XP Boot/Random Crashes

[dkinder27]

This is a problem that I have been living with for a few months, but it is rather annoying, and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

When I boot up my machine, after the loading Windows XP screen, the computer will go to a blue screen indicating a hardware problem, instead of going to the login screen. Generally when I first boot my computer, I have to kepp powering down and loading up 2-3 times before I can successfully log in. Occasionally, but far less frequent, I will get the blue screen when running applications in Windows XP.

Recently I thought that my vid card, Gainward GF4 4200 was the problem considering that many people have been having problems with that particular card (check out the forums at amdmb.com). However recently I replaced that card with a Radeon 9500, but the problem still occurs. My system is not oc'ed except for a little on the vid card. The rest of my specs are as follows:
Athlon XP 2200+, EPoX 8K5A2+ mobo (latest BIOS and 4 in 1's), Corsair XMS 2700 RAM, Maxtor 40GB HD.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to diagnose or fix this problem, I would love to hear them. Thanks in advance to any and all suggestions.

[Grinnin Reaper]

Try swapping the Ram if you can. Or change the bios setting to not do a fast boot. It will do a more thorough Ram test, and then look at the results to see if it fails.

[dkinder27]

Only 1 512MB stick of RAM, so unfortunately I cannot swap. I have tried usingother RAM slots, to no avail. I did try the RAM test that you suggested. I disabled the quick POST and it would test the RAM, counting the bytes, and it ran through this 3 times, and said OK, and continued to boot. Then it blue screened me again before I could log on. So I had to repeat the process a few times until I could log on. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

[Dana Mirrow]

does this happen when it uses alot of the memory? like during a game or other? if so it could be is that your memory has a damaged sector in it, and when it reaches that damaged one the whole thing will just screw up on you.. that happened to me, i replaced the ram with a neighbors to test it out and it worked. you should look for someone you know with that ram and just test it out on yours.

[dkinder27]

I have not been able to swap RAM yet. But after posting to a mobo forum, someone suggested turning off the SSED instructions in the BIOS. That immediately solved my Boot problem. I can now successfully boot Windows on the first attempt. It turns out this was a major issue between this board and the Tbred 1800's.

Now I just have to wait and see how this affects my overall stability/performance.

[eviltechie]

SSED II check might affect it too