reinstall of XP sp1, Office XP, SQLServer, graphics drivers etc.
>
> I believe the hard drives are doing Ok;
> I have a Radeon graphics 7000 card (dual monitor setup), and the drivers
> (gut feel ) seem flakey.
>
> I've checked the event log, and nothing shows up in there at (or just
> preceding) the moment of crash.
>
> Anyways, this is not a whole lot to go on, I know, but ... still, where can
> I look, what can I do to isolate the cause of these sporadic crashes which
> occur every few hours?
>
> Thanx!
>
> René
> Montreal
>
>

Thanx Project -

As it turns out, I did the easiest first - took out the 'new' RAM - and
voila - problem solved.

I still have issues with the graphics driver - but that's a whole other
thing.

At least, I'm not crashing anymore!

René