Severe computer instability

System:

AMD Athlon 2100+
NVidia NForce 2 Mobo (can't remember other detail and can't find box)
512 mb RAM (Corsair if it matters)
120 Gb Western Digital 7200 RPM HD
GeForce 3 Ti200 64 MB
Generic CDRW drive
Generic 350 watt Power Supply


Problem:

My system has become very unstable, especially it seems while trying to communicate with the HD. Always crash when trying to load certain video games (Everquest mainly, World of Warcraft 3 included) or when trying to run anti-virus programs and sometimes while rebooting. There isn't anything vital on this PC so I've tried to format, however it crashes when i do that also. Tried a new 40 Gb HD and couldn't get windows to start installation on it (same crash as when I try to format), so I'm pretty sure it's not he HD.

Basically I'm looking for a way to test the rest of my system w/o having to buy everything I need to test.

 

Gah, can't figure out how to edit, anyway forgot a couple things, running XP pro, and here is the error report I get when trying to format or install XP on new HD:

A Stop error has occured, to prevent damage to your machine windows will shut down now. If this is the first time you have seen this error, reboot and try again. If the error persists do the following.

Disable or uninstall antivirus or backup utilities (none currently running). Check hard drive configuration (only have 1 and it's drivers are gtg). Run chkdsk /f for corruption (done and nothing shown), check all drivers (all checked/updated today).

Technical Information:

*** Stop: 0x00000024 (0x001902f8, 0xf80dc048, 0xf80db48, 0x8019097c)

---------------------------

The error text and the numbers/letters at the bottom change each time, but it's always the same blue screen with the stop error and always roughly the same message.

 

Oops... wrong button.

 

(There's a 3 minute edit timeout on this board... that's why you couldn't edit. )

Stop error 0x24 is an NTFS file system error.

I think you're probably right about something being weird with the HDD. The first thing I would do is get a new ribbon cable for your HD. When you install it, here's some things to do:

1. Make sure it's one of the 80 conductor cables. It's pretty obvious the difference between them and the older 40 conductor ones. The wires on the 40's look like those on the floppy drive cable, the 80 conductor ones are really tiny.
2. Connect the HDD to the connector at the end of the cable, not the one in the middle. You get higher signal quality this way, especially if there's no other drive on the cable (the signal tends to "echo" up the line).
3. If you can, move your CD drive and second HD to a different IDE cable, too. Just get them off the same IDE channel as your main HDD. One of them might be bad and interfering.

You've already replaced your HDD, so if you still get these errors, the next most likely problem is a damaged motherboard.

 

also try the HD on the other IDE channel

 

Wow, thanks da chicken, you nailed it. It's the middle of the night (3 am) so there aren't many places to get a new ribbon right now, but I moved the connection to the last one on the ribbon and everything is $$ now, thanks.

BTW, I will be going to get a new ribbon, maybe replace all the wiring in my PC.