Is My PC a Write-off ?

eirman

My Celeron 2.4 with Win2K has been working fine for a few years now. A few days ago it started freezing when using a certain few programs. The reset switch was the only way restart the system. I tried all sorts of clearing out of junk prorgams and diagnostic software all to no avail.

As the programs that caused the freezing were essential I wiped C: , enlarged the partition and installed XPpro sr2. The same type of problem occurred. The PC freezes when using windows file explorer or exploring the network - everything else works.

I changed the memory chips - still no luck. That only leaves the Motherboard (ASRock) or the processor.

Any Ideas Guys ?

Ruu_Old

Have you tried reseating all the other cards (graphics, sound, etc)? Have you got a spare hard drive you could install the OS on? Any idea if anything is overheating? How much RAM have you?

KdjaCL

Cd drive could be knackered, if explorer haning on 2 installs of windows.


Most likley that, disconnect it and see if the problem persists.

kdjac

eirman

Ruu wrote:

Have you tried reseating all the other cards (graphics, sound, etc)? Have you got a spare hard drive you could install the OS on? Any idea if anything is overheating? How much RAM have you?

> Thanks for your suggestions .............

> I did not try reseating the other cards - I'll try that.

> I have a few spare drives so I'll try installing the OS on a new one.

> It's not a heat problem. The problem seems even worse when starting from cold.
Besides I have three extra fans as I have 7 HDs fitted.

> The power supply is new.

> I have 1 gig of ram fitted - swopping in new ram made no difference.

I'll report back on monday with more results, in the meantime all other suggestions will be appreciated.

eirman

KdjaC wrote:

Cd drive could be knackered, if explorer haning on 2 installs of windows.

I never thought that could be a problem - I'll add it to my To-Do-List

Thanks

BlackWizard

My old PC used to never start up well in the mornings. When it did finally boot
up it would be really slow and I couldnt do a damn thing on it.

It would be fine when I got home that day. I just dont think it liked the cold.

Right now its got no fans and boots up fine :-) I didn't do a thing to it. Seems to
of fixed itself.

Look inside the case at the CPU and make sure the fan is not clogged up with junk.
I usually hoover my PCs out every so often.

Blazer

eirman wrote:

I never thought that could be a problem - I'll add it to my To-Do-List

Thanks

hardly your cd drive..think the guy thought it was hanging during installing from the cd..what other programs are causing it to hang?
also you have 7 hard drives? in the system?
what wattage is the psu? might not be getting enough power to the components

DublinWriter

In my experience when a PC freezes like that it's normally down to the CPU overheating.

Software (i.e. driver) based issues, or dodgy memory will normally cause the blue-screen of death and not a sudden total lock-up like you describe.

Are your fans dusty inside? Are they even working?

gamer

download adaaware ,and sd spybot,scan full system,boot up in safe mode,your system,cud be crippled by spyware,malware or virus,s.Go to grisoft.com free avg antivirus ,download and install it.

Webmonkey

hardly spyware has he has formated and same problems.
I would go with either Overheating or Faulty Power Supply. I would try borrow a powersupply from another computer first and see how you get on with that.

Anti

i agree with webmonkey. Even though i have had this problem myself before, and it was the hdd. it was sticking !?!?

TempestSabre

Could be anything hardware related. I'm in D.15, and can have a look at it for you if you want. I'll PM you.

PogMoThoin

:rolleyes: Peeps ere on boards are so nice

TempestSabre

I've a spare old PC or two. Its easier to swap parts and see what causing the problem that way. Often people don't have resources to do that, and sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can spot something you are overlooking.

zilog_jones

Check the temps, voltages and hard disk SMART status with something like SpeedFan.

eirman

I think I've solved it .....

I disconnected all pci cards and all HDs except for a new HD for testing. I then reinstalled XP and the freezing stopped.
Conclusion: It was a bad HD or card........ WRONG - Without reconnecting any physical devices I installed the motherboard drivers and the problem reoccured.

An XP repair did not work so I reinstalled XP yet againg and only installed the video driver and everything is fine so far. I'll reconnect everything and try the motherboard drivers one by one to find out which one is screwing up the system.

Webmonkey

You'd be surprized that i could still be over heating or faulty psu. When the board drivers installed the pc will be working to its full power and thus these things can occur.
Do as your man above said and check the temps etc. I would doubt it a faulty driver as it is coming from a cd but worth a update on drivers anyways.

eirman

Webmonkey wrote:

You'd be surprized that i could still be over heating or faulty psu. When the board drivers installed the pc will be working to its full power and thus these things can occur.
Do as your man above said and check the temps etc. I would doubt it a faulty driver as it is coming from a cd but worth a update on drivers anyways.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

The problem occurred immediately from a cold start with only one hard disk fitted. The 600w PSU is new. I have 4 extra fans fitted.

The freezing was only related to the use of certain programs - eg File explorer worked fine in W2K but not in XP
I could work for hours in excel but got an immediate freeze in GPSU or certain webpages with a lot of java

Webmonkey

Alright cool, let us know how you get on anyways. Maybe it might be a good idea to load the fail safe bios defaults to see how you get on, could be a bios feature that is causing the probs like the power management, ACPI

TempestSabre

I've often found bad drivers on OEM CD's. Wouldn't be surprised.

Webmonkey

TempestSabre wrote:

I've often found bad drivers on OEM CD's. Wouldn't be surprised.

True i suppose, come to think of it i've come across them myself. Only thing is thouhg if they worked once they should always work.

TempestSabre

After a few months most PC have a mish match of alsorts of software/drivers on them. Who knows what kinda conflict might have occured.

Webmonkey

Thats true again but technically the drivers are correct, it is other hardware probs/configurations that causing the conflicts. Anyways lets give the man a chance and see how he gets on.