Computer crashes every day.

[deso]

I log on everyday to check emails and do other stuff, but every day my PC crashes. It can be after 10 minutes or a few hours, but it happens every day. After it's crashed and rebooted itselt it's always OK. Sometimes I'll reboot it after a while (before it crashes) and that usually prevents it from crashing. I've downloaded a RAM checker and left that running for several hours repeating it's checks over and over again and it reported no problems with my RAM. Anybody got any possible explanations?

[Postdog]

Is it overheating? if so, when was the last time you vaccuumed it.

[deso]

I don't think so - If it was overheating then it would crash continually but it doesn't. I last brushed it out and cleaned the fans about 3 months ago. I also have Winbond Hardware Doctor installed. It's currently showing CPU temp as 60 degrees with a high limit of 70 degrees and the PC's been running about 5 hours now, apart from when it crashed about an hour ago. In fact all settings look OK, well within limits. Experience tells me that if I leave it on now it'll run overnight and beyond without crashing again. That's why it's such a mystery.

[usdaforce]

Its a tricky one this but you can work it out through elimination, It would help if you had a spare harddrive with an os installed, this way you could rule out if its a software or hardware problem

[usdaforce]

It may sound an obvious thing to do but have you checked all power leads are connected properly ,is the wiring connected to the plug socket ok etc..?

[RATTER15]

Have you checked that the fan is actually coming on every time you start your PC. ?

[stevie21]

deso - how confident are you with computers? Would you say you're a novice or a bit more accomplished?
You could test usdaforce's OS theory without a spare hard drive.

Will give more info if necessary.

[deso]

Thanks guys - usdaforce, yes all connections are fine, I've tried with different power leads and the same thing happens. One of my hard drives failed recently (not the one with WinXP on) and I was hoping that had been the problem, but having replaced the HD (I have 3 installed) sadly not, it's continuing exactly the same.
Stevie21 - yes I'm pretty competant and your guidance would be appreciated. Cheers.

[stevie21]

Then, very briefly, you can download an operating system that runs off of a CD. You don't even need ANY hard drive in your PC for it to work, just the CD. If your PC runs fine on that then you know that your motherboard etc. are fine and that the problem you have is either a corrupt registry/software problem or a hardware problem with your hard drive.

This downloadable OS (right click and save as) is called SLAX KillBill Edition v 5.1.8. This is an iso file which you'll need to create a CD from.
This site gives you a few commands that you'll need to type in before you're using a familiar point & click/menu navigation.


You'll get onscreen instructions for most things, the only one you won't see (without reading that geocities site) is when logging on (boot type : ) is to type :
slax copy2ram
(which means that once you're up and running you can take the CD out in case you need to play music, burn CDs).


This doesn't affect your existing Windows installation in any way. You'll also (nearly forgot) have to make a change in BIOS to tell your PC to boot from the CD. You could run this linux disc (and it's far easier than I ever imagined - it does all the configuring for you) and once you've tested with that, take the cd out, reboot and you'll be back to Windows.

[deso]

Thanks Stevie. I'll give it a whirl and get back to you with the outcome.

[deso]

Just an update Stevie, I booted up Slax yesterday morning before going to work, ran the GUI and it was all still intact when i got home. I will try it once or twice more and actually do some web browsing etc but it looks quite promising that it's a windows problem (I've run diagnostic software on my RAM and all 3 HD's with no problems). I can feel a full windows reinstall coming on! :-I Thanks for the tip.