A whole boatload of problems, please help :(

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Neodr31

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Ok, this is going to be a pretty lengthy post so apologies folks, but my computer has decided to throw several problems to me within the space of a month. I built the computer last christmas and i've had no problems up untill now.

Here's how it began. Occastionally i would turn the computer on and load Vista no problems, then when it had loaded the screen would just freeze and the computer would become unresponsive. This was just as the computer was idling on desktop. If this didn't occur i could play high performance games on full and have no problems, the computer just needed to get past the start up and everything would be fine. This was annoying but bearable as it would only happen once every few days. Then this evolved into becoming more frequent and started to be joined by blue screens with the IRQL_DRIVER_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL blue screen. As if things couldn't get any worse i then started getting the "disk being checked for errors" screen before the log in screen appeared for Vista. Now at its worse, when i turn the computer on i sometimes get no input onto the screen at all and the computer shows no signs of being responsive apart from the light on the case. The keyboard lights don't come on and nor do the lights on the mouse. If i restart the computer several times i can still get in, but even then it sometimes freezes before i get to the login screen.

The strangest thing is, if i can get the computer on past all of the above problems it runs just fine. I can run CPU load tests, DvD's, high end games. Everything runs no problem at all. This leads me to beleive that it isn't a PSU, CPU or graphics card problem. Surely they would be more likely to cause error at high load then when idling at the desktop or during startup? The disk check indicates a hard drive problem but again a hard drive wouldn't cause the unresponsiveness during start up would it? And the hard drive isn't showing any of the other symptons of a failing hard drive (strange noises, file error's etc).

It certainly isn't a software thing as just as a formality i reformated during the crashing with blue screen period and it didn't fix things. The only thing i can think of is that perhaps this is a motherboard problem? Either that or all my other components decided to break at the same time which seems more unlikely. If anyone could offer me any help i would greatly apreciate it

Computer specs below, ask if you need more detail.

Motherboard: Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
RAM: 4GB (4x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
PSU: Hiper 630W HPU-4M630 SLi Certified PSU
GPU: GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

Many Thanks.
 
IRQL_DRIVER_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL are 0xA errors and these are normally caused by hardware issues. But as KurrentEweser rightly points out we need to know what other errors you are getting.

Here are a few steps you can do:

1. Run memtest on your RAM for a minimum of 7 passes (there are 8 individual tests per Pass). This runs at boot-up. If you have any errors you have corrupted memory that needs to be replaced. Plus, you'll need to run this test per stick to determine which one(s) need to be replaced.

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

2. Run a full harddrive diagnostics. You can get a free excellent utility from Seagate called Seatools. Run both the S.M.A.R.T. and Long tests, especially the Long.

3. Check the voltage settings on your memory.
 
Driver conflict with the OS?

Have you booted in safe mode to see if it loads fine with that? Test that a few times and see if you still can't load windows.

Not sure when you started having these issues, but if you have a restore point prior to these issues occuring it wouldn't hurt to restore the computer to that point. You could also update all of your drivers to ensure you have the latest versions. Also update Vista to the latest updates. Since Vista does not come with a repair console, if a restore doesn't work and updating the drivers does work my suggestion would be to reinstall the OS.

Since you are having this problem on when the OS is loading, i believe there is a driver conflict.
 
Driver conflict with the OS?

Have you booted in safe mode to see if it loads fine with that? Test that a few times and see if you still can't load windows.

Not sure when you started having these issues, but if you have a restore point prior to these issues occuring it wouldn't hurt to restore the computer to that point. You could also update all of your drivers to ensure you have the latest versions. Also update Vista to the latest updates. Since Vista does not come with a repair console, if a restore doesn't work and updating the drivers does work my suggestion would be to reinstall the OS.

Since you are having this problem on when the OS is loading, i believe there is a driver conflict.


A driver conflict would explain the random freezing/crashing on startup but would not explain the problems of freezing or unresponsiveness before i load the OS. Sometimes it freezes before the log in screen even shows up, and sometimes there is no input onto the monitor at all. I've tried too reformat the hard drive but that didn't fix anything sadly :(.

Managed to get a quick glance at a blue screen this morning that was different to the one i mentioned above, it was a SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION 0x0000003B. It did a physical memory dump then restarted the computer.

I will run memtest and Seatools as soon as i can and get back to you guys with the results, thanks for all the help.
 
If you can get into the system (even through save mode) go into your startup and recovery options and uncheck the 'automatically restart' box. This way when the blue screen comes up it will stay up until you manually restart.

Also check that memory dump file.
 
What Lexluethar said plus the 0x3B error as per MS: This error has been linked to excessive paged pool usage and may occur due to user-mode graphics drivers crossing over and passing bad data to the kernel code.
 
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