Challenging problem: Unpredictable Crashing

[jsiles]

My computer likes to crash unpredictably. The problem has been going on for the last month and I have no real idea of what is wrong. I do know what isn't wrong, however. This is the list:

1. I have a western digital hard drive and have run their diagnostic test on it. The test reports no drive errors. However, during a surface scan by Norton Disk Doctor I received the error "Divide Overflow Error."

2. I just bought a brand new CD-ROM to replace the one that was causing some system crash problems thanks to a busted tray. The CD-ROM is fine.

3. I have used Norton SystemWorks to test Windows 95, it reports no unusual problems with Windows 95. Also, I have reformated the hard drive 3 times over the last 5 days. The software is all newly installed.

What I haven't tested yet:
- The motherboard. Is there a utility for testing the integrity of the motherboard?
- AWE 64 Gold sound card
- Matrox Millenium II graphics card
- Diamond Monster 3D II graphics accelerator
- EtherNET Card

Errors and such...
-Sometimes the system simply restarts. No warning, no error, just restarts.
-Sometimes I get the "blue screen of death" reporting fatal errors in 0E and 0D in 0028:blah-da-blah and VXD VMM clusters. Sometimes it lets me continue, sometimes it shuts down the current app, sometimes it produces another error... and another... and another.
-Sometimes the system freezes and I can only hit reset. CTRL-ALT-DEL rarely works.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them...

[goseve]

Make sure your processor fan is working, and all cards are seated good. maybe remove cards that aren't needed

[ANTONIO E GUERRA]

Make sure u have the latest drivers for your video card. Agp works better with windows 98 than windows 95. I had similar problems and I upgraded to 98 and have no more problems.

[hydraulic]

You may not think that this is the problem but have your memory checked,mine was doing the same thing and it turned out to be a bad stick of memory. I did'nt get any memory errors.

[meckerle]

As already mentioned, The memory could have a bad section. I had the same thing. Blue death screens, and instant restarts. Had the mem checked and found one to be bad. Replaced the mem and all was fine. I am again having a small simular problem with instant restarts. Some times when I boot up the total memory is not recognised. This I am told could be a bad connection between the mother board and the chip. Good Luck!

[Nathan]

Check out this site for more on those error messages.

Let us know what happens.

Computer Help Page
www.helponthe.net/nathan/ (http://www.helponthe.net/nathan/)

[jsiles]

Thanks fellas. I'm working on it... btw, do you know how to go about testing the RAM?

[MrEd]

I'm going to have to agree with the other two. Having similar probs, and its definately the ram.

[ThomasT]

Are you using IE5.0? If you are and you're running or have ever run Nortons cleansweep, then there's most likely the problem. I've had serveral problems with Nortons System Works. I would remove the program all together. After loading the new file that Symantec provides from their web site (under their cleansweep program) my computer has had no problems. Read the earlier posts that I had regarding this problem. It may help.

HTH,
ThomasT

[jsiles]

Nope, I am using Netscape. I shun Internet Explorer because of the way it sticks fingers into the OS.

[JaniSue]

I had the same type of problems you do with the unexplained crashes, restarts and freezes. It was a processor fan gone bad. Good luck.

[CMonster]

On the hardware side: is your system overclocked? That can cause such problems, try a more modest setting. Also reseat your memory, CPU, and disk drive data ribbons.

On the software side: try uninstalling every Norton Product you have and do a reinstall of the operating system - if that doesn't work you might try a fresh install of the operating system.

Personally, I reserve Norton products for use as gifts to those people I do not like.

[Jin Vitas]

Make sure your system is not overheating.

[ENVY]

hey your local computer store should have a ram tester that they can check your ram with.Usually this can be done in 5 min and for no charge.