Please help! My computer is not well!

Nic Miller

Nic Miller

Nic Miller

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18 Mar 2007
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161
Not sure if this is related, but installed Spore and left the PC on overnight - woke to find a BSOD and could only start windows in safe mode. System restore back a month or two seemed to work.....installed Spore again and another BSOD. Not good. Could only open windows in safe mode again. But by uninstalling the graphics drivers I could sometimes get windows to work normally. But this soon stopped working as did system restore.

The error messages varied but were usually either a NV4 display prob (the graphics driver file for my 8800gtx) or an IRQL less than or equal to zero (or something like that).

Last night I decided to start again - wiped the array, reformatted the drive and started to install windows again - the installation crashed three times with an IRQL less than or equal to zero error. Managed to get it installed, but evertime I installed a new driver etc and needed a restart it took about three attempts each time to get windows up and running. Then installed the motherboard drivers last and cannot get into windows at all in normal mode.

Can anyone offer any help on this? Am guessing it must be a hardware failure - graphics card? memory? Have Geil 2Gb of ram, Have a 2.4 Ghz intel core 2 duo overclocked to 3.0 Ghz. Graphics card Nvidia 8800gtx. Motherboard Asus P5N32-E sli.

Not had any problems with this setup for well over 1 year when I built it.

Many thanks

Nic
 
Will just add, that even in safe mode before I wiped the array (RAID 0), the PC crashed at least 50 times while trying to copy my files over to an external hard drive, so safe mode doesn't really work either !

Thanks
 
Not tried memtest - I can't get windows working to be able to install it now either !

Am planning on getting more memory anyway so going to get 2 x 2Gb Geil 6400 4-4-4-4-12. This will match my older memory should it not turn out to be a memory problem so I would have 6Gb. Will try that but am not hopeful!

Why do you say it may be a memory problem?

Thanks
 
"IRQL less than or equal to zero " is normally related to memory issues.

However, before you check the memory, make sure all your drivers are bang up to date.. Chipset, Video, Sound etc..

Make your changes one at a time and test, so you can see what the problem is:

Firslty, make sure the RAM is receiving the correct voltages as recommended by the manufacturer.

Test

If the test fails, then try slacking the timings

Test again.

If the test fails, then run a memtest (as suggested above) on each stick of RAM at a time and in different banks.
 
Firstly, I would restore your default setting in the bios (remove overclock) then re-install windows and make a back up image before trying to restore your OC.
 
If you've used Windows Update to update your drivers, I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those. I have noticed issues with WU drivers.
 
updated all drivers manually.

Will remove overclock and then do it all again.

Why would it suddenly start to cause problems now when it has been working for 18 months?

I needed to up the voltage on the ram to 2.1 v but this should be fine - the volt meter thingy was throwing up a warning on one of the DDR2 voltages - was 1.2 volts instead of 0.9 volts but this is not something I had any control over. Could this be related?

Cheers

Nic
 
A friend of mine had probablems with his overclock. He had overclocked his E2160 to 3Ghz for 6 months or so. All of a sudden it refused to overclock above 2.8Ghz. Strange huh? Maybe something is overheating on your motherboard, have you left it on overnight running a demanding program before (I assume spore is quite demanding)? As has already been suggested I'd try seeing what happens if you revert your settings back to stock speed as well.
 
When you overclock your gear you are running them out of spec which usually means reduction in life of the component. So just because you have run at a overclock for xx months doesn't mean it can and will do it for ever.
 
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