PC Health

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shawn
  • Start date Start date
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Shawn

Hi all.

Just a few questions, if I might.

I have an HP Pavillion 8570C that is a few years old.
It still has the original 19g HD.
I upgraded the os from win98 to win2k.

I reinstalled the os about 6 months ago.

I'm having problems with the pc locking up relatively regularly.
I'm wondering what the most likely suspect might be.
1. Original HD going bad. Tested w/ norton and scandisc and found no
problems.
2. Bad ram. New norton stuff won't test that like old norton did.
Can I still use earlier versions to test ram in win2k?
3. Application conflicts.
4. Something else.

Is this a good enough stock machine that I can just start replacing
stuff to find the culprit and improve the overall system; ie, new hd,
new ram?

Thanks in advance.
Shawn
 
Hi all.

Just a few questions, if I might.

I have an HP Pavillion 8570C that is a few years old.
It still has the original 19g HD.
I upgraded the os from win98 to win2k.

I reinstalled the os about 6 months ago.

I'm having problems with the pc locking up relatively regularly.
I'm wondering what the most likely suspect might be.
1. Original HD going bad. Tested w/ norton and scandisc and found no
problems.
Click to expand...

A bad hard drive will usually not lock up the system, but will give you an error message instead.
2. Bad ram. New norton stuff won't test that like old norton did.
Can I still use earlier versions to test ram in win2k?
Click to expand...

Bad memory is a common cause of lock up. Test it with Memtest86
3. Application conflicts.
Click to expand...

An application can lock up Win98, but not Win2k.
4. Something else.
Click to expand...

Bad processor or bad motherboard.
 
Mike Walsh said:
A bad hard drive will usually not lock up the system, but will give you an
error message instead.


Bad memory is a common cause of lock up. Test it with Memtest86


An application can lock up Win98, but not Win2k.
Click to expand...

Could still be an application. Win2k is from the NT line of OSs, so is alot
better at recovering from crashed processes and applications, but not
perfect.
 
Hi all.

Just a few questions, if I might.

I have an HP Pavillion 8570C that is a few years old.
It still has the original 19g HD.
I upgraded the os from win98 to win2k.

I reinstalled the os about 6 months ago.

I'm having problems with the pc locking up relatively regularly.
Click to expand...

Open it, check for dust clogging vents, failed fans, burst
capacitors, or cards/cables not seated well.

I'm wondering what the most likely suspect might be.
1. Original HD going bad. Tested w/ norton and scandisc and found no
problems.
Click to expand...

Check the drive with the HDD manufacturer's utility disc if
you continue to suspect it, but generally it would not be
the problem.

Check Win2k's Event Viewer.

2. Bad ram. New norton stuff won't test that like old norton did.
Can I still use earlier versions to test ram in win2k?
Click to expand...

Do not bother using any windows software to test ram. The
ram must be as empty as possible to test it all- that means
booting a small utility to a dos mode, like Memtest86 (or
memtest86+, this later version being better as more modern
but may not work on your old system while regular memtest86
non-+ version may). That should run, looping as it never
really ends, for at least a few hours.

Also check voltages- if the bios has a health screen that's
a first step but ultimately with a multimeter. The most
likely culprits (besides overheating from dust or fan
failure) are power supply or motherboard failings.

3. Application conflicts.
Click to expand...

Unlikely, sometimes a severe driver problem but check Event
Viewer. I would focus on other things first.

4. Something else.

Is this a good enough stock machine that I can just start replacing
stuff to find the culprit and improve the overall system; ie, new hd,
new ram?
Click to expand...

The system is now about, roughly 6-8 years old, roughly a
Pentium III 500MHz, maybe with an Asus Via 963 based
motherboard in it (I probably have one or two in a stack
somewhere).

It's not really cost-effective to start buying parts, but if
you had spare parts lying around unused... sure, add some
memory if memtest shows it stays stable. If it uses Via 693
chipset or Intel 440BX, you'd need low-density memory. Hard
drive size maybe limited too, might support over 32GB with a
bios update but probably not over 128GB unless you added a
PCI ATA133 controller card... which may not be a bad upgrade
since original ATA mode of the board would be ATA33 or ATA66
at best, but again this is something worthwhile only if you
happened to have the spare parts lying about, and of course
if you get it stable. It'd be most useful if you wanted to
turn the system into a network storage device, fileserver,
etc... since those roles don't require a lot of
performance, just the ability to support newer or more drive
configurations as desired.

It's not really all that great a stock machine, about
average for it's day... which isn't good or bad, but you
might also find the cooling isn't so great for a newer hard
drive either.
 
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