My PC keeps crashing
 

I'm going to edit this thread a lot because I'm afraid the PC will crash while I type.

Sometimes it doesn't even boot, it never gets to the first screen. And when it does boot, it might crash within a few minutes.

It started a few days ago with just 1 crash while I was playing SC2. I thought it was because of overheating; I've had that problem before and I fixed it by dusting the whole PC. But right now I have crashes long before things start to heat up. I dusted my PC anyway and it made no difference.

It seems pretty random too: sometimes it won't boot, 2 minutes later it does.

I just ran WhoCrashed and it recognizes 2 recent crashes. Apparently "ntkrpamp.exe" is the criminal for these crashes. At the moment I cannot use Google to see what kind of program that is. I'll have to check that tomorrow, or if you want to check it for me that would be nice.

I have this feeling that it's a hardware problem, because most of the time it happens even before Windows starts.

Any idea what it can be? Any idea how I can find out (before bringing it to a store and pay)?? Thanks a lot. :)


Edit: recently I installed a USB headset of Creative. Maybe that has something to do with it? :confused: I think that's the only thing that has changed on my PC the last few weeks.

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

How recently was it, what OS are you running, and have you tried uninstalling it? If you can't uninstall it before the computer crashes, try mashing F8 when you restart to boot into safe mode and try uninstalling it there. Let me know if that works, but I can keep looking.

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

I think I installed the headset last week and the crashes started a few days later. I'll try unstalling it.

I'm running Vista, not sure if it's 32 or 64b (I'm on a different PC atm).

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

Give it a go with uninstalling it in safe mode, the issue could also be with your RAM as well. I think you can get a memory tester at memtest.org. You can burn it or you can make a bootable USB drive to run it off of. It passes data over all of the RAM in your computer and it's a pretty good test of seeing whether it's bad or not. You usually run it once with all your RAM sticks in it, and then run it again with each RAM stick by itself, so it can be a little lengthy depending on how many sticks of RAM you have in your computer. Best of luck!

Also get off Vista already! :p

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

Might want to try a system restore to a point before it started failing.

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

Maybe, maybe not. I know system restore works better on Windows 7 than it did in the Windows XP days, but I'm not sure if it works well in Vista. Considering when it started happening was after the Creative stuff for the headset was installed, it'd be better if he tried uninstalling it in safe mode first.

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

It seems so random. Today I tried to run the system analysis that I can choose before Windows starts (apparently by PC Doctor). It crashed during that.
Then I ran in safe mode, it didn't crash for an (idle) hour or so.
Then I booted normally... and it hasn't crashed since.

It all seems so similar to a problem I had a few months ago... I also ran all these tests but never found anything. All problems were solved when I dusted my PC... :confused:

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

Computer keeps crashing?

Don't let your computer drink and Drive (D:)

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

What I was initially going to ask was "What happens if you end the "ntkrpamp.exe" program itself from the (ctrl+alt+delete) window?", but then upon googling the program name, it appears to just be a malfunctioning windows process that other people have also questioned. So I no longer question your sanity.

I however have no solutions.

But this link may.

Edit:
Well....it won't let me link you to the link (uhhh), but if you (or someone else) is able to google the process/program name, a bunch of solutions will come up, and apparently all you have to do is download something. If you even just go to an MS/Windows site and type in the process' name, I'm sure it'd bring you to a downloadable fix-y thing.

I'm no compu-doctor, though.

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

This is funny. I've been away for a few days, and now my PC has crashed 4 times so far. I'm starting to think it may be a warming up problem... why would it work fine for half a week and suddenly crash all the time?

Thanks, I'll try that.
Btw this time it was ntkrnlpa.exe that crashed. A 'bad_pool_caller'. o_O

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

I say it could really be a RAM problem. Did you try using the memtest86 thing I recommended?

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

Not yet. Will do it now.

I'm also starting to think it's a RAM problem, especially because my PC manages to crash before Windows even starts.
Oh and if it is a software problem: I realized I bought and installed a new MP3 player a few weeks ago. It has this fishy program running in the background, even when the player isn't plugged in. I wonder how I can get rid of it.

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

Well, you can just end the process. But you'd need to do that every time you start the computer up, so it's not really a long-term fix. That's what I do, though. It's not like it's time-consuming or anything, but my phone(mp3 player) also makes a process constantly run on my computer, it never gave me any ill-will mind you, but I always end it (and others) anyhow.

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

Yeah I doubt that's the problem by the way.

This morning I tried to boot my PC and it crashed 8 times. 5 of those were before I even had a signal on my monitor. So there's no way it's caused by some new program, right?

I tested my ram yesterday, no problems found. Although I couldn't test the ram of the 3rd and 4th core, I tried but they never started. I was running 4x Memtest, but only the first 2 really ran..

So this afternoon I'm bringing it to the store. I'm out of options and it's driving me pretty crazy.

Re: My PC keeps crashing
 

Try taking those last two pieces of RAM out and seeing if your machine still boots okay before you take it to the store and start spending money. If you can't test those RAM sticks because it doesn't start I think we might have found your problem.