Very weird problem, keep getting BSOD's...

GSDog

GSDog

GSDog

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I've had an ongoing problem with my parents PC for about 3 months now and I'm on the verge of just throwing the damn thing in the skip.

It all started 3 months ago when the house was either hit by lightning or suffered a power surge. All the electrics were reset and the PC refused to start.
I first suspected the PSU and replaced it but the problem still persisted. I then suspected the motherboard and after replacing that it did boot up OK but kept getting BSOD's.
I then tried to reinstall Windows hoping that it was just a software issue but it kept getting BSOD's before it even completed installing. I suspected it could be the CD drive which was really old so I replaced that too and tried reinstalling Windows again but it didn't fix the problem.
In the end I moved the hard drive into my old Dell PC and it's been working fine on that for the last 2 months so it's definitely not the hard drive causing the BSOD's.

I don't really know what else I can do now. I tried using another hard drive in the PC and it worked OK.

Any idea what might be causing this?
 
Memory? Test it with memtest.

I used to get occasional BSOD's at a old flat I used to live in. The flat had dodgy electrics (was forever changing lightbulbs), in the end I got a UPS - no nore BSOD's.
 
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doggs said:
Memory? Test it with memtest.

I used to get occasional BSOD's at a old flat I used to live in. The flat had dodgy electrics (was forever changing lightbulbs), in the end I got a UPS - no nore BSOD's.
Click to expand...

I did suspect that before but the PC has been running flawlessly for 2 months with a different hard drive...
I might test it tonight to be sure.
 
I just tried a different Windows XP CD and completely formatted the drive. This time it installed and booted into Windows so I thought it was fixed but now it keeps randomly restarting.
When it boots back into Windows after the restart it said it was caused by a device driver...

I'm going to try a different hard drive in it now.
 
I am now.

I just swapped hard drives and exactly the same thing happened - I got a BSOD during the Windows XP install... So it looks like it might be a hardware problem afterall.

Here are the things that I've tried so far;

New PSU.
New motherboard.
New CD drive.
Different hard drive.
Different Windows XP CD.
Different IDE HDD cable.

I guess that leaves the RAM so I will run memtest overnight and see what happens.
What else could cause this and what else could I try to diagnose the problem?
 
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I ran memtest86+ overnight and it found 216 errors over 12hrs.

Does that mean the RAM is faulty?
 
yes. i guess theres a chance the motherboard could be at fault. try memtest with 1 stick of ram in, test, then try the other one.

is it running at spec? have you set ram settings in bios manually or left auto? manual is best. If it's within warranty RMA it.
 
if it has 2 memory sticks then take one of them out and try it, if it works then its the other memory stick thats faulty.
if its an oldish PC then geta normal 512/1gb mem stick and try it, even if it doesnt work it may be useful.
 
BSOD screams ram or driver issue to me.

Could be bad ram, or just needs a bit more juice

edit, ahh, 216 errors, yeah replace it
 
I replaced the RAM with an old 512 stick which I had lying around and now the PC is working flawlessly. I installed Windows and I've been running it all day without any problems, whereas with the old RAM it would crash before even booting into Windows.

It's definitely the RAM then... I will test each stick individually tonight and RMA it back to the manufacturer. Luckily it does have a lifetime warranty with Corsair.

Thanks for your help.
 
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