Hardware issue: W2k freezes intermittently

[lverkeyn]

Windows 2kpro 5.00.2195 sp4
Pentium 4 2.4ghz
AT/AT COMPATABLE
528MB RAM
NVIDIA GEFORCE FX 5500


This system may work for an hour before freezing up... but mostly only
for a few minutes.... sometimes doesn't even complete a full boot
before freezing. When I am working and it freezes, I have to manually
push the reset or power button to shut down.


The first time it happened I rebooted to safe mode, and it froze while
in safe mode to, so I figured it must me a hardware problem.
These are the things I have been told it was (probably) and
fixed/replaced, but didn't work:
virus: always have up to date virus protection, and spyware removal
tools, ran both found nothing.
bad memory (not the cause) ran memtest89 or something from floppy for over
16 hours no problems, then
replaced memory and still does not work, both memory sticks work in other
system
heat problem (not the cause)
temps reach 96 degrees f. fans working
cmos battery (of course not, but replaced it anyway)
hard drive (not the cause)
replaced hard drive, installed w2kpro, still freezes
graphics card (not the cause)
replaced the card... still freezes
I also thought maybe it was the monitor, but it still freezes on
another monitor.


I guess I'm down to the motherboard or the power supply???
any suggestions?


(I've had this system for 3 years, have never had this problem until
now)

 

[Geoffw]

power supply would have been my first bet

Geoff

 

[Dan Seur]

By "freeze" I assume you mean the machine becomes absolutely
unresponsive for a very long time, but does not "blue screen."

It seems the symptom has continued unchanged despite your replacing
virtually all software and hardware.

The "freezing" symptom can mean the OS is in a wait loop pending
completion of some event (like a disk read access) that must occur
before processing can continue, but cannot occur because of some
hardware failure. On your system, if this is the case, there is likely
some motherboard problem, perhaps a disk controller failure.

Diagnosis might be quite expensive; a new board might be cheaper. One
experiment you might try is a DOS floppy boot; see of the machine runs
for a good long time without freezing when it doesn't call the hard
drive controllers into use. You might also try to figure out a way to
put your hard drive on another controller, the board's secondary or an
add-on card, and boot the OS from there.

 

[Tim]

download and run memtest86 from memtest86.com - follow the instructions
carefully. If even 1 memory error is detected, no OS will run correctly.
- Tim