Crc error

I hope someone can help me out curz this thing is...hm...not funny ;)

here goes :
A while ago (4-5 weeks) I suddenly found out that I was not able to install any games on my computer at all, every time I tryed to it gave me a CRC error. So I went out on the internet to see what this "CRC" is anyway, I found out that it something that checks to see if its the right data that is being put down on my harddrive (or at least that is what I have understod) I then try to install close to every game I got, just to check if it might be a error with my CD or something, but I still gets these CRC errors.
Now, after 2 formats on my main harddisk I am still getting these errors, I have checked for virus, nothing, spyware, nothing and I just dont know what to do anymore!
Yesterday I then got a new motherboard and today I then tryed to install a game, but it still gives me a crc error (always at the same file btw) I had a hope that it might have been the bios that there was a problem with but it does not seem that way....

Any help on this would be really really great becuase as it is now it is kind of hard for me to install anything ;)

btw. I can still play music cds from my cdrom so it is not because it is broken either.

CRC = Cyclic Redundancy Check

It means that either your CD-ROM drive is either malfunctioning or has outdated drivers. But since your other CDs work, it most likely it means that your CD is either damaged or very dirty. Try cleaning your CDs.

I know, it sucks. It's happened to me and I still have no other advice other than hope that cleaning works.

Try the CDs on another computer and see if the same error comes up.

you got a whole new motherboard to try and solve the problem? why not just go out and buy a new cd drive??

BTW, if I remember correctly his audio cd's will work because he's not trying to write to the disk, so it doesn't do a crc on the data.

no no I did not buy a new motherboard just because of this error...I needed a new one anyway :)

And no it is not becuase the Cds are dirty, as I said I have tryed with lots of cds and there is nothing wrong with the Cds themselves as they have worked before

I think I will go and look for a new driver for it and see if that works...Can always hope :)

edit : new driver dont work..

Btw I forgot one other thing about my problem, I also get CRC errors if I take down larger zip files and I try to unzip them.

maybe your hard drive read/write heads are off then?

Well I did not change anything so I dont think so....

I have been thinking about what might bee the problem and I came to think about the fact that a good while ago I got some new Ram, could they be the problem? I know that they work because I got them from a friend and they worked fine for him. Can ram cuase a problem like that?

no you can't change the read/write heads, they can just get messed up over time. Why not try a different hard drive. I seriously doubt ram is the problem.
I lean toward the hard drive even more after you said you had problems with large zip files.

Ah okay :)

would you happen to know of a program that could check to see if that is the problem? Cause I am very low on money right now so I would rather not spend it on a harddisk unless there is a good chance that it will help

there's no free programs for that. Put another hard drive in the computer and write some data to it a few times (unzip a few big zip files) etc. See if you can recreate the problem. If you can't, then you know that I was right and it is the hard drive. If you can recreate it, then it's something else.

If you need to buy a new drive try upgrade-solution.com you can usually get drives for like 75 cents a gig.

just because you never actually said what it was:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CRC.html

Quote:

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Short for cyclic redundancy check, a common technique for detecting data transmission errors. Transmitted messages are divided into predetermined lengths that are divided by a fixed divisor. According to the calculation, the remainder number is appended onto and sent with the message. When the message is received, the computer recalculates the remainder and compares it to the transmitted remainder. If the numbers do not match, an error is detected.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Speedy5

CRC = Cyclic Redundancy Check

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it's been said

Well the thing is that I already got 2 hard drives...one on 20gb and one on 80gb and I get these errors no matter where I try and install to

I could of cuase try and install windows on the 80gb...I mean if there is a problem with the 20gb?

are the ide cables badly bent? Are the drives overheating? open up your case and have a look at everything. Put your hands above and below the hard drives, if you can feel heat 4-5 inches above the drives, then they're too hot.

Just checked....not to hot and the cables are also ok
Is there no chance that this might be a software problem?

Oh, and thanks a lot for all your help with this :)

well if you mean software like windows, or a virus, then yeah. But it couldn't be just winzip or something because you said cd's did the same thing....so i guess a virus scan first, then a reinstall of windows.

did a virus scan and did 2 formats of the hard disk where windows is on
(one of them was even from dos just to be sure it took it all away)

I was more talking about some drivers problems...dont know if it can affect something like that really.

oh..and are you sure it could not just be winzip (even if i did reinstall it lots of times now) because most cds use zip files when they install

I think those cd's can usuall decompress their own files... unlikely it's a driver problem, because the HD and CDD both use different drivers... could be a screwy mobo... but leave that as a last resort... what about memory?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by major_small

what about memory?

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one block of 256mb and one on 512bm, both kingston 2700

by chance...how large zip files are we talking here? and if you have xp, are you using winzip to extract the files or the built in zip handler in windows?

hm well if they are like above 10mb or something like that i get these errors...if they are very small nothing is wrong
And i use winrar, got xp, also tryed winzip but i still get errors

does it happen if you unzip it with the windows function? (right click extract all)

I found out what it was :)

One of my ram blocks was the reason for all this...I got no idea why but I guess there is just something wrong with it
So now my computer is working fine (only with 256mb ram however)

Thanks a lot for trying to help me out waldo2k2