M6805 crashing again

I reassembled my M6805 last night after cleaning it out and installing the new DVD-RW drive. Things seemed to go smoothly. Also fixed the screen flicker problem, switched the inside DIMM to a 512MB one, and glued back a small piece of plastic casing around one hinge.
Finally, I diid a clean install using the OEM restore disks, booted up and made the wireless internet connection, and everything seemed fine.

Some time later, the screen and cursor just froze, then again a few minutes after a restart.
After several forced shut-downs and restarts, the familiar black error screens ('missing or corrupted file') and briefly, the BSOD began to appear. (Rarely at this point would the machine get as far as the welcome screen, and if it did, a crash and blues screen would soon follow.)

This is basically the same state the machine was in when it originally crashed, before my repair (but at that point had no working CD-RW drive to affect a restore).

One of the black screens advised to try repairing with the original restore disk (press 'r' in the first screen).
Trouble is that I can no longer even boot up with the restore disk(s) - the machine just comes up with the black/blank screen, sometimes accompanied by four loud beeps. Is this a BIOS problem? Any advice what I could try next?

Thanks for any input! (Sorry if my descriptions are not specific enough - I'll dig up more info if needed.)
Dave

Update: I tried booting up this morning, and after many false starts I eventually got the first restore disk to start.
So it is now in the middle of a third clean install.

Assuming the machine boots up with the clean install, what should be my first step?
I'm afraid I won't have too many moves before the crashing starts over again...


PS - Latest update: Successfully restored, boot up and attempt to complete set up... Got halfway through setup, and it freezes again.

Reboot, and get this blue screen:

'Windows has had to shut down, blah blah...

'DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL'

and: Technical Information: STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x8434F7F0, 0x0000000Z, 0x00000000, 0x8434F7F0)


(Could this be to do with my installation of the DVD-RW drive (replaced the original CD-RW drive?)

Thanks for any help
Dave

Thanks. I'm pretty sure the HD is OK, but I can do a swap and see what happens.

According to the link you gave, the 4 beep code might mean a 'bad motherboard'.

Can you suggest any further means of self-diagnosis, to try and pin it down a little closer than 'bad motherboard'? Maybe there's something up with the processor memory cache, the RAM, or the BIOS itself? Sorry to sound so dumb on the finer points.

Thanks again...
Dave

Thanks qhn for the etiquette tip.

I would be looking at the RAM slot swapover, but for the fact that the problems I'm having seem the same as I had before, i.e. mainly the black screen with either countdown to normal restart or error notification, followed by brief BSOD, and then refusal to boot at all. I might have another look under the hood, but there doesn't seem much good I could do there without any changeover parts.

Is it possible to install or reinstall the DVD-RW drivers through the BIOS, if i can get to it. How about flashing or upgrading the BIOS? [Again, sorry for sounding so half-assed - whatever tech savvy I have lies in different areas.]

Dave

Thanks for the info, ThunderPC. What about the blue screen driver error message, though?

(i.e.)

'DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL'

and: Technical Information: STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x8434F7F0, 0x0000000Z, 0x00000000, 0x8434F7F0)


Did you mean it would only be the RAM in the internal slot that was indicated? I don't think it's bad RAM in any case, or a bad connection, but of course I could be wrong. And I don't want to think about the possibility the M/B needs replacing. But if that's what it is, then I need to know.

Dave

visionary811 - thanks, but I tried getting into safe mode last time, and the machine froze up before I could even get that far. In fact, this time around, I haven't even been able to get through basic setup after restore before she just freezes again. I'll keep trying, but you know, the DVD-RW is one of the things that at least seems to be working alright, so I kinda doubt the driver problem is there.

Could the driver error be to do with the card reader PCB, by any chance?

Thanks guys! Please keep it coming.
Dave

Thanks ThunderPC - that helps.

So, maybe if nothing else works I should try reinstalling both the original 256MB DIMMs...

Dave

Thunder - thanks for the links. I'll see how I go tonight (fingers crossed). Might be a few days before I have time to tear it down again.

Thanks everyone, for your input!
Dave

Thanks! I haven't had time to take it apart again, in fact right now I can't justify the time it *might* take to find the problem, let alone spend more money on it.

Any idea what it would be worth sold 'as-is' for parts (working fine until 2 or 3 weeks ago, cosmetically in excellent condition, with (mostly) known good parts - LCD, DVD-RW drive, RAM, 60GB HDD, etc.
I'm sure she could find a good home with some smart tweaker with more time on his hands than I have! 8>)
[Sorry my faithful M6805, it's been wonderful, but you shouldtn't oughta have gone and died on me like that... sob! This is gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt you...) 8>(

OTOH, maybe by winter I'll have more spare time.

Dave 8>)

UPDATE:

Just wanted to say thanks to all who offered advice on this.
Having run out of patience, I sent the machine to have someone look at it who'd offered me a very fair quote.
Turned out to have been a bad RAM chip - the upgrade 512MB stick I'd added some time ago. This was the same stick I'd transferred to the internal slot when I had the machine apart! So i'd kinda outsmarted myself there...
Without tearing the machine apart again and gambling on another RAM stick in that location (which hadn't occurred to me, but was hinted at here in the advice i got), the odds are I never would have found the problem without many teardowns and much frustration.

So I can recommend a very cheap and fair repair service, if anyone's interested. They only charged me $75, including shipping the machine back!
Now I'm looking forward to getting the machine back, and installing a new 1GB RAM module and maybe a new Hitachi 7K200 hard drive... 8>)
Thanks all again,
Dave