COMP TECH, need help..any ideas?

[illryan]

ok. so. im not in anyway new to the comp repair scene but at this point im getting frustrated. Ive been using a pentium4 2.8ghz, slightly overclocked, 2gig ram, 512 nvidia 8600 AGP, w/dual 22" widscreen monitors..the graphics card has one dvi and one vga so thats how i have it set up because vga to dvi adapter is $$$, with 200gig external USB 2.0 HD and a 400gig Internal western digital IDE HD. recently after purchasing and configuring my 2nd monitor id say about a 4 days later (i like to leave my comp on..thermal expansion....i keep it cool so, so it was 4 consecutive days) i was sitting watching t.v. when i noticed from the corner of my eye...the blue screen. it said i was missing such and such dll. so i said F**k and began the process of re-formatting and installing windows fresh. THEN it happened. blue screen after blue screen trying to set it up, mainly on the load sequence for windows set-up. so i said HD is fried must be. i took out the cmos battery waited the traditional 15 seconds and re-installed then I grabbed an extra 80gig layin around and i actually formatted it on another computer so it would be fresh install in my case. it got half way through re-formatting on my computer then crapped out w/ stop error message and rebooted. i put the HD in the other computer formatted and installed windows first try no prob. i have a foxconn BIOS and chipset. the other computer is a dell so i know i cant just swap the HD with the now good install any ideas? referrals? should i buy and try another microcenter deal HD?

 

[illryan]

¿¿nobody??

 

[just a noob]

just to let you know, thats really outdated, especially with a pentium 4, they dont have a lot of processing power compaired to modern day computers, and if your going to build a new computer, just post the budget you have in mine, and computerforum should be able to help you out, and welcome to computerforum

 

[illryan]

just to let you know, thats really outdated, especially with a pentium 4, they dont have a lot of processing power compaired to modern day computers, and if your going to build a new computer, just post the budget you have in mine, and computerforum should be able to help you out, and welcome to computerforum

yeah i know its old. it was the best for its time lol. yeah i know i could build a great computer for about 1100$ or so. but budget is real tight and for what im doing on my home computer = surfing internet, aim, and music. i dont think i need the processing power. All my real computing needs are at work, and there i have a quad core G5 so..lol i kinda just wanna do a simple fix if i could, id rather not spend the cash. and thx for the welcome!

 

[illryan]

bump, need fixed

 

[illryan]

bumpppp

 

[UriA702]

It's not "really outdated." Columbia University still uses p4 systems in most of their student computer labs. a p4 2.8 system with 2 gigs of ram is a solid workstation.

The issue seems like a ram issue (however, could be gpu as well), take out one stick at a time and see if the problem persists.

 

[elron-jethro]

i also use pentium4/celeron d processors (pretty much the same thing, mabe a slight gaming edge on the pen4 though) and do not think there outdated, especially with your 2gb of ram. try removing and reinstalling ram and see if the error come up when running on just one stick. reinstall windows and run CCleaner, use it to fix the registary.

hope i helped, Elron

 

[illryan]

i also use pentium4/celeron d processors (pretty much the same thing, mabe a slight gaming edge on the pen4 though) and do not think there outdated, especially with your 2gb of ram. try removing and reinstalling ram and see if the error come up when running on just one stick. reinstall windows and run CCleaner, use it to fix the registary.

hope i helped, Elron

thx for the responses! i was thinking of the ram but i wasnt sure. because i never had a problem b4, but ram can be volatile.(as most computer parts) but it has 4/ 512's so yeah ill try that out.

 

[elron-jethro]

keep testing to see how much ram it will happily accept, run numerous apps for example with the ram and see if the problem reaccours

 

[oscaryu1]

Download Memtest86 and run overnight.

 

[Dystopia]

you said it was missing "such and such .dll". this could be because you edited or played around with your computer to much(personal expereince), or someonelesse did. Try to R-I(re install) win xp, and it might be fine.

 

[elron-jethro]

have you run CCleaner yet to fix your registary and yes running memtest would be a good idea

 

[illryan]

i cant get it to go through the install without blue screen of death!
still havent gotten to do the ram test yet tho,

 

[oscaryu1]

Then it's not a software problem. Memtest86...

 

[illryan]

Download Memtest86 and run overnight.

found it in a google search and can be made into a bootable cd so i will give that a try. thx for the reply!

 

[illryan]

havent gotten a chance to get around to memtest...any other ideas to throw around? and oscar...what is that an old school oddessy dropped w/ rims, lip-kit and duckbill wing in ur avatar...lol