Tracking Crashes

[rumpletumpskin]

I have been crashing frequently while playing games over the past few months. The crashes vary in type. The most common is a ctd to the error report box but i also get blue screens, black screen, restarts, and ctds without the error report.

I have been keeping track of the event viewer lately but I do not see any errors appear after crashes. Is there anywhere else I can find a record of crashes in XP or is there a third party app that would do so?

I've updated all the drivers I know how and run the usual virus/spyware/maintenance apps including Norton 360. The only other thing that came to mind was a heat issue since the problem has come with the season but atitool and uGuru say I'm good.

Athlon 64 3500
ABIT FATAL1TY AN8
X800XL
CORSAIR XMS 1GB

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Sounds like a memory chip going bad.

Have one chip of ram in at a time and run this test.

http://www.memtest.org/

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[HalComps]

What power wattage do you have? as youve stated only happens while playing games. Since you only have 1 stick of ram that should be enough to play games with. Heating, well its not impossible, how many fans do you have? just make sure its dust free onside and away from the fans, i had a pc that kept shutting down etc, i even cleaned the fans but cause of the environment they needed cleaning regularly and like you said the weather is getting warmer as well.

 

[linney]

Would this Hotfix match your specifications, machine type, and errors?

Computers that are running Windows XP Service Pack 2 and that are equipped with multiple processors that support processor power management features may experience decreased performance

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256

It may be time to start saving your valuable data as a precaution for any forthcomming disaster or format and reinstall.

To get further information about the error look in your Event viewer.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

Take any event error I.D. number and search for it on this site.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr.../prodtechnol/winxppro/support/EE_winxppro.asp

http://www.eventid.net/events.asp

Also check any "Information" line that mentions "savedump" and you should find reference to "recovered from a bug check". This is a Stop Error message, if you have them.

You can also turn off "automatically restart after an error" so it will just halt at the fault and display the full Stop Error and blue screen.

Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties .
On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery .
Click to clear the Automatically restart check box under System failure , and then click OK . The error message on a blue screen should remain on the screen so you can record the error information.

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If you want the highly technical cause of a crash look in the Documents and Settings/ All Users/ Application Data/ Microsoft/ Dr Watson/ Drwtsn32.log

Find the entry that is relevant by date and time to the crash you are investigating. The exact cause of the crash is indicated by "FAULT ->" on the left of page next to line of code causing crash. This, if your as cluey as me, wont tell you much but you can use it to see if it is the same fault all the time, and further up the log you can find what processes and modules are running.

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Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

To look at the hardware side of things you can check your RAM out via -

http://www.memtest86.com

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Your drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic tools for checking your hard drive.