Random Freezing....

[Banginblaz]

Specs:

Asus A7V Rev 1.02 W/ T-Bird 1000
512 Pc133
Ati Radeon 7500
SB Live! 5.1 Plat.
D-link HPNA
IBM 60gig 7200 Deskstar
48x16x48 MSI
12x10x32 Plextor
Xp Pro
420w medium quality psu
46° Cpu load temp (38° idle)



At least once every 3 days, this comp just stops dead. It ran perfectly (only rebooted when I installed pick software) for almost a year. It started after I installed the D-link HPNA and hooked it up to a TV (no monitor at all).

I dont get it. It is really, really random. Smetimes during the screen saver, at night. Sometimes when opening any program (has done it on more than 5) sometime as I am cliking on a link, etc....

It just stops, and a high pitch noise emits from the speakers, even if nothing was making a noise. The majority of the time, the screen goes black too, but only about 65% of the time.

This is driving me up the wall. D-link has no updated drivers, as they say "windows Xp has built in .........."

It used to happen more frequntly, untill I uninstalled Window Blinds, dunno if that has anything to do with it. Fucken weird.........

[Antagony]

Try checking your event log for some clues.

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer.

You'll want to first check the "System" group, and if that yields no results, then check the "Application" group. It's all ordered by date/time, so look for messages around the time your computer last crashed.

[fuelmyfire]

check your fans. if they're shot, replace them immediately, your processor may already be dead.

if you have access to another power supply or just want to upgrade it (for the hell of it), you probably should. they can malfunction easily. you could have a faulty power supply.

if all looks good, you could always try disabling the "reboot on error" features (and others like it) it in the system properties tab in control panel.

ummm....a hard drive format always helps to. i do it once a month (many people think i'm crazy for it). but i love cleaning out the system and installing everything over again....and yes, i keep massive backup archives. it is the final and most reliable way to keep your system free from from error (hackers, viruses, built up garbage over time, everything)

[reverendjay]

Have you done any of the patch/fix updates for XP? I had similar issues with my system (turned out to be bad memory), but there are at least 30 recommended updates for XP, not to mention SP1. If you don't think it's a hardware issue the answer may be there...

[Banginblaz]

Well, I looked in the event log, and although there was a few errors in there (mainly my wireless keyboard trying to connect to much) they were not even close to the time s it froze. Nothing was close at all, not even system notices.....

My fans and CPU are fine, thats why I listed the running temp....

I have another psu, I might just try that, but doubt it will change anything.

Its not resetting, so disabling reset wont do a thing, I have to do a hard shutdown in order to use it again.

Formatting................. I have well over 40gigs of stuff, and dont have the time to burn it all to cds, and dont have money to buy another HD.

I cannot upgrade to SP1, as I am running corp, but I do have all the security, and other issues installed.


Anyone else have some suggestions?

[reverendjay]

What are your Power/Hibernation/Sleep settings? Does your system support Hibernation/Sleep mode? The problem could be that your OS is trying to do something your hardware can't.

[nine]

Try the following in turn until you stop the crashes

1) Un plug your PCI cards and re-seat them
2) Take out a memory dimm (one at a time)
3) Remove a PCI card one at a time

[Banginblaz]

Originally posted by reverendjay
What are your Power/Hibernation/Sleep settings? Does your system support Hibernation/Sleep mode? The problem could be that your OS is trying to do something your hardware can't.

Everything is turned off (including the bios) for sleep, standby etc...

[guthmund]

I hate to sound like such a newbie......

but I encountered something similar. My comp would freeze up at random times during the day with no rhyme or reason.

I found out it was a security patch sent out by Microsoft. I don't remember the exact update Q331 something....I'll try and find it. It was a patch relating to buffer overrun and once I uninstalled it, my system stopped the random crashing.

This probably isn't it, but then again...maybe it is.

[yodapaul]

Have you changed any bios settings before it started locking up?
The problem you describe sounds like a problem I had a couple years ago. The Timing of my main memory was set too fast for the ram and windows was crashing because the system timing was falling out of sync.

Hope this helps.

[Banginblaz]

Originally posted by yodapaul
Have you changed any bios settings before it started locking up?
The problem you describe sounds like a problem I had a couple years ago. The Timing of my main memory was set too fast for the ram and windows was crashing because the system timing was falling out of sync.

Hope this helps.

This sounds like it might be the problem.............

The thing is, in order to get my RAM ro work I had to adjust the CAS and other settings in the BIOS. The problem with the theroy, is that I did that from day one.


Something to ponder at least..............