"Unknown hard error"?

A

Aelfgeft

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
2,343
That's what I got on the little lady's computer I just put together a week or two ago. It's been up and running for about a week. Little pop-up balloon from XP from the system tray.

E8400 stock with stock Intel cooler
GA-EP35-DS3R
2x1GB Corsair XMS2 DDR800
MSI 8800GTS 512MB
X-Fi XtremeGamer
Two Seagate SATA drives, one 250, one 500

Ran chkdsk /r...no bad sectors.
Ran Memtest86...no bad ram.

What should be my next step? I checked the temps and idle they're in the mid 40s.
 
- Download and run Seagate's Diagnostics tools on the hard drives just to make sure that the drives are good.
- Run Memtest+ on each stick of RAM separately for 24 hours each just to completely rule out the RAM
- Run ATI Tool's "Scan For Artifacts" to rule out the Video card as well.
- Run Prime95 or Orthos to stress out the Video card

Does that error message popup every time the system boots?
 
No, it was coming up last night while she was using it, and the start menu would come up but I couldn't go into any of the folders. I hard-rebooted and right before it clicked off, I saw a BSOD.

I've now run OCCT with no errors, though the temps are topping out at 60 which makes me edgy.
Running ATITool. Gets up to about 67-68 degrees max.

How can I be sure the video card fan is running at full speed? Is there a program that controls that?
 
Aelfgeft said:
How can I be sure the video card fan is running at full speed? Is there a program that controls that?
Click to expand...

Check the Settings link in ATI Tool. Or you can also use Speedfan.

60C is fine actually. When it hits 65C is when you should be worried.

What did the BSOD say? Does it still BSOD?
 
I'm not sure what it said. It popped up literally a fraction of a second before the hard turnoff shut things down.

I also think I'm going to get an aftermarket cooler for her CPU. This stock intel cooler really doesn't seem to be doing a good job on a stock CPU.

So far today, I haven't been able to replicate it the BSOD. Nor have I seen the unknown hard error. Could running chkdsk /r have fixed something on a hard drive without telling me?
 
Aelfgeft said:
I'm not sure what it said. It popped up literally a fraction of a second before the hard turnoff shut things down.

I also think I'm going to get an aftermarket cooler for her CPU. This stock intel cooler really doesn't seem to be doing a good job on a stock CPU.

So far today, I haven't been able to replicate it the BSOD. Nor have I seen the unknown hard error. Could running chkdsk /r have fixed something on a hard drive without telling me?
Click to expand...

It could. The BSOD also could've been a one time thing. Though to be sure, disable automatic restart so that the next time a BSOD happens, you can see the error.
 
Danny Bui said:
It could. The BSOD also could've been a one time thing. Though to be sure, disable automatic restart so that the next time a BSOD happens, you can see the error.
Click to expand...

I always forget to do that. Thanks for the reminder! :)
 
Danny Bui said:
- Run Memtest+ on each stick of RAM separately for 24 hours each just to completely rule out the RAM
Click to expand...
Actually, I'd recommend testing all the memory at the same time as sometimes specific combinations can cause issues. Test sticks individually if any errors show up. I've had a couple of systems on the bench where individual sticks test fine, but show errors when used in combination with other sticks. Keep in mind it's the entire memory subsystem you're trying to test....:cool:
 
BlindedByScience said:
Actually, I'd recommend testing all the memory at the same time as sometimes specific combinations can cause issues. Test sticks individually if any errors show up. I've had a couple of systems on the bench where individual sticks test fine, but show errors when used in combination with other sticks. Keep in mind it's the entire memory subsystem you're trying to test....:cool:
Click to expand...

You do have a point there. Never had a system where individual sticks showed up fine but showed errors in combinations. Usually the combinations tested fine but the individual sticks showed errors in my experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top