A couple weeks ago, my family PC started forgetting the time and date. I bought a new CMOS battery a few days later. While I was forgetting to get a new battery, the machine started to freeze or BSOD for varying reasons. Also, after replacing the battery, it took a few more days of manually setting the time and date to get it to hold (cmos was reset when the new battery was installed).
Machine specs: [URL]http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01310823&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=3658915#N271[/URL]
-With an added BFG 9800gt Eco Edition (previously a 8500gt that wore itself out a few months back).
Here's what I've done so far and other issues I've observed in mostly chronological order:
-*Prior to the freezing issue: Upon the 9800gt's installation, I tried installing my Antec BP500U psu from my main machine just in case the OEM PSU wasn't going to take kindly to the card. The machine would boot once or twice, but would refuse to boot again until the old PSU was attached and used to boot once.
-Ran a chkdsk /r to repair any damage caused by repeated freezes. A few things were found and fixed; no bad sectors.
-Startup repair off of harddrive stops working with a “cannot read memory” error.
--Startup Repair off of install Vista Business DVD (install is Home Premium) doesn't get the same error and completes.
-Booted from a USB drive with Linux Mint 10.
--The machine froze on the first attempt to boot from USB, but successive attempts always succeeded.
--When in Mint, the machine never froze.
-Several BSODs varying between IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, Page fault in Nonpaged area, and Memory Management.
--Dumps were wiped when I could get back into Vista (usually took a couple tries).
-Ran MemTest86+ on all 4 sticks of RAM (512MB x2 and 1GB x2).
--No errors after 4-5 hours with the machine previously in Mint for a couple hours prior. Thought I could rule out thermal issue.
--Also ran Windows Memory Checker just because.
-Removed graphics card
--Vista would hang at loading screen unless the graphics card was installed.
-Booted into Linux again.
--Something caused it to restart (probably dpkg) and it booted into Vista without the graphics card.
---No hangs. Vista started, reinstalled the drivers (which were already installed and configured...), and worked for about 30 minutes of browsing the net for solutions before freezing.
--Linux disk full. Hangs when GUI is loaded. Can't get it to do anything. Replaced with SystemRescueCD.
---S.M.A.R.T. status and tests check out. Assuming I can rule out harddrive.
-Put graphics card back in.
--Vista refused to boot until it was out.
-BSOD claiming network drivers were to blame.
-BSOD claiming an nt-prefixed executable is to blame.
-Installed important updates and updated all drivers in Vista.
--nForce drivers off of windows update failed to install.
---Manually installing nForce drivers took a couple restarts due to Vista reinstalling the network drivers before I could intervene and give the nVidia installer the go-ahead.
-IRQL BSOD again.
-System restore has no restore points prior to the freezing
-Removed all RAM and placed a single 1GB stick in slot 0 (closest to CPU)
--15-20 minutes into Vista, it freezes.
---Moved same stick into slot 1.
----No freezes
-Removed first 1GB stick and placed second into slot 0.
--No freezes in slot0 or slot 1.
---Removed second stick and placed first stick back in slot 0.
----No freezes.
-Tried using spare PC2-4200 RAM.
--Machine refused to POST
-Currently running memtest86+ on first stick in slot 0 with no other sticks installed.
--No errors after 2 hours and counting. On 6th pass.
So far, I don't know what is going on. I'm getting intermittent errors in different components. It's like Heisenberg's Uncertainty approach to troubleshooting.
The freezes are either screen halters or keyboard lights flashing once, monitor losing signal and immediately going to sleep, all harddrive activity stopping, and power staying on. When either freeze occurs, I cannot ping or scan the PC from other devices. My router reports it as unresponsive.
I'm thinking the motherboard is to blame and while I can replace it with my PC's board, from previous experience, that'd just open a new can of worms in the form of Windows claiming it isn't on its original hardware ("NOT GENUINE! NOT GENUINE!") and not having the proper drivers. I'd love to switch the PSU to rule it out, but the motherboard simply refuses to accept my spare. The easiest solution would be to buy a new motherboard, install it, and use my spare PSU, but not having income makes that a bit tough (Also, I really want to figure out what in the world is going on with this PC).
Any thoughts? OS perhaps (due to linux not crashing)?
Edit:
I think I'm just irked with the motherboard not accepting the psu...I'll see if the recovery partition is still intact.
Considering linux never crashed, it's possible the Windows installation has screwed up severely, maybe from the cmos battery dying or whatever. I'd say your best bet would be to reinstall Windows clean
In preparation for a reinstall, I put all the RAM back in original order. Vista refused to boot. It either froze or gave a pfn_list_corrupt bsod at the loading bar. But reversing the order was apparently okay to boot from.
Also, if the 512MB sticks are the only ones installed, the machine sleeps in S3. But if the 1GB sticks are installed with or without the 512MB sticks, the machine sleeps in S1. Weird.
EDIT:
Factory restore crashed before I hit the desktop with a Memory Management BSOD. The restore backup feature also tried to backup Gigabytes of data when I only had 3 documents to backup. Or at least that's the impression I get when it said my 4GB flash drive was too small and it cycled through all of ProgramFiles.
Using my old pair of Patriot PC2-6400 1GB sticks produced two long beeps and, individually, unending short beeps in any slot.
So, non-factory PSU and RAM refuse to work.
Edit 2:
Calling it. Motherboard, CPU, or PSU are to blame. Since I can't really test them as my attempts result in worse problems and the fact the parts are 3-4 generations old, I'm just going to replace them when I can.
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