Hi,
I'm having some issues with my pc that i recently built. It seems to crash randomly after a few hours of use (varies from 1-4 hours). It either freezes up completely or dumps we to a blue screen (i've attached an analysis of the minidumps. There are only 2 though, the other crashes just freeze without dumping). From what i can tell from the minidumps, it seems to be an issue with drivers but just to be safe, i ran memtest to see if my memory is working fine. It ran for 5 and a half hours, but then that froze up too, but no errors were recorded. So i don't know whether it is an issue with any of my hardware or the software. If anyone could shed some light as to how i could determine the problem, it would be much appreciated.
The system if it helps:
2gb 667mhz ram
Ati saphire HD4850
Pentinum D 3.00ghz
1x 150gb maxtor s-ata
1x 70gb maxtor s-ata
Elitegroup motherboard P4M900T-M2
I looked up the "Pool_Corruption" error code & I was seeing different things about that it could be ram or drivers. The file also mentioned MSN messenger. I would first try reinstalling that. Also since you have Vista make sure that you have the most recent version installed. If it is ram it could be that you bought bad ram. I wouldn't hurt to try and RMA it if it is still under warranty. If it is more that one stick did you match the ram correctly? They have to match or you will have hardware problems. Also are you overclocking your system? That could cause problems with your ram. If so reset all those settings to the default setting.
You could always reinstall your OS to eliminate the possibility of problems with your OS or drivers but thats an extreme measure.
The file also mentions wow.exe. Check here to see if you have any of the programs mentioned at the top of the page & let me know if you have any of them.
Wow.exe is world of warcraft. It was running when it crashed which actually leads me to believe it is faulty ram. I've ran memtest several times now and now they won't even get past an hour although they always at least go past the first sweep. I did have a finding though...memtest86 seems to last a lot longer than memtest86+ without freezing. Is there any significance to that or is it that memtest86+ is more rigorous to start off with?
Sounds like it might be ram. I don't know about the memory tests. I would contact the manufacturer of your ram & see if they think that it is your ram. They might have a test to see if it is. Other than that if you have 2 or more sticks try running your computer on just one for a while, long enough to see if your computer crashes. Try this with all of them. If it crashes while using a particular stick then that stick could be bad. If it never crashes on a particular stick then it is probably good. When doing this test, if it never crashes at all then your ram probably doesn't match & they must or you will have problems. If it crashes with both (are all) of your sticks then either all of them are bad or they don't match your mother board which is a possibility. Look in your manual to see what you should have. I don't think that you can have any kind that you want but I don't remember for sure.
I had bought the stick of ram from play.com and i think it's one of their makes. I got frustrated with it so bought myself another stick of ram (Corsair 2gb 667mhz), which fits the specs of the motherboard (from what i can tell). It was actually working fine until now once i had everything installed back onto my computer. I now get a random crash where everything freezes up every couple of hours like i did before. It shouldn't be what i've installed i don't think since i've installed the same things on my laptop which runs fine. So...either this stick of ram is defective as well, or another piece of hardware is causing it (I did try reinstalling windows in the end). Is there any utilities i can use to test my motherboard say?
Another problem which miht be related to this is that when i tried to reinstall stuff, sometimes, errors pop up saying i have currupt files. And sometimes windows updates fail to install (i tired reinstalling windows twice now, and the first time 90% of them failed).
The manufacturer might have a diagnostic tool for your mother board & if you got a cd it might be on that. However if you reinstalled windows & still no luck I think we can eliminate drivers & test the ram first. Have you tried running your computer for a while with only one stick in at a time? This must be for at least the time period in which it would normally crash. Does it crash all of the time? Can you say that if you boot it up it will eventually crash it's just a matter of when? Like I mentioned if your computer doesn't crash one its probably good. If it crashes with one its probably bad. If your computer only crashes when both are in your system then its a good bet that they are mis-matched and that does cause problems. To determine if the slots are bad you'll have to try the ram in one slot at a time. I know that there are diagnostic tools to determine if you have a problem with your ram however I don't know what off the top of my head. The manufacturer might have one designed for their ram but possibly one for their ram only. I would contact them for advice & guidance to determine if your ram needs to be RMA'd. You can't do an RMA with out contacting them anyway. When it comes that those kinds of problems there is only so much that a forum can help you with. I think that this is all the advice that I have for you. Someone else might have something. Good luck.
I've currently only got the new stick of ram in and it would still crash. I will run memtest on it tonight when i go to sleep to see whether it is ok.
It would usually be a matter of time before it crashes but it is rather random and so i really can't predict when it would happen (yeterday it didn;t crash once but today, 15 of running the computer, it decided to crash).
I will try and get in contact with the manufacturers to see if they can help too.
On a side note, when i run sfc/scannow from command promt, it finds currupt files but never seems to be able to fix them all. Is that a normal thing? And is it a bad thing that there are currupt files?
And thanks for your help Townsbg, you have been of considerable help.
How does your computer act when it has only old ram in it. You really need to try that. Corrupt system files aren't good however I don't know anything about those tests. I've never heard of them so I can't tell you if they are accurate. Contacting their techs is a good idea. Let us know about the memory tests & the results of working with the techs. Good luck & glad I could help.
I will try that and see.
I wanted to rule out my cpu and any temperature related issues that might be causing it (since it is a matter of time before it crashes, maybe there's a heat buildup somewhere). So i've been running prime95. I have also got speedfan installed to monitor the temperature. The cpu shot up to 69 degress C in a few seconds and has remained there ever since. Is that too high for a pentium D cpu? It's not overclocked and i'm using the stock heatsink and fan with 2 additional fans, excluding the power supply one. If it's running at 69, I'm slightly worried that it will go over that if i'm running a game since my graphics card also pumps off a lot of heat.
69 degrees C is really hot although I don't know if it hot for a pentium d in particular. It is really hot for my processor however yours might be different. What is more important than determining what your computer runs at when running Prime95 (which runs your computer at 100% continuously) is determining what your computer runs at when you are running nothing. As a comparison mine crashes at exactly 75 HOWEVER it doesn't freeze or blue screen it just shuts off. A BSOD or lock up is usually indicative of driver/OS and/or hardware problems & not over heating, at least of the CPU. For my system every few months I have to remove the fan from the heat sink (which isn't very good) & pick out all of the dust that accumulates & keeps the heat sink from dissipating the heat. If I don't do this it will eventually start crashing under a heavy load. If you think your problem is heat then I would do likewise. You can have speed fan log the temps & if your comp crashes you can check that later. GPUs run significantly hotter than CPUs because they are more complex. Your computer is running hot so I would do something to stop that (keeping in mind what I've told you) however I'm still inclined to think that your ram is to blame since that is what I was reading when I goggled your particular error code so I would continue to work with the techs of your rams' manufacturers. Ask if you can RMA the RAM. How does your computer act when you are running the old RAM only? Has your computer ever run normally or did it just start crashing after you got the new RAM. That would be a big indication of either a mismatch or the new RAM being defective. Does this all make sense?
Newbie
