Computer Freezes/Shutsdown- Corrupted Error

[XChamp]

For a while now my computer has been freezing up and occasionally restarting. It tends to happen more frequently right after startup. The error reports are corrupted. I never see any error messages.

Yesterday I reformatted my HD and reinstalled windows XP, but it still happens *only this time with greater frequency*, which means that it is a hardware problem, correct?

I've tried updating all of my drivers, but no luck. I have an older graphics and sound card (Radeon 9800 Pro, and Turtle Beach Santa Cruz). I'm running it all on an nforce3 motherboard with an amd64 3500+ processor. I have 2 gigs of ram (don't know what brand/type).

Any ideas? This computer is 3 years old and has never had this problem before. I've glanced around inside the tower and don't see any problems. All the fans are working.

Thanks for the help.


edit- added **

[LeapFrog]

So your fans are clear of dust then?

I would first download a utility and check your temps, something like speedfan or sisoft sandra.

If your temps are ok, then I would try prime95 torture test for like an hour, check temps while under load. If you get any errors while running tests I would probably then move on to memtest86 to check your memory.

Also I would get a utility to check your hd smart data.

[XChamp]

I thought it might be temperature as well, but the fact that it tends to freeze or restart near startup, not hours after it, made me think this wasn't the case.

I will try and do some more diagnostics, like you suggested.

Part of me just wants to give up and get a new computer.

[XChamp]

Ok, Speedfan tells me that all measured temps are within normal range. IT does give me weird readings though, like -55C, which is clearly wrong. everything else is between 25 and 41C.

I want to try memtest but I don't have a floppy.

How likely is the cause of this just my old crappy graphics card?

[mustmuck]

Memtest86 would be the first thing I'd try. You'll find a bootable CD image on their website. You can use imgburn to burn it if you don't already have something.

[XChamp]

I ran memtest86. It took about an hour to run, but it said that no errors were found. Edit- I also looked at the smart data of my HD and it was fine.

I switched my monitor with my wife's because I was using an Apple 23" HD monitor which doesn't displaying anything until after windows loads. I was just surfing using her computer with my Apple a serious similar error. It went to a blue screen and had a lot of error information. Could a monitor be causing all of this?

The error said:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer."


DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Stop: 0x000000D1 (0x0000000C, ....etc)

portcls.sys - address F4D0BF21 base at F4D0B000, Datestamp 40574e49


beginning dump of physical memory
physical memory dump complete

[funkyworms]

It looks like this was addressed with a Windows Update. Do you have SP2 and all latest updates?

If yes, google "portcls.sys". There is a lot of discussion of this problem.

If no, do it.

[XChamp]

OK, so that explains my wife's problem. I will deal with her computer in a little bit.

Any other information concerning mine?

I'm hoping that cleaning out all the dust in my computer solves the problem. But I have a feeling it will crash soon.

[funkyworms]

Did you make sure to clean the fan on your video card? Sometimes they are hard to reach. They won't always get completely cleaned unless sprayed thoroughly.

[XChamp]

I actually removed the video card and sprayed it with some compressed dust remover spray from Radio Shack. I'm hoping this fixes my problem.