New computer keeps freezing

brendan86

Heh,

I recently bought a 2nd hand computer from boards.ie, Its a AMD 64 3800 dual core, Geforce 7600 GT, Asus A8N - SLI/S etc etc..

When I bought it everything was together apart from the CPU Fan, So I bought one.. Yesterday I only started to put it together and try it working but already it has frozen 3 - 5 times on me withing the space of 3 hours.

I am just wondering would it be because its overheating and if it is how do I know if thats the cause of it?

Any help would be much appreciated thanks,
Brendan

Ruu_Old

Did you remember to put the thermal paste between the heatsink and the CPU and you are running Windows XP I assume?

brendan86

Thanks for the quick reply

yes i put the thermal paste in between it.. I am running windows xp home edition on it.. Any other idea's?? Thanks again

Ruu_Old

Remove your memory modules and reseat them, do the same with your graphics card.

brendan86

Ruu wrote:

Remove your memory modules and reseat them, do the same with your graphics card.

I have already done that to the graphics card, I will do it to the memory sticks but what is this meant to do if you dont mind me asking??

How do I know if my computer is overheating??

Mutant_Fruit

Mine was overheating quite a bit a few weeks ago... What would happen is the computer would power off and would refuse to turn on til i plugged it out and plugged it back in again. So i doubt your PC is overheating. The usual response to overheating is either the computer does a hard shutdown or reboots.

Try running Prime95 in Stress Testing mode to see if your system remains stable after 30 mins or so. Then, if it is stable, download the bootable Memtest CD image and burn it. Boot from the cd and let the test run for about 30 mins (at least).

If it passes both of those tests, try changing graphics drivers, motherboard drivers to newer/older versions and see if that helps.

Alternatively, just do a format and reinstall windows and see if that sorts it out... but i assume windows has just been freshly installed.

EDIT: No need to reseat memory modules unless Memtest fails.

brendan86

Thanks Mutant Fruit,

Dust is not a issue with my heatsink tho as it is brand new, however I as of yet have no drivers installed from my gfx card or motherboard but surely this shouldnt cause my computer to freeze.

If my computer was overheating surely it would shut down so? But it doesnt it just freezes and I can do nothing until I power off and power on again.

Yes its a brand new copy of windows xp on brand new hard drive.

It was even freezing before I installed my xp copy so I wouldnt say thats the problem.

Thanks,
Brendan

Mutant_Fruit

What kind of things would you be doing when it freezes? Gaming? CPU intensive work? Try and narrow it down.

Try installing hte latest chipset drivers and graphics drivers to see if that solves your problem. It's possible the default ones have a problem with em causing the freezing.

romperstomper

first make sure you do a fresh install of xp, to elimate possible software glitches

i have had a similiar problem in the past, and have found ram to be the culprit. the first step is to eliminate the possibility of over heating. as you have an asus
board, download pc-probe and this will give you a temp readout for your system.

finally, if it is still crashing under load, try using one stick of ram at a time to narrow down the problem (assuming you have dual channel) and if not, borrow a stick of ram from a friend/fellow boards person

hope this helps

brendan86

I dont be doing anything when it freezes maybe just browsing the web..

I will install updated drivers so see will that help thanks.

romper I am downloading 'ASUS PC Probe II 3.06' now and I have fresh copy or original windows xp home edition installed.

SeanW

Memory issues are a common plague. I've had so many problems with dodgy RAM and memory issues ...

Tell us, what kind of RAM you're using, how much, in how many physical sticks, in which coloured slots on the mobo etc, as much detail as you can about your memory. If it's not an overheating problem I'd give good odds that it's a memory issue.

brendan86

Sean W I will have to get back to you on that I dont know exactly what ram I am currently using at the moment.

I was browsing for drivers for my mobo as I dont have the cd to install them and cant find the drivers anywhere.

Could someone please try get me a link for the latest 'Asus A8N SLI/S' drivers please would be much appreciated, Thanks

Brendan

steveland?

You say it's a fresh copy of XP Home?

I had a problem with a system that it froze all the time when SP2 was installed, not SP2 and there was no problem... it was exactly the same problem as what you're describing... Just freezes, not shuts down...

If you have SP2 installed try uninstalling it (or if it was already slipstreamed into the install, as most new copies are, try installing an older version of Home using your licence key) and if it stops then you know that's your problem...

Haven't found any solution to this particular problem though (and I know it's preferable to have SP2 installed...)

Also if you've more than one stick of RAM in there take out one, try booting, replace that with the other one, try booting and see if it freezes when there's only one in... if it freezes when one of them is in and not when the other one then you know it's a dodgy stick of RAM

weeder

i was doing a repair job like your sounds one time very same symtoms as that turned out it was overheating also make sure you got a big enough fan etc(his didnt spin at all) install a program called speedfan and see whats your temps are like because i would pin this on overheating

brendan86

I am only after instralling speedfan on the computer and it is reading '34' so I guess its not the cpu overheating anyway?

I am only after removing one of the sticks of memory and as of yet the computer has not froze. Hopfully that was the problem time will tell I guess

Thanks a lot for all the help much appreciated and I will let you know if it sorted my problem.

Brendan

Ruu_Old

Probably a faulty stick of ram so, hopefully thats it.

brendan86

nope its just after freezing again i downloaded motherboard and its reading case -1 degree and cpu -75degees

weeder

leave speedfan on and visible on screen right up until it freezes

astrofool

I had a problem with an Asus A8N-SLI premium randomly freezing. I fixed it by setting the hypertransport speed in the BIOS to 1x instead of 5x or auto. Also, make sure you're using the latest BIOS for the board.

You can get all your drivers from www.nvidia.com

Make sure you install all the updates from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com as well

Mutant_Fruit

Also, run Memtest86. It's the best way of testing your ram to see if it's faulty or not.

SeanW

Thing about memory problems, I find, is that they're insidious. That means the symptoms can tend to make it look like something else is to blame.

brendan86

Its not the memory because ive tried my brothers memory in my computer and it still freezes, I was thinking that it is more then likely the motherboard but how will I know for sure before buying a new motherboard???