Author Topic: PC keeps freezing (Read 8761 times)

SarahR · « **on:** August 08, 2005, 19:12 »

Hiya, i hope u can help.
For the past few months now my computer has had a habit of freezing totally. It could be running fine for hours, then just out of the blue, no matter what you're doing, it will freeze completely. Nothing i can do can get it working other than the reset button! It looks like the whole computer just shuts down, as the keyboard stops working (I try pressing the caps lock to see if the light will come on, nothing) and the hard drive light stops flashing. Once the system reboots, it has then been known to freeze again 5 mins after.
Now, i originally thought this was to do with the RAM so i replaced it but the same thing was happening again. I added the RAM to what i originally had and also tried replacing it completely and still no luck. I even formatted my hard drive and that didn't work either.

I've checked the loading order of everything and removed anything i didn't need on the startup. I have checked for any viruses and my pc's clean and My drivers are all ok and updated. I have recently re-installed windows with a fresh copy and when inside my PC i'm careful not to shock anything inside and only go inside if i need to. I have installed a program to test CPU and memory temperatures and they all seem to be fine.

My specs are:

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
1.30 gigahertz AMD Duron
100.51 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
58.39 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
Maxtor 32049H2 [Hard drive] (20.49 GB)
ST380011A [Hard drive] (80.03 GB)
SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-352B
TEAC CD-524EA
Board: ASRock K7VM2 2.00
2x 256 Megabytes Installed Memory

I don't know the specs for my power supply as it was replaced for a new one after the other one packed in. Have looked inside but there are no labels i can see.

I really hope someone can help as i can't afford to replace the whole computer!
Thanks

Sandra · « **Reply #1 on:** August 08, 2005, 19:22 »

Hi Sarah and

It certainly sounds like a RAM problem, but it could be a mobo fault too, such as a cracked board or a dry joint.
Intermittent faults are about the worst to find and fix as you dont know if its sorted or not until it fails again

Have you run a memory testing program at all ?

Theres a free one here that you could try :

http://www.memtest86.com/

Simon · « **Reply #2 on:** August 08, 2005, 19:27 »

It's also possible that it could be a faulty, or slightly insecure graphics card. Might be worth taking it out, and giving the contracts a clean.

SarahR · « **Reply #3 on:** August 08, 2005, 19:30 »

Hi Sandra, thanks for the help, although i don't have a floppy drive in my PC and my Cd writer appears not to be working (typical!). Are there any other programs i could use that you don't have to boot up using the floppy?

And thanks Simon, i will give that a try, although it doesn't appear to be just the screen that freezes, the whole PC appears to shut down, could it still be the graphics?

Simon · « **Reply #4 on:** August 08, 2005, 19:38 »

It has been known. I built a PC for a friend, which was working fine until I took it round to his house, then it started freezing. Completely. It had received a bump in the car, which must have slightly unsettled the graphics card, and reseating it fixed the problem.

Of course, this only applies to stand alone graphics cards, i.e. not integrated with the motherboard.

SarahR · « **Reply #5 on:** August 08, 2005, 19:57 »

Ok, well i'll give that a quick check and hope thats a problem.
If u don't hear from me in a while, it probably means my PC hasn't frozen yet, sometimes it can take a while to freeze!

Sandra · « **Reply #6 on:** August 08, 2005, 20:46 »

Quote from: "SarahR"

Are there any other programs i could use that you don't have to boot up using the floppy?

And thanks Simon, i will give that a try, although it doesn't appear to be just the screen that freezes, the whole PC appears to shut down, could it still be the graphics?

Most of the diagnostic programs boot from the floppy. Some of the newer commercial ones boot from the CD.
Have you got a USB flash drive, sometimes they can be made bootable and you could run the floppy prog from one of those maybe ?

Sandra · « **Reply #7 on:** August 08, 2005, 20:52 »

I just looked on the memtest site and you can download an iso image to make a bootable CD rom

ISO images suitable for creating a bootable Memtest86 CDROM
Download - Memtest86 v3.2 ISO image (zip)
Download - Memtest86 v3.2 ISO image (gzip)

Just noticed that you said your writer isnt working

Have you got a friend or a neighbour who could download and burn a cd for you ?

The other option is to get a program such as Si Soft Sandra which runs inside windows and has burn in testing facilities

Reno · « **Reply #8 on:** August 08, 2005, 21:40 »

A short will freeze a machine. A short can form from the random dust particals closing a curcuit on one of your peices of hardware. Take out all the cards. Stick in the new ram, and boot it up using a spare video card. Let it sit for a day and wait for it to freeze. If it doesn't then your problem is with one of the cards. Put them in one at a time and wait a day between install each. Now if it still freezes with the new video card and new ram without the other cards installed then sandras right and your problems probably with the mainboard.

SarahR · « **Reply #9 on:** August 08, 2005, 22:18 »

My PC froze again after i cleaned the video card so it can't be that.
Also, i have downloaded Sisoft Sandra but i'm not sure what to do to check it! there are so many options on there its confusing me!
I have no-one near me that has a CD writer, i am living away from home and only one person i live with has a PC and that hasn't got a CD writer! I harly know anyone else here!
I will try taking my video card out tomorrow and use the onboard card, will have to search for the drivers...!

Sandra · « **Reply #10 on:** August 08, 2005, 23:20 »

If you open Si soft Sandra theres a module called "Burn in Wizard" its a flame symbol.
If you click on that it has different options that you can select to test various componets when you hit the green forward arrow key.
Tick the Memory Bandwith Benchmark and the Cache and Memory Benchmark then click the green forward arrow.
It defaults to running the tests 10 times, that should be ok left as it is, click next and then next again

SarahR · « **Reply #11 on:** August 09, 2005, 00:17 »

Well it says its finished successfully...
The board temperature is 48-49.5 deg C and CPU is 63-64, fan speed is 4042 rpm
Is this good or bad?

Sandra · « **Reply #12 on:** August 09, 2005, 00:38 »

Thats within normal ranges I think Sarah.

I cant think what else to suggest to try.
Is it completely random or does it happen more when you are using it for some cpu/ram intensive program :?

SarahR · « **Reply #13 on:** August 09, 2005, 00:47 »

It's completely random from what i can work out.
Sometimes it can download if i'm downloading something, sometimes if i just leave a webpage up. Once it froze while writing an e-mail, then when i restarted and wrote the same e-mail it froze again!
I can't think of one particular thing triggering it off!
I'm running out of ideas myself, i think my only option is to buy another but i can't really afford it!

Sandra · « **Reply #14 on:** August 09, 2005, 00:51 »

Had an idea that may point us in the right direction Sarah.

Have you looked in the event viewer when you reboot after it freezes ?

It may give you an error code or message that we can interpret.

If you havent seen it before its in Control Panel/Admin Tools then Event Viewer.
Click on System and see if there are any Red Xs at the time your pc froze.
There will probably be lots of them all over the log but the ones at the time that the pc last froze may help us to find the problem and hopefully the solution