I'm having a recurring problem with my sons PC, which has a Tyan motherboard, PIII 900 CPU, 256mb RAM, ATI 32meg graphics, running XP Pro which is up to date with hotfixes/patches etc (the problem is long standing, so not caused by a recent patch), and has up to date Sophos AV.

It will run happily for hours - days even - then suddenly and for no apparent reason (sometimes when being used, sometimes when the PC has been sitting idle for a period of time) the screen blanks, quickly followed by the dreaded BSOD, telling me that the system has been halted, check software, hardware blah blah blah. Unfortunately the message scrolls off the top of the screen, so I cannot see the important line that tells me what caused the problem etc., I have searched google and Microsoft KB looking for leads on the error string that appears at the bottom of the BSOD but no help. (haven't got the exact code handy right now)

amongst other things, so far, I have:

• Upgraded the motherboard BIOS to the latest available from Tyan website
• Upgraded Graphics drivers to latest available from ATI
• Swapped CPU, CPU fan
• Swapped the RAM Chip(s)
• Swapped the power supply
• Disabled screensavers
• Tried various power options, including enabling/disabling APM support
• Disabled/Enabled various caching options in the BIOS
• Reset the BIOS to factory defaults.
• Tried each of the hardware accelleration options

in various combinations. Each time I changed something takes ages to discover that it hasn't helped, as the PC may run for days before falling over again

Not sure if its relevant but worth adding here that the system will not return to a working state from hibernation - it gets stuck at the point where I would expect the desktop to appear. AFAIR this has never worked since I installed the mobo.

I don't know what else to try - any pointers or suggestions on where I go from here? (short of scrapping the PC and buying a new one)


Thanks

 

I recently installed Mandrake 9.2 and would suggest if you use your PC for everything other than games install this instead. Bye Bye BSOD. It's **** easy to install and runs like an absolute dream, days of your HD churning away are over with this little baby.

Other than that you have pretty much covered most things, may I suggest checking temperatures in the BIOS and if you have it use the setting for best compatibilty (instead of best performance).

 

Funny you mention that - I've got Mandrake 9.something installed on my laptop but not played with it for a while. Still not fathomed out how to get the wireless network card to connect either.

Sadly, not an option for my sons PC - he's only 11 and uses it mainly for games.

 

have you checked the event log? Try running Prime95 or maybe 3DMARK2001 and see if it crashes at any particular point.

 

Event log does not give any clues.

Ran 3DMark2001 yesterday lunchtime, all tests completed OK. Score was 603, (whatever that refers to).

Then left PC on all afternoon while I was back at work. Got home to find another BSOD, this time I could see the relevant line, which was IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL
Google suggested that pointed to RAM, CPU or NIC, with the RAM being highest on the list of suspects, but running MEMTEST on it for 6 hours last night did not uncover any errors, and AFAIR this is at least the third stick of RAM I've tried in it.

Will have to see if I can source some PC100/PC133 Ram chips somewhere (typical - had a box load until 3 months ago)

 

Fig,

I had the 'IRQL_LESS_THAN' problem a little while ago. Solved it by turning the swap file off, rebooting, then turning the swap file back on again (to clear the swap file, which had become corrupted).

Give that a go!

Daniel

 

Was yours on XP?

 

Fig,

Yup - Win XP Pro SP1 and all updates

Daniel

 

Cheers. Did that at lunchtime - wil see if its still working come home-time

 

get that exact same error when token ring cards at work are ******** the ethernet cards. Try disabling the NIC and leave it on for a few hours to see how it is, look for IRQ problems in device manager.

 

So far, so good

There are no device conflicts, but I noticed the NIC and graphics card share the same IRQ (11)

 

IRQ sharing isn't a problem these days, unless one of the devices goes T.U.

Maybe the next thing would be to swap the PSU?

 

try turning ACPI off in the bios, this will give all hardware it's own IRQ and will give more indication of what is causing the problem.

 

OK here's the latest....

It fell over again about 20 mins after my previous post. Since then, I have removed the NIC and soundcard, leaving the PC at barebones level (mobo, CPU, RAM, HD, graphics). As it's been crashing most days of late, I'll test it for 48 hours like that see how it goes before trying the other cards one at a time.

Already swapped it out for a brand new QuietPC one - no joy.

 

Got BSOD as barebones system, so must be driver related.

Format and reinstall time

 

Don't reformat just yet! Does it have a CD Writer??

Andy

 

Yes it does, but, alas, it's too late

What were you going to suggest?

 

ASPI drivers can usually cause what you were experiencing - i know they did to me! I updated mine and it fixed it.

Andy