Serious Device Failure

BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
edited April 2005 in Hardware
Hmmmmm. This has been going on for 2 years and its very odd. Cause I have no idea what it is.

At a random time my computer will freeze and lockup and I have to pull the plug.

I know my comps not overheating cause I had my comp open with a nice fan blowing in it.

Heres a screen shot of what my comp looks like when it locks up.

joea1ts.th.jpg

As shown in the picture there a distorted color blocks. I really cant come up with anything.

Also where can I find my service tag on a dell?

Help soon.
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Comments

  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited March 2005
    it appears be be a video issue, what kind of video adapter do you have?
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    Heres my specs.

    I have a intergrated video card tho.

    Dell Dimension 4600

    Intel Pentium 4 CPU

    2.66GHz


    256 MB of RAM
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    if anyone can help I would really be thankful.
  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited March 2005
    have you tryed and run memtest86?

    sense the vid is intergrated it uses system ram

    that looks like bad vid card ram lockup to me.

    service tags can be found on the back or on the side panel.

    will link with more info when I find it

    http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/en/details?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    ok thanx but where do i download memtest86
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2005
    Bubbleman wrote:
    ok thanx but where do i download memtest86
    Right here. :)
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    hmmmm Thanx! :thumbsup:
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    How the poopies do I work this thing?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2005
    Make a bootable floppy, copy the program to it, boot from the disk, then run the program. :thumbsup:
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    awww crap... my dell doesnt have a floopy drive! now what.

    tho Ill admit that my memory is the problem sometimes my computer will say virtual memory low
  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited March 2005
    you need the bootable cd rom version

    http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.iso.zip

    Use your CD burner to write it onto a CD as an ISO image. An ISO image is a single file that represents the contents of an entire disk (the CD, in this case).

    How that is done depends on your burn software. I use Nero, and select File->Burn Image. Then I click on the image file in the file explorer in Nero and burn away.

    BTW low vertual memory does not mean bad memory

    you just have used up all avable ram and the hard drive space windows uses as a substute for ram is used up too

    256 on xp will do that often, if you run alot of programs, at the same time.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    I say it is the onboard video that is causing a lot of the problem as well as the onboard sound. The onboard video and sound on those types of systems are really not meant for gaming and as such can't handle the intensity of the games you are playing.
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    its freezing at desktop to.

    also what do i put on the cd. The BOOT folder?
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited March 2005
    no, when you download the memtest86 rar file, extract it and inside is a .iso file
    you can't use the windows built in cd burning functionality
    you need to use something like nero and find a "burn image" option, then select the iso
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2005
    TheBaron wrote:
    ...you need to use something like nero and find a "burn image" option, then select the iso
    If you don't have a burner program that can do the trick, BlindWrite will give you a free ten day trial. it's a fairly small download, too. :)
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    make sure he has winrar to Extract it
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    i have some full blank discs with stuff on it. any program I can use to erase the data on it?
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited March 2005
    no
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    I got nero and a blank cd.

    When I click burn image I cant find any iso file. Just the IMG file MEMTEST.IMG.

    where do I find the iso file.
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    alright nvm I got it on a cd.

    Now how do I run it.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2005
    Set your bios so the CD drive is the first boot device, stick the disc in the drive, reboot, then watch for the prompt saying "Press any key to boot from cdrom".

    Press the "Any" key and off you go. :)
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    how do I set my bios?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2005
    Reboot the computer. Before Windows starts to load start pressing the "delete" key. (It may be a different key on some computers, but that's the most likely one.) Hopefully, it will get you into the bios screen - a menu that lets you control the way your computer is set up hardware-wise at the most basic level. You may have to hunt around for it, but buried in there somewhere is a place where you can set boot device order. (See picture)

    Save the settings and exit and you're good to go.
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    Thanks Ill try it in the morning!! :thumbsup: You rock
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    Well I set it for cd rom drive but nothing happened?

    hmmmm to get into my bios is F2 and this other thing on F12
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2005
    If you have more than one CD drive, try the other(s).

    Are you watching the screen to see the notice "press any key to boot from CD"?
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    Hey Im back.

    Im on a different computer cause my computer with the memtest is still going!!!!

    Its been 4 hours on it.

    How long does it take!!! Reply back soooooon!!! :scratch:
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2005
    It'll run forever if you let it. :D

    Look to see what pass it's on. If it's finished a full pass with no errors then you're OK.
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    barfs....


    OMG

    LOL

    I went through 40 passes!!!

    now i feel dumb....


    thanks tho * runs to other comp*
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited March 2005
    Not one to double post but will my computer be solved now?
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