possible hardware errors....

[Tony Talmage]

Hello,

I recently purchased new hardware, including an AMD Athlon XP 3200+,
Gigabyte GA-7N400L-1 mobo, Seagate ST340014A 40GB HDD, and 2 512MB PC3200
DIMMs. Since I received these items, I've tried to install Windows ~40
times, the majority of these installs being XP. I keep running into blue
screens, stalls, and other errors which keep me from properly installing any
OS. On the rare occasion I can actually get XP to finish installing and
run, I run into constant blue screens and critical software errors, and the
OS is otherwise extremely unstable. In all, I've installed XP Pro, 2000
Pro, 2000 Server, ME, and 98, and all installs have similar problems... I
doubt that 5 different nearly flawless CDs have the same problem.

So, this sounds like a hardware issue to me... does that sound right? And,
if so, does anyone know what I could check first to see if I can rectify
this problem? I just spent a crap-ton of money on this hardware and would
like this resolved as quickly as possible, else I might have a grand worth
of paperweights in the room.

--
Tony Talmage
Web Developer
Graphic Education Corporation
URL: http://www.graphiced.com
Phone: (888) 354-6600

 

[informatique]

Tony,


here is the test program

http://www.memtest86.com/#download0


bruno

 

[sammy]

Sounds maybe a little misunderstood but, Tony can't install his OS, so how
is he going to use the test program ?

 

[Tony Talmage]

I believe the memtest program is installed on a bootable floppy and run from
a command (that is, fake DOS) interface; I've run it before with no results,
assuming I'm thinking about the same program.

--
Tony Talmage
Web Developer
Graphic Education Corporation
URL: http://www.graphiced.com
Phone: (888) 354-6600

 

[Malke]

I believe the memtest program is installed on a bootable floppy and
run from a command (that is, fake DOS) interface; I've run it before
with no results, assuming I'm thinking about the same program.

Tony, you definitely have hardware issues. Now, the only question is
which component. You might want to take the machine to a good local
computer shop and have them test for you. Otherwise, yes Memtest86 is
an excellent software test for the RAM. Be sure to let it run for a
long time. Try testing the hard drive with a diagnostic utility from
the drive mftr. Like Memtest86, you will make a bootable floppy. These
tests run outside of any operating system. You might try TuffTest Pro
for the motherboard. I find you need to let it run quite a while
sometimes (the extended tests) to get accurate answers. The reason it
is sometimes easier to take the box to a shop is that they can perhaps
more easily swap parts out than you (of course, you might have lots of
boxen sitting around for all I know, but since I can't see your house
from here I mention this possibility anyway). They can try the
processor in another m/b, etc.

Good luck,

Malke

 

[Plato]

I believe the memtest program is installed on a bootable floppy and run from
a command (that is, fake DOS) interface; I've run it before with no results,
assuming I'm thinking about the same program.

What's a "fake dos" ?

 

[midnight]

If you find your memory is ok make sure you have not overclocked the
computer. Make sure it is setup to run at the speed it was designed to run
at. Check front side bus speed before running memtest. If you are sure all
hardware seems to be ok check the cpu temp next time it blue screens. That
is go into the bios and check the temp as quickly as possable after blue
screen. AMD processors run very hot and if the heatsink is not fitted
correctly with some type of thermal paste between the heatsink and cpu the
cpu could overheat and give the errors. Did you assemble the computer
yourself? You could try removing all but the essential componants and
booting from a boot disk. Then add things like hard drive back one item at a
time. Is the bios setup correctly, is there a bios upgrade available. When
setting up a computer it is always best to err on the side of caution and
use the slowest settings untill the computer is running. You can then enter
the bios and optimise settings untill your satisfied.

Midnight

 

[Malke]

What's a "fake dos" ?

No such thing. He probably just didn't realize there are many different
command line os's so thinks of MS-DOS. For instance, some utilities use
Caldera DOS, Memtest86 is Linux, etc.

Malke

 

[Tony Talmage]

I just used "fake dos" because I was under the impression that XP didn't
have DOS, but rather a command-line interface. But, upon thinking about it,
it wouldn't be a Command line, as the computer would yet have to enter the
OS. But yeah, just ignorance basically. =)

--
Tony Talmage
Web Developer
Graphic Education Corporation
URL: http://www.graphiced.com
Phone: (888) 354-6600

 

[Malke]

I just used "fake dos" because I was under the impression that XP
didn't
have DOS, but rather a command-line interface. But, upon thinking
about it, it wouldn't be a Command line, as the computer would yet
have to enter the
OS. But yeah, just ignorance basically. =)

That's OK, Tony. Unlike you, I know squat about web design and just use
Mozilla's Composer to get my stuff up on my *very* simple websites. We
all have our areas of expertise! Hope you get everything sorted out.

Cheers,

Malke

 

[Tony Talmage]

Well, I ran the memtest86 program for 10.5 hours last night, and it came up
with 11340 errors. Being largely a stranger to this, I'm not sure if this
is a high or low number. What would be considered reasonable for an average
memtest?

--
Tony Talmage
Web Developer
Graphic Education Corporation
URL: http://www.graphiced.com
Phone: (888) 354-6600

 

[Malke]

Well, I ran the memtest86 program for 10.5 hours last night, and it
came up
with 11340 errors. Being largely a stranger to this, I'm not sure if
this
is a high or low number. What would be considered reasonable for an
average memtest?

Hi, Tony. Even one error means the RAM is bad. Replace it.

Malke