Help?

Ever since I removed my CPU to test in another M/board, after replacing it in this PC, it's rebooted eight times yesterday, and once today. could I have partially fried the CPU by moving it freom one m/b to another? I'm running XP Pro w/a Celeron 900, 512 MB ram, 60GB HDD, haven't changed or added anything, tried a system restore yesterday, but that obviously didn't work. I'm getting files in a Windows/Minidump folder, but they don't really explain much. One says it has a problem with WIN32K.sys and another has a msg: DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Thanx in advance...

Mike

is that ram one stick or multiple sticks? if it is multiple check and make sure one of the sticks didn't go bad.

make sure the heatsink and fan are mounted on firmly on there, the cpu might be overheating since that's what you moved

Yea.. what you could also do is just make sure all your chips and cards are properly seated.. if an expansion card or memory isnt seated properly you could get a world of reboots.. maybe you must have hit one while operating on the PC. sounds like a simple problem tho, nothing you should worry too much about. good luck m8 B)

Thanks all...

would any of that cause a blue screen and a dump? When I had a problem with my last m/b rebooting, it wouldn't give a blue screen or a dump. I'm going to try and get a new CPU, the Cel 1300 is around $45. The heat sink looks like it's seated OK and the fan is running. I was also running Motherboard Monitor 5 and it was at 89 F the last time it BSOD'd. Everything was perfect until I pulled out the CPU, that'll teach me to mess about!

mike

the way i see it is you gotta do isht to learn.. i pulled out a lot of isht outta my pc and sometimes i couldnt even boot up.. but a little reseating here and there did the trick. not saying this is the case with you but patience is a virtue. (sometimes) :unsure:

Just reseated everyting andeven took out a memory stick. Yep, process of elimination, that's all. I also noticed it starts 'bouncing' 3 hours after a cold-start, which might make it heat-related, so I double checked the heat sink. The metal part of the CPU that touches the heat sink is a bit blue, like a chrome motorcycle tailpipe. I'll just keep it running and see.

Might be worth getting some heat sink compound on there if you haven't already.

There is just enough compound to be a little tacky, but I suppose a bit more couldn't hurt. I used to use that goop years ago doing electronic assembly, some of those fat power transistors could cook an egg!. Thanks for the idea.

Right after I finished my last post, I got a dialog box which read:

"Instruction at (big long hex addr) referenced memory address (another big hex#). This memory address could not be read. "

Adams73533, you might have just won the $64 question! At least RAM is cheaper than another CPU.

Crossing my fingers it's the RAM,

mike

Actually thats not a memory prob...Its a software conflict prob....you get that sometimes when you have Acrobat and MS Word and Norton AV on the same volume

It had been perfect for a few months until Wed., and I've had Acrobat, Word, and NAV on the same volume of every PC I've had since Windows 3.1. Never seen this before.

It seems to be having random software problems, which leads me to believe that it's memory or CPU, especially when it happens after the PC is on for 3 hours.

BTW, it's been 1 1/2 hrs since the last reboot after I took out one of the two 256MB memory modules.

True...the error message is more an exception and not the rule....Also from my programing experience "Instruction at (big long hex addr) referenced memory address (another big hex#) usually means error in code or irregular behavior in the program or a missing.
However you may be right it could be a sign of faulty ram..replace your memory and see if that fix your problem.especially when other programs also mysteriously crash. The problem you described happened to me just 3 weeks ago. When I replaced the ram, the computer worked just fine. Try downloading a ram tester from www.download.com to confirm your problem.

Now would be a perfect time to test out that MS Memory Diag. I'll give it a go and see what it says.* Also no re-boots in over 4 hrs.

P.S. The RAM definitely was the problem. The PC has been perfectly stable since I removed the offending memory stick. Luckily it was a Kingston with lifetime warranty, and it's replacement should be arriving today. Luv that Kingston! A few days before MSBLAST came out, I was having these problems, thought it was a virus! AAAAH!

Had same problem, replaced the ram-bingo.

I have a strange issue to discuss with you folks as well. I think it's kind of relevant to the topic.
My cousin fried his modem and bought a modem (Agere V.92 PCI)today. Installed drivers (from the CD-not digitally signed). Logged to net. After 5 minutes (or less), rebooted suddenly (BSOD-WinXP Pro). Changed the PCI slot and even installed the Win2K driver. Still the same. Tried out everything. Just opened the task manager to see if any process is causing this. It was MSBLAST. Ended that process. Worked fine.
I don't know whether MSBLAST was there on his system before he bought the modem, or it might even have installed with the drivers.

It just takes a few seconds just being online to get that MSBLAST worm. No user intervention required. It's a virus with an auto-infect feature built in! :angry:

glad you found your problem mikeh420.