Computer freezes due to inactivity?

  • Thread starter Thread starter cooljoe667
  • Start date Start date
C

cooljoe667

I got a bizarre problem. If I leave the PC idle, or use it for very
low CPU intensive acitivity, it will freeze after 5 or 10 minutes: the
mouse just freezes, and I have to press the reset button. But if I
leave some CPU intensive program running in the background, like the
Windows Media Player, then I can leave the PC idle for hours and
nothing will happen.

Also, this isn't a continous thing. I've had the PC for 5 years. It
seems to suddenly have a period when it starts acting this way, and it
will keep on acting like this until I do something to "fix" it. I
don't really know how I've managed before, I just try to take things
out and then replug them, like the hard drive or the video card. But
it's just dumb luck.

I think this has to be a static related issue or a cooling fan related
issue. Does this bizarre problem ring a bell with anyone?
 
kony said:
On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:40:49 -0700 (PDT),


It'd be good to know a bit more about this system, major
parts in it including PSU make model ratings, anything els
that might seem applicable.
Click to expand...

It's a Patriot Power Supply, made in May 2006, and the model is ATX
P4-400W. It has a switch to select between 220 and 110 volts, and I
use it in 220 V.

That was a good detailed response, thanks. I read it carefully, and
I'm now pretty sure that it's the power supply. It doesn't go idle
just because, I was mistaken about that because of Windows' random
hard drive accesses. What I now think is happening is that after 5
minutes if the PSU tries to access the hard drive it has to use more
power because someone goes into power saving mode (hard drive or the
PSU, I don't know), and the PSU is probably faulty and can't handle
the surge. Every time that I try to access the hard drive after 5
minutes of the computer being idle it causes a freeze. I was confused
about the computer "randomply" freezing because when I left it idle
Windows will still try to access the hard drive every now and then, so
that's probably why it would "randomly" freeze.

This would also explain why if I leave the Windows Media Player
running in the background (constantly accessing the hard drive) the
computer can run for hours and hours without freezing.

There was one important thing I forgot to add to my initial post. I
leave the computer running 24/365, and have done so for the last 5
years. I've replaced the PSU once before, because the fan died and it
wasn't possible to replace the fan inside the PSU.
 
Back
Top