Constant Blue Screen - Very confused

[RyanStanikk]

Hi there, firstly, here are my computer specs:

OS: Windows XP Professional SP3
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6GHz Dual Core)
RAM: 4.0GB Kingston Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 327MHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte M61PME-S2 (Chipset Nvidia MCP61)
Graphics: 512MB GeForce 8500 GT
Hard Drive: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black
Audio: Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum

I'll run through what's been happening:

A couple of weeks ago, my computer gave me a BSOD, this was the first time it has ever happened, infact it was the first problem I've ever had with this computer. I restarted the computer, only to be met with another BSOD as soon as the computer reached the desktop load-up.

I found that turning the computer off for a while would allow me to then start it up properly later on, but it would only last 15/20 mins before blue screening again.

A friend suggested that it was most likely the graphics card causing the problem, so I borrowed a replacement, brand new card and inserted into the computer instead of my own. At this point, my computer stopped recognising my hard drive, it was simply not listed in the BIOS and it couldn't be found, it was impossible to get passed the 'boot from cd' prompt.

My mother works at a technology company, who had a look at the computer and due to only a limited amount of time available to them, they simply came to the conclusion that my hard drive was corrupted (after less than a year of usage). I then ordered a brand new WD hard drive the same evening and was able to install it the following day.

So here I was, a brand new installation of windows on a new hard drive. I booted it up, installed all the drivers and everything was working great. However, today (3 days later), after working on the computer quite a lot, I was editing a song in Cubase and was hit with another BSOD. I restarted, and the loop began all again.

I left the computer for a while and then started up again. I checked the temperature of my CPU (45*C) and graphics card (60*C) and then very soon was hit with... you guessed it, BSOD.

So I took out my graphics card again and replaced it with another, I was able to start up the system and reach the desktop, where the computer instantly decided to restart itself, this loop then continued, the computer would sometimes restart at the windows loading window, and sometimes at the desktop. At a couple of points, it stopped just before the 'boot from CD' prompt and just stayed there.

I decided to also remove my sound card, as most of the times I have blue screened, I've been playing music, but this was no help either.

So you can probably see why I'm confused, most other topics on this recommend re-stalling windows (which I've done) or formatting the HD (I have a brand new one). I don't want to cause any more damage to the computer by messing around and would be extremely grateful for your advice.

Thank you

[RyanStanikk]

Anyone have any ideas?

[Fabian]

First of all you need to check out your memory. For that you need to run memtest86 on your machine. Did you check the voltage readings from the PSU before you used it? But if this is a firmware issue, you may have to reset the CMOS battery or update the BIOS to resolve that, if possible.The parameters have different meanings depending on what type of CPU you have but, while diagnostic, rarely lead to a clear solution. Most commonly it results from overheating, from failed hardware (RAM, CPU, hardware bus, power supply, etc.), or from pushing hardware beyond its capabilities (e.g., overclocking a CPU).

[Hardwareman]

Hi, You are getting Constant Blue Screen on your computer on Monitor, right? Most of time this type of Blue Screen was got when any type of modification was done to the computer, such as software or hardware changes. So, if you have done any modification in your hardware, just remove that hardware from your computer. Or if you have modified any software by installing on your computer, just try to remove by starting your computer in safe mode by pressing F12 key of your keyboard. And try to use solve your problem. I think this will solve your problem.

[RyanStanikk]

First of all you need to check out your memory. For that you need to run memtest86 on your machine. Did you check the voltage readings from the PSU before you used it? But if this is a firmware issue, you may have to reset the CMOS battery or update the BIOS to resolve that, if possible.The parameters have different meanings depending on what type of CPU you have but, while diagnostic, rarely lead to a clear solution. Most commonly it results from overheating, from failed hardware (RAM, CPU, hardware bus, power supply, etc.), or from pushing hardware beyond its capabilities (e.g., overclocking a CPU).

I'm not particularly knowledgeable about hardware/electronics. Could you by any chance give me some step by step instructions?

In reply to Hardwareman. As I explained in my post, I tried removing Sound Card and Graphics Card (neither of which are new), and I have no new hardware. I also mentioned this is a brand new installation of windows, so it shouldn't be any sort of software problem.

[manitasnegras]

check first on the manufacturer web site (motherboard)
if have any issues with sp3 .i know about conflicts or hangs after install them
mostly in nvidia plataform.