Random Crashes after Hardware Upgrade

[imported_Severed]

I got some new hardware for Christmas and after installing it my computer crashes at random; gaming, browsing the internet, or even just staring at the desktop.

At first I was told it was a PSU problem, so I upgraded from a 350W Turbolink (came with the case) to a 500W Antec, but the thing still crashed. I've tried manually setting RAM and CPU speeds and timings, but that doesn't seem to help either. I thought it might be that I previously had one 512MB stick of RAM and got another one for Christmas, so they weren't exactly the same stick (even though they're both Kingston KVR400X64C3A/512.) But I tried using only one stick at a time (with both sticks) and it still crashed. Tried flashing the BIOS, didn't do anything. Here's my old and new specs:

Old:
Shuttle AK39N Socket A Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
ATI Radeon X800XT AIW
80g hard drive (don't remember the brand)
350W Turbolink PSU
Sony DVD-RW Drive (never really looked at any specifics on it, dad bought it...doubt it matters in this case)
One stick of Kingston DDR400 RAM

New:
ASUS A8V Socket 939 Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
ATI Radeon X800XT AIW
80g hard drive
Sony DVD-RW Drive
Two sticks of Kingston DDR400 RAM in dual channel

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wpshooter]

Is the hard drive in the new system a carry forward from the old system and if so, did you either do a repair of or more preferrably a complete reinstallation of the O/S ?

 

[imported_Severed]

Yeah, I reformatted twice; did it the second time because I thought I did things in the wrong order or something the first time.

 

[stevty2889]

Have you run memtest to make sure your memory is 100% compatible with the new setup?

 

[imported_Severed]

No, I plan on doing that overnight tonight.

 

[imported_Severed]

Hmm, I just disabled the onboard sound (I don't have a sound card) and it hasn't crashed yet; it seemed to be crashing as soon as I logged into Windows before..I wish this thing would tell me what's actually malfunctioning.


EDIT: Still crashing, disabling sound did nothing.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Severed
Hmm, I just disabled the onboard sound (I don't have a sound card) and it hasn't crashed yet; it seemed to be crashing as soon as I logged into Windows before..I wish this thing would tell me what's actually malfunctioning.


EDIT: Still crashing, disabling sound did nothing.

What do you mean "crashing"? Tell us EXACTLY what happens, with all error text.
What does the Windows event log say?
Do you have minidumps in c:\windows\minidump (directory) or c:\windows\memory.dmp (file)?

 

[imported_Severed]

Everything freezes for a few seconds, including the mouse cursor, and the screen goes black. Nothing happens until I hit the reset button.

As far the Windows event log, where is it?

And yes, there are minidumps, but I've never dealt with them before, so I don't know what to do with them.

 

[tweekah]

In bios try upping the DDR voltage ever so slowly to see if that does anything for you.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Severed
Everything freezes for a few seconds, including the mouse cursor, and the screen goes black. Nothing happens until I hit the reset button.

As far the Windows event log, where is it?

And yes, there are minidumps, but I've never dealt with them before, so I don't know what to do with them.

Windows error log found by right-clicking on My Computer, going to Manage, and going to the Event Logs. Look in the System event logs at the time and date of the last crash and tell us what errors or events you see.

Better yet, just run MPS Reports (see my .sig) and send me the resulting .cab file. Please note I need the AT URL and your alias.

Then send me the minidumps found in c:\windows\minidumps and I'll see if I can tell you why the box crashed.

 

[imported_Severed]

Oh, I knew what the Event Log thing was, but I didn't look in the system folder before. I feel like such an idiot now, every error says either disk or atapi...except for some that have "Service Control Manager" listed as the source, and in the details of those it says:
"The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
atitray"

On the Microsoft site, it says that the Service Control Manager error has to do with the drivers, and the disk/atapi errors just mean a bad IDE cable...I would have never guessed though, since it worked in my other computer.

dclive, I'll still send you that .cab and the minidumps if you want, but if changing that cable fixes things it's probably not necessary.

 

[dclive]

Change the cables; if that fixes it, don't worry about the rest. If not, send the .cab and dumps.

 

[imported_Severed]

Dumps and .cab sent, cables didn't fix it.

 

[dclive]

I don't see any BSODs since 12/28, so it seems that the issue is something else.

Confirm you only have your Windows HDD attached to that IDE cable - don't put anything else on that chain.
Remove the D drive (the CD) from the computer entirely.
Uninstall all ATI and Omega anything and everything via Add/Remove CP, and then install *just* the basic ATI drivers that you download from www.ati.com (not from your drivers CD), not the entire control panel extra stuff. Use ATI's software.
Do you have the latest drivers for your VIA chipset, from www.viaarena.com (IIRC)....?
I'm shocked, but I couldn't find either antispyware or antivirus software on your PC. Install both. (I only looked on the start menu; if you've not put a shortcut there, I missed it.)

Anyway, if doing this doesn't help (be sure & keep the CDROM disconnected), tell me, can you reproduce the issue if you boot in safe mode?

 

[imported_Severed]

When you say just the drivers only, does that include both the display drivers and the WDM drivers? I'm not clear on what the WDM drivers are.

 

[dclive]

Just focus on the display drivers.

 

[imported_Severed]

Is there a reliable free anti-virus program available somewhere? I downloaded Ad-Aware like I usually do (just didn't have it installed this time, was too busy trying to fix this thing), scanned my hard drive and deleted all the files it came up with, which there weren't many of.

 

[cloud639]

I dont' know if this helps but several years ago, I had a similar problem. First it was when I was playing games CS, Unreal..etc. My computer would crash (reboot) Then it became more freq. from just surfing the net. Finally, my computer just died. Went to frys to get my computer fix, they said that my mobo died. Well long story short, If you have an extra motherboard, give it a try. From my experience, it's either the motherboard or ur memory. Just my two cents.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: dclive
I don't see any BSODs since 12/28, so it seems that the issue is something else.

Confirm you only have your Windows HDD attached to that IDE cable - don't put anything else on that chain.
Remove the D drive (the CD) from the computer entirely.
Uninstall all ATI and Omega anything and everything via Add/Remove CP, and then install *just* the basic ATI drivers that you download from www.ati.com (not from your drivers CD), not the entire control panel extra stuff. Use ATI's software.
Do you have the latest drivers for your VIA chipset, from www.viaarena.com (IIRC)....?
I'm shocked, but I couldn't find either antispyware or antivirus software on your PC. Install both. (I only looked on the start menu; if you've not put a shortcut there, I missed it.)

Anyway, if doing this doesn't help (be sure & keep the CDROM disconnected), tell me, can you reproduce the issue if you boot in safe mode?

Did this help at all? What is happening now?

 

[imported_Severed]

I unplugged my DVD drive, installed the ATI display drivers, updated to the newest VIA drivers, scanned with Ad-Aware, scanned with a free online virus scanner (which I don't think worked so well, that's why I was asking for anti-virus software) and it still does the same thing - everything freezes for a few seconds and the screen goes black. Nothing happens until I hit my reset button. However, there are days where I can go without a problem and then I get on the next morning and it instantly crashes.

Oh, and safe mode seemed to keep it from happening, but there isn't really anything specific that crashes it that I can use for experimentation..so I don't know.

 

[dclive]

Are dump files now being written?

 

[imported_Severed]

If the number on the dump filename is the date, then they haven't been written since the 27th.

 

[imported_Severed]

I think I might just return this ASUS board and get an entirely different one..it's the only part still remaining that I think would be causing this.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Severed
I unplugged my DVD drive, installed the ATI display drivers, updated to the newest VIA drivers, scanned with Ad-Aware, scanned with a free online virus scanner (which I don't think worked so well, that's why I was asking for anti-virus software) and it still does the same thing - everything freezes for a few seconds and the screen goes black. Nothing happens until I hit my reset button. However, there are days where I can go without a problem and then I get on the next morning and it instantly crashes.

Oh, and safe mode seemed to keep it from happening, but there isn't really anything specific that crashes it that I can use for experimentation..so I don't know.

If the issue doesn't happen in safe mode, then you've probably just got a driver problem, not a hardware problem. An easy test would be to reinstall Windows but don't add any non-Microsoft drivers, and see if anything bad happened; I suspect (based on what you've written) that it would work great.

Anyhow, if you'd prefer to go with another board, good luck!

 

[imported_Severed]

If I remember right, both times I reformatted when I put in this hardware (I did it twice already, I don't really see how a third time will help..) it had problems when I was simply using Windows Update. I'm not 100% sure of that one, though. Also, I'm a gamer, so not being able to install video card drivers and whatnot sort of makes it difficult to play anything and defeats the purpose of upgrading..

Only reason I suggested getting a different motherboard is because I really have no idea what to do.