Having problems with my new computer bits the last week or so. Had issues with it BSODing when I first installed it but turned the memory timings to standard from turbo int he BIOS which sorted it.

 

Been away for the weekend and came back to the Windows boot sceen flashing like a disco when I turned it on and the mouse pointer was dancing around a bit. Turned it off with the power button and it shut itself down then when I turned it on it had to check the HDD.

 

Had a couple of HDD checks since then too when restarting/shutting down and just had a win32k.sys BSOD, something about a corrupt .ttf when logging in, had to reactivate Windows just now.

 

I'm guessing either HDD or RAM are at fault. I'm running 7x64 with no overclocking. Any ideas?

Another thing taht may be completelly unreated, Chrome tabs keep crashing which I'ev rearely had in the past. Quite often when I open a blank tab it says there's a problem, and ocasioanlyl with tabs already open.

I've heard that bad spelling is especially bad for Chrome - it really doesn't like poor grammar either and will throw a fit if one ends a sentence with a preposition.

 

Firefox doesn't like punctuation and IE will literally explode if you try to search for an interrobang.

 

As for your hardware related issues, it sounds like something's wrong and would need looking into.

 

I'd suggest looking into it.

 

Perhaps wear some glasses - that'd make looking into it clearer.

 

</being a twat>

I would suspect the RAM before the HDD.

You didn't buy high speed stuff that needs a higher voltage to obtain said speeds and forget to set the higher voltage in the BIOS / on the motherboard did you?

I have Corsair DDR PC1600 7-7-7-20 stuff that needs 1.65V instead of 1.5V otherwise I too suffer BSODs.

Fantasticaly helpful post, I will definitely look into it. Maybe my camera's macro adapter will help.

 

This keyboard is shit for typing :(

It's not high speed stuff, it's Corsair's value select range or 133333MHz RAM. Could maybe try upping the voltage just to see. If not I think it's gonna be an RMA for it as it's been dodgy since I got it.

I changed the voltage to 1.56V and it booted fine, restarted fine but soon gave another BSOD. Turned the computer off and on and the BIOS showed a message about a failed boot from clock/voltage fiddling. Changed to 1.65V and had a BSOD trying to boot.

 

I think the RAM is shit :(

Strangely I've been noticing that bouncing mouse pointer as a sign of infection.

Will it run long enough to scan it for a virus and root kit?

Have you tried running memtest &/or booting a live cd. Other things to check are overheating (dust/loose hsf), and hdd issue(s).

Yes. But only to the first one. But not since this particular BSOD starting happening. I ran memtest overnight which was fine. I might try that again though, even though changing the memory settings fixed it.

 

Temps are fine in the BIOS.

Might be worth doing a format/reinstall. I mean it could be RAM (or pretty much any other component really). But it also sounds like windows has fucked itself over at least a bit which is complicating things.

Did you install manufacturer's drivers for stuff rather than just the ones windows update supplies? I've had all sorts of problems relying on the WU drivers.

I'd do a fresh install, install all drivers from manufacturer's sites then see how it goes. If it's still BSODing then you can be reasonably sure it's something physical.

I was sat waiting for Windows Update to install some drivers yesterday on the new XP installs.....turns out one was the ethernet driver

 

I (fail)

 

:((

Just burn a memtest86+ CD and see if it brings up anything.

It wasn't jumping around the whole screen, just moving around a little with the flashing which I think was the screen/graphics card/something buggering up instead of software. I've never seen anything like it.

 

I jsut tried running MSSE and had a /different/ BSOD, something to do with memory_management. Last night I had a irql_not_less_or_equal.

 

Something's not right.

I don't really want to reinstall if I can help it. Maybe I could run a live CD of Ubuntu or something to see how that works out.

 

I'm pretty sure I installed all the drivers off the CD and graphics ones from AMD's site. WU may have updated some though, I can't remember.

:D

Does sound like dodgy memory.

Ant: :'D

Here's my flashing screen from last night. Looks liek a recording of a CRT but what you can see in the vid is exactly what was happening. I was walking past the room and the whole bedroom was flashing blue.

That's significantly fucked. Graphics card maybe then? Could be the RAM on that giving all these memory errors rather than the system RAM.

Very strange that was, and the only time it's done anything like that. Had no problem in games when it's been using the grpahics card, only when it's been sitting on the desktop but could be the graphiocsa card.

 

Can the i5 be used with a single stick of RAM? I could try that first, swapping between the two and then replace the graphics card with my old ATI one which I assume woyuld just work with the current AMD drivers installed.