Crashing

"Edit" won't work so replying...


Ran the System Restore Wizard - there are no restore points other than yesterday to restore to, although it is and has been set to set restore points automatically (daily). Maximum space is allowed for restore points - er that's over 12Gigs...

Lots of fluff around the memory dimm, which is slot 3 of 3 (OK??). Took it out and wiped edge connector with meths, blew lots of fluff out, put back in same slot.

Power supply fan and CPU fan seem fine, though I see there's another fan sitting in the bottom of the box not plugged in. Box is about 500 high, that fan is down where there's space for about 3 or 4 more 3.5 inch drives.

Have had the pc off much of the day to cool, with sides off.

Bootlog.txt referred to in post above isn't for XP, which instead has (if I get it right) NTBTLOG This has hundreds of entries of things which did and also did not run - whether that's by design or fault I don't know. Most of them don't mean anyting to me.

The PC is now taking well over a minute with "Windows is starting up" on the screen - which it never used to. Eventakes this long in safe mode. Possibly things are failing and timing out?

Remembered there's an extra net card installed. The instant I disabled it in device manager , crash! May or may not be coincidence. Later:- might have been the wrong one :oops: will try the other one later!

CLicked C: properties- tools-check the disk (can't quote it correectly and don't want to look for fear of making it too busy!!) with both boxes ticked. Took ages so didnlt watch it all. Left it checking the empty space , when I came back the pc had rebooted so didn't see any report.

More often than not it does eventually "come up" ok, but if I do anything which makes it busy it crashes. Copying a load of files will do it - usually.

Auto updates from MS are enabled but doing a manual check made it crash.

Will now try Safe + net mode to see if it crashes. I bet it will.

I'm told there are memory checking utilities which check all combinations - all 0's., all 1's , AAAA/5555 etc - anyone know where?


Later - Result, of a sort. In Safe + Network mode, stooging around the MS site made it crash. In safe mode, tried copying 2000+ files, can't make it crash at all.So now what?
 
For memory checking utilities, simply google memory check utility, and take your pick, I've never used any of them as I've not needed to. Memory being a solid state device is very robust, and seldom fails, that's not to say it can't though!
 
Hit a bit of an impasse with this. CANNOT make it crash in safe mode but it will in safe + network. There's a nic not in use - was intended for conection to another pc - but if I disable it in Device Manager , no net access. Have tried both cards, independently!

Also why should it be taking over a minute to get through "win is starting up" even in safe mode. What's it DOING! 48 processes running, when its all up.
 
press ctrl+alt+del once it should show what is operating / running.

if i were you, i would bite the bullit and format the hd
 
I don't understand why disabling the unused NIC should cause your internet to stop. Are they configured as a bridge perhaps? If so, delete the bridge from network connections.

The unused NIC will broadcast it's presence several times before deciding that it is not connected. This is a common cause of delays at boot time. If you cannot disable the NIC successfully, remove it for now.

Windows uses lots of processes, so 48 is probably not unreasonable.

Edit.

Why are you using a second NIC anyway? I though you were using a router.
 
It was the MB. PC shop it all came from changed it. Somehow the HD had got upset too, which was causing the 90 second "Windows is starting up" which they couldn't fathom, so formatted it.
New NEC 4550 DVDRw £40,
extra 512 DDR £40,
new Gigabyte 865PE GA81PE 1000 MB £60
reloaded XP and restored outlook exp files.
Labour £29
All inc vat
Which I though sounded good.
 
That's a good price for what you had done, since the time when a PC is simply a chuck away job is rapidly approaching, if not already upon us.
 
I don't know if this is any use.
I use a memory tester that comes as part of the Mandriva Linux installation disk. I think most Linux disks include it.

To obtain it you need to either download the iso image and burn it to a CD (just under 700 MB) or you can buy a cheap CD from an online store.

Run google for Mandriva Linux download sites and UK online stores that sell cheap CDs.
 
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