Win XP Crash Question
 

I built a computer about a year ago. I have a 2.8 Core 2 Duo, 4 gigs of RAM, a GeForce GTX 260, 640 WD Caviar Black HD and I'm running WinXP 32.

About two weeks ago, I was going to run Ony and started getting chain crashed out of WoW with a 132 error. 132s, based on my limited experience, usually mean a corrupted install. The only other time I had them, I ran the WoW repair utility, it saw some stuff was borked, it fixed them and I moved on with my life. This time, I ran it twice, it didn't find anything, but I continued to get the errors. I logged onto wow from a different computer, moved that character and stopped getting any errors. Since I moved my toon, I haven't crashed out of WoW with a 132 (or anything else) since.

Since that happened, though, I've started to have other issues of a more serious nature. Essentially, it seems like anything that requires significant hard drive access or modification causes my computer to crash to blue screen and hard reset itself. I have had this happen very regularly while trying to run an installation. What really tipped me was when steam tried to install a small update, the bar got to 99%, at which point the install hung and it crashed to a blue screen very briefly before hard resetting. I did get steam to reinstall, but now I'm trying to install Dragon Age Origins again, and after a few seconds of running the download/installer, the computer will crash to the blue screen and hard restart. It will go blue and hard restart if I try to defrag or if I try to run a virus scan, though in both of those cases, it does what it's supposed to do for a little while before crashing. Often, but not always, before it goes to a blue screen and hard resets, I will hear a series of rhythmic clicks coming from my computer. The blue screen has never stayed up long enough for me to actually read it. It's usually gone in less than a second.

I have run a memtest to see if it's my RAM and 6 cycles of testing displayed 0 RAM errors. My scandiscs, on the other hand, show corrupted sectors, but say that it was able to fix the affected files. I don't have any other diagnostic tools other than defrag and virus scan, which, as noted, cause the damn thing to shut down. The only real strange thing is that if I'm not trying to install something or do a defrag or virus scan (basically if all I do is leave it on and/or play WoW) it doesn't really do anything strange and doesn't hard crash like that.

Based on the above, I think my HD is failing. I've made back ups of all my primary data that I care about from the computer. I don't really do much on it besides game, so my back up is essentially my WoW interface, my DA:O save files and a few screenshots and miscellaneous personal crap that I have saved there. Before I drop cash on a new hard drive, I want to know if there are any other tests or things I should try first. Thanks in advance!

Nah, it's the drive. RMA it too, if you have a warranty. You may want to get a new drive, but use this RMA'd one as a spare etc.

You can almost always find warranty status by serial number.

If scandisk is finding errors, be afraid. You were smart in backing it up, Vigilante is right, RMA it if you can. You could also go ahead and get a new drive, make an image of the HD and copy if over while you deal with the RMA bullshit you will run into too.

Depending on your BIOS, you can have S.M.A.R.T check your drive for errors and look up the corresponding codes off the net. Check around for a tool that can read S.M.A.R.T error codes.

Yeah installation errors are very common when an HDD is going bad. Sounds like the hard drive to me, though bad memory can cause the exact same symptoms. BTW I've never had much luck with memory-testing programs. Memory always checks out, but then when I change the memory to a different brand, the errors and blue screens go away....

You know, I have the same problem. I have a memory tester boot CD (mem-test) that I use, tho I've never actually seen it come up with an error. I've ran in before on memory that was causing problems, but it said it was fine. Hate to Thread-jack here, but does anyone know of a "good" memory tester? This would help me out a lot in my workplace.

It really is humorous because I've seen perfectly stable ram that never gave any trouble absolutely fail memtest. And then memory that causes instability, CTDs, BSODs, etc. go through it and pass 100%. I never trust those things.

Is the machine overclocked? Try re-setting to normal.

Nope, it's not overclocked at all. Never had any need for it to be. Before these errors, it was running everything I wanted to just fine.