Its official........

Well, it seems I have some serious problems with my computer.   No matter how many times I rebuild (two times in the last few months) everything gos corrupt.   I have even replaced hardware that I though might be causing IO errors: second 40 gig hard drive, DVD player, Cd burner.   At this point all I have that is original from the first time my computer bombed is the RAM, my newer 80 gig hard drive, Mother board and graphics card (sound built in mother board, invidia sound chip)

Here is some of my more recent experiences:

Installing Unreal2 (with only frustration and no luck):



after getting a number of errors such as the upper one I got this nice little treat, killing the install process:



Photoshop has been giving me a hell of a time also, I recieved this nice note while working on a texture:



And often Photoshop just die's right in the middle of a project with a variety of errors:



Here is my favorite error, after working on something for hours, tweaking it to get it as good as my experience will allow:



 

Pretty soon I won't be able to access anything again, I guess I'll have to just bite it and replace the ram and hard drive , any suggestions?   I don't think its any sort of worm or virus, I have exellent protection and always update XP.

 

 

 

i am running both XPhome and 2000pro, no not on same PC, and i have never seen any of those errors..

sorry ol man, i wish i could help..

short of a complete reformat and a clean install, i dunno what to say..

a reformat usually clears any woes...

i have a copy of partition magic 8 if you need to create a secure location to store everything for a re-format..

lemme know..

Unfortunatly I have compleatly whipped the hard drive a total of 4 times this year alone, what ever is causing the problem seems to be getting worse, everything was formatted and reinstalled just as the new site design kicked in (not too long ago).   Nothing in my computer is more than 8 months old other than my 1.4 processer .   It seems to be nearing the point of no return (I'm franticly backing up newer work on CD-Rs.).   It likes to restart randomly also.   As a matter of fact it restarted when I was trying to upload the second of the five images I posted.

Thanks for the space offer, I back everything up to a LAN based server though.

just guessing bud, but i think its a driver conflict issue..

maybe you might try a fresh start, and leave out the adobe... try a version of PSP, and work your way up to the messages return..

i can link you to PSP7 if you need to try the experiment..

betcha its a software conflict.. wanna lay odds?

Well, the problem is consistant with all Apps.   I get errors such as the first one posted everytime I install software.   For example I installed the game "Alice" about a week before UR2 and got errors saying things didn't match up properly.   Before my most recent rebuild I had problems with Max payne, Mafia, war craft 3, and again UR2 all crashing and closing out on me.   I didn't have the really bad errors in photoshop though. 

my god grim, 4 times this year? i feel for ya man...i blame bill gates...lol its always his fault :wink:

i would suggest in the future (after reformat and all) you stop visiting those trojan planting porn sites...just a suggestion MUAHAHA

Sinner_D said:
my god grim, 4 times this year? i feel for ya man...i blame bill gates...lol its always his fault :wink:

i would suggest in the future (after reformat and all) you stop visiting those trojan planting porn sites...just a suggestion MUAHAHA

I wish I could simply blame it on something like that but it definently isn't the case  (my REAL lady is good to me :wink: ).

Actually I am thinking it might be the RAM, maybe it's corrupting data, could it be posable that it would cause so much distruction?

GrimlocK said:

Sinner_D said:
my god grim, 4 times this year? i feel for ya man...i blame bill gates...lol its always his fault :wink:

i would suggest in the future (after reformat and all) you stop visiting those trojan planting porn sites...just a suggestion MUAHAHA

I wish I could simply blame it on something like that but it definently isn't the case  (my REAL lady is good to me :wink: ).

Actually I am thinking it might be the RAM, maybe it's corrupting data, could it be posable that it would cause so much distruction?

very slim to none chance, but they have great .. free ram testers at www.download.com

get you one.. i recommend .. http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=sandra&tg=dl-2001

Cool, thats exactly what I need, something to test my RAM, thanks

Incompatible ram most proberbly then. Check its compatibility, or check your network for a virus.

Perhaps you have an underpowered power box.  That'll kill computers for sure.  And if you cant solve your problem, instead of buying new parts and putting them in and having them not work, just build a new computer, save the case and monitor.

As well, check to make sure your RAM is supported by your board.  Does your board support SD or DDR, and up to how much?  Do you subject any of your equipement to magnetic fields, shock, or powersurges or lack of power.

One more thing to possibly check is flaky power. a friend of mine had weird software errors like this about a year ago. He also went through about 3 power supplies (good ones, not cheap POS ones).

Another friend tested the power coming into the house and it was determined that he had "dirty" power (flucuated a lot). He got a new top of the line power supply and a UPS with line conditioning and hasn't had a problem since. He did say though that the UPS beeps about 3 or 4 times a week indicating surges/brownouts!

It may not be the problem, but then it may be. Worth looking into maybe.

-Ryandor

Some images in this post have been automatically down-sized, click on them to view the full sized versions:

Some images in this post have been automatically down-sized, click on them to view the full sized versions:

Well, I downloaded a testing app "Burnintest" from the site Orpheus suggested.

I ran it twice testing the ram, here are my results (nearly the same both times):

 





 

 

It has to be the ram going bad, I am going to run more tests to be sure though.   I would just scrap it and start over but I have some very expensive hardware, mainly the mother board and the graphics card being the most expensive.

I know the ram is all correct, my brother who works in IT gave me some help in finding the right stuff back in Feb when I bought the new motherboard.

 

 

if you have more than one bank.. try this..

1)remove one then another..

2)never assume its bad, i had a network card glitch today.. it was dust.. i blew it off and reinserted it.. now works at 100%

3) better to run with less ram that is good, than more ram and one bank is defective..

never-ever assume electronics is defective.. clean it first.

I have 2 256 Meg RAM moduals, I'll try and run the test on each of them, maybe I'll be able to figure out which one is bad.

GrimlocK said:
I have 2 256 Meg RAM moduals, I'll try and run the test on each of them, maybe I'll be able to figure out which one is bad.

"IF" .. dont assume one is defective..

you might get off lucky, just swapping banks :smile:

I hope you are right, if not I'll replace the bad and up my ram to a gig.   Or just up the ram anyway IF I can find the REAL problem.

I think RAM is the least reliable componant in any computer. it's the first thing I check when I encounter problems... somthing that rarely happens because I bought a dell with a warenty.

Seriously, I know you can save money by building the system yourself, but is it really worth the headaches? most people I've ever heard complaining about comp glitches had built their own machiene.

I'm starting to hate PCs. :crash:  They just keep giving me errors and stop running at any time. Luckely I was wise enough to buy a PS2. :razz:  I don't have any problem with it, I just had to get used to the controls.

-He, another stupid thing of Windows (spits on the floor ?ause he said Windows). Try making a map with the name "con". You won't succeed. Bwwahaa, Windows (bluw) is dumb.

grimlock, i downloaded the program you listed, and compared it to the one i posted, you should consider trying mine..

i wont say yours is less, but it didn't seem to do as good as sandra..

still couldn't hurt to run both programs..

BTW, my old PIII 450 is 100% using yours :smile:

Krogoth said:
-He, another stupid thing of Windows (spits on the floor ?ause he said Windows). Try making a map with the name "con". You won't succeed. Bwwahaa, Windows (bluw) is dumb.

Meh, you can't save/open 'LPT1', 'COM1', 'PRN' and a few others in any windows applications because they're reserved 'places' that filenames can't use and would confuse it- e.g. 'copy filename.txt lpt1' would send that file to lpt1 (the printer or something), instead of to a file named that...

Oye.... yea, ram is a definate bitch.  I agree with tracer when he says that ram is the least reliable!! GRRRR I DISLIKE RAM... If you get new ram, get Corsair. I can't recall having ONE problem with corsiar. btw, What are your specs, grim?

GrimlocK said:
I have 2 256 Meg RAM moduals, I'll try and run the test on each of them

Errr, have you checked the memory BIOS settings ? they usually auto-detect ok but you never know, out of whack settings can give intermittent problems.

ttfn

Thanks for the advice, if you guys think it might help I Can get the hardware info IE: exact mother board # and which company made the ram ect, should matter though I imagine.  

The mother board is 8X AGP and so is my invidia Ti 4200 8xAGP.   The board was released in January so it has most of the latest features available for mother boards such as fire wire and usb 2.0, 512 MB ram (the staples brand) 233mhz though board supports 333mhz ram and up to 3 gigs.   1.39 ghz ADM Atholon processer (mother board supports fastest available processer) and a sony cd/ cd-r/ cd-rw/ dvd drive combo (no 3.5 floppy)

 

Edit: thanks Orpheus, I am going to try your suggestion tomarrow after work

Bewbies said:
Oye.... yea, ram is a definate bitch.  I agree with tracer when he says that ram is the least reliable!! GRRRR I DISLIKE RAM... If you get new ram, get Corsair. I can't recall having ONE problem with corsiar. btw, What are your specs, grim?

Bah, get Corsair if you have money flowing out of your arse...but I personally suggest Micron/Crucial. I've made many a system with Micron RAM and have never encountered any problems...and they don't cost your arm, leg and 4 fingers.