I have a small problem. Every so often while booting my machine I get a blue screen of death and then the system reboots. It happens so fast I can't read what the error is. I changed a few things in my BIOS and it would finally boot. Actually the only thing I changed was the memory timing resulting in OC my RAM. Guess I will have to fix that. So how do you find out if your mobo is dying? I'm running Windows XP Pro with SP2 (Yes I'm using SP2 finally) and I have 512 megs of DDR RAM.
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on Apr 20, 2005
How do you tell if your motherboard is about to die?
look for a suicide note ?


ok do ya get the blue screen of death during windows loading process?

if it is during the windows loading i would venture to say there might be a problem with the XP installation.. a virus .. or the HDD may be going out ...

typically if it wont even start to load windows it could be a simple cmos battery.
on Apr 20, 2005
Well this is a fresh install of XP - not even a week old. I guess it could be a virus I will check. The HDD is about a year old. Maxtor 40 gig. I should replace it and see if that helps. I believe the CMOS battery is OK. The motherboard hols it's settings pretty good.
on Apr 20, 2005
If you changed something in the BIOS, try going back to Default settings and see what happens. If it still does it, then you might want to see if you can get into SAFE mode, still no luck, try going into the Recovery Console using your XP disk and running a check disk.

That should keep you busy for a while and maybe one of those will fix it or give you a different error

If you are able to get into safe mode and want to view your blue screen without reboot.. Start -> Right click (My Computer) -> Properties -> Advanced Tab -> Click on Settings button where it says System Start Up -> Uncheck "Automaticlly Restart".
on Apr 20, 2005

(Yes I'm using SP2 finally)

tsk tsk tsk..... another one bites the dust

(My system is an OS-PFA - Official Service Pack Free Area)

Anyway, back to your regular scheduled thread

on Apr 20, 2005
Oops wrong thread
on Apr 20, 2005
OK I did a few things and it seems to have worked. First off I used my XP cd and ran a recovery console and performed a CHKDSK /p and then ran FIXBOOT. The next thing I did was I went into safe mode and ran another CHKDSK but this time with a /f parameter. Finally I uninstalled SP2 and now the computer works great just as it should. I think I shall also perform a SFC /SCANNOW as well just to be on the safe side.
on Apr 20, 2005
Wow, reallly making sure that the disk is checked
on Apr 20, 2005
Believe me it found PLENTY of errors.
on Apr 21, 2005
It happens so fast I can't read what the error is


This is usually because of a setting in the 'My Computer->Properties->Advanced' dialog. In the 'System Failure' group is an option to automatically restart. Uncheck it if you want to see the details on the BSOD.

HTH.


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on Apr 21, 2005
Kona, a bad Motherboard will usually just beep at you, more times than not, if it isnt beeping away to a very annoying tune then the probelm is most likely something else..not in all cases but more than 85% of the time.

Looks like you "cured" it for the time being..just wanted to give you a heads up about MoBo's.. If they are shorted out they will beep, if the sautered connections are no longer making the "connection" they will beep. etc, etc.. Never assume the MoBo, thats a *worst case scenario.

Zero.
on Apr 21, 2005
Yeah I forgot about the beeping BIOS thing. thanks Zero. I think I need a new HDD and a fresh, clean install of XP and/or Linux.
on Apr 21, 2005
changed was the memory timing resulting in OC my RAM


Believe me it found PLENTY of errors


Set the memory to default and the errors will stop.........
on Apr 21, 2005
What is the "defualt" setting for 2100 DDR RAM? It is running at 266 MHz right now Yrag.
on Apr 21, 2005
266 is correct...I didn't say you have your memory over clocked....you did...
on Apr 21, 2005
Yeah it WAS running at 333 MHz.
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