PC freezing/dying, not sure if Mobo or HD or Graphics card

[Ollie]

Hey all, not sure if you can help me out as my PC keeps freezing and
dying on me and im not sure if its my hard drive, motherboard or
graphics card. My pc is quite old now a 2.4ghz with a AS Rock PE pro
mobo and a 2 or 3 month old graphics card - Radeon sapphire HD 2400
pro, the drive is a 250gig maxtor (I think) and is only about 2 years
old. The symptoms are that I sit there on the PC and it suddenly
freezes and I cant do anything, cursor wont move, cant get up task
manager, cant do anything apart from shut it down manually. This first
happened a few days ago with no warning and it wouldnt reboot at
first, sometimes it booted into the start screen of windows and then
froze, sometimes it wouldnt even get that far. I left it for a while
scared my drive was failing and then risked it again, 5 mins later and
it worked again for the rest of the evening. Next day same thing, both
times watching a film through the lcd tv running from the vga output
on the GC while the DVI was running my monitor - so i thought perhaps
I was overheating my card or something even though it was fine for 2/3
months previous. Undid the DVI and just switch over to VGA and swap
the cable over when I want to watch a film through the tv. Thought Id
solved the problem but the pc froze again just now with no TV attached
just the monitor and I was wasnt a film just doing some ebaying. I've
turned it off and done some more research and the drives been making
no noises so now I think it may be the mobo as I saw that a few other
people had probs with freezing and it was there mobo, however I've
also seen that maxtor drives, which I think mine is have quite a few
problems also so now Im at a loss. I think it could be the mobo as my
power supply fan has been on the way out for years now, although every
time it makes a grinding noise I pop in some 3 in 1 oil into the
bearing and hay presto no more noise again, however a few days ago
suspiciously before this ominous freezing situation I'd been out for a
few hours and came back to it making a really bad noise, the noise it
makes when the bearing needs an oil, it could have been making this
noise for ages, I olied it and it stopped again but perhaps this
extended time of poor power supply ventilation did something to my
mobo perhaps? Is this even possible? Could it be the PSU thats cuasing
my pc to freeze perhaps, it might be fried now, Im at a loss and as
the pc is old I dont really see the point in replacing parts for it, I
might as well spend a couple of hundred more and buy a whole new pc
and get back up to date again - not sure what to do really, buy new
parts or buy a new pc, if I knew I only had to replace one part tha
would be the great option, but as I dont what it is I could spend out
and still not solve the problem and then spend out again. (
Any help will be very greatly received
Thanks )
Ollie

 

[CBFalconer]

Hey all, not sure if you can help me out as my PC keeps freezing and
dying on me and im not sure if its my hard drive, motherboard or

....

After snipping about 40 fully filled lines, uninterrupted by any
paragraph breaks, etc., I feel the urge to point out that such
articles are unreadable.

Break your deathless prose up into paragraphs, where each paragraph
deals with some aspect of the information you wish to transfer.
Your readership is likely to increase.

 

[kony]

Hey all, not sure if you can help me out as my PC keeps freezing and
dying on me and im not sure if its my hard drive, motherboard or
graphics card. My pc is quite old now a 2.4ghz with a AS Rock PE pro
mobo and a 2 or 3 month old graphics card - Radeon sapphire HD 2400
pro, the drive is a 250gig maxtor (I think) and is only about 2 years
old. The symptoms are that I sit there on the PC and it suddenly
freezes and I cant do anything, cursor wont move, cant get up task
manager, cant do anything apart from shut it down manually. This first
happened a few days ago with no warning and it wouldnt reboot at
first, sometimes it booted into the start screen of windows and then
froze, sometimes it wouldnt even get that far. I left it for a while
scared my drive was failing and then risked it again, 5 mins later and
it worked again for the rest of the evening. Next day same thing, both
times watching a film through the lcd tv running from the vga output
on the GC while the DVI was running my monitor - so i thought perhaps
I was overheating my card or something even though it was fine for 2/3
months previous. Undid the DVI and just switch over to VGA and swap
the cable over when I want to watch a film through the tv. Thought Id
solved the problem but the pc froze again just now with no TV attached
just the monitor and I was wasnt a film just doing some ebaying. I've
turned it off and done some more research and the drives been making
no noises so now I think it may be the mobo as I saw that a few other
people had probs with freezing and it was there mobo, however I've
also seen that maxtor drives, which I think mine is have quite a few
problems also so now Im at a loss. I think it could be the mobo as my
power supply fan has been on the way out for years now, although every
time it makes a grinding noise I pop in some 3 in 1 oil into the
bearing and hay presto no more noise again, however a few days ago
suspiciously before this ominous freezing situation I'd been out for a
few hours and came back to it making a really bad noise, the noise it
makes when the bearing needs an oil, it could have been making this
noise for ages, I olied it and it stopped again but perhaps this
extended time of poor power supply ventilation did something to my
mobo perhaps? Is this even possible? Could it be the PSU thats cuasing
my pc to freeze perhaps, it might be fried now, Im at a loss and as
the pc is old I dont really see the point in replacing parts for it, I
might as well spend a couple of hundred more and buy a whole new pc
and get back up to date again - not sure what to do really, buy new
parts or buy a new pc, if I knew I only had to replace one part tha
would be the great option, but as I dont what it is I could spend out
and still not solve the problem and then spend out again. (
Any help will be very greatly received
Thanks )
Ollie

I feel I've been attacked by the GREAT WALL OF TEXT.


I'm not going to read it (sorry), this is just unacceptible.
Once you become a whiney old fart you will understand.

Carriage returns, paragraphs, are your friend.

 

[Darklight]

simple if you can get any linux live cd/dvd and boot with that it won't
install it will just run from cd/dvd drive. If it works without freezing
you know it is the os.

have you tried reinstalling the os?

you did not say how much ram you have?

how hot does your cpu get. have you clean the heat sink from Dust?

 

[Paul]

Hey all, not sure if you can help me out as my PC keeps freezing and
dying on me and im not sure if its my hard drive, motherboard or
graphics card.

My pc is quite old now a 2.4ghz with a AS Rock PE pro
mobo and a 2 or 3 month old graphics card - Radeon sapphire HD 2400
pro, the drive is a 250gig maxtor (I think) and is only about 2 years
old.

The symptoms are that I sit there on the PC and it suddenly
freezes and I cant do anything, cursor wont move, cant get up task
manager, cant do anything apart from shut it down manually.

This first happened a few days ago with no warning and it wouldnt
reboot at first, sometimes it booted into the start screen of windows
and then froze, sometimes it wouldnt even get that far.

I left it for a while scared my drive was failing and then risked
it again, 5 mins later and it worked again for the rest of the
evening. Next day same thing, both times watching a film through
the lcd tv running from the vga output on the GC while the DVI was
running my monitor - so i thought perhaps I was overheating my card
or something even though it was fine for 2/3 months previous.

Undid the DVI and just switch over to VGA and swap
the cable over when I want to watch a film through the tv.
Thought Id solved the problem but the pc froze again just
now with no TV attached just the monitor and I was wasnt
a film just doing some ebaying.

I've turned it off and done some more research and the drives been making
no noises so now I think it may be the mobo as I saw that a few other
people had probs with freezing and it was there mobo, however I've
also seen that maxtor drives, which I think mine is have quite a few
problems also so now Im at a loss.

I think it could be the mobo as my power supply fan has been on
the way out for years now, although every time it makes a grinding
noise I pop in some 3 in 1 oil into the bearing and hay presto no
more noise again,

however a few days ago suspiciously before this ominous freezing
situation I'd been out for a few hours and came back to it making
a really bad noise, the noise it makes when the bearing needs an oil,
it could have been making this noise for ages, I olied it and it
stopped again but perhaps this extended time of poor power supply
ventilation did something to my mobo perhaps?

Is this even possible? Could it be the PSU thats cuasing
my pc to freeze perhaps, it might be fried now, Im at a loss and as
the pc is old I dont really see the point in replacing parts for it, I
might as well spend a couple of hundred more and buy a whole new pc
and get back up to date again - not sure what to do really, buy new
parts or buy a new pc, if I knew I only had to replace one part tha
would be the great option, but as I dont what it is I could spend out
and still not solve the problem and then spend out again. (
Any help will be very greatly received
Thanks )

Ollie

Do you still have your old video card ? Does it still work ? Perhaps
you could unload the ATI video driver, power down, remove the HD2400,
install the old video card, install drivers for it, then do some testing.

Is the fan on the new HD2400 spinning when the computer runs ? Would
the HD2400 be overheating ?

Maybe the video card is what is freezing up.

Have you looked in the Event Viewer, for any reported errors ?

You can also try testing with Prime95. If the Prime test runs for a
while, that tells you your processor and memory are OK.

When you run Prime95, when it says "Join GIMPS?", just say no.
The defaults in the custom setup dialog box are OK, and after
that dialog, the program will start to run. It stops if it detects
an error. Knowing how many minutes it runs, without an error, gives
you some idea how unstable the CPU and memory are. I've had
Prime95 detect an error in about the first 10 seconds of running,
so it can find stuff pretty fast. You can stop it, if it manages to
run for more than four hours. The leftmost menu, has options to
stop and to exit the program.

http://www.mersenne.org/gimps/p95v255a.zip

Paul

 

[Sleepy]

Hey all, not sure if you can help me out as my PC keeps freezing and
dying on me and im not sure if its my hard drive, motherboard or
graphics card. My pc is quite old now a 2.4ghz with a AS Rock PE pro
mobo and a 2 or 3 month old graphics card - Radeon sapphire HD 2400
pro, the drive is a 250gig maxtor (I think) and is only about 2 years
old. The symptoms are that I sit there on the PC and it suddenly
freezes and I cant do anything, cursor wont move, cant get up task
manager, cant do anything apart from shut it down manually. This first
happened a few days ago with no warning and it wouldnt reboot at
first, sometimes it booted into the start screen of windows and then
froze, sometimes it wouldnt even get that far. I left it for a while
scared my drive was failing and then risked it again, 5 mins later and
it worked again for the rest of the evening. Next day same thing, both
times watching a film through the lcd tv running from the vga output
on the GC while the DVI was running my monitor - so i thought perhaps
I was overheating my card or something even though it was fine for 2/3
months previous. Undid the DVI and just switch over to VGA and swap
the cable over when I want to watch a film through the tv. Thought Id
solved the problem but the pc froze again just now with no TV attached
just the monitor and I was wasnt a film just doing some ebaying. I've
turned it off and done some more research and the drives been making
no noises so now I think it may be the mobo as I saw that a few other
people had probs with freezing and it was there mobo, however I've
also seen that maxtor drives, which I think mine is have quite a few
problems also so now Im at a loss. I think it could be the mobo as my
power supply fan has been on the way out for years now, although every
time it makes a grinding noise I pop in some 3 in 1 oil into the
bearing and hay presto no more noise again, however a few days ago
suspiciously before this ominous freezing situation I'd been out for a
few hours and came back to it making a really bad noise, the noise it
makes when the bearing needs an oil, it could have been making this
noise for ages, I olied it and it stopped again but perhaps this
extended time of poor power supply ventilation did something to my
mobo perhaps? Is this even possible? Could it be the PSU thats cuasing
my pc to freeze perhaps, it might be fried now, Im at a loss and as
the pc is old I dont really see the point in replacing parts for it, I
might as well spend a couple of hundred more and buy a whole new pc
and get back up to date again - not sure what to do really, buy new
parts or buy a new pc, if I knew I only had to replace one part tha
would be the great option, but as I dont what it is I could spend out
and still not solve the problem and then spend out again. (
Any help will be very greatly received
Thanks )
Ollie

you've had a faulty PSU for ages that would likely overheat without adequate
ventilation and all you've done is oil the bearing when the problem becomes
really obvious?
and now you prefer to assume the problem is the mobo, hdd or garphics card?
sorry but I can't see any logic there - why not replace the item you *know*
to be faulty
ie the PSU and see how the rest of the system behaves then?

 

[Ollie]

Hey guys thanks for the input and apologies for the long narrative,
over did it a bit on the back story but I thought it best to give the
whole picture. The idea of switching over the GC is a good one and I
will try that, not sure where the Event Viewer is located but if there
is one I'll find it and check it out.

I'll also clean up my heatsink of dust, run the Prime95 software and
clearly replacing the PSU is obvious now someone has pointed it out to
me, doh, yes cheap, obvious and a good idea! This little lot will keep
me busy for 2 or 3 days as I'll have to mend/test it in between
working and I'll also have to wait for the PSU part to arrive once
purchased. I'll report back in a few days on my findings and I'll
hopefully know what the problem is by then.
Thanks again for your advice
Ollie

 

[CBFalconer]

Hey guys thanks for the input and apologies for the long narrative,
over did it a bit on the back story but I thought it best to give the
whole picture. The idea of switching over the GC is a good one and I
will try that, not sure where the Event Viewer is located but if there
is one I'll find it and check it out.

I'll also clean up my heatsink of dust, run the Prime95 software and
clearly replacing the PSU is obvious now someone has pointed it out to
me, doh, yes cheap, obvious and a good idea! This little lot will keep
me busy for 2 or 3 days as I'll have to mend/test it in between
working and I'll also have to wait for the PSU part to arrive once
purchased. I'll report back in a few days on my findings and I'll
hopefully know what the problem is by then.

If you want to post a followup via groups.google.com, ensure you
quote enough for the article to make sense. Google is only an
interface to Usenet; it's not Usenet itself. Don't assume your
readers can, or ever will, see any previous articles.

More details at: <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/>

 

[Ollie]

Right I've tested the pc and the Prime95 threw up nothing so RAM and
CPU are OK, I replaced the PSU and it crashed after 2 days and then a
day later whilst watching a film again. I have also cleaned out dust
from the heat sink for the cpu and dust from the fan on the video
card. I switched over the graphics card but it was only a short test
for a few hours as the other pc is used frequently and cant take the
suspect card from my pc, it worked fine on the old card.

I wondered whether I was running too high a resolution on my monitor
and lowered it and also moved a pci card that was right underneath my
video card to enable more air flow, the fan also works fine on the
video card. So now I sit and wait again, it went for 2 days last time
and then crashed/froze solid. So not the cpu, not the ram, not the psu
although still possibly the video card, harddrive which ive fully
backed up or the motherboard. Still most likely the video card with it
mostly freezing when watching films.

Im sure i'll sort it out eventually just gonna take some perseverance
and patience. Thanks for everyones input - apart from those who get
offended by 1 big paragraph and refrained from comment, you guys
really got chill out a bit D
Cheers
Ollie

 

[CBFalconer]

.... snip ...

Im sure i'll sort it out eventually just gonna take some perseverance
and patience. Thanks for everyones input - apart from those who get
offended by 1 big paragraph and refrained from comment, you guys
really got chill out a bit D

Well, you seem to have learned about paragraphs, but not about
quoting. So nobody can tell what you are talking about. Enjoy.