Computer Trouble.........

[Devhux]

I've been pulling out my hair over this for a few days, so it's time to seek the advice of others.

My father's computer (P4 1.6A / ABit IT7-MAX motherboard) has been having issues as of late -- random stalls, complete lockups after it's been left for a while, etc. I knew it was time for a reformat anyways (as it's been over two years), but sadly it's not quite so simple.

After a format of the C: partition, I attempted to reinstall Windows XP Pro (SP2). At the end of the text-mode setup, it came to the "Restarting Computer" phase, and froze. Upon reboot, it proceeded into the GUI part of setup, and froze at the end when it had to reboot again. After another reboot, I finally got into Windows -- but the system was far from stable. Installing programs would cause a hard lockup.

So far I've replaced the hard drive and RAM, and if anything, things are worse. After seeing the same thing happen in the text-mode setup, I rebooted again only to be greeted with a STOP error (Stop c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The session manager initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000034 (0x00000000, 0x0000000) The system has been shut down.). Finally, I tried one last time, and setup froze while copying files to the new drive (again, in text mode).

Memtest (both Memtest+ and the regular one) report zero errors, as does a Linux-based CPU burn-in test (Ultimate Boot CD). Finally, I've tried writing all zeros to the new hard drive (to see if it's a potential write issue), and that seems fine.

Any ideas here? (I'm close to writing this off as a motherboard issue).

[Jeffbx]

Check this thread. (http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?forumID=5&threadID=45101&messageID=533149)

If you have automatic updates turned on at install time, it could be caused by hotfix 890859 installing itself.

[Devhux]

Sadly that doesn't apply to me -- I can't even get to the part where I enable automatic updates without the system crashing and blue-screening. No fun. :(

[Jeffbx]

Have you tried running hardware diagnostics on your machine?

[johnnymk]

This may not even apply, but I have an ABIT IS7 M/B. The northbridge fan kept on locking up, giving me weird symptoms. It would make a weird noise before it locked up. I replaced the fan and I haven't had a problem since.

[Showtime]

:stupid:

Aftermarket nb fan/cooler is under $20 at SVC, etc.

You also might want to remove the cpu cooler, clean it, and reapply artic silver.

Lastly remove all non essential peripherals and cards.

Edit: That's one of the most oc'able chips ever made. It should be good for 2.4ghz if you ever need some extra oomph. :)

[Devhux]

OK, after pulling out some hair, I've determined it's either the processor, mainboard, or PSU (if a dying PSU can cause random lockups, that is).

I'm honestly doubtful it's the CPU, because I can go and run a 24-hour torture session of a prime-number generator with zero issues, and the CPU temp stays around 45 degrees C. CPU fan is running just fine.

Next up will be to replace the PSU, as it's the one component other than memory that I have a few spares of.

Luckily for now, I've migrated the hard drives / RAM over to a temporary system, so my father will have something to use while I tinker around with his old system for a while.


Edit: That's one of the most oc'able chips ever made. It should be good for 2.4ghz if you ever need some extra oomph. :)

I was actually quite impressed with this little chip. I could run 2.66GHz with a very minor voltage increase using the stock heatsink/fan. For my father, it's been running stock though (about 2 years).