Very Unstable System

  • Thread starter Thread starter Xiaon
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Xiaon

I'm running Windows XP on a:

AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2.01Ghz
256MB RAM
Hercules 3D Prophet II MX

I experience random crashes - mostly blue screens but
sometimes restarts. Applications die - most commonly
Flash but sometimes Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer,
or Media Player (9 Series).

Three times I have seen something very much resembling
the Blaster Worm. Running FixBlast, even when the message
was still present, yielded nothing. I have the XP patch
that should prevent it from getting in. It does not,
however, succeed in shutting down my computer. It locks
up for a few seconds then returns to life, albeit
unstable.

Any ideas?
 
Xiaon said:
I'm running Windows XP on a:

AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2.01Ghz
256MB RAM
Hercules 3D Prophet II MX

I experience random crashes - mostly blue screens but
sometimes restarts. Applications die - most commonly
Flash but sometimes Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer,
or Media Player (9 Series).

Three times I have seen something very much resembling
the Blaster Worm. Running FixBlast, even when the message
was still present, yielded nothing. I have the XP patch
that should prevent it from getting in. It does not,
however, succeed in shutting down my computer. It locks
up for a few seconds then returns to life, albeit
unstable.
Click to expand...

Could be caused by a lotta things, but you might
begin by checking out your hardware:

1. Make sure your CPU and case temperatures are OK.

2. Shut down your computer and turn off power *at the
surge protector* (which cuts off standby power while
leaving your computer grounded) or unplug it. Take
the standard protections against static electricity
(wear a wrist strap or keep one hand grounded at all
times).

3. Open up your computer and and make sure all your CPU
and case fans are working. Then dust it out. *Do not
use a vacuum cleaner* - it might cause static discharge.
Get some dust remover spray (RadioShack has it) and
a dust mask, and take your computer outside and spray
out the dust. Keep the end of the spray straw at least
six inches from any components and keep it moving so as
to avoid excessive thermal shock to the components.

4. Reseat all the modules and cables inside your computer.

5. Run "memtest86" (download from http://www.memtest86.com)
to thoroughly check out your memory. You should get
zero errors.

6. Run a full set of hardware diagnostics. ("diag378.exe",
downloadable from ftp://ftp1.dell.com/diags, after a few
complaints, will run on most non-Dell computers.)
You should get zero errors.

-- Bob Day
 
Thanks very much for your advice. I'd already tried
everything but the Dell Diagnostic Tool.
On the Quick Test, I got:

x87 Error Exception Test - Coprocessor: <IC357> Fail
Cannot generate interrupt for an overflow.

However this did not apperar on the Complete Test.
Somebody on another forum suggested reinstalling XP. Is
this wise?
 
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