Win2k - Issues

[alee777]

Hi all,

I am hoping you guys can help me. I am at a point where i want to throw my PC out the window and get a new one.

MY PC

Hardware

3 months old
Intel P4, 2.4ghz
Gigabyte Motherboard
Some tawainese brand chipset
RAM = 256mb (i think the brand is called SDK...another taiwanese special)
60 gig Hard Drive - Seagate
IDE controller
Sony CR-RW
Sony DVD

Partitioning Info
C: System (15 gig) - NTFS
D: Data (40 gig) - NTFS
E :


Brief History

-Installed Win2k Pro initially
-Got all sorts of blue screen of death : KMODE, IRQL less or not equal, NTFS, Inaccessible Boot device Error
-Got inaccessible boot device error...recovered using the Win2k Pro CD...repair option
-Soon after that, one of my document and setting folder got corrupted and Win2k during the disk check process deleted the folder. The result, could not log in as a administrator.
- Re-formatted and did a clean re-install.
-Once re-installed and after few days, one of the important system file got corrupted and could not start the OS.
-So once again, reformat and re-install Win2k. This time, while formatting, i got a corrupt hard disk error and could not format once i got to the 99% mark. I let the PC cool down, and re-formatted again. This time it worked.
- Installed SP1, 2 and 3(?) and it stuffed up and could not load the OS. Tried to run in safe mode, use the Win2k Cd to repair.....to no avail. Only option left was to re-format and re-install again.
-At this point, i figured it might be the CD-ROM (some unknown brand I could not even download the driver for it) not installing properly so i bought a sony CD-RW and a Sony DVD player.
- As i thought, once i reformatted and and installed Win2k from the newly installed Sony CD-RW, the system seems to have been running smoothly over a month. Been checking the even viewer...no critical errors and no blue screen of death at all.
- Last night, got a blue screen of death...."Inaccessible Boot Device Error"

And oh, I play online gaming through cable (Counter Strike) and it something serious seem to happen after this.
And "yes" i have checked the cables and made sure they are all connected securely.

Now, i am thinking of getting a new RAM.....can anyone suggest otherwise?

 

[danomac]

Sounds like a memory problem or a bad RAM socket.

The Inaccessible boot device means that it can't find drivers for your IDE chipset. Probably corrupt files, from the memory problems.

Download memtest86 on a good computer:

http://www.memtest86.com/

This tool will create a floppy disk that is bootable and will redundantly check your RAM for errors. If you get any amount of errors then your RAM or RAM socket on the Mobo is bad.

--Oh, and if Memtest hangs, either your memory, cpu, or mobo is damaged.

Daniel.

 

[Kocky]

If your memory comes out OK form memtest then I strongly advice you to let scandisk have a good look at your hard-disk. I recently had all sort of problems regarding random restarts of my pc and while playing games I got Memory write problems. I thought it was my dimm that was half dead but after letting it check by memtest86 it came out OK.
In the end it was my hard-disk that was corrupted. Something todo with the Allocation Table or a bad sector.
Scandisk repaired the disk and haven't had any problems anymore.
You should let scandisk repair bad sectors automaticly. You can check these settings on as you start scandisk.

Good luck !

 

[orejas]

check the bios and lower the memory settings.
Maybe they are set too high for your ram.
You should also remove and replace the ram in case it isn't seated properly

 

[alee777]

Thanks Daniel..

your memtest revealed the culprit indeed was a RAM! So I am gonna get a new RAM.

This is the first time I posted a message on a forum like this and it's really cool to know there are lots of helpful people out there.

Thanks to all who have given advice!!

ta

Andrew

 

[danomac]

No problem Andrew...

Keep in mind that it also could be a bad socket on the mobo. After getting the new RAM installed, run memtest again to check for errors. If you still get errors, then I would check into getting the mobo replaced under warranty.

(I had this happen a year ago. It was the mobo and not the RAM.)

Daniel.