Is my WindowsXP Pro crashing atleast 6 times a day normal?

[Mem]

It's cause XP is a pile of crap.. one of the worst OS's ever.. sounds like a slight instability to me

It`s very easy to blame the OS when you don`t know what the problem is,btw using XP PRO here and and it`s rock solid,best OS by Microsoft so far IMHO . Compddd you don`t say what PSU or wattage you`re using?
I would go back to minimal hardware setup and clean install of OS and install the other hardware and software one at a time and see how it goes.

 

[Anubis]

im gonna say its your 9700 Pro. My brother had this EXACT problim with XP Pro after he installed his 9700. he had to reformat and start over befoe it world work properly. also he cant get any drivers other then teh cat 2.3s to work for him

 

[Compddd]

My Power Supply is a 480W Antec True Power Unit

 

[Compddd]

You guys think I should format and start over?

 

[Auric]

Me mum's 1996 Dell has been up for about two months running XP Pro. She's been trying to hax0r NORAD the whole time (when not looking up recipes and gardening tips)

 

[Viper22]

its definatly not normal...hell i run 10-20 days without a reboot with no problems sometimes with XP Pro.

Viper22

 

[Compddd]

Only thing I haven't replaced is my CPU and motherboard. Also I used to have a GeForce 4600 Leadtek and I got random crashes with that aswell. Also I tried taking out my Audigy and running computer without it, still got crashes

 

[Dacalo]

hmm... I havent had a crash in *gasp*... can this be possible? for over a month! :Q

 

[HGC]

 

[Compddd]

blank post hgc?

 

[Booter]

could be bad-software (or software that has gone bad due to conflicting code) i would check the kernel dump for details.

 

[HGC]

I had lots of crashes and other problems after installing my Radeon 8500. When I did a clean install of XP Home followed immediately by install of ATI drivers, before installing anything else, my problems were solved. Only 2-3 crashes in over a year of heavy use.

 

[Compddd]

I just did a format/clean install with a fresh newly bought copy of XP Pro from the store. then did clean install of newest Ati drivers. Still crashes, keep in mind I had these same problems when I had a geforce 4 4600

 

[Jolyon33]

I had this problem after getting my new mobo. Turned out that my cpu wasn't getting good contact with the HSF. This was in spite of the fact that my temps were normal. Try peeling your HSF off and clean it and the CPU with some isopropyl alcohol and reapply thermal compound and see if that does the trick. It worked for me.

 

[Jolyon33]

If it is your CPU/HSf one way to tell is to underclock your chip (turn fsb down). If your system stablizes after that, then try what I suggested.

 

[Compddd]

what does Prime95 do? and will it tell me if I have any errors and what they are? like if I have a bad CPU or motherboard or something? also where can I download it? thanks in advance

 

[HGC]

I had a previous computer that crashed irregularly like that. It turned out to be something with the motherboard, lord knows what. Replacing the board solved the problem.

 

[AdamK47]

Prime95 is good too. I mainly use that to test system stability. I betcha it's still the memory. Memory Memory Memory

 

[Jolyon33]

Many times it is the memory, but if he's run memtest successfully on it then it might be time to look elsewhere. The best way to test memory is to try another strip, if you can get your hands on one.

 

[BD231]

Power supply or memory issues are the #1 cause of random restarts when I get computers in, if you have a poor generic power supply running a 9700pro and a high end P4 that's most likely the problem. Your CPU settings maybe be out of line, try using the Default Settings feature in your BIOS.

To trouble shoot, do everything in your power to get the system stable, even if it means decreasing performance(lower FSB, lower memory timings and stuff like that). If its a memory issue you should be able to get it stable by just lowering your mem timings and speed, if that dose not work, take out everything but your video card(sound card and whatever other PCI devices you may have) and test for stability that way. If it's still rebooting swap your video card out for another and see if it reboots by itself, if it dose you probably just need a new PSU.

 

[zephyrprime]

I think you should try running CPUburn. I think prime95 is overrated. here's a link for you

 

[godspeedx]

Yield-
Hmmm, I highly disagree. You've got to be kidding me that you think ME is better than XP? XP is a rock solid OS. I've never had a crash on it. Quit bashing Microsoft.

CompDDD-
I'd run various programs like Prime95 and see what happens. That might narrow it down to what it is. And yes, make sure you have all the latest drivers for everything. Any printers/scanners - make sure that the latest drivers are installed for them, not just the ones on the CDs that came with them.

Good Luck Man

 

[psianime]

I think it's the graphics card (or the driver) because that would be the only reason to explain the lockups.

-psianime

 

[0roo0roo]

have you tried a fresh install of windows? considering the quality of your components it doesn't seem to be any obvious hardware problem. maybe your windows install is just nuked

 

[nickname1]

I had an athlon 1.2, in an abit kt7a board.
On win 2k pro
512 generic pc133 ram.
300 w sparkle ps
diamond viper 770 non ultra

I got many similar lockups, crashes, reboots
only thing that worked consistantly was looking at the desktop

I replaced every thing in this system EXCEPT cpu and mobo, with known good components still not fixed,
Addressed any heat issues that existed, no fix.

I tried every *free* testing software I could get my hands on, everything checked out fine.

Figured that XP home was more stable, so i tried this too, nope.

Finally broke down and took it in to a shop with more testing equipment and parts, and now I have a Athlon 1.33 MHZ and I haven't had a crash at all in 7 months.

My vote is a faulty chip.
BTW XP is the best windows OS to date, hands down.