Question:
Computer Keeps Crashing
I need help with my Pavilion zt3010us.
First, I have done several upgrades. It now has 2 gigs of PC 2700 RAM, an 80 Gig 7200 RPM drive (Hitachi).
When I got the new hard drive (Christmas) I redid the entire computer. I started with the recovery disk on service pack 1, installed the HP drivers disk, then upgraded to service pack two. After adding all of my programs back, the computer still hasn’t run the way it is supposed to. Things are just slow, despite the faster components (in fact, everything seems slower). The problem, though, is that the computer constantly crashes (BSOD) and restarts. The BSOD doesn’t do a full memory dump, the screen is there for less then a second then the computer restarts. There is so far no rhyme or reason to when it crashes or why. Sometimes with nothing open, or sometimes when in word or anything. The one things that I do know is that InterVideo Home Theater 2 is guaranteed to crash the computer if I use it for TV. Today it crahsed while on the "Windows Is Shutting Down" screen
I am almost dead positive that it is a hardware problem because I rebuilt the hard drive last week and it had only gotten worse. It even crashed after a fresh Windows Install. Thoughts? What could it be? The graphics cards in these computers are notorious for going bad, but does this sound like a graphics problem? Thanks for the help.
Answer:
Re: Computer Keeps Crashing
yeah i have had this problem with my zv5415ca. I reinstalled windows and all fixed. It started to me after a BIOS firmware update and another time when I installed Omega ATI Drivers.
Try to boot it in safe mode, does it still give the same errors?
Answer:
Re: Computer Keeps Crashing
The problem with that is that I have no way of emulating the errors, except for Intervideo Home Theater 2, so I have no way of making sure of this. It could be 5 minutes or 5 days before it crashes. Is there a way to go to an older BIOS?
Answer:
Re: Computer Keeps Crashing
It could be your upgrade from SP1 to SP2.
There were many people that had problems upgrading from SP1 to SP2.
If you look online you can find tutorials as to how to slipstream SP2 into your windows installation cd so you can install windows with SP2 already on it.
If not, then borrow a windows xp cd from someone who has already done this and just use your cd key.
If you think it's a hardware issue, try taking out the new ram module and see if the problem persists.
If you installed the harddrive yourself then check your installation.
Maybe you have some dust particles or something in parts of your laptop.
Maybe not, but this problem does sound like a hardware problem, but at the same time it could be your upgrade from SP1 to SP2.
Try it out then get back to us.
Cheers,
Mike
Answer:
Re: Computer Keeps Crashing
No once you change the firmware im 99.99% sure you cant go back. Does it always happen as soon as you open up InterVideo?
Answer:
Re: Computer Keeps Crashing
Get MemTest86+, burn and boot the resulting CD, and let it run for at least half an hour, preferably overnight. If your memory has gone bad it'll tell you without Windows getting in the way.
Your description of things being "slow" does say software problem to me though. You're sure your system is clean? No worms/viruses/spyware?
I will try to run MemTest tonight and see what I get. I am sure that it isn't a problem with worms/viruses/spyware - the system still ran way too slow on a brand new 7200 RPM and a newly formatted 5400 RPM drive before either had access to the internet, and I had my PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 on before it had internet access (granted it wasn't up to date the second I got online, but that was the first thing I did). Well see what mem test says, and I think I have the HDD test application, so I will run that and post results and see what they say.