Crash memory dump roundabout!!

[Cornish Jack]

Any pointers for the following, please?
HP WS4600, W7Home 64, 8g ram, 1 Tb HD etc. First indication - "monitor going to sleep", followed by "windows is shutting down, memory crash dump blah, blah" end of. Try restart but as soon as "Windows is starting", 10 secs later same thing happens. Able to start in Safe Mode but attempts to use repair discs or reload Windows give same result. Tried using msconfig in Dos to minimise StartUp contents but still same result. Have removed and FIRMLY reseated RAM and the video card and same for HDs. Loaded Linux Mint and it worked fine from the CD drive but reluctant to 'go linux' altogether. Any obvious checks/ fixes still to do, please??

[andytug]

Next step is probably try a different hard drive. I would have said overheating CPU but you say it runs Linux OK from pendrive?

Hang on... you have multiple HDD? Could well be the PSU on way out, one or other of 5 or 12V rails not giving enough juice.

[CaptOveur]

Given that the video signal cuts out before it crashes, and it seems to be fine in Safe Mode, could it be that the video driver was recently updated? You may be able to roll it back with Device Manager.

[Cornish Jack]

andyt and CaptO, thank you for your suggestions. Further update - I have now installed (successfully) Linux Mint and it operates quite happily save for a screen caveat that there is "software video acceleration only" and, therefore, there will be more activity (or something similar). Just wondering if this would point to problems with the video card as the source of the problem. Have ordered a new one anyway and at least that should prove a point one way or the other.:ugh:

[Saab Dastard]

If your PC is a bit elderly and you are running a very recent version of Mint, it's possible that it simply doesn't have a driver for your old VGA card, at least not straight out of the box.

It's also possible that there's a problem with the GPU or VRAM, so putting a new card in will address that.

BTW, are you sure about the model of your PC? WS4600 isn't recognised on the HP support website. Is it perhaps an XW4600 Workstation?

[Cornish Jack]

SD - thank you - yes, you're correct, it IS a Workstation - lazy typing!!:O.