Odd problems?!

[PseudoPhreak]

Hi all, my computer is still have fits after a period of uptime, its throwing up delayed write errors about 30 hours in. this is for all hard drives and i replaced the OS drive and same thing.
I just got the motherboard replaced and the problem still occurs.
My next stage of testing is RAM but i need DDR2 ram since DDR1 for my old system doesn't fit.

My question is, does anyome have spare DDR2 ram sitting around spare or in a machine that doesnt get used much that i could borrow for a few days to test my system with it?

If anyone has any other suggestion it would be appreciated and a beer or 2 as gratitude.

[ZeroG]

Hmm I'm afraid I don't have any going spare. My old system is still sitting here but it uses DDR RAM too.

Have you tried running MemTest for a long time and to see if any errors pop up on there ?

[PseudoPhreak]

i have ran it for a little while, about an hour, will leave it on over night tonight and see what happens.

[Deep Blue]

Check memory timings, we had an absolute nightmare with Dyce's new PC because of it!

I haven't got any spare DDR2 alas :(

[PseudoPhreak]

memtest has been running for over 24 hours and no errors yet, left it running whilst at work so will see what happens when i go home. if it hasnt found any errors or crashed then its safe to say it isnt RAM.
would something on the OS cause this?
Also, does anyone have a spare PSU suitable for new computer that i could borrow.

[Scottish-Husky]

ts throwing up delayed write errors about 30 hours in. this is for all hard drives and i replaced the OS drive and same thing.

You could turn off write caching, whats happening if your hdd's are spinning down then windows wants to write to it, and they dont spin up in time, iv found having suffered this before its due to 1. Lack of PSU power and 2. a crap controler card for the drives.

changed both and it never came back, tho also disabling write caching did help a bit but causes a performance drop.

[PseudoPhreak]

yeah ive tried disabling cache but didnt help, i think i might have figured it out, was looking at a memory dump and it seems azureus was causing it. more testing ahoy!

[PseudoPhreak]

So its not azureus, and its not anything on the OS as i wiped it and re-installed.
iv'e also test with new RAM and it still crashes.

the following is from a mini-dump of the crash if it means anything to anyone:


PFN_LIST_CORRUPT (4e)
Typically caused by drivers passing bad memory descriptor lists (ie: calling
MmUnlockPages twice with the same list, etc). If a kernel debugger is
available get the stack trace.
Arguments:
Arg1: 00000099, A PTE or PFN is corrupt
Arg2: 0007dac4, page frame number
Arg3: 00000003, current page state
Arg4: 00000000, 0

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR: 0x4E_99

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 00000000 to 804f9f33

STACK_TEXT:
b9f5bbf4 00000000 00000099 0007dac4 00000003 nt!KeSetImportanceDpc+0x17


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
nt!KeSetImportanceDpc+17
804f9f33 ?? ???

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

SYMBOL_NAME: nt!KeSetImportanceDpc+17

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nt

IMAGE_NAME: ntkrnlpa.exe

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 4802516a

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x4E_99_nt!KeSetImportanceDpc+17

BUCKET_ID: 0x4E_99_nt!KeSetImportanceDpc+17

Followup: MachineOwner

[MadmaN]

i think your machine hates you lol

[PseudoPhreak]

thanks, thank you very much

[MadmaN]

lol sorry man .. umm wish i could help ya not got a clue what any of that means :(

[ZeroG]

I don't know if you've seen this site. http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=334

Might be worth trying the methods in there and see what you get.

[PseudoPhreak]

my next stage of thinking is it could be the CPU.
anyone got a spare Socket 775 CPU that i could borrow for a few days?

[Deep Blue]

Sheesh, I guess you've tried a bios update?

[PseudoPhreak]

yup

[PseudoPhreak]

ok so now its completely shafted
its stuck in a BSOD reboot loop
it begins to load windows but then when it should try to load the chkdsk (which it always seems to do as its always crashing) it just BSOD's and reboots, i tried booting into safe boot but it crashes at the same point.
I tried to get into do "fixmbr" or "fixboot" but thats crashing too as it tries to load the command prompt.
i switched out hte graphics and it has the same problem, so now im down to either PSU or CPU and a system that wont even load windows(havent tried a re-install yet as it didnt help with the last problem).
So i am looking for someone willing to let me come to their house for a couple hours, if that, to try my CPU in their system and their CPU in mine.
Help me obi-wan, your my only hope.

[PseudoPhreak]

ok so thanks to ZeroG ive managed to rule out the CPU.
Going to try a differnt PSU and if that doesnt work, i will try sending the mobo back again

[Amadeus]

if you or anyone else needs a copy or Hiren's boot CD just give me a shout, probably best to send me a PM on the site so i get an email about it :)

[ZeroG]

What's Hiren's boot cd ?

[Castiana]

Hiren's Boot CD (http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd)

Google ftw :p

[Castiana]

ok so thanks to ZeroG ive managed to rule out the CPU.
Going to try a differnt PSU and if that doesnt work, i will try sending the mobo back again

I skim read the topic again, so i apologise if you've tried this already.

Have you tried swapping out the motherboard?

[PseudoPhreak]

will a while back i sent back the motherboard and they replaced it, but it still had the problem is crashing around 30 hours in. but just lately the problem of not starting at all i have tried replacing everything but the motherboard so sent it back again and i'm waiting to see if they find a fault.
I've ordered a new motherboard so either way its a new motherboard, that arrives tomorrow.

[PseudoPhreak]

yeah so it wasnt the motherboard, i installed the new mobo and had the same BSOD loop, but maybe it will fix the crashes at 30 hours.
I've now installed XP to a different hdd and its working fine for now.

[ZeroG]

Faulty hdd ?

[PseudoPhreak]

looks like it, or maybe the xp install somehow foobared.
will do some tests on it later.

[Scottish-Husky]

ghost the working one onto the one that your not sure of, if it bsods you know the hdd has an issue

[PseudoPhreak]

i've put the hard drive into a usb caddy and it crashes the computer when i turn i on.
does the same on my laptop. so definitely the hard drive, but i want to get the data off it so its more testing ahoy.

[PseudoPhreak]

ok, so im still having problems, anyone got a spare 775 cpu i could borrow for a few days?