I went to the store where I purchased the motherboard and they let me "borrow" the commercial program they use for burn-in of new systems. This is a program that tests out the hardware, including memory, disk drive, CPU, CD-ROM, printer, USB, and other aspects of the PC, including the motherboard. The advantage of this program is it boots from a diskette independent of Windows XP. The limitation with this program is it runs all tests sequentially instead of with multiple concurrent threads. I have not been able to detect any problems after hours of testing the memory, CPU, hard drive, and motherboard. I next went to the web site of the CPU Stability program and located a discussion forum there. I inquired about the possibility of the CPU Stability program itself causing the errors. I ended up a message form the moderator that the program is known to have bugs and it is best that I stop using it.
The errors I was getting looked to be pointing to the same problem of data corruption that I had encountered earlier, even though the errors were not the same. Now I am thinking I may have already solved the problem. And I have been chasing a ghost created by the burn-in program I have been using. But I previous search of the Internet shows many online PC testing journals using and recommending the program, so I never suspected the program itself. But if there is this false problem that I have been chasing, what did I do in the past that solved the original problem? The switch of memory? The swap of the network card? The change of the video card from an AGP to a PCI card? This is a puzzle!
At this point I am thinking of running another burn-in program all night and see the results in the morning. This new program also runs tests concurrently in multiple threads. A timing problem revealed by concurrent tasks is the only explainantion left. If there are no errors or abnormalities in how the PC functions, then I can consider the problem solved. If there are problems, I will swap the motherboard. A problem with the motherboard also may explain the continuing real problem I am having with the AGP video card providing the monitor a signal very late after Windows has booted and is up and running. The first copy of the same video card that I obtained blew out in twenty minutes. The current copy of the card has this late video signal problem. I find it difficult to believe I have received two of the same AGP video card with problems. But what is interesting is searches on the Internet reveal people who are having allot of problems with the GeForce 4 cards, including some who have had two bad cards in a row.
Life has been REAL interesting! :-)
Bob Graham |
