Fixing a PC. Level: NIGHTMARE

[Squeak]

What were your PC's specs?

MOBO: Asterope2-GL8E
CPU: Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz
RAM: 2GB DDR2
HDD: Seagate 250GB @ 7200RPM
GFX: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850

[9r2e5i3k]

FOR THE LAST TIME GUYS, THE PC IS CLEAN ENOUGH AND DOESN'T OVERHEAT.
DIRT/DUST IS NOT THE PROBLEM.

MOBO: Asterope2-GL8E
CPU: Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz
RAM: 2GB DDR2
HDD: Seagate 250GB @ 7200RPM
GFX: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850

No related parts then...

inb4 it's the hdd.
Seagate's HDD's are good and not the problem here, the PC hangs up even with the Seagate HDD disconnected.

BTW PC geeks and pros, tell me if the voltages are normal...
+5V
-5V

[Julio.]

Here, I'll upload mine so you can compare.

[9r2e5i3k]

Here, I'll upload mine so you can compare.

tbh, can't compare crap. HWMonitor doesn't show an average [hence the speedfan chart], and it seems you screencapped it right after launching anyway

[Julio.]

tbh, can't compare crap. HWMonitor doesn't show an average [hence the speedfan chart], and it seems you screencapped it right after launching anyway

Every time I've launched it, it reads about the same :P

[Max.]

1: how long has it been doing this

2: how big is your power supply

[Ziad]

its very easy a virus is overprocessing your HDD so its freezing after some time, what you gotta do?
format the computer and BEFORE you plug it to internet install AVG Free, and then link it to the internet (the virus is coming from an opened port)AVG will 95% catch it so good luck

[Nathan]

It's the hard drive. Probably locking up or on the grind to fail. Try using only the SATA one.

[9r2e5i3k]

It's the hard drive. Probably locking up or on the grind to fail. Try using only the SATA one.

It's the hard drive. Probably locking up or on the grind to fail. Try using only the SATA one.

its very easy a virus is overprocessing your HDD so its freezing after some time, what you gotta do?
format the computer and BEFORE you plug it to internet install AVG Free, and then link it to the internet (the virus is coming from an opened port)AVG will 95% catch it so good luck

Hard Drive is not the fault guys. Already tried disconnecting both the Seagate [SATA] and the Maxtor [PATA], and connecting in another Seagate drive [PATA]. Still was hanging up. Also Icy already suggested using another drive, read previous posts if you mind.

Gotta update first post with more crap that I tried to fix it.


But also after some recent changes, the PC seems to be suspiciously very stable over the last two days, ie. did not hang up yet.

Last changes were:
 - disconnecting FDD,
 - disconnecting the Seagate SATA HDD,
 - disconnecting DVD writer [SATA].

At this point PC seemed to be stabile, so installed the chipset and audio drivers (still running on def. Microsoft graphics drivers), after more testing reconnected the Seagate SATA HDD. Runs for two days without a hang up yet.

You could say it's the DVD writer but the problem I had since always, while the DVD writer only for like a month. If you guess it's the FDD, I've tried disconnecting everything before and that time it didn't help, so it's not [or not only] the FDD either.

But I'm not considering the problem fixed, if it won't hold without a single hang up for at least a month.

[Squeak]

HDD is not the problem as I replaced mine with the exact same model.

[Yihka]

I used to have the same problem, brought it back for warranty and they thought it was the RAM, however this was not the case...

So after another few months I insisted it must be the motherboard then and they finally replaced it. From that moment it stopped freezing. ( Doesn't matter what I did)

I will explain my problem further, then you might see if you have a similar problem. If you do, it might be your motherboard too or something else that's faulty inside your computer.


]My problem was:

I start up the computer, I do whatever I want with it and after an amount of time, sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes 3 days and my screen starts to freeze. Not just my screen, my whole computer. Can't move your mouse can't ctrl-alt-delete etc. Frozen.

My CPU Temperature was fine, so was my GPU. The only problem I found was my RAM by running Memtest.

Oh and I have noticed too that it does NOT freeze on Ubuntu.



With that said, perhaps you should try out Memtest too! ( http://www.memtest86.com/ )

You basically put it on a CD and boot it from CD. Then you run any of the tests. I suggest running them with 1 RAM chip at a time, see if you get errors.


Hope this post helps you with your problem.

[9r2e5i3k]

RAM's been tested with memtest, goldmem, windows memory diagnostic and some fourth program I forgot the name. All ran at most extended modes and/or looped for several hours (6+). No errors found. So I'm rather confident that the RAM is fine.

Also I got only one RAM module; and memtest86 comes along with Ubuntu CD.

Here's a note:
I'm currently using the Windows XP default driver for the graphics card and the PC runs rather OK, stability-wise at least. If I install any other driver (tried NVIDIA's 179.19, 179.16, 169.21, 91.31 (all WHQL/signed) and OmegaDrivers), the hanging up returns. If I revert to the MS driver, it seems to run stabile again.

It's rather not the video card itself because it ran OK on various drivers on the other PC.

Though this might be one of the problems [that oddly causes same symptom], I exclude this as being the [only] source of the hanging up. Reason being that at previous attempts and fiddlings the PC was hanging up even with the default Windows driver.

Also currently I still have my optical drive, FDD and additional 2xUSB2.0 disconnected from the motherboard.

[stormeus]

Sounds more like a component failure to me. Either the motherboard or processor.

[Witchking]

had an issue like this on my old computer i put in a new motherboard and it worked 

[9r2e5i3k]

Dear diary,

The PC was running quite well in the last week or two, until tomorrow, when it was hanging up like crazy, like every 5 minutes. Tried disconnecting the switches/LED's/PC speaker in case there was some short circuit causing the freezes, but that didn't help so I reconnected them again. Then the PC hung up like 3-4 more times and started working normal.

If you ask how I turned the PC on with the power switch disconnected, I set in the BIOS to power on when pressed '2' on the keyboard before disconnecting the switches.