How to diagnose failing PC

[Tom McClelland]

I have a PC (Dell Precision) that crashes with BSOD every few days. It has always done this at least monthly, but just recently it has upped its game and rarely goes for a day without falling over. (coincidentally I did a big SP download a few days ago, and it seems to have got substantially worse since then)

All service packs and updates and drivers are fully up to date as far as I am aware.

I've tried memory tests for a couple of hours but at the weekend I'm going to leave the W7 memory test soaking over the weekend.

Is there any way of diagnosing the crash dumpfiles to work out what is actually failing?

 

[Jaytag Computer]

A PC randomly crashing often isn't just the memory. It could also be the Power Supply (PSU) that is going wrong.

Do you have a spare one that you can test? Sadly, power supply testers (available at Maplin and elsewhere) aren't that reliable as the PSU must be tested under load - that means when it is in use!

 

[WebSensei]

You probably have already tried this, but just in case. Try booting in 'safe mode' and see if this makes any difference. Whilst in safe mode, run any virus/spyware tools as a precaution.

Have you added/removed any hardware recently? It could be an I/O conflict.

Have you tried changing BIOS settings to 'default' / 'optimised'?

That BSOD can be a right SH*T!!!

 

[Tom McClelland]

Thanks very much for that I hadn't thought of an experimental run in safe mode.

Bizarrely, after crashing about 4 times in 2 hours this morning it has then run all afternoon with zero issues. Unless it starts crashing incessantly again I won't know if safe mode makes any difference unless I tolerate the feebleness of safe mode for some time.

I haven't changed any hardware in it since it was purchased, except early on it had a couple of drive failures which I replaced (luckily it has RAID redundancy)

I have pondered removing the graphics card and running on one monitor for a while. I hadn't thought of the power supply, which was stupid of me, because the last time I had an annoying PC problem that *was* the power supply, I discovered in the end. (after swapping out every component, one by one)

 

[mit74]

Thanks very much for that I hadn't thought of an experimental run in safe mode.

Bizarrely, after crashing about 4 times in 2 hours this morning it has then run all afternoon with zero issues. Unless it starts crashing incessantly again I won't know if safe mode makes any difference unless I tolerate the feebleness of safe mode for some time.

I haven't changed any hardware in it since it was purchased, except early on it had a couple of drive failures which I replaced (luckily it has RAID redundancy)

I have pondered removing the graphics card and running on one monitor for a while. I hadn't thought of the power supply, which was stupid of me, because the last time I had an annoying PC problem that *was* the power supply, I discovered in the end. (after swapping out every component, one by one)

Yeh I would say PSU is prime suspect followed by gfx card then motherboard but def sounds like a h/w problem if it's gradually got worse over time.

 

[jimm]

Anything in the event viewer?
When it crashes is it a stop error? If so which number?

 

[Signify_1]

What make of hard drive have you got, have you tried hard drive tests to see if you have a faulty drive because this can be a cause of blue screens.

Taz

 

[5wire]

Hey,

Have you tried searching the error the BSOD spits out? Usually the .dmp files are located in the systems root folder.

It could be a number of things really.. how much RAM are you running in your PC? I ask as Windows is quite demanding and I found on an old PC that if the RAM availability isn't there and you launch a powerful application it just lags out then finally BSOD'.

If it is RAM, I tend to find it is continual BSOD's as such, but then it could be something like dust on the connectors, it might be worth taking one stick out and trying to run windows, then putting it back in and taking another stick out, if you have 4 DDR2 ports, which two are free try swapping them round.

How old is your hard-drive? I've only experienced hard-drive death through them running like crap rather than Windows kicking out BSODs.

They are a few ideas but until you check the .dmp file & checkout the given error code on the BSOD page.

 

[Tom McClelland]

Hey,

Have you tried searching the error the BSOD spits out? Usually the .dmp files are located in the systems root folder.

It could be a number of things really.. how much RAM are you running in your PC? I ask as Windows is quite demanding and I found on an old PC that if the RAM availability isn't there and you launch a powerful application it just lags out then finally BSOD'.

If it is RAM, I tend to find it is continual BSOD's as such, but then it could be something like dust on the connectors, it might be worth taking one stick out and trying to run windows, then putting it back in and taking another stick out, if you have 4 DDR2 ports, which two are free try swapping them round.

How old is your hard-drive? I've only experienced hard-drive death through them running like crap rather than Windows kicking out BSODs.

They are a few ideas but until you check the .dmp file & checkout the given error code on the BSOD page.

It is a 1yo 6gb workstation. I've got lots of the dmp files but I don't know how to get windbg to make sense of them because it just complains that I don't have the symbol files when I load the dmp file.

twin RAID redundant hard drives, both HDDs have been swapped without the problem being affected.

There isn't a gfx port on the MOBO so I need to slot in a replacement gfx to isolate that possibility (until I checked I assumed that there would be a VGA port on the MOBO).

The BSOD shows MEMORY_FAULT, but I just ran the w7 extended memory test overnight without any issues, and then within 15 minutes of starting W7 up the PC fails again.

(I think MEMORY_FAULT isn't the exact words, but in my advanced state of senility I forgot the exact words in the 5 minutes between reading the BSOD and typing this).

EDIT Just failed again with IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL

 

[Tom McClelland]

BAD_POOL_ERROR this time...

 

[WebSensei]

The BSOD shows MEMORY_FAULT, but I just ran the w7 extended memory test overnight without any issues, and then within 15 minutes of starting W7 up the PC fails again.

(I think MEMORY_FAULT isn't the exact words, but in my advanced state of senility I forgot the exact words in the 5 minutes between reading the BSOD and typing this).

EDIT Just failed again with IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL

I would not rely on any 'Windows' own diagnostic tools. To test the memory use Memtest (memtest_dot_org) I can't post links yet. It runs on bootup in DOS, and is probably one of the most accurate tests available.

It looks like you will have to test each component in turn

 

[mit74]

with such random errors I would say motherboard is failing but you're just going to have to replace each component to find out. How did safe mode go?

 

[WebSensei]

'IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL' & 'BAD_POOL_ERROR' usually relates to a hardware issue/device drivers.

Are you using any plug&play devices? i.e. external HD, modem etc

 

[Tom McClelland]

Well, this is interesting. As per a suggestion further up I started the PC up in safe mode after the 4th failure in an hour this morning.

Since then it has functioned flawlessly with networking and a single monitor running @1920x1200.

Am I right in thinking that implies (as others have suggested) software driver problems rather than strict hardware issues. So at least one of my devices (I'm running with the gfx card as the chief suspect) has a buggy driver?

 

[WebSensei]

This is what I would do:

1. Use memtest for a 'quick pass' - the other tests will take hours, but any big errors will be spotted in the shorter tests.

2. Unplug any unneccessary external devices.

3. Run the PC in Safe Mode with Networking, so you still have internet access if needed.

4. Run any antivirus/spyware programs you may have.

5. Download 'Tune-Up Utilities' free trial - this will check your registry for any errors.

If still causing problems - test removable hardware (PSU, Memory, HDD, GFX etc)

The last resort - backup important data and do a clean install of the OS. It could be a software/device driver issue which is affecting hardware.

 

[WebSensei]

Well, this is interesting. As per a suggestion further up I started the PC up in safe mode after the 4th failure in an hour this morning.

Since then it has functioned flawlessly with networking and a single monitor running @1920x1200.

Am I right in thinking that implies (as others have suggested) software driver problems rather than strict hardware issues. So at least one of my devices (I'm running with the gfx card as the chief suspect) has a buggy driver?

Yes, its a software/driver/registry issue. Are you using 32bit or 64bit? 64bit can have problems with drivers which are 'ported' 32bit drivers.

"There isn't a gfx port on the MOBO so I need to slot in a replacement gfx to isolate that possibility (until I checked I assumed that there would be a VGA port on the MOBO)."

What does this mean? How have you added a gfx card if there is no slot? Also, If your mobo has onboard graphics, have you changed the BIOS setting to your added card?

 

[Tom McClelland]

Yes, its a software/driver/registry issue. Are you using 32bit or 64bit? 64bit can have problems with drivers which are 'ported' 32bit drivers.

"There isn't a gfx port on the MOBO so I need to slot in a replacement gfx to isolate that possibility (until I checked I assumed that there would be a VGA port on the MOBO)."

What does this mean? How have you added a gfx card if there is no slot? Also, If your mobo has onboard graphics, have you changed the BIOS setting to your added card?

The MOBO doesn't have onboard graphics AFAICS, because there is no port on the back of it to plug into. I'm just not used to that. THe gfx card is in a normal PCI card of some kind that goes in one of the MOBO slots.

 

[WebSensei]

The MOBO doesn't have onboard graphics AFAICS, because there is no port on the back of it to plug into. I'm just not used to that. THe gfx card is in a normal PCI card of some kind that goes in one of the MOBO slots.

Maybe try looking for updated drivers, or use a spare card if you have one. If you started getting errors after installing thecard or updating driver's, then you can assume this is the cause.

However, it doesn't explain why the gfx card works fine in Safe Mode, unless you have some other software/driver related to it which has been disabled via Safe Mode.

What is the exact make & model of your PC?

 

[Tom McClelland]

Maybe try looking for updated drivers, or use a spare card if you have one. If you started getting errors after installing thecard or updating driver's, then you can assume this is the cause.

However, it doesn't explain why the gfx card works fine in Safe Mode, unless you have some other software/driver related to it which has been disabled via Safe Mode.

What is the exact make & model of your PC?

I've always had the card, and I've always had the problems. But the problems got a *lot* worse this week after a WU download, which I noticed at the time included updated card drivers.

The PC is Dell Precision T1500 with i7 processor @2.8GHz & 6GbRAM

I am on W7 x64, and the card is Nvidia Quadro NVS 295 (I wanted a silent fanless card that would drive normal Windows graphics on 2x 1920x1200 monitors)

Could it be heat issues on the card. Maybe just one monitor isn't so trying for it so that's why it isn't failing now. I also think that maybe safe mode didn't load nearly so much NVIDIA gubbins.

 

[Tom McClelland]

I've noticed that the sound drivers (standard MOBO, not anything special) don't work in safe mode so I guess I should suspect them too since safe mode appears to be problem free. Apart from that the PC has very few add-ons or peripherals.

 

[WebSensei]

Try to 'rollback' the driver, or download a 64bit driver from the official Nvidia site. Any 64bit OS is notorious for driver compatability issues - manufacturer's are still concentrating on the 32bit market (lot more users) and tend to modify existing 32bit drivers rather than creating new ones. I sometimes have issues with MS hardware using MS 64bit drivers

Heat issues should not be a problem, unless you are gaming/overclocking or using intesive graphic applications. Some of the Nvidia drivers have temperature 'monitors' built-in, or you can dowload 'GPU-z' to monitor your temps.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

[Tom McClelland]

AFter a full day of easy "Safe" operation downloaded latest NVS drivers from Quadro and installed them, started up in normal mode, disabled "monitor 2" just in case, and within 15 minutes the system failed again.

Back running in safe mode again now.

I think I'll have a dig around to see if I can find an alternative gfx card to install to see if that makes the problem go away.

If I want to try buying a replacement gfx card can anyone recommend a fanless multi-monitor pci16 card (doesn't need to be high gaming or CAD performance) that will support 2 hdmi monitors @1920x1200? solid S7 X64 drivers a must!

 

[WebSensei]

If your problems are being caused by a software/os/driver issue, buying a new card could be an unneccessary expense. The same issue could cause a similar malfunction in the new card. You need to ensure its not a software related problem first.

If you have drive imaging software (like Acronis) you can image your existing drive(s), perform a clean install and test the system. If the problem occurs again, remove the offending card, re-image back to the old system, and change card. Or just backup all important files/settings and clean install.

Can you not borrow or ebay for a similar card just for testing?

Best of luck.

 

[Tom McClelland]

If your problems are being caused by a software/os/driver issue, buying a new card could be an unneccessary expense. The same issue could cause a similar malfunction in the new card. You need to ensure its not a software related problem first.

If you have drive imaging software (like Acronis) you can image your existing drive(s), perform a clean install and test the system. If the problem occurs again, remove the offending card, re-image back to the old system, and change card. Or just backup all important files/settings and clean install.

Can you not borrow or ebay for a similar card just for testing?

Best of luck.

At the moment I'm thinking of digging a card out of a little-used PC to see if I can run it in the workstation and the problems go away. For a little while I can survive without twin monitor support, for example.

If doing that narrows it down to the NVS card or software I can either try a different NVS card or see if one of the other manufacturers has a similar fanless business-oriented offering.

But first things first, I'll see if a replacement old card works.

 

[WebSensei]

Having googled 'Nvidia Quadro NVS 295 win7 64 bsod' there seems to be many issues with this card. Have a look at some of the forum posts, and see if they were having similar issues to you, and any solutions they might of found.

A few months back I had to uninstall a wireless card from my PC (Win7 64) because it would not work. The retail box had the 'Windows 7 Ready' logo on it. It was only when I did some research on other forums, that I discovered it's 'Not Yet Windows 7 Ready'. Replaced it with a different manufacturer and that worked fine!

 

[Tom McClelland]

Well, that's interesting. One of those links specifically claims to fix w7 x64 issues between NVS295 and Dell T1500, so I'll give it a try.

 

[ORDERED WEB]

Bare bones the board - that is pull out all cards and devices that are not needed to boot it

i.e. 1 stick of ram, onboard sound, GFX.. (if you have it) Unplug all the SATA IDE devices except for the main HDD and restart the system.

If you are lucky, it will be fine. whatever happens, if it is fine or if it crashes swap out a memory module etc.. keep adding components untill it crashes. By elimination you will find the culprit

one thing to also consider is reseating all the components (including the processor) DO NOT remove the heatsink from the processor. If you do, you will need to replace the thermal paste

check this:

There should be no dust between the cooling fins on the heatsinks on the processor, the heatsinks on the motherboard and the heatsinks on the GFX card

 

[Tom McClelland]

OK, last night I disabled the NVS295 video driver and ran the PC in normal mode. No dice, crashed within 10 minutes. Grrr.

I found a reference on the internet to someone who bought 5 Dell PCs with an identical OS/Spec to mine (even down to using VS2008) and complains that they all crash, repeatedly.

Following the advice in the previous post, the PC is pretty bare-bones already. Just 2 disk redundant drive array, monitor, keyboard, mouse, network connection. About the only thing I can remove and still have a working PC is some of the RAM, so I've reduced it to 2GB. And so far it has run for 90 minutes in normal mode without crashing, which is longer than it managed for the last couple of days.... spooky considering Safe Mode was fine and the memory tests were trouble-free.... but could just be coincidence. I'll use it a day before I try anything more.

 

[ORDERED WEB]

OK

If you suspect the memory, you will need to swap it about a bit to isolate the offending module. The action of reseating them might also help. Also - before popping anything back in, carefully wipe the contacts with a soft cotton cloth

One issue I have seen is expansion (heat) causing one of 2 things to happen

1. cause a short on the casing (usually the mobo and not likely in this case)
2. cards/memory modules to unseat themselves (often its only a slight move that manages to cause the issue

 

[RemoteTechs]

IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL normally means incompatible or faulty hardware, from experience its normally RAM.
Double check the error is not: Driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL this is incompatible or incorrect drivers.
Try to re-seat your RAM if you are comfortable with doing so.
If the machine is running ok in safe mode I would suggest its driver related update all of your drivers, not just the graphics card, it could well be something to do with the chip set drivers for the board.

 

[pchealer]

If your PC is blue screening instead of guessing what could be causing it I would suggest you run whocrashed from here http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed it will download the Official Microsoft Symbols and try to pin point the precise cause of it. This would be your first step in my opinion. Post back here the results

 

[Tom McClelland]

If your PC is blue screening instead of guessing what could be causing it I would suggest you run whocrashed from here http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed it will download the Official Microsoft Symbols and try to pin point the precise cause of it. This would be your first step in my opinion. Post back here the results

It chose to show 15 of the 51 crash dumps of which I'm quoting some here... I'm not sure what I learned, if anything. I don't know if the diversity of the errors more points towards bad RAM or a bad driver, or something else...

[FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]On Wed 4/20/2011 7:49:22 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\042011-19422-02.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]ntoskrnl.exe[/FONT] (nt+0x80640)
Bugcheck code: 0xA (0xFFFFFA8013067010, 0x2, 0x1, 0xFFFFF80002D872A6)
Error: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL[/FONT]
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft® Windows® Operating System[/FONT]
company: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft Corporation[/FONT]
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
[/FONT]

[FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]On Wed 4/20/2011 6:56:10 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\042011-19141-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]ntoskrnl.exe[/FONT] (nt+0x80640)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x5002, 0xFFFFF70001080000, 0xB9F1, 0x12002332FFFFFFFE)
Error: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]MEMORY_MANAGEMENT[/FONT]
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft® Windows® Operating System[/FONT]
company: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft Corporation[/FONT]
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
[/FONT]

[FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]On Wed 4/20/2011 6:02:11 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\042011-23556-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]ntoskrnl.exe[/FONT] (nt+0x80640)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF80002C91565, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Error: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED[/FONT]
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft® Windows® Operating System[/FONT]
company: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft Corporation[/FONT]
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
[/FONT]

[FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]On Wed 4/20/2011 4:57:11 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\042011-17394-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]ntoskrnl.exe[/FONT] (nt+0x80640)
Bugcheck code: 0x50 (0xFFFFEF8011C4B008, 0x1, 0xFFFFF8800161F70D, 0x7)
Error: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA[/FONT]
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft® Windows® Operating System[/FONT]
company: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft Corporation[/FONT]
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that invalid system memory has been referenced.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
[/FONT]

[FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]On Wed 4/20/2011 3:05:00 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\042011-19390-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]ntoskrnl.exe[/FONT] (nt+0x80640)
Bugcheck code: 0x3B (0xC0000005, 0xFFFFF80002D9AF49, 0xFFFFF88008C99E10, 0x0)
Error: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION[/FONT]
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft® Windows® Operating System[/FONT]
company: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft Corporation[/FONT]
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that an exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
[/FONT]

[FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]On Wed 4/20/2011 8:03:22 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\042011-16239-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]ntoskrnl.exe[/FONT] (nt+0x80640)
Bugcheck code: 0xA (0xFFFFDA8014526984, 0x2, 0x1, 0xFFFFF80002CE4C81)
Error: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL[/FONT]
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft® Windows® Operating System[/FONT]
company: [FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]Microsoft Corporation[/FONT]
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Segoe UI, Arial]
[/FONT]

 

[pchealer]

Agreed not too helpful sometimes It will point to a particular driver failing but clearly not in this case:

'Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time. '

If it was my PC I would be re-installing Windows on it as a clean install then you will rule out any software driver issues. If is still blue screens after then you know you have a hardware issue.

To be honest you would be better off taking the PC to an expert to fix as you will always get different and conflicting options on tech forums! If you are from around hampshire let me know!

You could also try running http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html blue screen viewer but ive never found it as good as whocrashed. Have you run the full Dell Diagnostics? (F12 at start up then clicking on diagnostics) im asuming you still have the Dell partition installed still.

 

[Tom McClelland]

Now running normal mode for last 4 hours without probs with 2GB RAM installed, and with NVS driver disabled. Not sure whether to put more RAM back in next or to reinstate graphics driver next.

 

[Tom McClelland]

If it was my PC I would be re-installing Windows on it as a clean install then you will rule out any software driver issues. If is still blue screens after then you know you have a hardware issue.

To be honest you would be better off taking the PC to an expert to fix as you will always get different and conflicting options on tech forums! If you are from around hampshire let me know!

I had the problem right from the start, when the PC came out of the box. It has just got more irritatingly frequent recently, so I'm not convinced that a windows reinstallation is likely to solve anything.

Also it will take me about 2-3 days to get everything about the PC set up the way I like it after a clean install. I'd rather just buy a new PC unless I was certain that the windows reinstall was going to fix anything.

I hadn't thought of F12. I'll give that a try.

 

[Tom McClelland]

OK, Got a quiet 5 minutes, so reinstalled latest NVS gfx drivers and rebooted PC still with same 2GB RAM. Driving just one monitor on for the moment so I'm only changing one thing at a time.

If it works like this for a few hours I'll swap over the RAM stick next so I'm still running with 2GB but with a different stick.

 

[pchealer]

I had the problem right from the start, when the PC came out of the box. It has just got more irritatingly frequent recently, so I'm not convinced that a windows reinstallation is likely to solve anything.

Also it will take me about 2-3 days to get everything about the PC set up the way I like it after a clean install. I'd rather just buy a new PC unless I was certain that the windows reinstall was going to fix anything.

I hadn't thought of F12. I'll give that a try.

Well if you had the problem right from the start why didn't you send the PC back to Dell? there basic warranty is a year.

Its fair enough you personally don't want to re-install Windows but trust me sometimes thats the only way. If you where to take you PC to any PC shop there is a limited time and effort they can take trying to fix one PC.

It is your PC and you sound like you have some spare time to try to get to the bottom of the problem but the fact is it could be any of the drivers on the PC possibly causing the problem. It is just pot luck if you find the faulty one thats why you run tools to read the mini dumps.

People often tell me "oh ill just buy a new PC" but then they haven't figured out how they will migrate all there data across.


I would run the full Dell diagnostics by press F12 it will take several hours to do a full scan (this is a hardware scan).

Its simple logic it can only be one or the other hardware or software problem by re-installing windows you are removing the software out of the possibilities.

Good Luck

 

[Tom McClelland]

Well if you had the problem right from the start why didn't you send the PC back to Dell? there basic warranty is a year.

Because, as I've said, initially the problem was only once or twice a month, and I discovered it after I'd already invested the initial 2-3 days setting the PC up.

Its fair enough you personally don't want to re-install Windows but trust me sometimes thats the only way. If you where to take you PC to any PC shop there is a limited time and effort they can take trying to fix one PC.

I'm well aware of that, but I'm not 100% convinced that the 3 days I'd spend reinstalling windows and getting all my apps back on again would fix the problem so I'm reluctant to invest that time

It is your PC and you sound like you have some spare time to try to get to the bottom of the problem but the fact is it could be any of the drivers on the PC possibly causing the problem. It is just pot luck if you find the faulty one thats why you run tools to read the mini dumps.

I don't really have time, but I also don't have time for the alternatives... rock, meet hard place. As it happens since I reduced to 2GB RAM the PC hasn't crashed once today (yesterday it was lasting about 15 minutes on average)

People often tell me "oh ill just buy a new PC" but then they haven't figured out how they will migrate all there data across.

The data isn't the issue for me, it is the set up of the apps that will take me 2-3 days. The data would take about 20 minutes.

I would run the full Dell diagnostics by press F12 it will take several hours to do a full scan (this is a hardware scan).

That sounds like a great idea that you suggested, and I will do it overnight tonight.

Its simple logic it can only be one or the other hardware or software problem by re-installing windows you are removing the software out of the possibilities.

Good Luck

Thanks very much for your help. I'm not intending to be argumentative, just to explain my position.

 

[pchealer]

Something else you could consider after running the Dell Diagnostics is buying another cheap hard disk installing that and installing Windows onto it then you wouldn't loose any data then you would be able to tell if it was a software driver causing the issue with I strongly suspect is.

 

[Tom McClelland]

OK, After several days of flawless operation with 2GB I've reinstalled another 2GB stick, in the slot next to the first one. Let's see how that goes. Is there any significance in the colour of the plastic of the RAM slots on the MOBO? They are alternate blue and black in this PC.

I suspect that if all works well I won't be tempted to return the final stick, because I'm unconvinced that I'd notice a significant benefit 99% of the time.

There are lots of references to best practice being using this type of memory in pairs anyway, so I'm not sure why Dell's original max spec when I purchased this PC was for 3x2Gb sticks.

EDIT: Incidentally the F12 tests didn't turn up anything wrong.