frequent freezes, nothing helps

  • Thread starter Thread starter horseface
  • Start date Start date
H

horseface

Hi everybody.

I have a three year old comp which gave me problems from day one. Initially
it had trouble playing DVD's (random reset once or twice during play), but
after installing Win2000 the problems went away. I still sometimes got a
random freeze, but it happend once a month or so, so I dismissed it as
random windows-quirks.

This year I installed WinXP and the problems reappeared again. First I
noticed that Word didn't work right (well that's an understatement - I
opened word and it froze few minutes later so I had to do a hardware reset
every time). Games stopped working (also a random freeze, sometimes after 5
minutes, sometimes after an hour) and playing a DVD means just begging for a
reset.

Now what I tried:
- scanned for viruses/spyware
- formatting hard disk/reinstalling system
- installing service packs
- changing drivers for video card/sound card/Via4in1
- putting different RAM, different video card, different hard-disk

I reinstalled windows 2000 thinking it's aWinXP-MoBo incompatibility, but to
my horror the problems stayed. Event log shows sqaut - no problems at all.

Now I have simply run out of choices. Can somebody please tell me what might
be the cause of this crap and what is the best way to diagnose it? If it's a
heating problem, what's the best way to be sure (I am not into throwing
money buying more components if I am not sure it would fix the problem)? Btw
all the fans work correctly and opening the case helps nothing. Would BIOS
tinkering be helpful - which settings could cause this?

Any kind of assistance is much appreciated. Thanks. Cheers!

P.S. My specs are:
Iwill KK266 MoBo/CMI8838 soundcard
AMD Athlon 1400
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9600Pro

P.P.S. I have tried flashing the BIOS, but the official installation on
IWill's website is corrupted - also, it's from 2002 so I doubt it would help
much even if it was correct.
 
horseface said:
Hi everybody.

I have a three year old comp which gave me problems from day
one. Initially
it had trouble playing DVD's (random reset once or twice during
play), but
after installing Win2000 the problems went away. I still
sometimes got a
random freeze, but it happend once a month or so, so I dismissed
it as
random windows-quirks.

This year I installed WinXP and the problems reappeared again.
First I
noticed that Word didn't work right (well that's an
understatement - I
opened word and it froze few minutes later so I had to do a
hardware reset
every time). Games stopped working (also a random freeze,
sometimes after 5
minutes, sometimes after an hour) and playing a DVD means just
begging for a
reset.

Now what I tried:
- scanned for viruses/spyware
- formatting hard disk/reinstalling system
- installing service packs
- changing drivers for video card/sound card/Via4in1
- putting different RAM, different video card, different
hard-disk

I reinstalled windows 2000 thinking it's aWinXP-MoBo
incompatibility, but to
my horror the problems stayed. Event log shows sqaut - no
problems at all.

Now I have simply run out of choices. Can somebody please tell
me what might
be the cause of this crap and what is the best way to diagnose
it? If it's a
heating problem, what's the best way to be sure (I am not into
throwing
money buying more components if I am not sure it would fix the
problem)? Btw
all the fans work correctly and opening the case helps nothing.
Would BIOS
tinkering be helpful - which settings could cause this?

Any kind of assistance is much appreciated. Thanks. Cheers!

P.S. My specs are:
Iwill KK266 MoBo/CMI8838 soundcard
AMD Athlon 1400
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9600Pro

P.P.S. I have tried flashing the BIOS, but the official
installation on
IWill's website is corrupted - also, it's from 2002 so I doubt
it would help
much even if it was correct.
Click to expand...

Test the memory with memtest86.
http://www.memtest86.com/

Provide some specs for your psu, if you used a cheap psu that may
be the problem, but I'm surprised that it would have lasted this
long.
 
Memory test OK.

But I already knew that, since I borrowed RAM chips from my friend and the
freezes still continued.

How can I diagnose if the PSU is the problem? Or the inefficient processor
fan or something? Since my MoBo doesn't contain temperature checks, is there
some software that can tell me something like "95% chance that your
processor is overheating"? Then I would gladly pay for new fan/PSU/whatever
and get it over with.

P.S. Here are some more diagnostic info in case somebody can make something
out of it:

Sandra check hangs every time, on various testing parts. The most frequent
is on hard disk check (although I must add that I had also changed hard
disks with my friend - mine works ok in his comp, my comp still freezes with
his).

Sometimes instead of the freeze i get a BSOD, but only for a fraction of a
second. It's a 0x000000c IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error. However this thing is
happening rarely, mostly it's just a frozen desktop/game screen with a
looping sound or something.

Also I tried disabling the soundcard.. I think it makes freezes more
infrequent, although I cannot be sure. Furthermore with the soundcard
disabled the freezes are sometimes escapable with CTRL-ALT-DEL. Sometimes.

All in all a very frustrating problem. Grr.
 
horseface said:
Memory test OK.

But I already knew that, since I borrowed RAM chips from my
friend and the
freezes still continued.

How can I diagnose if the PSU is the problem? Or the inefficient
processor
fan or something? Since my MoBo doesn't contain temperature
checks, is there
some software that can tell me something like "95% chance that
your
processor is overheating"? Then I would gladly pay for new
fan/PSU/whatever
and get it over with.
Click to expand...

No such magical tool exists :-(

PC Health in the bios will tell you the system temps, or download
something like Everest home edition. I've never heard of a mobo
that doesn't provide temp and voltage info.
http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=3

When you know temps and voltages post back and you'll get better
advice.
P.S. Here are some more diagnostic info in case somebody can
make something
out of it:

Sandra check hangs every time, on various testing parts. The
most frequent
is on hard disk check (although I must add that I had also
changed hard
disks with my friend - mine works ok in his comp, my comp still
freezes with
his).

Sometimes instead of the freeze i get a BSOD, but only for a
fraction of a
second. It's a 0x000000c IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error. However
this thing is
happening rarely, mostly it's just a frozen desktop/game screen
with a
looping sound or something.
Click to expand...

That error is mostly assosiated with memory errors, (sometines
caused by buggy drivers).

Switch off "restart after system failure";
Control Panel | System | Advanced tab | Startup and Recovery -
Settings | System failure section - un-check Automatically
restart.

This will give you a chance to write down the error and google for
it.
Also I tried disabling the soundcard.. I think it makes freezes
more
infrequent, although I cannot be sure. Furthermore with the
soundcard
disabled the freezes are sometimes escapable with CTRL-ALT-DEL.
Sometimes.

All in all a very frustrating problem. Grr.
Click to expand...


Again, provide some specs for your psu.
 
I have seen defective cards, and or power supply cause this type of fault.
The only good way to find this is to use the process of elimination. You
will need boards to try. You try one at a time. It is a bit pain to go
through with this, because you will need a full set of everything.

I have worked on a fair number of computers in my time. I have seen
everything from hard drives, to display cards, power supplies, and etc go
intermittent.

I had one machine that was stopping dead from time to time. Sometimes it
would not do the fault for months at a time. I tried every board one at a
time in the machine for over a period of about 5 months. In the end, the
only thing left was the mother board. After changing the mother board, and
leaving all the rest of the hardware as original, the problem never came
back. To find the cause on the mother board, would not be feasible, and
besides, just like all the rest of the computer cards, there is no support
to service a mother board.

When your machine was new, you should have persued the fault condition. Now
that there is no warranty, and most of the original pieces inside are no
longer available. If you really want to keep that old machine, I would
suggest you buy a used one that is as close as possible to it. Then you will
have a full computer to do the board swapping with, in order to weed out the
defective area.

If you do find a good used computer, you may want to use it as your main
computer since it will probably be stable. You can then take some of the
preferred cards from your old machine to the new-used one. It would be
ironic, if the problem transferred when doing such a thing.

--

Jerry G.
======


Hi everybody.

I have a three year old comp which gave me problems from day one. Initially
it had trouble playing DVD's (random reset once or twice during play), but
after installing Win2000 the problems went away. I still sometimes got a
random freeze, but it happend once a month or so, so I dismissed it as
random windows-quirks.

This year I installed WinXP and the problems reappeared again. First I
noticed that Word didn't work right (well that's an understatement - I
opened word and it froze few minutes later so I had to do a hardware reset
every time). Games stopped working (also a random freeze, sometimes after 5
minutes, sometimes after an hour) and playing a DVD means just begging for a
reset.

Now what I tried:
- scanned for viruses/spyware
- formatting hard disk/reinstalling system
- installing service packs
- changing drivers for video card/sound card/Via4in1
- putting different RAM, different video card, different hard-disk

I reinstalled windows 2000 thinking it's aWinXP-MoBo incompatibility, but to
my horror the problems stayed. Event log shows sqaut - no problems at all.

Now I have simply run out of choices. Can somebody please tell me what might
be the cause of this crap and what is the best way to diagnose it? If it's a
heating problem, what's the best way to be sure (I am not into throwing
money buying more components if I am not sure it would fix the problem)? Btw
all the fans work correctly and opening the case helps nothing. Would BIOS
tinkering be helpful - which settings could cause this?

Any kind of assistance is much appreciated. Thanks. Cheers!

P.S. My specs are:
Iwill KK266 MoBo/CMI8838 soundcard
AMD Athlon 1400
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9600Pro

P.P.S. I have tried flashing the BIOS, but the official installation on
IWill's website is corrupted - also, it's from 2002 so I doubt it would help
much even if it was correct.
 
If you think it might be heat related, leave the case open (I know you said
you tried this)and even put an external fan blowing on the inside to cool
it.

Double check your master/slave jumpers and make sure they are correct.
Since you did not state how you have your devices set up, you might explain
that. If you have a Western Digital hard drive on an IDE channel by itself,
make sure it is set to single and not master. If you have a CD or DVD
burner, you might try making it master if you haven't already.

If you run it in safe mode, does it lock up? Do you hear any noises just
before it locks up? Use MSConfig to not start some programs to see if they
are causing a conflict.

Are you overclocking the processor? Do you use a USB mouse or PS/2?

Clark
 
Not just that it locks in safe mode, it locked during memtest, so I
think I basically can assume the problem isn't software related.

No overclocking. PS/2 mouse. Hard drive was set to single and to
master, no difference.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. The biggest problem is singling out
the component (assuming that only one is doing this), but the trouble
is finding a simmilar machine so I can test component after component.
The other problem is that the error is erratic - sometimes for no
reason at all the lock ups will cease, maybe even for a day or two.

Anyway, thanks for the help.
 
The first step in troubleshooting something like this is to remove
everything that is not required and then reinstall one at a time.

Clark
 
Not just that it locks in safe mode, it locked during memtest, so I
think I basically can assume the problem isn't software related.

No overclocking. PS/2 mouse. Hard drive was set to single and to
master, no difference.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. The biggest problem is singling out
the component (assuming that only one is doing this), but the trouble
is finding a simmilar machine so I can test component after component.
The other problem is that the error is erratic - sometimes for no
reason at all the lock ups will cease, maybe even for a day or two.

Anyway, thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Examine motherboard for failed capacitors.
Take voltage readings.
Take temp readings, check all fans. Check heatsink for dust
accumulation, some old boards had poor temp monitoring due
to sensor under the CPU rather than internal temp reading
support.

Try memory in a different slot, 1 module in the first and/or
last slot. Try to get memtest86 to run stabily without
error or lockup prior to booting the OS again. YOu may find
that the OS or application files are now corrupt and _after_
the system is stable again you'd need to reinstall (things).

Try clearing CMOS, loading defaults, and a newer bios if you
find one intact. It is not relevant that it's from 2002,
only that it's newer than the one currently used. If they
fixed *all* problems on a bios why would they keep releasing
new bios? Ideally all bios updates would be barely newer
than the board itself, ceasing soon afterwards because
they'd resolved all problems. In the real world you can
only try it and see, but do try to get system as stable as
possible before trying the bios, perhaps the last you tried
wasn't actually corrupt but rather system instability
resulted in the failure? Insufficient info to know.

Strip system down to only minimal components... Video, 1
memory module, CPU, heatsink/fan, and either keyboard or
floppy. Boot to bios menus (if keyboard) or memtest86 (if
floppy) and let it sit there running, see if it locks up.
If so, go into bios and underclock system as much as
possible then retry same scenario.
 
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