Need help with upgrade

[mark73]

Hey everyone, im Mark, and new to this forum. Im not sure if im in the right section either !

Basically, i want to upgrade my PC by my self and need some help (mainly just choosing the new bits). I know a few things about computers but have never worked on my own. I have been looking up different things and i am quite confident about fitting the parts. The reason i am doing this is because it has got slower and i want it back up to a good spec again. Eventually i want to be able to use it for recording music/bands. I have figured i need to mainly change the Processor and RAM ?

Currently i have, An AS Rock K7VT4A Pro Mother board, AMD Athlon XP1700+ Processor and a 512 Ram. I dont want to spend a fortune on it but not entirely sure how to get best value for money.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

 

[FarFarAway]

Whats your budget mate?

What is it to be used for?

 

[mark73]

Hi,

Well its not really to be used for serious gaming or anything, just everyday use of music,internet,documents,etc but later multi-track recording purposes possibly through a firewire port.

My budget, well i really dont know. I am really hoping i could keep the mother board and just upgrade the Ram and CPU for now for no more than £100 or is that no where near enough ?

 

[mark73]

Also, forgot to mention that sometimes it decides to restart itself or give me a blue screen error message. It seems to only happen when theres a few things running at once. Is this just due to it needing to be quicker or something else ?

 

[eskimosound]

OK get onto the Mobo manufacuturer and see whats the best Socket A CPU your board can handle....you want a Barton Core Athlon XP3200+...I had one a year ago and it was excellent...bought it on eBay....

Next you want more RAM get it up to the most you can but it will be SDRAM which is both diffiult to find and expensive....

Your blue screen means either you have a virus (Or worm) or you comps on the way out...

I would try reinstalling XP and if you still get the problem then its either your PSU or...take your pick...could be anything...you will have to do a complete rebuild...

You can do it all relatively cheaply using eBay...I bought a Barton XP3200+, Asus Mobo and ATI Graphics Card as a bundle for £100...and when I eventually upgraded I made my money back.....

Theres also I guy sulling his socket A mobo and CPU XP2600 in the european sales part of this forum...hang on I'll get you the link:

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=12428

Cheers

 

[nrage]

Also, forgot to mention that sometimes it decides to restart itself or give me a blue screen error message. It seems to only happen when theres a few things running at once. Is this just due to it needing to be quicker or something else ?

A blue screen of death (BSOD) indicates a fault with the system, typically it's a driver issue but sometimes it's a hardware fault. It can be a pain to figure out what it is but I can help you try if you like.

Step 1;

If you go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer. In the left hand pane click the "System" node and in the right hand pane look for a red error entry at the time of the last blue screen. Double click it, it should have the same error as the blue screen did.

Step 2;

In Explorer go to c:\windows\minidump and look for a file with the same date/time as the event in the event viewer.

Step 3;

Now, you can either email that file to me (regan@netmail.co.nz) and I'll debug it or you can give it a go yourself. You need to download and install windows debugging tools (free) and follow the steps here

Don't bother with "The contents of the I386 folder on the Windows CD-ROM are copied to the C:\Windows\I386 folder." or the "-i c:\windows\i386" option.

Let me know if you need a hand figuring out what windbg is telling you about the minidump, it can be rather cryptic.

 

[Rastalovich]

A blue screen of death (BSOD) indicates a fault with the system, typically it's a driver issue but sometimes it's a hardware fault. It can be a pain to figure out what it is but I can help you try if you like.

Step 1;

If you go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer. In the left hand pane click the "System" node and in the right hand pane look for a red error entry at the time of the last blue screen. Double click it, it should have the same error as the blue screen did.

Step 2;

In Explorer go to c:\windows\minidump and look for a file with the same date/time as the event in the event viewer.

Step 3;

Now, you can either email that file to me (regan@netmail.co.nz) and I'll debug it or you can give it a go yourself. You need to download and install windows debugging tools (free) and follow the steps here

Don't bother with "The contents of the I386 folder on the Windows CD-ROM are copied to the C:\Windows\I386 folder." or the "-i c:\windows\i386" option.

Let me know if you need a hand figuring out what windbg is telling you about the minidump, it can be rather cryptic.

/interuption

Why don`t they build into windows a way to properly read this debugging dump ?

/eof

 

[mark73]

Ok,thanks alot people, i really appreciate it.

So, i have checked out the Event Viewer and theres no error reports in there (which must be bad news). Does this mean a complete rebuild ?

Also, when we got the pc new, which was a good few years ago, it was a custom built one that we payed a friend to do. It turns out that he didnt load a genuine copy of XP Pro on it either so i havnt got the disk or code and cant reload it.

My problems just get worse !?!

Im starting to think is could be an expensive one.

Cheers

Mark

 

[nrage]

Ok,thanks alot people, i really appreciate it.

So, i have checked out the Event Viewer and theres no error reports in there (which must be bad news). Does this mean a complete rebuild ?

Also, when we got the pc new, which was a good few years ago, it was a custom built one that we payed a friend to do. It turns out that he didnt load a genuine copy of XP Pro on it either so i havnt got the disk or code and cant reload it.

My problems just get worse !?!

Im starting to think is could be an expensive one.

Cheers

Mark

When was the last blue screen? The event viewer either has a maximum number of events it remembers, or maybe it only goes back so far.

Check the c:\windows\minidump for files anyway, what is the date on the most recent, does that sound like the last blue screen?

 

[mark73]

When was the last blue screen? The event viewer either has a maximum number of events it remembers, or maybe it only goes back so far.

Check the c:\windows\minidump for files anyway, what is the date on the most recent, does that sound like the last blue screen?

No, when i went onto that there were just 3 unknown file types and dates were August, May and July so that cant be it.

this just isnt going well so far.

Anything else i can do ?

 

[nrage]

No, when i went onto that there were just 3 unknown file types and dates were August, May and July so that cant be it.

this just isnt going well so far.

Anything else i can do ?

What were the filenames of the unknown files? I think the only files windows puts in there are minidump files, and it's likely that they will be unknown file types because you don't have an application to open them (even windbg doesn't register itself to open them)

Is it crashing regularly? Or hasn't it crashed for a while?

You could try this

Check the "Crash Dump" path it mentions, does it have any files in it? What dates?

What version of windows are you using?

 

[mark73]

I attached a screenshot of the Minidump folder.

I tried thie Dr watson jobby but that didnt seem to do anything ?!

And, it only seems to crash occasionally if i am running a few programs at once. I get the impression it cant handle it and just wants speeding up again but it could be more than just that ?

Cheers

 

[nrage]

I attached a screenshot of the Minidump folder.

I tried thie Dr watson jobby but that didnt seem to do anything ?!

And, it only seems to crash occasionally if i am running a few programs at once. I get the impression it cant handle it and just wants speeding up again but it could be more than just that ?

Cheers

Zip those 3 files up and send them to me regan@netmail.co.nz and I'll debug them for you, see what I can figure out.

Your PC should never crash because it's too slow, it might appear to do nothing for a bit while thrashing your hard drive - that usually means not enough physical memory - but crashing always indicates a fault with the software or the hardware.

 

[nrage]

Thought I'd post this here in case someone else has any ideas of things to try.

All three minidumps are the same error:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/w2000Msgs/6096.mspx?mfr=true

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR (7a)

The requested page of kernel data could not be read in. Typically caused by

a bad block in the paging file or disk controller error. Also see

KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR.

If the error status is 0xC000000E, 0xC000009C, 0xC000009D or 0xC0000185,

it means the disk subsystem has experienced a failure.

If the error status is 0xC000009A, then it means the request failed because

a filesystem failed to make forward progress.

Arguments:

Arg1: c03e1228, lock type that was held (value 1,2,3, or PTE address)

Arg2: c000000e, error status (normally i/o status code)

Arg3: f848a130, current process (virtual address for lock type 3, or PTE)

Arg4: 10e46860, virtual address that could not be in-paged (or PTE contents if arg1 is a PTE address)

It suggests an error with your hard disk, the disk controller, or problem with your memory.

I would run chkdsk /f /r like they suggest and also download this:

http://www.memtest86.com/

It's a small CD image, you burn it to CD then boot the computer using that CD. Run a full series of tests with it and see if it picks up any errors.

Also think about things like;

- have you installed your motherboard drivers (disk controller drivers).

- check the manufacturer website for more up to date drivers.

 

[mark73]

Ok guys,

Thanks alot for all your help but im basically thinking it might just be easier to start again and do a complete rebuild.

Had a look around ebay already and noticed you really can pick up some bargains !

Cheers

 

[FarFarAway]

Ok guys,

Thanks alot for all your help but im basically thinking it might just be easier to start again and do a complete rebuild.

Had a look around ebay already and noticed you really can pick up some bargains !

Cheers

Agreed, rebuilds are fresh and new and a lot easier. Sell your old stuff and get something back from it though

Don't go with eBay for PC parts, if you have to return you may just regret it totally

 

[mark73]

Ok, so next question.

Can anyone reccomend some parts that arent going to break the bank but are going to provide me with a stable pc quick enough to do all the usuals and some multi track recording ?

Cheers

 

[nrage]

Ok, so next question.

Can anyone reccomend some parts that arent going to break the bank but are going to provide me with a stable pc quick enough to do all the usuals and some multi track recording ?

Cheers

I reckon if you post a list of components you need i.e.

motherboard

cpu

ram

psu

case?

keyboard?

mouse?

and also a budget i.e. upper limit then you'll get some good suggestions. The guys here like a challenge i.e. "best system for under £X"

This isn't a bad article to have a look at, to give you an idea what mid-range hardware is currently out there.

 

[mark73]

Ok, well i figured that i could reuse my Case, PSU and CD Drives again so that will save some cash.

I know that i need a bigger RAM 1gb + dependent on the price. I dont really no how much needs to spent on that sort of thing.

The motherboard and processor, i think i want to stick to AMD seeing as i understand them a bit better at the moment. Idealy i could do with about 4ish pci (?) slots on the mobo so i can add sound card, firewire ports and usbs if i need too. At the moment there is an AS Rock K7VT4Apro in there which has all the slots i would need but dont know how good it is and probly needs replacing.Really i have about £80 to spend on mobo and cpu (give and take a little).

I dont know what graphics card is in there at the moment so i will find out ASAP, but as im no gamer its not at the top of my list.

I would need a reasonable sound card if its going to be used for recording. Maybe £30 ish ?

Finally i really want to makesure i keep the new bits cool so what are some of the most efficient gadgets to add, not water cooling because that is probably way out of my reach !

Things like Firewire ports or USBs can be added later so dont worry about that.

So, there you go if any body can reccomend anything it really would be great !

Also, all the prices really are just a rough guide, obviously i want to save money where i can !

Cheers

 

[Hodgstar]

for a mobo and cpu

have a look at this in the for sale section

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=12462