Ram going bad?

[[THANATOS].Sneye.GT]

Well, been getting a shitload of BSOD's lately. This is the longest the computers been going for a while now, about 30 mins. Always errors like quota underflow, irql less than something, etc. etc. Getting to really be a pain in the ass, last reboot I ran the windoze memtest, no trouble, ran the sfc /scannow thing, no trouble found, running dominator DDR 1600 at correct speed, have put cpu's back to original speed 2.67 ghz from 4 ghz. And am still getting the bsod's, and they're getting more and more frequent. Now, I installed the MS Dart thingy, it analyzes your crash dumps, and it's yet to give me a real answer. 1 of the many crashes pointed to eamon.dll which is a file for ESET anti-virus, but the rest are all over the place. Getting tempted (desperate enough) to do a fresh format and install trim and do a fresh install. Any ideas? Suggestions? before I have to do that? Oh yeah, my XP 32 bit, works fine, no crashes that I've noticed anyway. And the version of Win 7 I'm running has been slightly modified. Ahem ahem, I'm sure some of you know what I mean.

[[THANATOS].-Hades]

Seems like you will have to do a backup and format/clean install, doubt it's hardware failure.

Try running Reg cleaners, defrag, anti-malware, anti-virus, etc.

[[THANATOS].AnGeL]

you know I was just telling my husband... Computer people have more computer problems than anyone else I know.....

Here is the suggestion I am getting

Look at the BSOD you will have a stop code it will look like this 0x00000000 (Blah Blah, Blah Blah, Blah Blah)

if it is rebooting and you can't see the stop code immediately after post stary pressing F8 Like you are wanting to go to safe mode and then select disable automatic restart on system failure.

or better yet right click on my computer and go to properties, click on advanced system settings on the left side, then click on settings in the Startup and recovery box and uncheck "Overwrite and existing file" and go to "C:\Windows look for memory.dmp and pm it to me and he will analyze them for you. and then as it happens we can see if it is a driver hooked into your software or software hooked into a driver causing this.

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSOD's typically refer to a hardware driver. he will be able to see what driver exactly it is causing it.

[[THANATOS].Metal]

[THANATOS Wrote:.AnGeL"]IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSOD's typically refer to a hardware driver. he will be able to see what driver exactly it is causing it.

This most likely. I was having the same problem a couple of reforms ago. Fresh start took care of it.

[[THANATOS].AnGeL]

ok my husband has a question. why reformat when driver issues are typically 20 min fixes.

From a business aspect he understands. labor wise it is typically cheaper for a company to reimage a drive rather than fix it if no real time has to be spent to get it back. but if a format is going to require manually reloading everything manually why? From a home user side being somewhat versed and not just an email internet person, he asks why format. sure you may or may not fix the problem especially with windows 7 as a lot of times microsoft marks drivers as critical and updates them as they wish even if you had manufacturer drivers installed and not MS provided ones. so if that is the cause of this, the first update the problem returns. plus you learn nothing to further yourself.

he is just asking. in non military terms he is Sr Network Admin on the base and that is something he asks all his techs when they come in and just immediately jump to format to fix.

For the record. I am typing this on a Mac. a mac that has not been reformatted since I got it. been upgraded to the new OSs. My 3 year old Windows Desktop has been thru 1 format. and that was to go from Vista to 7. When Vista Started to slow down "Due To Age" hubby did a couple things on it. scheduled a few other things and it ran like new until 7 was put on it.

[[THANATOS].-Hades]

If you're implying that mac's aren't slowed down with usage over time, then that is not true. My PC is nearly as fast as when I did the upgrade to my previous Vista install (so it has been going without format for 2-3 years now). The main reason things break down is because you get multiple driver upgrades, software installs, settings get changed, you get viruses, malware, etc. etc.

Mac's running OSX don't get as many viruses and malware because people that create them aim to hit the majority of platforms (PC's)

As for the format issue it comes down to the fact that no matter how many times you defrag, clean registry, etc your pc is gonna get clogged with stuff over time and the only real "solution" is a fresh install with the important stuff you want backed up and restored, you usually lose the junk you don't really use anymore or want. Maintaining a PC's performence is usually more involved for the average user who has little knowledge of common maintenance.

[[THANATOS].AnGeL]

I am in noway implying Macs don't rot. Simply that basic maintenance prevent. And when I say basic I mean absolutely basic. The majority of the maintenance is built into windows it just needs to be scheduled. There are tools that do it a bit better but the built in ones do a fairly good job if configured correctly. This is something that you get really good at when maintaining a network of greater than 5,000 I guess at some point my mentality changed from break fix to prevent. But you are absolutely correct most people just don't know.

A buddy from college. Set out to prove it when he got laid off 14 months ago. He couldn't find work in Nashua but his wife still had a job.He started offering computer speed fixes for $30 flat rate. Yea some are just rot. Some are infected lightly. Some are heavily infected. And a small few require a format. But in 8 months of doing this he has already made his previous salary. And hired someone to help him keep up with the calls.

I for see a major change in the service industry. Already places like cross loop are taking hold. And now managed services are moving from a value adder to end users and companies to a primary cost platform.

-Alex

And also for the record as she put it. SHE can keep that damn Mac. It has it's perks. But so does windows. Either way. Solaris, Suse, AIX and HP-UX. Are my preferred platforms.

[[THANATOS].Sneye.GT]

Good Info, thanks folks. Usually, when I get the bsod, I'm barely able to catch sight of the actual error msg, and have no chance of getting the stop code, even though I know that the stop code is more valuable than the actual error message. Now, ok, the next time it fails, (I'm surprised it hasn't yet) the MS DART thing I installed does the analyze and dump of the dmp file. That, I will post and hope for a glimpse of an answer from people obviously MUCH smarter than I am. The DART thing is pretty cool actually, glad I installed it. It even takes note of the running programs/dll's etc. while the crash happens. So, yeah, expect at least 1, maybe 2 very technical posts to this a follow up. Again, thanks for the effort and thanks for the help. B-)