Upgrade less than $200?

[shay]

Sony VAIO PCV-RS610 - 6 years old
XP Pro – SP3
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.80E GHz1
2GG PC-3200 400MHz DDR

Port Connectors
Eight USB 2.0 (four front/four rear)
Two PS/2® (Mouse/Keyboard)
S/PDIF Digital Optical
One VGA
One Parallel Port
One 6pin i.LINK6 Port (rear)
One 4pin i.LINK6 Port (front)
One Headphone / One Microphone
One Line In

Power Requirements
Min. 266W 100-120V 4.7A (50/60Hz)

The mouse started going out intermittently a month ago. I replaced the mouse twice. Each time the mouse would work for a day or so and then intermittently go out again. About a week ago the computer started rebooting intermittently. This went on for a few days until it would reboot as soon as windows loaded.

Now I only get the blue screen of death.

I don’t know if the problem is with the OS, motherboard, drivers etc. and I don’t have the knowledge to figure it out. The computer is old and could stand to be upgraded anyway. I’m thinking that replacing the motherboard, processor and RAM may fix the problem.

If the problem is OS related then I can add a new hard drive once I’ve eliminated the motherboard etc.

I include the RAM because I upgraded the RAM about 3 months ago, just a few months before the problems started. I google’d one of the BSD msg’s I got and read a post that said it could be associated with RAM. I don’t have the old RAM so I can’t replace it to test if that’s the problem.

This computer is mostly used for web surfing and children’s computer games which the current configuration handled just fine. Of course it wouldn’t hurt to be a little faster but I’m trying to do this on the cheap just to get the machine running again.

Any suggestions for replacement parts?

[flanzig1]

It's not worth the money to upgrade the mobo/CPU in that old of an OEM PC. A standard motherboard probably won't fit in that Sony case(proprietary case and connections). You would also need to replace the PSU and possibly drives due to the change in the type of connections on new boards.

[shay]

That's good to know, that's exactly why I posted the question before buying anything. Let me change the question.

Maybe I can just build a new machine on the cheap, any build suggestions for a basic system? It will mainly be used for web surfing so older parts can be used to keep the price down.

Thanks

[shay]

Sony VAIO PCV-RS610 - 6 years old
XP Pro – SP3
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.80E GHz
2GG PC-3200 400MHz DDR

The mouse started going out intermittently a month ago. I replaced the mouse twice. Each time the mouse would work for a day or so and then intermittently go out again. About a week ago the computer started rebooting intermittently. This went on for a few days until it would reboot as soon as windows loaded.

Now I only get the blue screen of death.

The error msg is not always the same but I remember these:
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

Any ideas of what the problem is or what I might try to fix it?

Thank you!

[Nuclear Krusader]

What's your budget? Please don't say 200. You won't be able to build a decent system with less than 500 (sans software).

(Regarding the IRQ_LESS_THAN_EQUAL error, that usually means hardware. My take is that the mobo has bought the farm. As has already been mentioned, that machine is not worth spending money on. Build a new machine and then transfer the personal data from this one's HDD to the new one.)

[Nuclear Krusader]

Please don't post multiple threads about the same problem. I'll comment on these issues in your other thread.

[quartet-man]

I was going to say it isn't realistic to expect to build one less than $450. or $500. Sure, a person CAN do it, but with junk parts that might not make it much past their warranties (if that). If you need to spend less than that, you would probably have to find an older, used system and hope for the best. Besides the sometimes less good parts used, a bad thing about brand computers is that they often use proprietary parts.

[shay]

The $200 was what I was willing to spend to fix the old machine if at all possible. It looks like that's not a good option so I'd like to build a low budget machine for my kids to play on the internet and lite software games.

Anyone have build specs for a computer at $500 or less?

[shay]

My other post was hardware related. This post was specific to the OS. Sorry if I violated some kind of protocol. My confusion is because I don't know if this is hardware or software related.

Based on the reply to my other thread it seems the problem is hardware specific.

[Nuclear Krusader]

glc is the expert when selecting parts. I'd wait for his input before committing to buy something.

[glc]

Try running ram and hard drive diagnostics before you trash the Sony. It's going to be very difficult building a new system for $500 when you have to buy an operating system - the Sony Windows load can't be reused. It would have to be a very basic system with onboard video. You may be better off buying something like a Dell Inspiron 560.

The Ultimate Boot CD

This has diagnostics - I recommend memtest86+, and use the diagnostics for your hard drive brand (it has diags for Seagate, WD, Hitachi, and Samsung).

[glc]

Threads merged.

[shay]

Update

Thanks for the suggestions. I ran the memtest86 test and got a msg that it had halted the CPU. The stats on the screen all said passed and no errors. I ran it a second time and it passed with no msg's.

I then tested the hard drive and it passed. Since you guys were pointing to hardware issues I decided to remove 2 of the memory sticks I installed 3 months ago. It wouldn't boot. I then put in the 2 I had taken out and it booted up. I let it run for about 10 minutes and shut it down. Restarted and it worked just fine.

Thanks for the help guys!