PC keeps crashing.

[Pat Farrell]

Does anyone know anything about PCs? Mine is annoying the hell out of me. Around Christmas time I flew home and when I came back after my break the computer was stuffed. Basically it won't boot up. It gets to a screen that says "Hardware Configuration Error". But the problem is this is completely sporadic.

You see I took it to some professionals who 'fixed' it. I took the thing home and used it twice and it crashed again. The difference is this time it managed to boot up again after a day of being off but now I'm totally hesitant to start recording again. I don't know what to do.

Cheers. Pat

 

[irjason]

Does it give you a stop error? They start with 0x. You can look them up here to get a better idea of what it means.

The first thing I would do is download a memtest iso. Create a CD from the iso, boot from it and run the test to check for bad RAM.

 

[Pat Farrell]

Awesome man thanks I'll see what happens.

 

[DocBop]

Typical PC problems are too much crap installed. People have a tendency to install all sorts of utilities, screen savers, all sorts of things they download or are given. So have all sorts of things running in the background, then factor in spyware, virus, and the like and you have one bogged down PC leading to an unstable PC. Also a hard drive that is almost full is risky because Windows writes so much to the boot drive and many utilities from big names write huge temp and other files to where ever they are install which is typically the boot drive.

I would say if know how to backup your computer, wipe the hard drive, reinstall Windows, your app's and data. Resist installing or trying software you don't really need, try to keep the system clean. If you are serious about recording get a second computer so you can have one dedicated to recording that doesn't get connected to the net. Then a second computer for connect to the net with and run your everyday app's on.

 

[Pat Farrell]

T If you are serious about recording get a second computer so you can have one dedicated to recording that doesn't get connected to the net. Then a second computer for connect to the net with and run your everyday app's on.

Hey man I use my lap top for net tasks such as this right now. My pc has no net connection and only runs for audio needs. But I will say this: even though there was tonnes of room left on the drives I backed up my data and erased my projects with the intent of doing a re-install......but since I erased that stuff it has been fine.

SO this is what I'm thinking. Im going to use it as is and keep saving my current project on a portable drive and see if it crashes.

I'm very guilty of not completing songs/ideas and having lot's of audio scattered around my drives. Maybe the lesson here is to focus on one project at a time which will help me finish them and help my pc.

Pat F

ps. thanks for all your help guys - I'm one of those ppl who only knows how to use computers when they're working.....when they're not I become a cave man and think yelling and shouting will somehow make things right

 

[bburk]

I use a single computer as both a DAW and a work/internet/gaming machine. My secret is that I dual boot (actually triple boot...).

Just use an entirely separate HDD and install for your normal computing and DAW needs. That way you can keep a totally pristine install for DAW and still install all your virus' (viri?) on the other disk. Just make sure you don't make the installs visible to each other so viruses can't cross pollinate, and as always, you should still backup your data.

You won't even need to purchase a second copy of windows. Since both installs are on the same computer windows XP will still register correctly with your friendly neighborhood Microsoft overlord.

 

[sineas]

Do you still have issues? Clearly your problem lay here as you stated " It gets to a screen that says "Hardware Configuration Error" "

Boot up in SAFE MODE and tell me how it goes... we'll start from there...

btw, I'm very much knowledgeable on computers (you can see my guides and stickies on Link Removed my user is ThEvil0nE)

 

[Pat Farrell]

Hey Sineas - since my post there have been no issues. I will use this thread as a rescource if it stuffs up again but since it has decided to play ball I don't really know how to trouble shoot. (How DO you trouble shoot intermittent pc faults?).

So thanks for your help guys. If it starts up again I'll let you know.

 

[gdthomas]

One thing that might help out is to defrag the harddrive(s).