Need help with memory dumps. 3 crashs, no errors or bsods.

Im not 100% here either.

My local computer guy said bad firmware. Emachines said bad firmware. They provided a fix but the fix said everything was good....

I'm outta ideas.
 
Are you still getting controller errors?
Is PSU a 120 watt unit? If so, disconnect everything that's not essential (including one of the hard drives and both of the CD/DVD drives).

Run another HDD diag (try the Windows version of Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools)
Test BOTH hard drives.

Check cables and power. Try another data cable (worst case, use the data cable from the DVD drive).

If that checks out, ensure that your storage controller drivers are replaced (uninstall, then install a fresh copy).

Check to make sure that you have any BIOS updates.

If possible, try another hard drive (just to be sure it's not something that the diagnostics can't pickup)

If problems persist, you'll have to wonder if this is a mobo issue. Older eMachines had several instances of bad mobo's (in systems dating from XP and early Vista time frames). When does this system date from?
 
Oh right I forgot to update that list.

The WD is self powered its an external with its own supply. So we are purely testing the Hitachi.

I've gotten two sudden restarts since 3am but they are hrs inbetween. They both did get stuck at the boot page said earlier. Both times if allowed to timeout said no bootable device detected until I manually shutdown from the power button to restart.
 
Even external hard drives can cause problems like this. Please test it with the Western Digital Data Lifeguard diagnostics
 
Ok I ran WDLD Nada no issues found.

But get this, I'm thinking it is the hard drive after all today alone it's been getting into these spin-down habits. If I keep the drive busy such as browsing and walk away, it crashes.

However if I login and just run idle, it spins down but no crash, I can move the mouse, interact with the start menu basically anything loaded into ram. anything from the hard drive nada I just get a busy cursor.

I cannot restart or shutdown, only from holding the button in to reboot.

So I'm saying the Harddrive is toast and will only get worse with time, looks like I know what I'm buying.

P.s. if I have enough money I'll fix the RAM to 4GB not 3GB

besides with 256MB into integrated graphics that extra GB would help.
 
I'm still not convinced that it's a hard drive issue. If you purchase a hard drive, make sure that you can return it for your money back (it's cheaper and less time consuming than putting in a new mobo would be).
 
As I told tekno venus on skype. If its the motherboard we are screwed because the AM3+ architecture is fased out for the ITX form factor.
 
Ok so I took the computer completely apart and corrected these items.
  • removed excessive dust
  • reseated sata cables and checked locking mechanisms
  • reseated expansion card
  • cleaned and repositioned psu and its cables.
 
So far so good.

During my cleaning I noticed the PCB on the HDD was warped.

I'll use this crippled computer for now then full steam ahead on some other projects.

Also, my router is failing so just another thing to add to the list.

If that isn't bad enough I found out the PSU in the emachines despite being certified as efficient @ 80% Bronze is not clean in standby, its producing excessive amounts of EMI. It has decreased since cleaning everything but is still present in standby.
 
I got more news for you guys. Turns out since I moved that big tower away from the system, I've had no crashes to report, so with that said I'm thinking that my large tower was actually insulating the emachines. Thus causing unsafe temperatures.
 

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