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Regular BSoD errors.

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by Oz, Nov 18, 2008.

0/5, 0 votes
  1. Oz

    Oz For Zombie. Moderator DLP Supporter

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    Nov 18, 2008 #1
    I've been having this problem for about a year now. Whenever I turn on and boot my computer, about three times out of four I'll get this error message as soon as I log in and before the computer needs to be restarted.

    Seeing as I usually leave my computer on days (and sometimes weeks) at a time without needing to restart, it wasn't too much of a problem and I let it be. Recently, however, it's been happening for no apparent reason whilst the computer's running, even if it had been fine for hours beforehand. Computer checks out fine under Avast anti-virus and Ad-Aware and both CCleaner and Tuneup Utilities say the registry is fine.

    Got the computer about six or seven years ago and its specs are;

    Windows XP PRO SP1 (which refuses to update, just BSoDs when I try)
    DELL Optiplex GX240 motherboard (BIOS revision A01)
    256 MB SDRAM
    1.5 Ghz Pentium 4 processor
    80Gb IDE hard-drive (which is about to die if the constant need to defrag it and the Boeing-like whines it makes are any indication)
    RAGE 128 PRO Ultra GL AGP graphics card

    I think either the motherboard or the dying hard-drive are the problem, but if anyone has any other ideas I'd be glad of the help. Thanks in advance.

    Inb4 the stone age wants their computer back. ;)
     
  2. yak

    yak Moderator DLP Supporter Retired Staff

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    Nov 18, 2008 #2
    It could be just about any hardware device (mobo, ram, psu, hdd, etc).

    It may also be your Windows installation that's screwed. Run Linux for a week. If that messes up as well, then you know it's a hardware issue. If it doesn't, then it's probably software.

    I'd guess it's the hard drive but they usually don't take a whole year to fail.

    MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE EVER: BACK UP YO COMPUTER NAO!

    Harddrives are ridiculously cheap.
     
  3. Militis

    Militis Supreme Mugwump

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    Nov 19, 2008 #3
    http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50966

    Does that help at all?

    Also, you can run a Memory Test from a Ubuntu Live CD, if you want to check that piece of hardware.

    If your hard drive sounds like a Boeing plane taking off, that's probably the reason for the BSoD, but there are other hardware pieces to take in to account. For instance, the 7 year old Dell motherboard. :p
     
  4. Hari Seldon

    Hari Seldon Groundskeeper DLP Supporter

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    Nov 19, 2008 #4
    Don't know if you cracked the case but I'd check the capacitors, a lot of Dells from around that time have that problem.
     
  5. Oz

    Oz For Zombie. Moderator DLP Supporter

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    Nov 20, 2008 #5
    Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Opened up the case and a few of the caps were bulging and leaking, so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that's a large part of the problem. :rolleyes:

    Militis: No Rustock infections were on the computer. Thanks for the suggestion though.

    As soon as I get my hands on a PS/2 keyboard (stupid fucking "enable USB legacy device" setting), I'm replacing Windows with Ubuntu just in case that's the problem and my motherboard doesn't really need those capacitors. ;)

    Thanks for the help.
     
  6. yak

    yak Moderator DLP Supporter Retired Staff

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    Nov 20, 2008 #6
    Don't forget about buying a new one of those.