Computer freezes occasionally

[Mobius]

Hi,

One of the PCs here has recently developed this rather mystifying habit of
freezing sometimes.

It happens randomly and lasts for about ten seconds or so. Also, it can
happen anywhere from a few times within an hour to a few times in a day. And
it happens no matter what the application running on the machine at that
time. It was observed that even the screensaver freezes!

Virus, malware, trojans, spyware, adware...... were checked for. Also SFC
/scannow was run without any problems. So was chkdsk /r.

The hard drive was swapped with its "mirror" (a simple restoring the
standard back-up to a fresh drive) - the phenomenon still persisted. The
memory was swapped out too, to no avail.

Occasionally a clicking noise can be heard, like that of a hard drive
"waking up". This happened on both the original drive as well as the
replacement one. Motherboard power and drive time-out settings are selected
properly.

Someone suggested replacing the power supply.

Any suggestions on what to look for very much welcome.

Regards and thanks in anticipation.

Mobius

 

[Mobius]

Hi,

The problem was traced to the nVidia FX5500 256MB graphics adapter installed
last week. It turned out that this unit, very impressive though its
performance may be, consumes a lot of power - even the 450 watt PS cannot
deal with it. There are five hard drives on this machine besides!

Replacing another "lesser power" graphics card solved the issue. The newer
FX5500 card will be reinstalled after a 600W power supply is fitted on this
unit!

Thanks for reading this post.

Regards.

Mobius




: Hi,
:
: One of the PCs here has recently developed this rather mystifying habit of
: freezing sometimes.
:
: It happens randomly and lasts for about ten seconds or so. Also, it can
: happen anywhere from a few times within an hour to a few times in a day.
And
: it happens no matter what the application running on the machine at that
: time. It was observed that even the screensaver freezes!
:
: Virus, malware, trojans, spyware, adware...... were checked for. Also SFC
: /scannow was run without any problems. So was chkdsk /r.
:
: The hard drive was swapped with its "mirror" (a simple restoring the
: standard back-up to a fresh drive) - the phenomenon still persisted. The
: memory was swapped out too, to no avail.
:
: Occasionally a clicking noise can be heard, like that of a hard drive
: "waking up". This happened on both the original drive as well as the
: replacement one. Motherboard power and drive time-out settings are
selected
: properly.
:
: Someone suggested replacing the power supply.
:
: Any suggestions on what to look for very much welcome.
:
: Regards and thanks in anticipation.
:
: Mobius
:
:
:
:
:
:

 

[Leo]

The 450w power support is enough to deal with fx5500.Maybe there are some
problems with your video card.What brand is it?

Leo

 

[Ron Martell]

The 450w power support is enough to deal with fx5500.Maybe there are some
problems with your video card.What brand is it?

Note that the box has *5* hard drives, and probably an assortment of
other accessories as well (CD/DVD, USB devices, whatever) and no
mention of what CPU (or CPUs) the machine has installed.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Mobius]

Thanks for the input.

The video card is made by "eVGA" and was tested on another machine without
problems.

This particular PC has an older Intel D850 Garibaldi motherboard with a P4
1.7GHZ. It has 768 MB of RDRAM on it.

Besides the 5 hard drives (4 on a PCI-UATA controller) there are three
optical drives (two DVD-RWs and on a DVD-ROM). The hard drives are: 1 x
120GB (System drive) and 4x 250GB for storage - total of about 1.05TB
formatted capacity. The system drive and the opticals are run on the onboard
IDE busses.

There is a PCI 1394a card, one PCI - USB2.0 controller and a PC-Cardbus
adapter card also on this machine.

There are a total of 4 case and hard drive cooling fans on the unit, not
including those on the power supply itself.

Sorry not to have included these details earlier.

Regards,

Mobius



: The 450w power support is enough to deal with fx5500.Maybe there are some
: problems with your video card.What brand is it?
:
: Leo
:
: "Mobius" <[email protected]>
::[email protected]...
: > Hi,
: >
: > The problem was traced to the nVidia FX5500 256MB graphics adapter
: > installed
: > last week. It turned out that this unit, very impressive though its
: > performance may be, consumes a lot of power - even the 450 watt PS
cannot
: > deal with it. There are five hard drives on this machine besides!
: >
: > Replacing another "lesser power" graphics card solved the issue. The
newer
: > FX5500 card will be reinstalled after a 600W power supply is fitted on
: > this
: > unit!
: >
: > Thanks for reading this post.
: >
: > Regards.
: >
: > Mobius
: >
: >
: >
: >
: > : > : Hi,
: > :
: > : One of the PCs here has recently developed this rather mystifying
habit
: > of
: > : freezing sometimes.
: > :
: > : It happens randomly and lasts for about ten seconds or so. Also, it
can
: > : happen anywhere from a few times within an hour to a few times in a
day.
: > And
: > : it happens no matter what the application running on the machine at
that
: > : time. It was observed that even the screensaver freezes!
: > :
: > : Virus, malware, trojans, spyware, adware...... were checked for. Also
: > SFC
: > : /scannow was run without any problems. So was chkdsk /r.
: > :
: > : The hard drive was swapped with its "mirror" (a simple restoring the
: > : standard back-up to a fresh drive) - the phenomenon still persisted.
The
: > : memory was swapped out too, to no avail.
: > :
: > : Occasionally a clicking noise can be heard, like that of a hard drive
: > : "waking up". This happened on both the original drive as well as the
: > : replacement one. Motherboard power and drive time-out settings are
: > selected
: > : properly.
: > :
: > : Someone suggested replacing the power supply.
: > :
: > : Any suggestions on what to look for very much welcome.
: > :
: > : Regards and thanks in anticipation.
: > :
: > : Mobius
: > :
: > :
: > :
: > :
: > :
: > :
: >
: >
:
:

 

[Mobius]

Thanks for the input.

I am sorry not to have included details earlier.

They are contained in my response just above this post!

The FX5500 card was selected because it seemed the best value for the money
and not for using this PC to play games though!!!

Regards.

Mobius


:
: >The 450w power support is enough to deal with fx5500.Maybe there are some
: >problems with your video card.What brand is it?
: >
:
: Note that the box has *5* hard drives, and probably an assortment of
: other accessories as well (CD/DVD, USB devices, whatever) and no
: mention of what CPU (or CPUs) the machine has installed.
:
: Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
: --
: Microsoft MVP
: On-Line Help Computer Service
: http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
:
: In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
: http://aumha.org/alex.htm