Crash Problems :(

[balbrain]

Hey Guys! Can some one help me figure out why my computer keeps crashing?? I am averaging at least 2 crashes a day :(

It basically only happens when I am performing CPU/memory intensive operations like encoding or watching a DVD. When I am encoding and wanna use my computer, I have noticed a starnge thing - if I minimise or maximise a window then POOF comes the blue screen of death.

Watching DVD's outta a disk is OK. But when I make a playlist of VOB files to watch on WinDVD then it crashes every time it goes from one vob file to the next.

I am kinda lost to see why this is happening. I'd be grateful for any help to resolve this issue.

My System Specs : Intel P4 1.3 Ghz. Win XP Pro. 60 Gig HDD (8 Gig Free). 640 MB PC 600 RDRAM.

Thanx guys. :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Mac Sidewinder]

Could be a few things:

1. Make sure you have the latest drivers installed. Go through your hardware listing in the system menu and get updates for all if they exist. Especially your video drivers.

2. Make sure you have windows updated also. Use the window update option from the start menu.

3. Find a diagnostic program that will throughly check your ram and let it run for quite a while.

4. Run system checks on your hard drive (i.e. nortons disk doctor), defrag it.

5. If you have lately installed something new (either hardware or software) uninstall it and see if that fixes it. Especially if you were not crashing before that time.

6. Using a system monitor, see how maxed your system and cpu usage is right before it crashes.

This is just a few things to think about. I'm sure others have had this kind of prob and can assist you more. Good luck.

Mac

[tiki4]

... and if you've gone through all this, reinstall your Windows.

Make sure, that you just install the things you need for encoding and the other things you are usally doing. If that gives you back a stable system, you are lucky.

If not, well, there's always the hardware. RAM testing programs are quite O.K., but they often don't find a broken RAM module. Make sure that your CPU is not overheating. I think P4 can report their temperature and there are programs like Motherboard Monitor that are able to read that out...

There are lots of other things that can make problems, e.g. check that the cables to your drives are attached firmly on both ends, check if all your PCI cards and RAM modules are in their right places and so on. If there is broken hardware involved (random crashes sometimes point in that direction) than it is a real hassle to find out which part is broken.

Good luck!

tiki4

[balbrain]

Thanx for the suggestions. BTW can you guys suggest any good program for checking RAM thoroughly?

--balbrain

[tiki4]

I think doom9 himself had problems with broken RAM a while ago. So I suggest you take a short look around, as there was a lengthy discussion about RAM testing going on then. I think somewhere in the hardware or in the general discussion sections. Use the search button.


I just know of SiSoft Sandra as a starting point. Sorry, I don't have any more experience with that. Usually those programs only find some of the errors and some others stay undetected.

tiki4