[Chazz K]

I recently posted that I was having some problems, well I found out the reason for them and have since fixed that, however, I have a new one. While playing City Of Heroes, the other day I had 2 VPU Resets, one of which crashed my system to a Blue Screen... I went ahead an uninstalled the ATI Drivers I had and since gotten Radeon Omega Drivers, said to be MUCH Better than the original ones. I thought my problem was solved as I didn't seem to have any problems after, till tonight, where I got a very odd crash where the screen went black, not sure if the VPU Was resetting, and the 2nd time the game itself simply crashed. I got this program VMT, Video Memory Stress Test, and ran it, doing 245 Tests, and I came up with this.

WARNING: Your card can be not compatible with this test! If multiple errors will found, try test with onscreen buffer usage or wthout of ignoring colors bit mask.
Changing video mode to 640x480x16...OK
[2/5/2009 3:17:34 AM] Test started for "Primary Display Driver (Radeon HD 3850 (Omega 3.8.442))"...
Trying 16bpp RGB:565 mode...OK
Trying 16bpp RGB:555 mode...OK
Error at [1546CD48]: must be FFDF, but found FFFF (bits: 0000000000100000)
Error at [1546CD4A]: must be FFDF, but found FFFF (bits: 0000000000100000)
Error at [1546CD4C]: must be FFDF, but found FFFF (bits: 0000000000100000)
Error at [1546CD4E]: must be FFDF, but found FFFF (bits: 0000000000100000)
Trying 16bpp BGR:565 mode...OK
Trying 32bpp RGB:888 mode...OK
Trying 32bpp BGR:888 mode...OK
Error at [14BF78E8]: must be 00040000, but found FFFFFFFF (bits: 11111111111110111111111111111111)
Error at [14BF78EC]: must be 00040000, but found FFFFFFFF (bits: 11111111111110111111111111111111)
[2/5/2009 6:05:21 AM] Pass completed (6 errors found).

I'm not sure what it means but perhaps someone else can tell me what this actually means. I've done tests on both my 2 gig memory sticks, and while I was told XP 32 Bit needs no more than 1 gig, it sees and lets me use, 3.5 Gigs of my 4... I'm a gamer, the memory has been a huge help.

My computer specs are as follows.

Windows XP Pro SP3
ATI HD 3850 512MB
AMD Athelon, 6400 3.2 Ghz Dual core
4 Gigs of DDR2 800 MHZ Memory
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1
Sapphire Motherboard (Not sure of the exact name)

Honestly I've used a very powerful program, given to me by my friend to check my PC's hardware... I used both it AND Memtest. My Memory is Healthy, the Videocard seems fine, except for the above statement of which I've no idea what it means, the Processor is functioning properly, the motherboard seems healthy as anything and the rest... There seems to be no problems with the HDD either... I need help and I'm at the end of my ropes. My roommate has a NEAR Identical computer, same hardware save for different Hard Drives, and a Different DVD Rom, otherwise, he has the same processor, Motherboard, Video Card, Sound Card AND MEmory, and yet he isn't crashing durring games at all or getting any BlueScreens....

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Pretty interesting, I was about to tell you it could be a software issue, since windwos is not a very good OS, it’s common to find unexplained errors, up until I read about you roommate, does he have the exact same build for your SP3? And video drivers? And could you ask him to change RAM sticks with you to rule out that option?
It could be a simple way to find out if it’s a memory issue because even passing Memtest, its possible there is a small failure with your memory.

[Nicolet]

Pretty interesting, I was about to tell you it could be a software issue, since windwos is not a very good OS, it’s common to find unexplained errors, up until I read about you roommate, does he have the exact same build for your SP3? And video drivers? And could you ask him to change RAM sticks with you to rule out that option?
It could be a simple way to find out if it’s a memory issue because even passing Memtest, its possible there is a small failure with your memory.

[Chazz K]

Well tonight we not only switched Ram Sticks, we switched Video Cards too, We've ALREADY even switched Soundcards, if I still some how crash, We're going to switch stuff back, and switch out HDD's so I'd be on his motherboard/Processor and stuff, AND, if I still some how crash? We know its an Hard Drive Flaw... BUT so far tonight, no crashes! Oddly enough? He hasn't crashed either, and yep, HE has the same hardware AND the same OS and Version, Windows XP Pro SP3, everything, we even use the same Anti Virus set up... all for all, except for the Hard Drives, Our PC's are easely 98.999% the same.

[Chazz K]

So, it turns out, even after switching my Video Card and Memory, I'm still crashing in game and the VPU is crashing as well.. It can't be overheating, its staying very cool and not getting to hot in there... I'm starting to think its the Harddrive. If it was the Processor or Motherboard it would be much worse or I'd be noticing more stuff happening, can anyone else confirm my thoughts on the Hard Drive being the error?

[Nicolet]

Well I’d say your diagnosis method can be a little too wild to rule out components (not to mention you could forget which ones are yours), are you changing only one stick and then testing? Or did you change them all together? What I meant by using your room mates PC to test it was, switch only one component (one RAM stick, or just the GPU) at a time and test it for a while (this is a must on hardware problems, since it won’t fail every time). When his computer crashes, you will know what is causing the problem, of nothing does fail, then it’s the Motherboard.
I say if it’s the hard drive it would show you some more errors on other things, but to rule it out you can get a boot cd from the manufacturer that will allow you to test it 100%, you could google it up or get the model here and I can help you with that.
Yet another option is there is a problem with your PCI-E or with the motherboard, and if there is, well, sorry for that because there’s really no way I know that could fix it.
One more thing, do you both have the same revision for the BIOS, some glitch on that could mislead you to believe it is a hardware problem?

[Chazz K]

Well I know switching one, then the other would prove it. Problem is, my roommate hasn't crashed at all ,and I did Crash last night WITH both his sticks and videocard... He has no problems, still, and I still do. Our Bios are the same, EVERYTHING is the same, everything, save for different hard drives, and he has a DVD ROM, where as I have a DVD Burner/Rom. That's it, that's the difference, and the only true difference... I've sent out for a new 160gig SATA Drive, only $38 so I got a good deal. But over the weekend, we're switching Hard Drives and I'll be using mine on his Set up, motherboard/processor, if I still crash and he doesn't, then we know for sure its the hard drive, cause its impossible that he wouldn't crash at all since we built then but only I am now, if he had my Hardware and I had his. Basically it will rule out the Processor/Motherboard Theory. Also I have a bunch of my rather Computer Savvy friends saying it sounds like Hard Drive issues, because I had some other problems starting up the past 2 days with odd freeze ups..