Hardware or software failure?

[HeLmie]

System: PII350 192Mb Ram

O/s: win XP Pro

Ok, so XP seems to be re-setting. Usually when im trying to do something in office 2000 or sage.

My question is: How do i know if it is a hardware or software thing? Could it be XP causing the re-sets? I thought it may be a faulty power supply, so i put a new one in, but that ain't helped.

Can i tell from the error message generated when it re-sets if its a software thing?

The message is:

BP Code: 50 BcP1: E18FA000 OSVer: 5_1_2600 Product: 256_1

And some other numbers.

Any ideas?

-Helmie

 

[MattWray]

Have you checked the Event Log? Admin Tools-> Event Viewer. That will be a good place to start to narrow it down...

Thanks,

Matt Wray
MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CCNA

http://www.sss-steel.com

http://www.total-tec.com

 

[HeLmie]

Its a system error (102) that seems to be occuring.

The source is system error and the event is 1003.

Any ideas what this is or what is causing it?

Thanks

-HeLmie

 

[SQLBaby]

i think the system is old and not working good with win xp pro...

 

[MattWray]

According to

http://eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=1003&source=system

it is probably a hardware issue. I would have to agree with SQLBaby. M$ may say that that machine is within minimum requirements, but that doesn't mean it will run right...

Thanks,

Matt Wray
MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CCNA

http://www.sss-steel.com

http://www.total-tec.com

 

[Breakerfall]

***Usually when im trying to do something in office 2000 or sage***

•"Usually", meaning sometimes/all the time/every single time (?)
•Were you able to isolate a more specific pattern (ie every time I open word, or excel, etc) (?)

-try to rule out memory problems and heat problems, those are most likely the cause for random reboots.
-change the memory if you have a spare stick.
-check that the fans on the CPU are working and check the cooler on the Processor.


Breakerfall
®º°¨¨°º can you ping me now...GOOD! º°¨¨°º®

 

[HeLmie]

Im pretty sure theres nothing wrong with the hardware cooling, the fan on the processor is spinning, as is the one in the power supply, i took the side off the case (to try to cool it more) and this made no difference to the frequency of the crashes.

By usually i mean randomly, it crashes maybe every 30 mins or so and usually when i try and do something like print or save or pull down a menu or something, it never crashes when it is just left idle irrelevent of what applications are running.

Is it worth me downloading SP1 on 56k? I've heard this can solve a lot of probs.

Thanks

-Helmie

 

[linney]

You might be able to pick up SP1 from any of the Computer Magazines that have free CD's. You can purchase a SP1 CD from Microsoft for about $10. You could even borrow a friends SP1 Setup.Exe file or CD.

Try checking your RAM out via this program.

http://www.memtest86.com

 

[Breakerfall]

HeLmie,
the fans on the PSU may be working, and it could still be the PSU at fault.

One thing is for sure,
no matter what approach you take, try one thing at the time. dont chancge, for example, memory AND PSU at the same time.



Breakerfall
®º°¨¨°º can you ping me now...GOOD! º°¨¨°º®

 

[HeLmie]

The PC never crashed under win98, however someone managed to rip out the keyboard while the PC was turned on, ruining the connector on the keyboard, could this have caused any hardware faults?

I have replaced the PSU and this made no difference to the crashes or the frequency of their occurance.

I thought it may be a GFX card driver issue so i installed the standard windows VGA driver, which made no difference.

I'll get SP1 and see if it solves it anyway.

Thanks for all the help

-HeLmie

 

[HeLmie]

Aha!

I fixed it!

Windows blue screened (which it didn't do before) quoting some DLL file as being the source of the error, up restarting and searching for the files i found it was in C:\windoze\system32\spool\.\.
So i got the latest printer drivers for my printer and the crashes have stopped!

Thanks for all the help

-HeLmie

 

[vandellia]

Last time I saw "windoze" it was a change caused by a virus please update your virus protection and scan all files
Ann

 

[jwynn]

Memory bad XP is funny about memory replace 1 stick at a time