Computer keeps crashing.

dauss · April 9th, 2003, 03:27 AM

My dell has always been a piece of crap. As long as I can remember if you just gently tap the case the computer freezes and then I have to turn it off manually. It usually boots fine, but most of the time the monitor never gets the signal, and if it does, all the text is messed up. It'll do it in the bios, the loading screen, and if it runs scandisk. Here's a screenshot of what I saw when it was going through scandisk.

Then after windows boots up it usually runs fine and nothing else happens. Sometimes after the 1st reboot after the crash I get the BSD and then I have to restart. About 2 weeks ago it never recovered. It boots and the screen messes up, but after I logon, it'll crash immediately or give me a BSD. Sometimes when it reboots it'll run for about 2 minutes, and then all these errors keep coming up saying that its recovered from serious error and such, then dies again. Anyone have any ideas? I was thinking was my RAM because when the BSD happens it says the error was caused by "Memory_management".
On top of that the computer just crashed again and somehow it mysteriously uninstalled my video card because it was reinstalling it when it booted, the resolution was back to the 640X480, and then it crashed again.
Information about my computer:
22 months old
1.3 P4 gHz
256 PC800 RDRAM
NVidia GeForce 2 MX400 32mb

muno · April 9th, 2003, 03:58 AM

It looks like your video card isn't properly seated.
Check the interior of your computer (assuming it will not void warranty) and see if everything's in place correctly and safely.
-M

Bushmaster · April 9th, 2003, 10:23 AM

Exactly, If your tapping the PC and it freezes up you most definately have something loose inside your case. Open it up and make sure all of the components are firmly seated (while the PC is off and unplugged) get a can of compressed air and blow out the insides paying attention to the heatsink fan on the CPU and the insides of the PSU.
Also check all the cable's to and from all devices.

Dax_Brandy · April 9th, 2003, 10:48 AM

yeah, i think it's a video card problem. try to checkl if the card is inserted properly into the aGP slot. check your monitor cable also for loose connections or broken pins.

dax

dauss · April 9th, 2003, 02:55 PM

I just started it again and it said that this NvCpl.dll was missing or some weird error. I opened up the case and everything was tight. Nothing was lose and I checked everything. Didn't decide to plug it back in until I changed cards. I switched it out with my radeon 9700 pro AIW and it works fine. It was stable and didn't crash. During that time I uninstalled the nvidia drivers and downloaded the newest ones. Restarted the comp and put the nvidia back in. It crashed again. Rebooted the computer and got the new drivers installed and rebooted again. It seems to be running stable at the moment.

zen · April 9th, 2003, 11:19 PM

Like anything else mass-produced, yer gonna get some lemons. Could be worse, like a Compaq.

zen · April 9th, 2003, 11:20 PM

And the butane has me wondering.

dauss · April 10th, 2003, 12:31 AM

what butane?

Brainchild · April 10th, 2003, 12:50 AM

Me too Zen. I was afraid that was th compressed air he was gonna use

If that happens again, I would say the vid card is toast.
Glad it's working for now though.