At last I have found somewhere that I am hoping can help me with my pc issue. Let me explain.
My pc just keeps crashing. It's not a software issue as it can happen when I am running just about anything. I know it's not the memory as I have plenty of that. I have done a complete reinstall of windows xp to see if that would help and as it has'nt I am assuming it's a hardware problem. What I really want to know is apart from taking it to the pc vet which will cost me a fortune is there any way I can find out what the problem is and if I am able to repair it? I have checked all my hardware devices and my pc is telling me that they are all working fine with no problems so I am thinking it runs deeper. I soooooooo hope there is someone out there who can help and advise me on this issue as it's bugging me so much, especially when I am in the middle of something and the pc decides to go bye bye, what makes it worse is my daughter needs the pc for her homework and I am so worried she is going to loose some really important work. Please please please help, someone. Thank sfor reading this if you got this far. Sarah x

Possibly heat related.

Make sure all fans are working, and above all blades are clean, and haven't piles of dust on them.

Worth a try.

Hello, and Welcome to D-A-L.

To add a bit to Fingees suggestion;

Are all of the case and power supply air vent openings clear of dust buildup?

Same for the CPU fan/heatsink assembly. Heatsink fins gather dust.


How long before it crashes?


Having plenty of RAM (Memory) doesn't mean it's all good. You could have a memory module that is faulty.

Download and run MemTest86+. Get it from here.

Use the appropriate downloaded file to create either a floppy bootdisk or a bootable CD.

For a floppy, unzip the files to an empty directory and (with a floppy in your drive) run the install.bat file. When complete, you won't see any files on the floppy, but they are there. Just boot the machine with this floppy and run it as long as you can afford to. If there are errors, run it on one memory module at a time to narrow down the possibilities. (ie; Remove all but one module.)

You may have to set your bios boot device sequence to boot from the floppy (or CDROM) drive first, depending on which media you choose.


There's also the Microsoft Memory Tester
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp


If your system (after cleaning) still crashes while running either of these utilities, your problem is definitely hardware related, and not software/Operating System related.

If this is the case, follow the steps outlined in this article for troubleshooting boot/POST problems.

Post back with the answers to the above questions and your results or further questions.

Well, I have to say I was not expecting all that. I have to admit I don't really understand most of what has been said. I can tell you that all the fans are clean as I clean them regularly but as for everything else that you have suggested I am dumbfounded. I clicked on the link for the memory tester thing but there are so many there I dont know which one to download lol.

Is there a floppy drive in the troubled machine? If so, get this; (Easiest)
http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70....70.floppy.zip

If the machine is CDROM boot capable, and there is no floppy drive, get this;
http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70...+-1.70.iso.zip

The above are direct download links. Just click on them and tell it where to save.


(If the machine is out of warranty,) are you comfortable removing the case cover/side panel to clean inside?

Again: How long before it crashes?

It's hard to say how long before it crashes, sometimes it can be minutes after I have started the pc and other times I can be on for ages before it crashes. I am comfortable removing the side panels to clean inside. I have put in a new hard drive, disk drive and memory stick myself its all the technical jargon that I have no idea of. I dont have my floppy disk drive anymore as I removed it because it was never used and I dont know if my disk drive is cdrom boot capable. I'm sorry I am not much help but as I dont know much about what I am talking about I find it hard to explain.

"... if the machine is CDROM boot capable ..."

I anticipate that it is. You've (re)loaded XP, did you boot the machine with the XP CD to install the O/S?

Yes I did. I used the reload disk I got with the pc when I purchased it.

Ahhh..... Is this a proprietary system? (ie; brand name - Dell, Gateway, Hewlett Packard (includes Packard Hell & Comcrap), IBM/Lenovo, etc)

Is your XP CD a (brand name/manufacturers) Restore CD?

Is it the troubled machine you're on now, or do you have a secondary machine there/handy/available?

Not quite sure what you mean but the pc is a time computer, the cd I have is a reload backup cd and yes I am using the troubled pc now, I dont have another computer but I have purchased one. Even though I have purchased another pc I would still like to get this one sorted so my kids can use it.