Strange PC behaviour advice needed.

[sealslayer]

For the last couple of weeks my PC has been playing up when I'm trying to install different software.

Athlon 64 3000 CPU
2 x 512 DDR400 PC3200 Ram
GF6600 GT
80 GIG SATA
80 GIG IDE

I have two HDD's ones a IDE drive and the other is a SATA.
I tried to install SP2 on the SATA drive that I was using as my main drive and the problem was it would install SP2 but when It rebooted it would crash and keep on rebooting and kept going in a endless cycle.
I started in safe mode and saw the blue screen that says:

stop: 0x0000008E  (0xC0000005, 0x80614A10, 0xBA31FB68, 0x00000000)
Beginning dump of psychical memory.
Physical dump complete.

I then decided to do a fresh install of XP Pro with service pack 2 and all went well, then when I tried to install Zone alarm the same thing happened again, blue screen again..!! 

So I decided to use the IDE drive as my main drive and went to upgrade to SP2 on the IDE and the same problem appeared, so I had to keep SP1 but it allowed me to install Zone alarm without any problems.

I went and bought a New MOBO today as my other one blew up, so I've tried a fresh install again on the SATA but the same thing happens with Zone alarm although SP2 went on with no problems at all this time.

Basically Ive got one SATA drive that I can't load Zone alarm onto and a IDE drive that wont allow me to upgrade to SP2.
Both get the same blue screen of death message, yet I've tried with both memory sticks in and out and the same thing happens, but I can play games with no crashes or freezing up at all.

I've looked on MS site but to be honest I don't understand half of what its talking about, and I don't really want to spend out on another gig of ram if the memory isn't the problem.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

[zelony]

Typically, a blue screen is caused by either a hardware fault or a bad driver.

There are two likely possible causes of your problems.

1.  Many times the SATA adapters are actually controlled by a RAID chip.  this causes a problem with installing windows if you do not install the RAID drivers during setup.  You need the drivers even if you are not using a RAID array.

2.  Mismatch with Zone Alarm. 


Typically, a blue screen is caused by either a hardware fault or a bad driver.  Zone Alarm is known to have issues if the version is not matched to XP just right.  Also, it can interfere with the built-in firewall, so you might want to check that.

I would recommend the following to cure the Zone Alarm issue:

1. Get rid of Zone Alarm
2.  Use the built in Firewall
3. Use AntiVir as your antivirus program (it's free, fast and I use it on all 43 of my PC's in my Gaming Center)http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
4. Use SpyBot for anti spyware http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
5. Upgrade to IE 7 if you want a good anti-phishing filter.

Check your motherboard manufacturer's website to see if your SATA is a RAID, if it is, download the drivers and you will be set.

Good luck,

Jeff

[leapinlew]

Jeff gave you good info.

Your at the beginning of what could be a long troubleshooting process. I agree about ditching zone alarm. I would say use the built-in firewall and also use a hardware based firewall if you can. Zone Alarm is too much of a hog in my opinion anyways.

Skip IE7 and head straight to firefox 2.0. Use IE only when needed (such as websites you trust that require activeX)

During setup with windows XP and SATA drives. You really need to provide the proper drivers by pressing F6 during the installation to manually install the drivers.

Good luck.
Lewis

[sealslayer]

Yeah I think you could be right about Zone alarm, my version is about 4 years old, maybe it works ok with SP1 but could be causing the crashing when I try to upgrade to SP2.

I'll try uninstalling it and see if the SP2 upgrade works then.
Thanks for the help.

[sealslayer]

Thanks for the advice it worked a treat, I uninstalled Zone alarm on the IDE and SP2 went straight on with out any problems.

 

[Kaytrim]

Personally I use the Zone Alarm free version on all my home computers.  I keep it up to date so there is no conflicts.  I feel that ZA is a better firewall because it blocks both incoming and outgoing traffic.  If a program is changed by a virus or update it blocks access to the network for that program until you give the OK.

[zelony]

I am not going to argue the merits of individual programs.

However, the ones I have mentioned work flawlessly with the over 200 games I have installed at Click's.  Also, I chose these particular programs because of their balance of effectiveness with very little overhead.  No one can tell that their is an active virus scanner running while they are playing World of WarCraft or Counter-Strike Source.

To each their own. 

Jeff

[steveh]

Jeff gave you good info.

Your at the beginning of what could be a long troubleshooting process. I agree about ditching zone alarm. I would say use the built-in firewall and also use a hardware based firewall if you can. Zone Alarm is too much of a hog in my opinion anyways.

Skip IE7 and head straight to firefox 2.0. Use IE only when needed (such as websites you trust that require activeX)

During setup with windows XP and SATA drives. You really need to provide the proper drivers by pressing F6 during the installation to manually install the drivers.

Good luck.
Lewis

Fire Fox with the IE tab Feature.  I have Never Looked Back.

[zelony]

I tried Firefox at Click's.  Customer's kept complaining that it did not work with the sites they wanted to use.  Most Yahoo stuff did not work, a lot of them use Yahoo, and others were similar.  That is why I switched back to IE 7.

[ahofle]

Fire Fox with the IE tab Feature.  I have Never Looked Back.

Weren't the tabs a part of Firefox (or was it Opera) well before M$ added them for IE7?
Anyway, I keep a copy of IE6 for the rare instance when some lame site requires IE (Yahoo works just fine for me with Firefox BTW).

[steveh]

You are misreading my notes.  theres a plugin that will enable you to open any site in IE, In  new tab in FF.   for example i can have this site open in ff, then open a new "IE tab"  in ff for a site that does not like FF. 

FF is loads better then IE.  Especially IE7

[ahofle]

Ahh that's good to know.  Thanks for the info.