Hardware problem?

So yesterday I try and boot up the computer, but it makes a beeping noise (one) and the monitor fails to be recognized. I decide to move my ram (2 sticks) to the Dimm 2 and Dimm 3 spots instead of where they used to be, Dimm 1 and Dimm 2, I boot up, and the monitor is recognized again. However, I get windows wasn't shut down properly message, I go with normal startup, and it freezes during the windows loading bar. I restart, choose safe mode, restart once in safe mode, and I am able to get it working. Next I noticed that my sound wasn't working, check my device manager and see that the Creative game Port and main Audigy driver's aren't installed properly now. So I reinstall the audigy drivers, which worked, and then try the game port but it won't install. After trying many times I look around to the net to see what the problem could be, and decide to look in the BIOS. I see that onboard game port is disabled so I enable it, try to install the driver but it still won't work, so I went back into BIOS and disabled it again to be safe. Frusterated and getting late I went to bed. This morning I try and boot up again and it freezes during the loading screen again. After going to safe mode and restarting a few times over it finally works. Now my question is, is my sound card defective and could that be causing XP to freeze? And What did switching my ram slots have to do with all this?

 

Bad computer memory is one of the three main reasons for random system failures.. the other two are heat (usually
caused by fans or heatsinks being blocked with dust) or power issues...
first...

lets make sure its not your memory going bad...get memtest +

here....

the lowdown is here..

if you have a floppy drive you can get the 6th one down ...set the bios to boot from the floppy drive A:

first...then the cd drive then the Hard drive C:
or you can get the 2nd one down and burn the ISO file to a cd and then boot it from the cd drive...

if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go

here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso

burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its memtest86.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....


let memtest run for at least 2 hours...if it starts showing any errors during that time then you will have

to replace the RAM...no errors after 2 hours just press Esc to end the tests and we will try some other

tests


go here and get everest home...install and

launch it...click the + by computer...click on sensor...post the info so I can check your temps and voltages...

 

I ran the memtest, no errors in over 2 hours, 3 passes.

Here's my voltage info from Everest:

 

your temps and voltage look good...
your not overclocking are you...
go in the device manager...look for any yellow ! marks or ? marks ...
also look in the event viewer for errors (system) there

 

Nope not overclocking, the only yellow mark is the SB Audigy Game Port which I already talked about, sound still not working btw. I'm really confused now, why would switching ram slots make the comp run if there is nothing wrong with the ram, and why would my sound card stop working all of a sudden? Also, I checked the event viewer and the most frequent system error I'm getting is ati2mtag, which means something's up with the graphics card, but still doesn't explain no sound.

 

I am now getting an error on the desktop when im done booting that points to these files:

C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini120101-15.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\SUMEER~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER1.tmp.dir00\sysdata.xml

 

Look at the capacitors on the motherboard .... They look like a small tin can. The top of the caps should be flat, not domed or leaking...

may be the slot is bad or by moving them they made better contact after moving them

not necessarily...I get those same errors after play a game called ricochet..
what other errors did you see...what about in applications

Error Message: "The system has recovered from a serious error. C:\Windows\Minidump020404-01.dmp C:\Docume~1\Darle~1\Locals~1\Temp\Wer5E.tmp.diroo\sysdata.xml"

Solution: This error message reveals a problem with a memory dump (an inventory of the contents of computer memory; sometimes referred to as a minidump). It seems the OS created a memory dump file but forgot about it, so it's attempting to create the file again. The resulting conflict leads to a serious error and the sudden system meltdown.
The minidump error is sometimes associated with an outdated video driver (a program that facilitates communication between a hardware component and the rest of the system), so one potential solution is to download a driver update for the video card...
you should take a moment to purge your system of the minidump and Sysdata.xml files by deleting them from the C:/DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS and C:/WINDOWS folders, respectively.... restart the computer when the files are gone.

 

So I took my graphics card, sound card, ram and heatsink fan out and thoroughly cleaned everything, put it all back in and reformatted. I put the ram back in the original slots and it ran fine, XP installed cleanly. The only problem now is that the sound still doesn't work, but all drivers are installed and working correctly, and when I initially reformatted the sound was working so i dunno why its not anymore.

 

you say the sound was working after the new install then quit working...did you try installing the sound card drivers and then it quit working...if so try uninstall the drivers....

 

Thanks again, I uninstalled them and it worked. I have one last thing...During this whole process I forgot to mention that my LED temperature display stopped working, any thoughts on why this would happen?

 

look inside and see if during the cleaning process it got disconnected...

 

it happened before I cleaned it, when the original problem occured.