Freezes Freezes Freezes all the time, what to do

[PeterM]

I never had such bad luck in my life. My co-workers computer will freeze
every time I turn on the damn computer. In safe mode, when I'm in the BIOS
setup. When I want to check for viruses. It took me 20 tries just to get
lucky to start it. Now it starts, but it freezes when I try to run anything.
I checked the power supply, with one of those gadgets, it is working. The
computer has WIN XP Home. I undeleted about 10 demo games, that were on the
machine, (my friends kids installs everything) ran Spybot, it had 50 items,
but so far, I was unable to run a Virus Checker, it freezes on me. Is there
a program that I can buy to be able to boot into this computer, so it can
check what may be wrong with this darn machine. Is there a floppy version of
a virus checker, that works from a WIN 98 startup disk. My friend will also
give me the original WIN XP CD tomorrow. Anyway, the machine is a not too
old HP P4. I also have to wait 5 minutes to be able to turn the machine on
again. Probably a safety item, but a pain in the back, if you ask me. Any
help is appreciated. I went on Google, and looked for any help, the only
thing I get is places that wants to send pop-up's ..............Peter

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Disconnect all external devices except for monitor, keyboard, and mouse. If
the problem persists, reseat the video card and memory module(s) and check
other connectors. Although you checked to see if the power was OK, if new
hardware was added recently then the PW may not be rated high enough to
handle everything.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like it's over-heating. Take off the cover and look (Or listen) for a
bad fan.
It could also be the power supply-cheap and easy to replace.

 

[PeterM]

Many thanks to all, I will try all your suggestions and report
back............Peter

 

[Richard Urban]

You have a hardware problem - most likely an over heating condition. Make
sure the CPU heat sink is seated/mounted correctly. Make sure the CPU
cooling fan in spinning at a good rate.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[PeterM]

Thanks again all of you for your kind help for this senior citizen. So far,
I went and tried a newer monitor, and so far the computer never stopped. The
monitor I used before, was a older, but lighter one, now it is connected to
a heavier one in the garage, but a nice newer 19" Sony. I hope this will
take care of the problem. I will report back. Many thanks
again.............Peter