What has happened to my baby?

[tzobal]

Hi all

Recently built a new machine:
ASrock P4VT8+
P4 Prescott 3.0Ghz (not overclocked)
512MB generic PC3200 RAM (also not overclocked)
Radeon A9200SE 128MB G-Card
Onboard sound
120GB SATA HDD

Everything has been going fine. From time to time I used to get a bsod with a message which I could not traced on the internet. It only appeared about four times in the last 2 months and after a re-boot everything went back to normal. I have recently got two messges regarding a corrupted file which, again, disappeared with no other indication of what was about to happen. Last thursday I kissed my baby good night, turned him off and when I tried to turn him on again the next day I got a message telling me that "\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CONFIG\SYSTEM" is missing or corrupt.

I know this message can show up if there are hardware issues but I thought I will try and repair the Windows installation anyway. When I chose to set-up windows (booting up to the installation cd-rom) I got a bsod with "registry error" message. So now I am a bit stuck and very concerned. How will I know which bit of my hardware is failing? BIOS recognises all my components and there are no problem during POST. RAM checks OK. I know this is a realy thick question but could it be that my CPU has had it?Could the PC go through all these stages without the CPU (run fron the BIOS chip?).

I am relly worried. It is one thing replacing a memory module. The CPU is bloody £130 quids worth.....

Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated.

Tzobal

[curtybob]

Try running MemTest86 to see if your RAM is bad. Generic RAM can cause lots of trouble... but it's so hard to pass up the price.

[tzobal]

Originally Posted by curtybob

Try running MemTest86 to see if your RAM is bad. Generic RAM can cause lots of trouble... but it's so hard to pass up the price.

Thanks CurtyBob.

So you do not think it is a fried CPU?

I am about to try Memtest.

Thanks again, tzamroor

[tzobal]

Originally Posted by tzobal

Thanks CurtyBob.

So you do not think it is a fried CPU?

I am about to try Memtest.

Thanks again, tzamroor

Just tried Memtest and the module passed all tests with no errors reported...

What the.....

[tzobal]

Just spoke to an engineer who suggested that memory tests are not always that definitive.
He said HDD failure could also be the cause. Thankfully I have a spare small HDD which I am going to try. Will update with results.....
Judging by symptoms, he did not think I am having problems with a dodgy CPU.

Wish me luck honey, I am going in

[focussed]

When you re-installed windows, did you remove the old one via the installation (by deleting & recreating the partition); or just install over the top of it? Unless you have no backup of you data, you should always delete the partition & start from scratch.

To test your hardware, you could download bart's pre installed environment (do a search for it). It's windows XP which boot's & runs entirely from a CD. I use this to confirm if a pc has a serious hardware problem; it's quicker than installing the OS again and has a number of diagnostic tools. It doesn't touch the hard drive at all; but the all the hard disks appear on there for you to browse.

[tzobal]

Right then - conclusions....

No hardware issues what-so-ever- PHEWWWWWW
Over panicked! no question about it….
But seriously, my windows installation got so corrupt that I could not even repair or re-install.
The only solution was to install another drive, boot to it, format the bad drive and then re-install windows on the ‘fresh’ drive.

Works a treat! SATA rocks!

Of course you can do the whole thing from DOS, with out installing another temporary drive, but I think it is a bit tricky with SATA drives.

Ta to all for help and support and shoulder to bite on……

Tzobal