computer freezing - looking for help...

[Guest]

my computer seems to be freezing up quite often lately, and am trying to
fiure out possible reasons. it is a home-built pc, here are specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (1.8ghz)
1gb RAM (2 x 512mb)
120gb HDD (main - 9% free), 40gb HDD (backup important stuff)
motherboard: Chaintech 7VIF4, all updated chipsets, drivers, bios
video: BFG Nvidia Geforce 6200 OC 256mb 8x AGP (latest driver 78.01)
ultra x-connect 500w power supply
windows xp pro. sp2
mcafee virus/firewall
lavasoft adaware se pro (adwatch always running) + aol spyzapper

case has 3 case fans, 1 pci fan for video card (has an empty pci slot
between fan and video card), power supply has standard backfan and bottom fan
(above cpu), cpu fan runs 100%, heatsinks on both sticks of memory - just
recently vacuumed out all dust from case and thorougly cleaned out fans
system is clean, no virus/trojans/malware/spyware.

the freezing can happen at any time - it seems most often when i leave the
room and come back.. today it froze in the 15 minutes i was out of the room -
sometimes it waits a few hours, and if i am lucky it won't at all. i always
turn it off when i am going to work. i use to leave it on all the time when i
was home and on weekends it would run constently, since i never had the
issue. inside my case is rather cool, so i do not think that heat should be
the issue.

i do not receive any error messages from the freezing, even though i have to
manually reboot the system. I have a feeling it might be my video card - i
seem to get "Flashing" colors on the boot-up screen (with the windows logo
and loading bar) - sometimes it reverts to a blue on black screen only - but
once windows loads up all colours are as should be). I am looking for input
from others on what they think could possibly cause this freezing, since it
is at random and can happen even if i'm not doing anything on the system.

 

[Trax]

|>my computer seems to be freezing up quite often lately, and am trying to
|>fiure out possible reasons. it is a home-built pc, here are specs:
|>AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (1.8ghz)
|>1gb RAM (2 x 512mb)
|>120gb HDD (main - 9% free), 40gb HDD (backup important stuff)
|>motherboard: Chaintech 7VIF4, all updated chipsets, drivers, bios
|>video: BFG Nvidia Geforce 6200 OC 256mb 8x AGP (latest driver 78.01)
|>ultra x-connect 500w power supply
|>windows xp pro. sp2
|>mcafee virus/firewall
|>lavasoft adaware se pro (adwatch always running) + aol spyzapper

aol spyzapper do a Ctrl-alt-delete when you freeze and see if
OptScan is running. http://www.uwm.edu/~bobtreat/messages/54.shtml



|>case has 3 case fans, 1 pci fan for video card (has an empty pci slot
|>between fan and video card), power supply has standard backfan and bottom fan
|>(above cpu), cpu fan runs 100%, heatsinks on both sticks of memory - just
|>recently vacuumed out all dust from case and thorougly cleaned out fans
|>system is clean, no virus/trojans/malware/spyware.
|>
|>the freezing can happen at any time - it seems most often when i leave the
|>room and come back.. today it froze in the 15 minutes i was out of the room -
|>sometimes it waits a few hours, and if i am lucky it won't at all. i always
|>turn it off when i am going to work. i use to leave it on all the time when i
|>was home and on weekends it would run constently, since i never had the
|>issue. inside my case is rather cool, so i do not think that heat should be
|>the issue.
|>
|>i do not receive any error messages from the freezing, even though i have to
|>manually reboot the system. I have a feeling it might be my video card - i
|>seem to get "Flashing" colors on the boot-up screen (with the windows logo
|>and loading bar) - sometimes it reverts to a blue on black screen only - but
|>once windows loads up all colours are as should be). I am looking for input
|>from others on what they think could possibly cause this freezing, since it
|>is at random and can happen even if i'm not doing anything on the system.

 

[Guest]

when it freezes, i can't do ctrl+alt+delete... nothing works everything is
frozen in place where it was including the mouse - no beeps either if i hit
keys

 

[Rock]

my computer seems to be freezing up quite often lately, and am trying to
fiure out possible reasons. it is a home-built pc, here are specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (1.8ghz)
1gb RAM (2 x 512mb)
120gb HDD (main - 9% free), 40gb HDD (backup important stuff)
motherboard: Chaintech 7VIF4, all updated chipsets, drivers, bios
video: BFG Nvidia Geforce 6200 OC 256mb 8x AGP (latest driver 78.01)
ultra x-connect 500w power supply
windows xp pro. sp2
mcafee virus/firewall
lavasoft adaware se pro (adwatch always running) + aol spyzapper

case has 3 case fans, 1 pci fan for video card (has an empty pci slot
between fan and video card), power supply has standard backfan and bottom fan
(above cpu), cpu fan runs 100%, heatsinks on both sticks of memory - just
recently vacuumed out all dust from case and thorougly cleaned out fans
system is clean, no virus/trojans/malware/spyware.

the freezing can happen at any time - it seems most often when i leave the
room and come back.. today it froze in the 15 minutes i was out of the room -
sometimes it waits a few hours, and if i am lucky it won't at all. i always
turn it off when i am going to work. i use to leave it on all the time when i
was home and on weekends it would run constently, since i never had the
issue. inside my case is rather cool, so i do not think that heat should be
the issue.

i do not receive any error messages from the freezing, even though i have to
manually reboot the system. I have a feeling it might be my video card - i
seem to get "Flashing" colors on the boot-up screen (with the windows logo
and loading bar) - sometimes it reverts to a blue on black screen only - but
once windows loads up all colours are as should be). I am looking for input
from others on what they think could possibly cause this freezing, since it
is at random and can happen even if i'm not doing anything on the system.

Start with testing the memory. Download the following:

Memtest86+
http://www.memtest.org/

Windows Memory Diagnostic
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

They will create bootable CDs. Run them for several hours each, not
just a single pass.

You can also try: DocMemory Memory Diagnostic
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/download.asp

Run at least two of these diagnostics.

 

[Trax]

|>when it freezes, i can't do ctrl+alt+delete... nothing works everything is
|>frozen in place where it was including the mouse - no beeps either if i hit
|>keys

Knew you were going to say that as soon as I hit the sent key...

Read the link, it still might pertain to you.

|>"Trax" wrote:
|>
|>>
|>> |>my computer seems to be freezing up quite often lately, and am trying to
|>> |>fiure out possible reasons. it is a home-built pc, here are specs:
|>> |>AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (1.8ghz)
|>> |>1gb RAM (2 x 512mb)
|>> |>120gb HDD (main - 9% free), 40gb HDD (backup important stuff)
|>> |>motherboard: Chaintech 7VIF4, all updated chipsets, drivers, bios
|>> |>video: BFG Nvidia Geforce 6200 OC 256mb 8x AGP (latest driver 78.01)
|>> |>ultra x-connect 500w power supply
|>> |>windows xp pro. sp2
|>> |>mcafee virus/firewall
|>> |>lavasoft adaware se pro (adwatch always running) + aol spyzapper
|>>
|>> aol spyzapper do a Ctrl-alt-delete when you freeze and see if
|>> OptScan is running. http://www.uwm.edu/~bobtreat/messages/54.shtml
|>>
|>>
|>>
|>> |>case has 3 case fans, 1 pci fan for video card (has an empty pci slot
|>> |>between fan and video card), power supply has standard backfan and bottom fan
|>> |>(above cpu), cpu fan runs 100%, heatsinks on both sticks of memory - just
|>> |>recently vacuumed out all dust from case and thorougly cleaned out fans
|>> |>system is clean, no virus/trojans/malware/spyware.
|>> |>
|>> |>the freezing can happen at any time - it seems most often when i leave the
|>> |>room and come back.. today it froze in the 15 minutes i was out of the room -
|>> |>sometimes it waits a few hours, and if i am lucky it won't at all. i always
|>> |>turn it off when i am going to work. i use to leave it on all the time when i
|>> |>was home and on weekends it would run constently, since i never had the
|>> |>issue. inside my case is rather cool, so i do not think that heat should be
|>> |>the issue.
|>> |>
|>> |>i do not receive any error messages from the freezing, even though i have to
|>> |>manually reboot the system. I have a feeling it might be my video card - i
|>> |>seem to get "Flashing" colors on the boot-up screen (with the windows logo
|>> |>and loading bar) - sometimes it reverts to a blue on black screen only - but
|>> |>once windows loads up all colours are as should be). I am looking for input
|>> |>from others on what they think could possibly cause this freezing, since it
|>> |>is at random and can happen even if i'm not doing anything on the system.
|>>
|>>
|>> --
|>> Fark.com rates in the top 100
|>> http://news.com.com/2311-10784_3-101250.html#18763847
|>>

 

[Guest]

Start with testing the memory. Download the following:

Memtest86+
http://www.memtest.org/

Windows Memory Diagnostic
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

They will create bootable CDs. Run them for several hours each, not
just a single pass.

You can also try: DocMemory Memory Diagnostic
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/download.asp

Run at least two of these diagnostics.

i have memtest on disk already, and have run it and it came up with nothing
wrong with memory. i will try the other 2 tests also..