Calling all computer nerds

[greenwizard]

Ok, my computer is being weird, and I thought I might as well pick the brains of anyone who has more knowledge about computers than my boyfriend or myself. He is a hacker that can write programs, and even he is stumped.

My computer does not seem to like the internet period, but it really seems to hate the game World of Warcraft even more.

I have an XFX system. My boyfriend got it for me as a birthday present as a bare bones kit. So pretty much they sent him the parts in a big box. So he puts it together, and finds out when he turns it on it doesn't stay on. He wanted to get my computer up and running for me quickly so he took it to a repair shop when he couldn't figure out what was wrong.

As it turned out, he thought thermal paste was meant to glue the processor to the motherboard so he decided not to use it, and instead it was made to help keep the processor from overheating. So the repair shop guys intalled the operating system and drivers and everything for us.

We get it home and have a hell of a time getting it to connect to our wireless internet. It really didn't want to. Eventually we got it connected and I started playing. It seemed fine for a while. Then it started blue screening. It kept saying bad pool caller.

Now supposedly I have a very good graphics card. I know it's an Nvidia and it has a heat sync on it. It plays Fable with the graphics turned the whole way up no problem. It played Vanguard with no issue. It played Fury once extra memory was added to it.

Here is the real kicker though. I got my boyfriend the exact same system for Christmas. He put it together and used mine as a map to make sure he had everything hooked up correctly. He played Warcraft for a while and had no issue. He can run two windows of Conquerer and MSN messenger at the same time. He can leave it running 24/7.

Does anybody out there have any sort of clue as to what the problem is and how to fix it???

[FairyNiamh]

What is the memory on your computer?

...this could be so many things, from the Graphics card not working properly to not enough memory to a glitch in the mother board to a simple setting...

ARG, if I lived closer I would come tear apart your computer, put it back together then check your bios...

[greenwizard]

I have 1GB RAM that's all I can tell you. Memory was the first thing he looked at. He switched sticks around and that didn't fix it. I wish you could come tear it apart too. It would be so much simpler.

[Guest Monsterking]

does your computer meat the mininum requirements for your internet programs? or even more importently does it meet your world of warcraft mininum requirments cause if it does not your out of luck

Peace out and may the furs be with you "WOOOOOO!!"

[greenwizard]

It meets all the requirements and then some. As I said earlier, it plays games with even higher graphic detail. It's built to be a top of the line gaming machine. I think it blue screened on Fable once, but I don't really remember.

[Zimarah]

So... after the little incident with the no thermal paste, was any of the hardware replaced?

[greenwizard]

Just memory sticks. Other than that it's the same system that came in the box.

[Guest Agaib]

You windows install may just have gone bad. Thats not entirely unheard of. If you still have you windows CD you can maybe see if you can convince the thing to repair it. Blue screens can be caused by practically anything. Any major hardware or software malfunction is perfectly capable of causing them. The only way to make sure the hardware is working is by switching out your various pieces to see if the problem is resolved when a certain bit of hardware isn't inside of your computer.

Theres really know way for someone who knows a lot about computers to figure it out unless they have the system right there in front of them, with all the necessary equipment.

My personal suggestion is that you check each bit of hardware, one at a time. If it still doesn't work, then try reinstalling windows. If that STILL doesn't work. It may be one of your major bits of hardware malfunctioning, like your motherboard.

[DemonGoddess]

What is the operating system? Vista machines have this thing (it's a bug) where if you install multiple users on a machine, you end getting the "blue screen of death" which isn't so bad as the black screen, by the way, but just as annoying.

Also, you'll want to have the CPU itself checked, to be sure you didn't fry something when you were running the machine without the thermal paste, which is what holds the heat sink onto the CPU, for one, and keeps the heat sink from overheating the CPU itself, for another.

[greenwizard]

XP of course Though you might have something about the CPU being fried. He turned it on and it turned off like eight or nine times.

[bitBlackmage]

Firstly, how did you put it together? Was the motherboard inside already? I know that I never put anything into the PCI slots (like ethernet cards or other things) until I have the harddrive and the OS setup. One by one things get added and installed cause I don't want to bog down my newborn comp... then again, it may have something to do with your power supply being bad or your CPU over clocking or something.

[DemonGoddess]

couple questions for ya...

1. first of all, you should be getting error codes following the "bad pool caller" error when it stops. What are they?

2. recheck all your cable and card connections

3. what version is your BIOS?

4. can you get some of the components tested for whether or not it's a possible hardware failure? Specifically, the RAM and the CPU.

[greenwizard]

A BIOS has a version? Yeah, you can tell I'm a computer idiot...

My boyfriend says it's the memory that's crashing, but it's not the sticks since those have been switched around. He thinks it's the memory slots. I don't know about that though. If it does it again I'll write down the error. It hasn't been doing it much lately since I don't play that game as much as I used to.

I'm not sure how we'd test the parts. He put it all together and once. He put the motherboard in, then hooked everything up. I watched and learned some stuff.

[greenwizard]

More often than not lately the crashes have been happening when I shut down. I've been getting something about an application not shutting down properly a lot, but I don't know what because the warning just flashes. It doesn't stay up long enough for me to actually read it.

It crashed last night and I wrote it down. It said;

Multiple IRP Complete Requests

The technical info said; STOP: 0x00000044 (0X863EC008, 0X00000D63, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)

To me that's just a bunch of numbers and letters.

[DemonGoddess]

those numbers tell you where in the ram addresses or hardware bios addresses the hardware is failing. If your bf thinks it's the memory slots, then when he was messing around with powering up your machine without being quite properly put together, something fried on the motherboard. If your memory slots themselves are bad, you need a new motherboard. No fixing it otherwise.

Yes, BIOS has a version. When you power it up, what does it say?