[T3k]

I havent filled out my comp specs first so let me give the run down of those.

2.7ghz AMD processor, 2 GB RAM, Geforce 5200 256MB PCI card, 80 GB main HD, 120 GB secondary HD. 3 working fans.

Ok now my problem. About a week ago I started getting random blue screens, not very often but it would happen. They would say basically to restart if this was the first time ive seen it and they had a few error numbers which sadly I dont have as of right now. The were something along the lines of 6 or 7 0's then like 1 or 2 or 3 at the end. Several different codes.

Then I started gettting random lock ups two days ago. Mainly my system locked up when trying to load a game such as World of Warcraft or Command and Conquer 3, which worked fine 2 weeks ago. Then as of yesterday and today Im getting graphical glitches in games when they actually do load, graphical glitches otuside of games and Im locking up, restarting, and getting the blue screen quite often. From what I have guessed my graphics card is going bad, but I wanted to be sure. The fan on it stoped over a year ago but I added another fan to my pc short after its stop and I havent had problems till recently.

Also sometimes I seem to be able to run games while other times I dont. And when Im in its like a ticking time bomb till it restarts, locks up, or blue screens on me. Any help pointing to if it is indeed my graphics card or if it is something else would be wonderful.

[telegramsam]

Start with a memory test: http://www.memtest86.com/
Run it in excess of four hours.

Also run diagnostics on your hard drives. These are free from the manufacturer of the drives.

Get in the BIOS and check your temps --under Hardware Monitoring, if you have this option available...

Start with these things and see if any problems turn up..

BTW: You can get all of these apps for free from the vendors or get an ultimate boot CD that has all of them and lots more. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html
You have to make a bootable CD of this after downloading. It's completely free, and a very handy tool for users/techs.

[T3k]

Well I am about to check the tempature, but I cant do a mem test for 4 hours because my computer wont stay on for more than 1 hour with out blue screening, locking up , etc now. And my memory is 2 1GB sticks, so both wouldnt likely go bad at once would they? Also my burner doesnt work as of 4 weeks ago so I cant make the boot cd and surprisingly enough the only spare burner I have is also out of order..... =(. This comp has been fine up till now and in the last month everything has gone down hill at once lol.

Also my other 3 fans are working fine so if it would be overheating wouldnt it have overheated a year ago when I made the changes instead of now all the sudden?

[telegramsam]

It can suddenly start overheating. It happens.

Memtest86 works pre-OS, so it most likely won't crash.
And it doesn't have to be both of them to do this. It can be one error on one stick that causes things like this--especially if they're intermittent errors.

Try running one stick for a while. If the problem repeats, run the other for a while. That's a painless test.

You have to do these tests to even get a clue about what's wrong with your machine. The alternative is to start replacing parts until you figure out what it is. In my experience, you usually end up with a bunch of new parts in an old machine, and you've spent half of what a new machine would cost.

[T3k]

System temp was 37 degrees Celsius or 96-98 Farenheit

CPU temp was 33-34 degrees Celsisus or about 91 farenheit.

Thats all the temps by bios would give me.

I got mem test now on a floppy but wont be able to run it for some time. My father is d/ling and burning UBCD so I just have to go get it when its done. Hopefully this will tell me something. Now the boot cd program will just test everything on boot or do i have to go in and individually test everything?

Also, does this sound like a video card problem at all or not at all? I was just curious to see if i was way off base.

[T3k]

OK I let the mem test run for a few hours and the few times it completed the test cycles it came up with errors during test 5 of the 9 or 10 tests and only test 5.

the fail addresses were similar to 00000093c68 and 00000094ce3 so on. I can list them all if needed. It displayed errors down the screen to a total of 10 on screen that I wrote down and then it said like errors 37k in the upper corner of the screen. Im assuming this means one of my sticks of RAM is in turn bad then?

also most the errors had a good bad section the code under good was always fffffff8 and bad was always ffffff7f.
and Error Bits was almost always 00000080 except for one 00000400.

This is all a little above my direct understanding. =)

I tried running a harddrive test but then it said it was the linux version of the maxtor test and i should use the window version, but UBCD apparently doesnt have the Windows version of the Maxtor test or something?


Edit: Ive now done some CPU tests using UBCD and they all ran for a long while with out issues. I also did the Windows Memory Diagnostic and it completely passed all tests.

[telegramsam]

That's bad memory then. If memtest caught errors, that's gonna be the issue.

Use one stick at a time and boot the system and see if one or the other works well until you can replace it.

[T3k]

Ok Ive now pulled out one stick and done trials with each. I even put each one in each different expansion bay to test if my bays were bad. I had the problem all four ways, and 5 if you include with both in. Now my screen is twitching when i do things out of games to add to the problems Im having. Its like sliding to the left or right and scrambling then readjusting. Or it is going completely blank and coming back.

If its my memory it means both sticks went bad or both expansion bays went bad, but isnt that highly unlikely for both to go either way?

[telegramsam]

Well, all you can do now is test the memory in another machine to see if it's a motherboard problem.

What kind of motherboard do you have?

[jazz3000]

I'd think your hunch about the Graphics card having a problem is probably the right hunch. A graphics card with that much memory and no fan playing games can eventually warp and go by the wayside. I'd start there and make sure the errors in memory aren't a result of the first thought you had. Added fans are good but that board came with one for a reason. Luck Jazz

[T3k]

Motherboards are one area I have no idea about. The only things I can see on the board are MSI DDR and SiS 962LUA copyright SiS' 02 PNA4061 0331FA.

[telegramsam]

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

This will tell you.

[T3k]

Micro-Star Internation Co
Model: MS-7005
Chipset: SiS ID0651

Pretty much what it says