Computer freezing up

[M Jones]

Hi,

I have an old socket 7 board and k2-6AMD cpu with 128Mb RAM. Recently
I have booted up the PC and after a little while my applications start
to crash (blue screens, fatal exceptions etc). I haven't installed
any new software recently. Is this more likely to be a problem with
the CPU or a memory problem?

Thanks

 

[user]

Hi,

I have an old socket 7 board and k2-6AMD cpu with 128Mb RAM. Recently
I have booted up the PC and after a little while my applications start
to crash (blue screens, fatal exceptions etc). I haven't installed
any new software recently. Is this more likely to be a problem with
the CPU or a memory problem?

Thanks

It could be many things, but it is most likely RAM. Assuming that your
processor fan is still running, I would do a good RAM test. Defragging
the HD often helps also.

 

[CBFalconer]

It could be many things, but it is most likely RAM. Assuming
that your processor fan is still running, I would do a good RAM
test. Defragging the HD often helps also.

Not if there are memory faults. If so, a defrag will pretty well
guarantee that your HD contents are useless. Worst are the
undetected memory faults, such as occur on systems without ECC
memory.

 

[kony]

Hi,

I have an old socket 7 board and k2-6AMD cpu with 128Mb RAM. Recently
I have booted up the PC and after a little while my applications start
to crash (blue screens, fatal exceptions etc). I haven't installed
any new software recently. Is this more likely to be a problem with
the CPU or a memory problem?

Thanks

Has the system been moved, any parts changed or otherwise physically
altered? What about operating system or BIOS changes?

Is there any regular interval to it, an amount of time after booting up?
How about temperature related?
It's old enough now that it might have heaps of dust buildup inside, have
you cleaned the fans, primarily the CPU fan and power supply exhaust and
power supply air intake vents/holes/slots (while it's unplugged from AC!)?

After it bluescreens, if you reboot does it then seem more likely to
crash, more frequently or sooner, or only as likely to crash as
previously?

If none of the above apply then considering the age it's probably one of
three things: fan failure, capacitor failure, or other power supply
failure.

Fans are easy enough to check. For the capacitors all you can easily do
is open the box and examine them for signs of a problem... vented, leaky,
swollen, reside on the bottom or vented (cracked open) top. For the power
supply if your board happened to have voltage monitoring ability you could
check that but far better to check at a minimum the 3V, 5V, and 12V
readings at the motherboard ATX connector with a multimeter (carefully
insert probe into the back of ATX connector while system is running).

 

[Mike Walsh]

When you get a blue screen of death make a note of the offending file. If it always occurs with the same file (usually a driver) that is your problem.

 

[M Jones]

Has the system been moved, any parts changed or otherwise physically
altered? What about operating system or BIOS changes?

Is there any regular interval to it, an amount of time after booting up?
How about temperature related?
It's old enough now that it might have heaps of dust buildup inside, have
you cleaned the fans, primarily the CPU fan and power supply exhaust and
power supply air intake vents/holes/slots (while it's unplugged from AC!)?

After it bluescreens, if you reboot does it then seem more likely to
crash, more frequently or sooner, or only as likely to crash as
previously?

If none of the above apply then considering the age it's probably one of
three things: fan failure, capacitor failure, or other power supply
failure.

Fans are easy enough to check. For the capacitors all you can easily do
is open the box and examine them for signs of a problem... vented, leaky,
swollen, reside on the bottom or vented (cracked open) top. For the power
supply if your board happened to have voltage monitoring ability you could
check that but far better to check at a minimum the 3V, 5V, and 12V
readings at the motherboard ATX connector with a multimeter (carefully
insert probe into the back of ATX connector while system is running).

Two weeks ago I altered some of the memory settings in the bios for
timings, refresh etc... because of crashing apps and I had problems
immediately after that. Would it be a good idea to set bios defaults
as a way of curing the problem? I dont know what the proper settings
should be.

If this doesn't work, would it be a good idea to remove the existing
RAM and put another RAM stick into the machine to test it?

 

[kony]

Two weeks ago I altered some of the memory settings in the bios for
timings, refresh etc... because of crashing apps and I had problems
immediately after that.

So to clarify, you previously had (same?) problem, tried adjusting the
memory timings in the bios, which made things worse, then you wanted to
change them again but you didn't know what next to try, nor what the
defaults were? Generally there would be a setting like "normal" or
"auto", "SPD", etc, and for any other timings not set with a generic
catch-all description like one I previously gave, choose larger numbers
for slower timings, which would almost always be more likely stable.

Would it be a good idea to set bios defaults
as a way of curing the problem? I dont know what the proper settings
should be.

Generally, yes, but super socket 7 boards often had problems with AGP
video cards, it might be helpful to write down what the previous bios
settings were, particularly for the AGP port/VGA-related. If you're going
to reset the bios anyway then now might be a good time to see if you can
hunt down a bios update for the board, if one exists.

If this doesn't work, would it be a good idea to remove the existing
RAM and put another RAM stick into the machine to test it?

If you had another memory module handy, sure, but I wouldn't buy any more
memory. Something to consider is that if you have memory problems,
running the operating system may corrupt files, then you may continue to
have intermittent errors even after the memory is again working properly.

Since this seems (possibly) memory related, run http://www.memtest86.com
for several hours.

 

[WebWalker]

Hi,

I have an old socket 7 board and k2-6AMD cpu with 128Mb RAM. Recently
I have booted up the PC and after a little while my applications start
to crash (blue screens, fatal exceptions etc). I haven't installed
any new software recently. Is this more likely to be a problem with
the CPU or a memory problem?

First I will try to check whether the CPU's heatsink fan is working.
Next I will use memory diagnosis program such as "DocMemory RAM
Diagnostic" (http://www.simmtester.com) to check the memory.

 

[M Jones]

First I will try to check whether the CPU's heatsink fan is working.
Next I will use memory diagnosis program such as "DocMemory RAM
Diagnostic" (http://www.simmtester.com) to check the memory.

Hi all,

Just to say that the above solved my problem. My cpu heatsink fan
wasn't working. For some reason the power cable to the cpu fan was
broken off stopping the fan from working. I replaced the power cable
and now everything is great again. I really was expecting it to be
the mobo or the ram. Never mind....