Big problems

[Greatbloke]

My computer keeps shutting down or freezing.

I have scanned for viruses and Trojans with various programs.
I have defragmented.
I have system restored to the earliest save.
It had Windows XP Home, but I have reinstalled with installed Windows XP pro. as I couldn't find my XP home disk.

I have tried different matched RAM.

The power supply is about 6 or 8 months old.

I have a disconnected Sata hard drive with Windows XP home installed, so I disconnected the normal hard drives and booted it from the sata.... same problem.

The hot temperature my have made it worse but it still happened when it was cooler too.

I noticed that the three hard drives were very hot, whether connected or not.

CPU temp is normally around 32C but today about 44C as it's bloody hot. crashes at 32 also.

Hard drive temp got up to 55C today mostly about 44 to 48 though.


I haven't tried swapping my monitor over... could an LCD monitor affect it this way?

I have connected the monitor through both digital and analogue connections same problem either way.

The problem was occasional but it's happening more and more.


System is

AMD Athalon 3300 XP p+ 1.2 gig RAM
Nvidia ASUS v9999 v62.11 Video card
Nvidia nforce 2 motherboard
Netgear wiFI
Soundblaster Audigy 2 card

service pack 2 on each drive




Any suggestions?

[Rusty]

As stupid as it sounds are there any bios warning/shutdown settings for cpu / m/b temps that are set too low?

If your running dual channel ram try lust running it for a while with one single stick of ram.

Any 'blown' or puffed capacitors on the motherboard?

If possible take out any non-essential cards (and hdds/cd/dvds)and run it for a while n see how it goes.

If possible check the temp of your vid card through the driver panel if not 'touch' test it.

If possible replace any sata/ide/power splitters(if any) etc cables that you might have in the pc.


A few thoughts that came to mind.

[GURU]

well seeing as it is hot these days i would suggest - ucan do 1 or 2 in either order !

1 - get an electric fan and open the side of ya case and blow it in ther to so if it is happier!


2- with the side open inspect the fans and heat sinks on ya cpu and ya vid card and just in general everywhere! if they have a good build up of dust i would suggest you take out the vacuum cleaner and an old toothbrush [DRY] and rub the toothbrush on the dirty parts and and suck it up with the vaccy while u rub with the TBrush!

also back and front of power supply gets a lot of dust build up !

if u clean all of these and blow a cold electric fan and get no better results i would try another psu !

also i had troubles with my brrothers putey a while back when it got hot cos the hard drives were not cooled and they played up in the heat! went all stupid they did ! i ended up just taking the side of the case of and that was enough for them to be happy again! u should really have a couple of fans blowing over them to make them run cooler ! helps them live long and prosper it does! hehe

see how u go?

[Greatbloke]

Thanks Rusty and Guru.

While looking for the puffed capacitors I did indeed notice that the heat sink on the CPU had a thick blanket of dust.

I didn't notice this earlier because it was between the fan and the heat sink, and the fans looked fine otherwise.

Well fingers crosses it has been going for hours now with no problem. And before I cleaned it it was crashing within minutes.

[BUSTER]

GB when you installed XPpro was it from a clean install (format) or over the top (not recommended). And I would defiantly recommend a blow out with a compressor now and then, especially in this heat.

Oh and have you tried over clocking your CPU

[spud]

/me waits for JOFs sage advice....

[jof]

[BUSTER]

[spud]

rofl, JOF man you went and knocked it up a notch!

[Greatbloke]

Yeah I think I just did it over the top.. or a quick format Buster. I found my XP home disk so I'm going to reformat C and do it again.

It crashed again today, but only once, so I'll work through the rest of the advice.

[BUSTER]

Stick with pro if you can GB.And start from scratch.

[GURU]

XP PRO aint pro 4 nothing ! haha actually i read the other day that M$ have stopped XP home and now u either get XP media center or xp pro !

i dunno if this is true but sounds pretty crappy to me so it must be true! hehe Which brings me to a forgotten post at the inquirer !


DVD format wars are over and the winner is -