beginning of the end?

[charlienyc]

hi. i have an ailing A31 2653-Q5U. Firefox and Eudora have been crashing which eventually leads to a BSOD. this has been happening consistenly for months and becoming more frequent lately, say once or twice a week. it usually happens un-docked, definitely more on battery but also with the AC adapter. i've generally equated it to video problems, which i plan on addressing w/ some Artic Silver and tips i've seen here.

last night i had a crash, restarted and got the following error (not exact - i didn't write it down):
"c:\windows\system32\config is missing or corrupt. insert Windows XP CD, reboot and select "r" to repair." now, i can borrow an XP install disc from work. i'm scared, though, that i'll need to reinstall the OS. it has taken me weeks to restore applications after reinstalling the OS and i will always opt to avoid that option.

anyone know how this happens? i try to do everything i can to keep the machine clean, yet it continues to have problems. 90% of the time i keep it in the dock, i monitor the processor temp, disable unknown java scripts, use ccleaner, don't download crap, etc. i've never used anti-adware on it for more than a scan, but never come up with any problems when i do. yet it feels like the HD is corrupting itself slowly but surely. is there something i'm doing wrong??

[charlienyc]

i just wanted to add how frustrating it is that i can run an antiquated Celeron-based desktop at work, slightly more recklessly and it's rock solid. sure it's slow, but it's preferable to something that crashes so often.

[jdhurst]

Run chkdsk (benign if no parameters) and see what it tells you. If there is corruption, it may be able to repair it (chkdsk /f and restart). But be aware that repair of corruption may nuke important applications and/or data.

If your hard drive is going out, chkdsk will report increasing or incorrectible errors.

I think, based on your description, that a rebuild is in the cards. Weeks to do?? I have a very complicated machine (oodles of applications and VMware) and I can be up and running in a full day, and be comfortable within about 4 days. That is certainly enough to keep me from idly rebuilding, but I would not put up with what you do. A properly built XP machine (on a good frame - ram, hard drive and system board) is rock-solid.
... JDH

[charlienyc]

thanks JDH for the info. i've never come up with any errors using chdisk. if i can get it back up and running, i'll try it, but doubt it will help.

this is why i get so frustrated - i don't do crazy things with the machine and try to maintain it, but it's seems it doesn't do any good. why can't there be a simple fix to the problem? or is there a fix? grr!

[Chris001]

thanks JDH for the info. i've never come up with any errors using chdisk.

Charlie,

Try to rule out other hardware components.

Here are some diagnostic programs that you can use to determine defective components:

To test the hard drive - Hitachi Drive Fitness Test - http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

To test the RAM - Windows Memory Diagnostics - http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

To test the IBM hardware - IBM PC Doctor - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-56222

Chris

[carbon_unit]

I would probably keep an eye on the memory. Run Some memtest865 for up to 24 hours and see if it gets any errors.

[proaudioguy]

I have had these problems in the past. I did everything mentioned. I could not find the issue. I'm talking to a particularly geeky friend (not an insult). He's the type of guy that is barely functional OFFLINE in a social environment. I told him what I was going through, and how frustrated I was. I barely had the words out and he said I had BAD ram. I told him I ran memtest, etc etc, he assured me I had bad ram based on my symptoms. I pulled my Ebay (lifetime warrantee my [censored]) 512mb and left the original 256mb and never looked back. I have had maybe 3 BSODs in the 3 years since. I currently run a single stick of 512 in one machine and 2 sticks of 256 in the other.

My advice is work with just the 1 original stick of ram for a few days and if it crashes change to the other one. It's worth a try anyway.

[charlienyc]

I pulled my Ebay (lifetime warrantee my [censored]) 512mb and left the original 256mb and never looked back. I have had maybe 3 BSODs in the 3 years since. I currently run a single stick of 512 in one machine and 2 sticks of 256 in the other.

My advice is work with just the 1 original stick of ram for a few days and if it crashes change to the other one. It's worth a try anyway.

a-ha! i should have known a fellow pro audio guy would have the answer

i've been mulling this over in my mind and was starting to think maybe the 2nd RAM chip was the culprit. i know it looks like i'm being boastful, but it's true. i'm not quite as dumb as i look! seriously speaking, there have been a lot of posts here about mismatched RAM, even when in theory all RAM is the same. so, thanks for validating it. i'm also comforted to know i'm not the only one with a freak A31.

so i shall operate tonight. now the question becomes how can i deal with 1/3rd of the RAM? but like i said before system speed is much less important than reliability.

in other news, it started right back up after performing the (somewhat mysterious) "repair" function with the XP install CD. i started running tests in PC Doctor as suggested and it passed the RAM test (we know that doesn't mean much). however, it failed the video test! here's the result:

Testing started at 9:55:30 PM 5/2/2007

Video Test: Video Memory - **FAILED**

Video memory compare failed at offset 00038AE4H (232164)
Wrote pattern 00FFFFFFH, read back 00EFFFFFH
_EVENT:60_5

i ran it again to confirm, with the same results. what's up with that?

btw, thank you everyone for your input. i can't overstate how valuable a resource this is! or how annoyed i am with myself for not finding the forum sooner [/quote]

[proaudioguy]

The video memory problem is a completely different beast. it seems to be caused by FLEXING of the MB. It is a design flaw imo.

It "can" be reppaired. Look at my post on 64 mb video.

My "former" (3 days and couting) video problem has never caused a crash.

I'm not sure that having mis matched ram is the issue. Just having 1 bad memory section on the ram card could cause all of this. When that section is not being accessed, it runs fine,...as soon as it is accessed it crashes. May be related to paging, etc. I really have no clue.

Did pulling the RAM make it all better?

[charlienyc]

The video memory problem is a completely different beast. it seems to be caused by FLEXING of the MB. It is a design flaw imo.

It "can" be reppaired. Look at my post on 64 mb video.

i'll check that out soon...

Did pulling the RAM make it all better?

well it's certainly slower i just pulled it and have only been using the machine for 15 mins. i'll report back in a few days on the health. cheers,
-c