unstable system

[Cosmic_Horror]

hi all,

i have recently set up a new system for a friend of mine, which has been increasingly unstable. Applications would suddenly close (such internet explorer and icq) or the system would just freeze or reboot, a clean install for the second time has not imporved anything. At first i thought it was a power supply problem so i replaced that and also the motherboard (changed both the brand of each just to make sure it wasn't a bad batch) Memtest86+ runs over night like a treat both before and after i replaced both motherboard and power supply. I am stumped i have never had this much trouble with any system i have set up before and i have been upgrading since 386 days. *sigh*


the system currently consists of a

350w power supply Codegen

athlon Xp 2000+

1 x 512Mb pc3200 ddr sdram

msi KT6V motherboard (via kt600 chipset)

seagate 120gb Pata hard drive

128mb 9200SE video card

running win Xp pro oem sp1a (proper bought copy)

the rest of the system consists of old hardware that was in there old system which ran fine, namely a 40x cd rom, and some usb devices such as a burner, scanner, and printer and a pci 56k modem.


i am absolutely stumped... my only option is to replace the ram, cpu or hard drive and see i that changes anything.


any other ideas or things i should look for guys? any help is greatly appricated. thanks

 

[huesmann]

wipe/reformat/reinstall?

 

[monzie]

After building a few systems myself (lets just say over 10), and, with all the hardware checks, you still get the occasional corrupted XP install.........it all looks fine to start with but if it feels (the OS) 'clunky' without good reason or things close down/ throw up errors at random you can bet your bottom dollar that you have a corrupted install.....

The main cause is usually memory (not seated correctly/poor manu etc), a weak psu, overloaded IRQ's (remove then install superfluos hardware after OS install), overheating cpu's (playing games etc is easy compared to an install) OR just good old plain bad luck.....one binary wrong somewhere can destroy the OS.

Try re-installing (and remove un-needed hardware first)...then add hardware when the OS is stable,,,,you'll know what I mean as it will not feel CLUNKY.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

ok thanks guys

i will organise a time and see if i can re-install winxp again (for the third time) ..

thnaks again guys

 

[Disorganise]

you've checked for virus's too right?

Go with Monzie's suggestion and strip the thing to bare minimum - it might just be one component is causing you headaches. If the Mobo has CPU temps in the BIOS, check they are acceptable