pc freezing

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ctb04

hi, i am having this problem..i have a celeron processor with 128 of ram and
a 60 gb hard drive, my pc freezez completely and i have to turn it off to get
it running again. i tried reinstallng the os which is xp but even during the
installation process it freezes so now i dont have my os even installed.
could anyone tell me what the problem might be. is it possible that its just
the ram that needs to be changed? please help asap! thank you
 
could be many things, CPU overheating , Ram ( of which 128 MB Ram is
not much when running XP)
Have you recently installed anything(hardware, software etc..) ?
 
could be many things, CPU overheating , Ram ( of which 128 MB Ram is
not much when running XP)
Have you recently installed anything(hardware, software etc..) ?
Click to expand...

Overheating is what I thought too.
check all fans...especially the one on the cpu.
 
thanks to the both of you for replying,,so even if the computer has just
turned on and it still freezes and not given a chance to actually be on it
can over heat? i also think it might be ram has gone bad..the xp has been
installed over a yr now and has been workin fine till now...as mentioned
earlier i tried reinstalling the os but even while doing so it freezes so
the installation isn't even done..
 
Memory is the first thing I'd check. Use memtest86 and let it run for a
few passes. Any errors found implies something that could freeze a
system. I've encountered this problem a couple of times on the systems
I support.
 
thanks to the both of you for replying,,so even if the computer has just
turned on and it still freezes and not given a chance to actually be on it
can over heat? i also think it might be ram has gone bad..the xp has been
installed over a yr now and has been workin fine till now...as mentioned
earlier i tried reinstalling the os but even while doing so it freezes so
the installation isn't even done..
Click to expand...


If system had been off long enough to be cold (cooled off),
and it freezes within the first minute or two (amount of
time would depend on size of 'sink), it's probably not
overheating unless you had some rare accident or damage like
the CPU socket lug for the heatsink clip broke off so the
heatsink isn't on good anymore.

You need open the system and inspect it. At this age if you
hadn't yet, do the regular maintenance items- check fans are
spinning, lube and lower-quality sleeve bearing fans. Check
air passages including front intake through the bezel and
whether case holes are clogging up with dust.

Even if these things aren't the problem, they are still a
needed aspect of good long-term cooling. While in the
system inspect the capacitors on the motherboard too, they
might have failed and be swollen or have leaky residue on
tops or bottoms. If you had a multimeter, check PSU
voltages. If the system has a hardware/health monitor bios
page that shows voltages, temps, fan RPMs, check that too.

Run memtest86+ for several hours to check the memory but I
doubt the memory is the problem. Memory causes crashes of
apps and system might not even boot but a complete freeze is
less likely unless the memory had degraded severely
already... usually if it were that bad the system wouldn't
run long enough to do much of anything, not even execute the
bios and try to boot.

Playing the odds, it's most likely the motherboard or PSU if
the problem persists after you make sure it's not too dusty
and the fans work... but be sure to check all mechanical
connectors, cables, cards, etc to be sure they're connected
well. If the system had been moved around while the monitor
cable was plugged into video card, try removing and
re-seating the video card in it's slot.
 
RAM and heat are immediate suspects as suggested already. On most modern mbs
you should be able to go into the bios and go to the menu section that
involves PC Health, or safety. Quite often there temperatures available of
what the cpu/mb are running. If it's listed then you have an immediate hint
to whether/not you can concentrate on the RAM or the heat issue.
 
thanks to all of ur suggestions,,il try em all and hopefully get to the
bottom of this,,,il give an update soon,,thnx again

Jan said:
RAM and heat are immediate suspects as suggested already. On most modern mbs
you should be able to go into the bios and go to the menu section that
involves PC Health, or safety. Quite often there temperatures available of
what the cpu/mb are running. If it's listed then you have an immediate hint
to whether/not you can concentrate on the RAM or the heat issue.
Memory is the first thing I'd check. Use memtest86 and let it run for a
few passes. Any errors found implies something that could freeze a
Click to expand...
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
Click to expand...
 
XP may give a lot of problems when run on a computer with less than 256
mb. We found that a minimum of 512 mb was required to have good
stability with XP. Win 2000 will usually run on 256 fairly well, but a
little slow.



--

Jerry G.


hi, i am having this problem..i have a celeron processor with 128 of ram
and
a 60 gb hard drive, my pc freezez completely and i have to turn it off
to get
it running again. i tried reinstallng the os which is xp but even during
the
installation process it freezes so now i dont have my os even installed.
could anyone tell me what the problem might be. is it possible that its
just
the ram that needs to be changed? please help asap! thank you
 
I don't think hard drive has been mentioned. Download your hard drive
maker's diagnostic utility, put it on floppy, boot to floppy, and do a
thorough check. It's not unusual for a failing hard drive to freeze things
up.

Also, take out all PCI cards and make sure no peripherals (other than
key/mouse) are connected. Try another video card if you've got one.

It could be the motherboard, also, which, unfortunately, can be difficult to
diagnose. Process of elimination is about the only way without expensive
tools.

jm
 
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