Unstable PC

**Psylocke** · November 5th, 2006 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by Kikkomann

Can't be. You can't even boot if the mems are busted.

Unstable in Linux boot? Hardware definitely.

Ventilation and heat dissipation are the two most common problem of old (unstable) PCs.

Nope. you can boot with bad ram.

you can even have an apparently stable system with bad ram

**BlueBimmer** · November 5th, 2006 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by Kikkomann

Can't be. You can't even boot if the mems are busted.

Unstable in Linux boot? Hardware definitely.

Ventilation and heat dissipation are the two most common problem of old (unstable) PCs.

yes you can boot with defective RAMs. ive booted into winxp and it causes the OS to restart randomly especially during resource intensive apps. i used memtest to find the defective stick of RAM.

**BoEinG_747** · November 5th, 2006 12:43 PM

BB: paano ang procedure ng memtest ?
ano ito alisin ba isa isa ang RAM
or may software para dito?

P3 namin wala nga halos patayan .at hindi naka aircon ,

kaya lang wala na side cover at lagi malinis ,
pag nag vacuum clean sa area niya ,
kasabay na din pina vacuum ang PC while running

**Kikkomann** · November 5th, 2006 12:56 PM

IMO, bad (incompatible, etc.) RAM is different from BUSTED (burned, fried, etc,) RAM.

(Well at least, that's how I define it)...

**Kikkomann** · November 5th, 2006 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by BoEinG_747

BB: paano ang procedure ng memtest ?
ano ito alisin ba isa isa ang RAM
or may software para dito?

SW.

Then there's Prime95.

**BoEinG_747** · November 5th, 2006 01:11 PM

^^^bro Kikkoman ..thanks

**number001** · November 5th, 2006 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by BoEinG_747

BB: paano ang procedure ng memtest ?
ano ito alisin ba isa isa ang RAM
or may software para dito?

P3 namin wala nga halos patayan .at hindi naka aircon ,

kaya lang wala na side cover at lagi malinis ,
pag nag vacuum clean sa area niya ,
kasabay na din pina vacuum ang PC while running

Memtest is a downloadable freeware (AFAIK) program that will test whether the RAM has errors in it or any compatibility issues when used with other sticks of RAM installed in the system. No need to take out anything from the system, unless you have other sticks of ram to test.

Memtest is available for both XP, DOS and other OS. I like the DOS version bec. all you have to do is download the cd burn image file (*.iso) from the site and burn it into a CD. It is already bootable and simply have the PC boot from the bootable CD and it will take care of itself. I find this program more thorough than the OS version bec. there are no other programs competing with the use of the RAM. Good also if you are building a system and havent installed an OS yet.

There is also a Windows and other OS versions, which require shutting off all running programs in the background. I dont like this so much bec. I believe it is not that thorough.

**Jun aka Pekto** · November 9th, 2006 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by A121

Is my PC nearing its death? It's an old P3 system.

I haven't found a virus (even when scanning in safe mode) but it still keeps on restarting while running Windows 2k. My virus definition files are up to date. It also stops while its running on Ubuntu Linux.

Could this be hardware problems already?

Thanks!

Everyone seems to have made good suggestions. I was going to suggest taking the thing apart and re-assembling it again and then see if the problem shows itself.

**A121** · November 13th, 2006 11:47 PM

wow daming replies... thanks a lot!

i tried hijackthis.exe to see if there are programs that shouldn't be running. well it seems that there are no viruses in my pc. it somewhat stable right now, although I haven't tested it overnight.

**A121** · December 24th, 2006 01:00 PM

bumping this thread up...

hello again... thanks for the advice and i was able to have some free time this week to check my pc.

i cleaned every heatsink but still it was unstable. i still get restarts and errors.

i did run memtest yesterday and boy, i got 193++ errors. i shut it down because i was getting sleepy.

so what i did this morning is to identify what ram stick has errors. so i pulled out one stick and tried to reboot. i got a blank screen. i checked the connections, it was ok. i replaced the monitor, and still i get the blank screen. i pulled out the video card and reinserted it, still the blank screen. i left it open to see if linux would load, deng.. the hdd light wasn't blinking at all. i pressed the num lock, caps lock and scroll lock buttons, they weren't lighting up.. it didn't make any error beeping sounds...

i will try later this afternoon kung ano mangyayari, baka sinusumpong lang...