Computer freezes

[zinna75]

Hi,

I have a problem with my PC.
System
AMD 64 3700
2 RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
AGP slot on Motherboard

I recently bough a graphics card from Ebay (X800 PRo) When I inserted it I got lots of lines and the card didn't work. For some reason my second hard drive crashed (Hitach Deskstar 80 GB). I now know it has a mechanical fault and makes a clicking noise.
I sent the card back and got a Geforce 6600 plugged it inand it worked. Then I noticed that while playing oblivion (lowest settings) the computer would freeze. i thought it was due to the car dheating up. Now I have taken the card out (I am selling it after using it twice) and my computer still freezes. It has frozen when I use Windows Movie Maker and Nero.
A few days ago I had a critical error related to the RAM (not sure where to look for the details)
I hope somone might know what is going on

Thanks

[nizzy1115]

This maybe caused by many things.

If you had a ram problem run a program called memtest86. Located here: http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.iso.zip

However, i do not think this is why your computer is freezing. Are you monitoring your processor temperatures? If so, how hot does it get while using those programs?

Also, you should run a chkdsk command on your hard drives to make sure they are not at fault.

How good of a power supply do you have as well?

[goldeagle2005]

Nizzy has some valid points. Check the CPU temp in the BIOS. Also, a good SMPS is crucial to running a powerful system like yours. You need an SMPS rated atleast at 450W with a minimum of 17Amos on the 12V rail.

[dlenegan]

the ram

virtual memory is youre problem....

[vicec64]

I would go with the above potential power supply issue over ram. He listed 2 GB of ram - pratically no VM is needed. Maybe a very small swap file but that's it.

[goldeagle2005]

Precisely. I have 1 gig and I always disable the pagefile. It actually improved my system's performance.

[dlenegan]

the only reason i said pagedfile is his first problem was hard drive read carefully and obviously he has not turned off his paging file. Maybe you have . Then he said asomething about memory fault coming up Now the first probglem to arise in my experience when someone has problem with hard drive and page file is not switched of the warning mem fault comes up and usually that is to do with virtual memjory. my hard drives are raid 0 and paging file switched off and 1.5 gig ram but i am asuming he has not switched paging file off.

[dlenegan]

anyway guys you are the experts i m not really that good. listening to you guys ive learnt a lot

[vicec64]

Memest86 for the memory test. Use a motheboqard monitoring program to check power supply voltages like motherboard monitor 9in the shop i also use a multimeter). Check the device manager for conflicts. Make sure drivers are up to date. When i build PC's to sell i always make sure the memory passes 8 hours of memtest86 - and 16 hours of prime95 (2-3 iterations of it at one time) along with G/L excess and i loop 3dmark 03 and 06 for 8 hours. If I encounter any issues i look to PSU voltages first, making sure power is clean and true on the power supply rails, i may adjust memory latencies or replace a bad module (which doesn't happen very often), or look for a bios update that may be needed.

[vicec64]

In your case i would try and install that XP on another clean partition using a partition creator if you have availble space, and using an admin account see if you can 'browse' the folders of your previous broken install and see if you can burn all of the data you need to a CD - then nuke everything and start over :mrgreen: . This is why i use nLite and Acronis to constaly back up my system I also use and external US HDD expressly for backups. If you have what i think are hardware and OS issues then what you need to do right now is get your data if you can.

[stevejohnson198]

Hi (im not sure how to start a new thread).
My computer has had a freezing problem for ages - no blue screen, it just hangs. Sometimes it occurs as soon as windows loads and other times after a few hours. I have concluded it is not the RAM (despite memtest freezing), by taking RAM out of another computer and installing it in this one and it still freezes.

I have checked the system temperatures on BIOS which are fine- CPU 38C and System 28C.

I have also done a low level format - which didnt work, and ran seatools(?) to check if there is something wrong with the harddrive , but no errors were reported.

Finally I have taken my graphics card out, which also didnt solve problem.

The spec is:
matsonic ms8308e harddrive, BIOS V.100
windows xp sp2
AMD athlon processor, MMX, 3D Now 1.2ghz
728mb RAM
directx 9.0c

I dont have a clue what the problem could be...any help would be much appreciated.

Steve