Computer trouble: hard drive and RAM I think

[AntmanJB]

Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone could help me with the computer trouble I've been having.

First of all, I have a Pentium 4 3.6GHz. It's about 2 years old.
Now, every 6 months or 1 year, the computer starts playing up. The most common issues are:
- while starting up, it doesn't recognise any hard drive and I have to restart multiple times
- during startup or while using the computer, I get that blue error screen which says "beginning physical dump of memory"
- also while using the computer, I get these Windows alerts that say "some file can't be saved right now. This may be caused by a hardware failure" or something like that
- and just yesterday, when my sister logged on, it screwed up and her profile is basically back to when Windows was first installed! She lost all of her documents! I'm really not happy about that
- sometimes, when starting up, Windows will run its CheckDisk which will sometimes fix up things but sometimes not.

So based on all these errors, I think it may be hardware issues with the hard drive and RAM?
Last time this happened, I emailed the companies and Seagate told me to use SeaTools and the RAM co told me to use MemTest, which doesn't seem to work at all.

What usually happens is, the problems go away after a few days or a week. But this time, with the loss of my sister's stuff, I'm concerned.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

P.S. I'm in the right forum, aren't I?

Edit: Yes, last time this happened I checked the cords, couldn't see anything wrong. But I'm no specialist. Either way, it's fixed itself before so probably isn't a loose cord.

[modgeulator]

It may seem like a ridiculously simple idea, but have you checked that the cable into the HD is plugged in firmly?

[Radiant]

Assuming everything's plugged in properly, I would say that either you have a faulty memory bank, or your hard drive is defective. To check for the former, you need to go to the BIOS and make sure the computer doesn't do the "speedy" POST (power on self test) but does the entire mem test.

Anyway, hard drive space is cheap. Buy a new one, plug it in to the side and see if that helps.

[BOYD1981]

actually, it could be a loose connector causing a weak flow of electricity to the drive, or even a break in the cable.
it could also be that the IDE ribbon (or SATA cable if it's a SATA drive) could also be loose or faulty (i had pretty much the exact same problem back in 1996 when a cable burned out, sometimes the hard drive would show up but most of the time it wouldn't).
also, your sister's files are probably still on the hard drive somewhere, just do an admin login and search for them if she knows the file names. and if you know your pc is going to act strange like that then you really should be making backups anyway. best thing to do to repair it is take it to a specialist instead of asking on these forums, even a forum that specialises in hardware faults wouldn't be able to help you much if you don't know what you're doing.

[InCreator]

during startup or while using the computer, I get that blue error screen which says "beginning physical dump of memory"

Stinks too much like Windows ME.
You're actually using XP I hope?
If you are using ME, well... get rid of it IMMEDIATELY. And burn the CDs. And never look back.

XP always never triggers chkdsk/scandisk...
About BIOS going mad - how does your machine look? Might it be awfully full of dust? Or near a radiator/sunlight? Maybe it's overheating? Are fans free for air intake? Not too near a wall or furniture?

Such things often happen due physical problems -- and I listed some common causes.

Also, when did you defragment your hard drive last time? Bigger drives tend to get EXTREMELY fragmented in matter of days. Sooner or later, it starts to worn drive out physically, since the actuator arm (reader needle thingy) has way too much work.

Factory defect is quite possible too, as Radiant suggested. Seen that one too many times.

Also, very slight hope for it working - but you might try going into BIOS and setting everything to default (on most machines, F9 in bios to restore factory settings). I don't think there's anything you can make worse by this.

[CodeJunkie]

I was getting memory problems after inserting a new RAM module, but testing each module individually in each slot turned out fine in Memtest when ran for about 24+ hours each.  I think I may have been using more RAM than the motherboard is allowed in the specification (check your motherboard manual).  It was those sort of gremlin problems where random things were going wrong - scanning on startup, sometimes 'fixing' hundreds or thousands of dodgy files, unreliable copying and saving, programs no longer working.

Be sure to back up everything that is important to you, preferably several copies in case your computer makes a mess of copying.  Try running Seatools and getting Memtest to work if you haven't already, or try similar programs.  It is possible that your motherboard may be faulty, but I don't know if there is an easy way to prove that.  Sometimes these problems can be a nightmare to track down

[Moresco]

Remove every component and start small.  Slowly build back your system until you have the MINIMUM components to boot.   Test it several times, until you're sure that the problems you were seeing before are not present.  At that point, go ahead and start adding back any extra components (sound card, video card, modems, etc) one at a time and test your machine again.

As others have mentioned, a bad cable can easily be your problem - so swap with another (if you don't have another, buy one, they're cheap and nice to have extras) one and test again.

This is what they would do if you took it to a shop, so save yourself the money and do it yourself.

[AntmanJB]

Hey everyone, thanks for your replies. There are some good suggestions there that I should try.
Although, building up the computer may be a bit out of my expertise range. I'll start off with the check programs and cord checking first. I'm not sure when I'll get around to it, it seems to be okay now, although my sister's profile still seems to be at square one.

By the way, the computer is not in the sun, but may be a bit restricted in terms of space and stuff. We've tried to make adjustments, such as drilling a hole in the desk right where the fan goes, but it's still a bit compacted. Something to note, previously I had started to get the idea that it generally happened on hot days. Not sure if this is really the case but it led me to the overheating idea too. Oh yeah, it's pretty dusty in the computer case too, but I'm not sure how to go about cleaning in there.

To answer someone's question, yes I have XP Pro, SP2 and it does run those checkdisks itself sometimes when it's playing up. Can someone maybe give me a site to download memtest? When I did it last, it wouldn't run when I started up the computer, and I tried on a few different floppy disks.

Thanks again

[CodeJunkie]

For the dust problem, if possible, move your computer out of the desk fully while its still plugged in, take the side off and turn it on to see if the fans are spinning properly.  Otherwise, just unplug it, take the side off and clean the fans.  You're not really risking much damage unless you touch the circuitry a lot.  Just give your boards a little blow and use tissues to clean out the fans and the rest of the casing.

For the memtest program, I use one that comes with the Knoppix boot CD.  You can download the image at ftp://ftp.knoppix.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/knoppix/ (get the latest version in your language).  You might also find Knoppix useful if your Windows ever stops working because you can still access most of your things through Knoppix to back them up.

[BOYD1981]

i wouldn't recommend rubbing anything inside your pc with any kind of fabric unless you know it won't generate any static electricity, and always remember to de-static yourself before touching anything inside.
the best way to deal with dust inside a pc is to use a can of compressed air, although fans can just be removed and wiped.