Filed under: Registry Cleaners
If a PC starts randomly crashing, and it doesnt make sense what do you do?
March 19, 2011
5 thoughts on “If a PC starts randomly crashing, and it doesnt make sense what do you do?”
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Clean Registry and Optimize PC
IRQL LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO is related to a memory error so check you minidump file and see what they point to also try reseating all the memory one at a time a see if you get the error at anytime. Also the random restarts can be cause by RAM errors that will point to different devices trying to use bad memory. So it seems to me that one of your RAM modules is causing the headache.
Try switching/reseating the RAM and video card. I would guess you’re a gamer, so switching out the latter for your/an older slower card would be torture, but it could point you in the right direction. It also has the merit of being cheap.
Oops, sorry, didn’t see your added note or the other responses before the submit: you could always buy and swap out each part of your system in turn(!). Not an option for us poor people:-¬
I would start by stripping the computer down, blowing out all of the dust and especially the slots for RAM and cards. Then slowly reassemble the computer, making sure that everything was seated properly and "clicked" in to place.
If, after doing all of this, it keeps giving error messages, I’d suspect the motherboard.
Edit: "i had an IRQL LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO failure when i shut down my PC after installing my new ATI card’s driver with the Nvidia drivers still one there" – Yes, you need to delete your old drivers to prevent a conflict. (It could be the cause of all of your issues?)
If it were my system, i’d first re-seat all the hardware. Physically pull out all cards, the processor, ram, and then replace, making sure all connections were good. Run it awhile, see if the problem has been resolved. If not, I’d back up all documents and do a clean install of the OS, making sure all drivers are up to date. If the problem wasn’t resolved, I’d check for updated BIOS, and flash if anything was found.
If the problem wasn’t fixed by that point, I’d buy and install a cheapo video card and sell it on ebay, and go buy a new box.
Honestly, all my PC crashes made sense when I actually found the culprits. Usually (like you say) it was me being stupid and not reading through compatibility lists and assuming a PSU would be OK for a particular purpose when it clearly wasn’t.
I have had 1 CPU fail on me that was sort-of tough to figure it out and I wasn’t sure until it actually gave-up the ghost and the MOBO reported a CPU error. It still was intermittent but a quick CPU swap confirmed it was indeed the CPU. (If you wanted to know, it was a P4 on an ASUS board). That PC is still working today (5 years later) with a different CPU.
I had an ABIT board that had a Northbridge go out of it as well and it started doing all sorts of strange stuff too. It’s why I would never but anything from them again. It was a relatively new motherboard and I had nothing but trouble with it.
Depending on "how" the PC crashes is usually a pretty good way to figure out your problem. BSODs will give you a stop code that will point you in the right direction. Bad Hard drives, bad memory and corrupt registries are common.
Playing a 3D game and the PC freezes usually a PSU that isn’t supplying enough power to the card.
If it "shuts down" like pulling the plug from the wall, the Power supply is suspect.
If you are getting POST errors, the hardware indicated is bad or the motherboard is possibly bad.
IRQL errors are DEFINATELY a driver issue.
Completely uninstall BOTH drivers, reboot and reinstall the Catalyst Drivers.